I cannot be sure exactly what factors are at play, but the complexity and variety of projects for this second session of Creator's Studio has impressed me. It is likely due to a combination of the following:

• Students in session 1 describing and displaying their projects;
• The expansion of tools in our arsenal;
• Our collective experience thus far this year in the use of PIRL;
• The inclusion of 8th graders in this second session;
• The academic growth of 7th graders since the beginning of the school year

Regardless of the reason(s), it is enjoyable to see students taking on these projects and witness the independence many have shown in working through challenging problem areas and attempting multiple iterations of models and scenarios. And yet students don't hesitate to seek help from me, or from classmates, where necessary and relevant. As I have said throughout the course, the process of designing, building, and iterating is as important (possibly more important) than the end product.

Here is a brief description of the current student projects:

• Name in Lights - Inspired by an Instructibles project, two students are creating either an initial or a word in large letter format and placing solar powered light bulbs inside. The letters are generated in Illustrator, converted to vector art, then modified to accommodate the placement of holes for the lights. Prototypes are laser cut in cardboard to make sure sizing and proportion are correct, then 1/8" plywood is used for the final pieces. The letters are painted and bulbs are hot glued into place. Students are also laser cutting wood boxes to place the solar chargers during use.
• LED Cube - Similar to a project from last session, a student is creating an illuminated cube that will serve as a decorative night light. The initial boxes are cut in cardboard for size testing, then laser cut in acrylic for final pieces. Acrylic pieces are sanded to give a diffused look. A simple circuit is created with LEDs, battery source and a switch.
• Remote Control Plane and Mousebot - One student is a great fan of the Makershed projects, and thus has taken on these two kit projects. It is interesting to see how some students lean toward proscribed step-by-step projects, while others may find something inspiring but add their own twist to it. Still others start with an original idea in their head and let their imagination guide them. All of these approaches are valuable.
• Wearables and E-Textiles, then a Way Out project - This student uses EL Wire and a battery pack to modify a t-shirt with lights. As the project turns out much easier and quicker than anticipated, the student quickly moves on to a 3D printed object (a Portal laser gun). She is now taking this object and integrating an LED circuit so that the tip of the laser gun will have actual light projected from it, triggered by a switch and powered by a watch battery. 
• Solar Powered iPhone Charger - This modification of the basic Minty Boost concept integrates a LiPO battery and portable solar panel to charge it. There is a bit of soldering to do on this one, so the student accesses our resource links on this site that point to tips on soldering.  I have found that having supplemental resources online, including our Course Instructional Videos, is  invaluable for providing support when I cannot reach each student during the class period.
• Motion Triggered Nerf Projectile - This student is building a platform using an Arduino and PIR sensor to trigger a nerf gun when a moving object passes a certain area. He originally wanted to have it track a moving object, but after some additional thought and research into the necessary code and hardware required, he opted for the current project.
• Remote Controlled Boats - Two students are working on different remote controlled boat projects. One is hacking an RC Car's parts, designing and printing the propeller in 3D, and working on prototype boat hulls with foam core. The other recently completed an underwater submarine project as part of the 3rd trimester science curriculum (DEEP) and thus wants to follow that up with the RC boat project. 
• 3D design and Printing - This student is exploring TinkerCAD for use in the area of aircraft and spacecraft design. He has designed two models thus far, with multiple iterations, and continues to work on new designs. With our new Makerbot Replicators now available, he is printing larger models.
• LED Matrix Sound Analyzer - Using an Arduino, a microphone and an LED matrix, this student's project involves a matrix of lights that reacts to sound coming through the microphone. First attempts have shown moderate success and he continues to adjust settings and dig deeper into the code.
• 3D Printer - This student has taken on the same project that I wrote about in the previous blog post, building the Printrbot Simple from the maker kit. While this is likely to be the most comprehensive project to date, he has spent each class diligently working through the build steps.

Below are some recent photos from a build day.

Following up on Day 1 of the Holiday House Project, teachers returned this week to create their LED circuit and construct the house. Each person sent in their personalized home design for laser cutting during the days between the two sessions, so the pieces were ready for assembly. To enhance the look of their houses, many added a chimney, a sign over the door, new windows, and more. Three people even chose to cut out the octagonal window on the front.

We began the session with a very brief introduction to the electrical circuit, the concept of current flow from negative to positive, and the use of that current for powering the LED. We discussed the role of the switch to close and open that circuit. Technically speaking, I should have included a resistor, as calculated through this LED resistor calculator and dictated by Ohm's Law. However, I didn't have ready access to 56 ohm resistors, and I'm not sure how vital they are for a project of this scale. I would love feedback on this from any informed reader.

Here are the materials we used to make the circuit:

• One LED, from a various of colors, mostly 5mm
  
• One tactile switch from Adafruit
• One CR2032 watch battery and battery holder
• 22 gauge wire
• Soldering iron and glue gun

The maker approach to learning fits like a glove with teacher professional development. The hands-on aspect of making, along with the personalized nature of the projects, generates a high degree of motivation from participants. My hope is that this level of excitement and energy will lead to further use of the new learning spaces by these teachers and their students. And speaking of motivation, I now eagerly look forward to planning the next maker teacher professional development session.

It's hard to believe that the Thanksgiving break is coming so quickly, as it represents the end of this inaugural session. While some students have begun work on their second projects, others are still hammering through their first. We will work diligently to make sure that everyone completes at least one project.

During these most busy times, I can't emphasize enough how helpful it is to have other adults present in the room. Over the past few weeks a number of my colleagues, teachers and administrators, have paid a visit to Creator's Studio. If even for a few minutes, having another adult assisting is tremendous, and I am so grateful. When students are working on such varied topics simultaneously, my greatest challenge is to support all of them. Extra hands come in handy.

The pictures below depict how divergent our projects have become. From soldering kits like digital watches, to laser cut prototypes of model boats, to Arduino controlled RC cars, students are deep into their work.

To help students externalize their thinking process, and to hold all of us accountable during class, I created these task boards out of shower board left over from our mobile dry erase Z-Racks. The left overs allowed me to make 2' x 3' sheets (approx.), one for each student. Each day we meet, they take a few moments at the beginning to update their boards. Often, I will review these prior to class, and if there is something I know they will need to take on but haven't listed, I will comment on their board. The entire process helps us to sustain a solid workflow mindset.

As a last tidbit of news, I finally had time to research how to engrave and cut on a single laser cutter job. I haven't had any students create works like this yet (I hope the boat projects will do this), but will make time for it before the end of the session. We still have 3D printing to cover! 

Here's a quick project showing engrave and cut.

I haven't had much time lately to work on my own projects, but couldn't resist this one with Halloween coming up. This project is based on one from Adafruit, called the Superhero Power Plant. The original project uses Adafruit's Neopixel Ring, one FLORA neopixel, and a Gemma board. It also comes with downloadable artwork for laser cutting and engraving. Perfect timing!

I made small adjustments, switching out the Gemma board for a Trinket, which is what I had available. Think of the Trinket and the Gemma as tiny Arduinos, sort of. They aren't equipped with as many pins, and actually work a bit differently. For example, with an Arduino Uno, I can connect via the serial USB, send data to the board and receive data back. The Trinket doesn't allow for serial connection over the USB, and requires something called a Bootloader. If you'd like to learn more, see this Overview of Trinket from Adafruit's Learning System.

While there is a slight learning curve involved with getting Trinket to talk with the Arduino IDE, it was worth the time. The big advantages to Trinket (and Gemma) are size and cost. As you will see in the photos below, the Trinket is very tiny, and as of this writing, costs a mere $8.

I won't go over the tutorial, as that is available from the link above. I will say that it took some trial and error to get the soldering just the way it needed to be, and in the end I used a larger battery pack than what was stated as I knew the Trinket had a voltage regulator and could handle the extra input. Overall, a fun project!

After two months sitting in PIRL Terrace, the laser cutter got its first run. We purchased a 5th generation Full Spectrum Hobby Laser due to the good reviews and decent price for an entry level laser cutter.  As this was my first experience with technology of this type, I really didn't know what to expect. The initial set up was fairly pain free, but there are a lot of pieces to the puzzle beyond the cutter. I was a bit nervous while making sure the air compressor, the water pump and 5-gallon bucket, and the exhaust fan/hose were all set up correctly. I used BoxMaker online to download a test design of an interlocking box. You can see the results below. I added the two holes on top for pencils.

The students continued their work on individual projects this week. We were able to meet three days, so some work was done in Creator's Studio, while one day was spent in PIRL Terrace. The projects are really coming along now. Boe-Bot robots advance on their Arduino sketches. Boats are assembled using laser cut prototypes designed in Apple's Pages application, of all things. An Arduino driven RC Car is tested with new sketches. Light cube sides are sanded and boards are wired. An LED watch assembly receives the soldering of its components. Trebuchet pieces are drilled, cut and sanded.

Photo credits - Reynaldo Macias, 10-25-2013

This week the class only met once, but we took advantage of every minute we had. The trebuchet projects needed wood cut, so we met in PIRL Terrace to have access to the miter saw. 

After an introduction of some new materials (acrylic sheets and foam sheets) and how to cut them, we all brought our required tools and materials down to PIRL Terrace to continue our project work. In the gallery of photos below, students are seen working on their individual projects in this new outdoor space.

The light cube projects are trying out the new acrylic sheets for the cube structure. It appears to work better than the material we had at the beginning, as cuts are easier and cleaner. The boat projects are using the foam sheets with a glue gun to prototype their models. We also 3D printed some propellers from Thingiverse to try out with the RC air boats.

The trebuchet creators were given a thorough walk through of the miter saw, and then made their measured cuts under my supervision. They also sanded down their pieces of PVC.

One student completed his Boe-Bot project, and in the video at the bottom of this post, you will see that he programmed it to navigate based upon feedback from its IR sensors.

All projects are in different phases of development, as expected. While some have reached a level of independence and flow, I can spend more time supporting those that need the additional help. 

So aside from the session on hacking an RC toy, which you can read about in the previous blog post, this week was mostly about individual project work. I call these types of sessions "Build Days". We might have a small introductory lesson, or general housekeeping, but most of the time is dedicated for them to advance on their projects. Here's where some of them stand:

1. The Boe-Bot projects are advancing, one has already programmed the robot to navigate on the ground.
   
2. An RC car project is waiting for a chassis. However, prior to its arrival the student is working on Arduino and has already programmed two servo motors to move simultaneously. He borrowed some code from the Boe-Bot project, and adjusted it to work with an Arduino Motor Shield.
   
3. The light cube projects are going well. One will use an Arduino so that code can drive the color of the light that gets produced from the RGB LEDs. 
   
4. The trebuchet projects are moving quickly now that they have the materials to cut and test out. Today we even discussed the possibility of integrating some technology, like an arduino or RC driven trigger.
   
5. The RC boat groups will need to test some prototype boats to see what materials work best. One group wants to use a plastic bin, another student is building his own prototype out of some acrylic material we have here in class.
   
6. Soldering has become a solid tool for a couple of projects here.

Overall a very productive week. Here are some photos of the students in action.

This week the students worked on their Project Workbook, a somewhat more detailed version of their original project brainstorm. For this workbook, I needed students to give a specific materials list so that we knew who was responsible for providing which items. Doing this exercise also allowed them to reflect on the reality of completing their project, so some students switched directions and took on a more manageable project.

One of the skills that will be necessary to master for some students' projects is soldering. Using Maker Shed's Learn to Solder Badge, a few students had their first experience with soldering. It's a fairly easy project, designed to get someone from square one to completing a project in about 20 minutes. In reality, it was much more difficult than I anticipated. If you've read through this course blog, you know that I've been doing quite a bit of soldering lately, so I am very comfortable with it. For these students, it was the first time they had ever held a soldering iron, or worn safety goggles! 

For the most part, it was a success, after a few attempts. After all, it's about iteration, fail quick...fail often, and I know we will all grow from the experience.

Two other students started work on their robot project, while still others continued to research parts and flush out their project workbook.

This is the most difficult stage, I believe, in project development...getting started. Once they get going, things will hopefully start to flow. I have decided to offer office hours, or "consultant time" whereby students can drop in during lunch or recess to seek help, work on a project, or just have access to Creator's Studio. There simply isn't enough time in the class period to get everything done, or support all students effectively.

This is Drawdio, invented by the same person that created the Makey Makey, Jay Silver. Drawdio uses conductive tape, a small speaker, a battery, the graphite in a pencil and a bit of circuitry to allow you to make drawings that come to life with sound.

You can buy a ready-made Drawdio pencil that just works, or you can build it yourself with a kit of parts from places like Adafruit Industries. I decided to build it. As this was my first time soldering in a long time, it's a good project because there aren't too many places to mess up! Adafruit provides a very detailed tutorial on how to build Drawdio, so that's what I used. 

The concept is pretty straight forward. You have a speaker powered by one AAA battery, set up in an open circuit. The second you close the circuit with your body, the speaker sounds. Your body closes the circuit because you are touching the conductive tape with your drawing hand. The tape is connected to the circuit board/speaker, then out to the top of the pencil where it connects to the graphite inside the pencil using a thumbtack. You draw with the pencil, and touch the drawing with your other hand, thereby closing the circuit. Okay, it might be easier just to watch! Notice how the pitch adjusts depending on distance between hand and pencil.