​I enjoy opportunities to apply tools we see in Creator's Studio in other student projects outside of class. Depending on the project, students might want to incorporate electronics, robotics, 3D printing, laser cutting, or any of the various other tools we have available in our spaces, PIRL and PIRL Terrace.

Currently, we are in the final stages of Project Quest, our 6th grade interdisciplinary unit about the impact of water on civilization. I serve as one of the eight faculty members on the Quest team. During this unit, students work in groups to investigate some aspect of our relationship with water, driven by their own interest. The topic could cover the concept of water conservation, the Water Footprint, conflicts related to water usage, pollution or other area students might propose. 

This year, one group studying the Water Footprint had the idea of building a type of LED bar graph that could represent different levels of water usage required for the production of various commodities. For example, one LED might represent 100 gallons, two LEDs represent 200 gallons, and so forth.

Arduino seemed like the ideal tool for this task, so this is what we chose to investigate. It turns out there is a simple bar graph sketch available from the Arduino website, using 10 LEDs and a potentiometer to set the various levels of light. While students at this grade level have not yet experienced the Arduino IDE, the sketch was simple enough to understand the basic underlying concepts. Working with me, they saw how a change in different values created different outcomes. For example, they only needed 8 LEDs in their project, so we had to adjust for that alteration in the code. Additionally, in the original code their dial (potentiometer) had to turn too much in order to light all LEDs, so they had to decrease the interval values between lights in order to get all eight to light up with a shorter turn of the dial. I also showed them how to use the Serial.print(); command to see the changing values coming from the potentiometer as they turned it.

The Project Quest exhibit day is coming up soon. The group is still working hard to finalize all aspects of their project. I know when the day comes, they will be ready to share what they have learned, not just about the Water Footprint, but a little coding as well.

The semester has come to a close. As mentioned in the previous post, I placed a greater focus on personal projects this time around, at the sacrifice of covering fewer topics. I can say, now at the end of the semester, that the change was worth it.  Students had more time to pursue an area that was meaningful for them, and into which they put greater energy and passion. Many showed up during recess and lunch to continue their work.

A number of students were inspired by previous Creator's Studio projects from the past. Raspberry Pi was once again a hit with three seventh graders, with a focus on custom portable gaming machines. The infinity mirror concept was taken in a new direction, a bit larger than the previous semester and incorporating a wooden pedestal frame.

One 8th grader built a Light Box based on an idea she found on the web, while another disassembled an existing light circuit in order to solder on different colored LEDs and redesign the entire structure to form a decorative tree for her nightstand. Two students built their skateboards from multiple sheets of plywood, using a bandsaw and the laser cutter to complete the design. And to complete our group, one student is working on a personal drone.

It was another enjoyable semester. I learned as much as I taught. My students inspire me to learn more and work to provide the best learning environment possible for future creators.

Like most teachers, each semester I review what has worked, what has not worked, where changes need to occur and where improvements can be made. This seems to be a natural part of the iterative process we go through as educators.

This year, I've added a 5th grade tech class to my schedule (just one meeting per 6-day rotation, per group) and it's giving me the opportunity to embed many of the skills we expect from our students throughout their middle school career, such as 3D design, woodworking, coding and robotics. Invariably, students use these tools and skills in a variety of classes as they move up the grade levels. In 6th grade, we have Project Quest, a multidisciplinary unit where students investigate the impact of water on civilization and the impact we have on our water supply. In 8th grade, students may choose to enroll in DEEP, the Diving Enrichment Education Program, where robotics and engineering come into play. Through projects in 5th grade tech class, students will now get the exposure and experience in the aforementioned tools and be better prepared for their work in Quest, DEEP and other activities in the years ahead.

Alongside Creator's Studio, I have always taught a 7th grade tech class. Having inherited that class from the previous instructor, I've modified the curriculum only slightly over the past few years. With the new venture into 5th grade, I decided to move 7th grade in this direction as well, providing the opportunity to learn more of the skills they need here at St. Matthew's and in their future. We start with an activity using The Extraordinaires Design Studio, which teaches students the principles of the Design Thinking Process, practicing empathy for a fictional character on their way to building a given object (prototype) for her/him. 

The remainder of the 7th grade semester will involve some Scratch programming and the introduction to Hummingbird robotics through Scratch, and coding using Wink robots and the Arduino IDE.

In line with these changes to the 5th and 7th grade tech curriculum, my 6th grade tech faculty will also engage students in more of these types of projects this year. I am really looking forward to working with them on a nerdy derby-esque project in the coming weeks.

All of this to say that these changes make for a very interesting Creator's Studio, as the tools and skills once taught in this class have now spread throughout other classes and grade levels. I can now focus on the more creative aspects of the class, and less on tool training, allowing students to spend more time on their personal project, going through multiple iterations and making gradual improvements along the way. As much as this has been a tenet of my course since the beginning, the need for iteration, we seem to inevitably run out of time. I hope these adjustments to our overall curriculum will allow for the deeper connections to making I want all of our students to experience.

Another semester, and another year, has come and gone. Where did the time go? 

In anticipation of a quick semester (really a trimester), I reduced the amount of required projects to two, the circuit block and the hummingbird project. I had hoped this would allow more time for students to complete their personal projects during the remainder of the semester. In the end, I think they gained one day, as we lost a few days to graduation rehearsal, special schedules, and the like.

Nonetheless, it was a wonderful semester. Project ideas were creative and unique, many challenging students to reach into areas with which they were not familiar. While some students built upon concepts learned in earlier projects (i.e., building a simple circuit, using hummingbird) others involved the integration of Arduino, 3D design and printing, and laser cutting. While most students completed their projects, a couple are using recess, lunch, and any other break to make final revisions and enhancements. Here is a sampling of projects:

Below are two video clips showing student projects in action. In the first, one student 3D printed an existing model of a T-Rex, but he's modified it to allow for the integration of a servo motor and LED connected to an Arduino Uno. His code is written such that the press of a button starts a loop that will move the servo a given amount of degrees back and forth, while turning on the LED.

In the second video, another student demonstrates her Hummingbird controlled, light-sensing, servo driven nail-polisher. As she describes, it's not quite perfect, but does indeed show what can be done using these components and a bit of code.

I continue to be impressed by the ideas and creations of my students. As I always say, "Open the door, then get out of the way!"

I will re-evaluate the flow of this course for the fall of 2016. My struggle has been time and balance, feeling the need to front-load the course with some experiences in circuit making and robotics/coding, while allowing for enough quality time for students to work on a personal project. The process of ideation, prototyping, iteration, is essential for their learning journey. It is more important, I would argue, than their final product. If I believe this fully, then the course I design and implement should reflect the opportunity to experience this process in its entirety.

Traditionally, during Technology Class, I take my 7th grade students through a quick design and build unit using MinecraftEDU. While it is an enjoyable experience, the unit has always lacked context. My history teacher and I have talked about a joint project for the last two years, where we might integrate Minecraft with the study of some ancient culture, but we've never got the timing to work. 

Thankfully, this year, we worked through the schedule and the class is now engaged in the recreation of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, based on the research students have done to understand what the city may have looked like. 

Working in small groups of two to three, students have chosen an architectural structure, ranging from Great Temple, to marketplace, to Chinampas (floating gardens) and other significant buildings. We designated one team as City Planners. The City Planners were required to map out where various structures were located in the city, and to coordinate with all the builders accordingly. City Planners also distribute supplies out to the various teams. For those who know Minecraft, City Planners were set to Creative Mode, while the remainder are set to MinecraftEDU mode. This latter mode gives students a mixture of creative and survival in that they do not need to worry about hunger or the gathering of supplies, but they also cannot fly. City Planners, on the other hand, need to fly as they review the progress on the overall city plan.

This inability to fly for regular builders has created a stir in some of the players, particularly one of the pyramid groups. They asked for special permission to fly in order to speed up their build process, but were denied. To get around this, they created an innovative system of building out each corner with initial blocks from which they could quickly push out the layered blocks. It was wonderful to see their process of working through a challenging issue with given design constraints.
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​We are about mid-way through the unit, and while it has taken time for some players to get acclimated to the environment, we have reached a state of flow. I look forward to the end result, but the process has lived up to my expectations and far exceeds what I could have done on my own.

The second term of Creator's Studio has begun. For some reason, the Spring season seems to fly by faster than the fall. I think it's due to the 8th grade DC trip, finals week, Spring Break, and other special schedules and holidays. As such, my plan is to focus on just two projects before their personal project. I will skip automata this time around. My purpose for the smaller projects before their personal project is two-fold. They need the exposure to some of the basic electronic, robotics and coding principles ahead of time, but they also need practice in how to work through the project design, build and iterate cycle. 

I opened up this semester with a short video clip from Moon Shot, the Google Lunar X Project. While I would encourage everyone to view the entire series, the final episode provides a concise overview of the competition's goals and its contestants. I asked students to think about what mindset these contestants must have, and how they are approaching the design, building and iterating process. I asked for single words or short phrases. After watching the video, here's what the students said:

Their responses were spot on. I hoped to convey the message that this same mindset can be applied to many of life's challenges, and even to this very class. I stated that these same approaches in mindset will be what they themselves demonstrate as they go through the semester with me. 

We launched right into Project #1, "Light Up, Spin!", where students design and construct a simple circuit on a wooden block. During the project, students work through the Design, Build and Iterate process. This is their first exposure to the process, which we will repeat in project two, and finally in their own personal project.

Students start off with a simple hand-drawn design idea for their circuit. This process is always revealing for me, as students at this age haven't yet grasped the concept of planning out their steps in the design process. They are in a hurry to build, and believe a first draft of the design is sufficient to build from. 

On day two of the project, I show one of their initial designs on the board, and we all walk through how to take it from a simple to a more detailed design. We make sure to include all materials and electronic components in the design, a path for the wiring, and appropriate labels and measurements so that someone else seeing the design for the first time would have a clear idea of what is about to be built.

During these design days I also instruct students on how to handle a soldering iron, and give them time to practice stripping wire and soldering two leads together, including the use of heat shrink to cover the exposed wire. They also have some time to start gathering their materials. For the remaining days of Project #1, students will build and test their designs, make adjustments as necessary, and share the results with classmates.

Time. "We need more time..."

Time can be the greatest challenge to schools when seeking to provide an atmosphere of inquiry, curiosity, iteration, design and prototyping. In previous posts here on Creator's Studio, I've expressed my anxiety in hoping students can complete their projects. In various cases, students have come in at lunch or recess, after the term has ended, in order to finish a project they valued. It had nothing to do with the grade, since I evaluate the process and the documentation over the product. Rather, students wanted to finish because they believed in the work they were doing.

How can we successfully take students through an engineering design cycle, or the Design Thinking Process, and allow them to thoroughly experience the process of ideation, prototyping, testing, iteration, in 45 minute time blocks every other day? It is an extreme challenge, and unfortunately one for which I don't have an answer. 

However, in my three years of Creator's Studio, I have picked up strategies and a few techniques along the way to developing a system that streamlines the process of learning the tools necessary for success in the course. 

For me, the most valuable use of time during class is to serve as mentor, coach, guide. I can help students along the learning journey, but that journey is theirs to take. Class time, in my opinion, should be filled with those precious moments when we can discuss, confer, share, bounce ideas, test assumptions, make mistakes, and go back to the drawing board. It would seem that the learning of procedural tasks has little space in an environment such as this, and yet we cannot hope to adjust our 3D print if we don't know how to use the 3D software. We cannot refine that wood component if we don't know how to use the saw or sander.

If we can offload some of the more procedural tasks using technology, we can capture more class time for what we do best.

In this regard, I have devoted an entire section of this site to video instruction. These are open to the public and available on my Youtube channel. In addition, I ask my students to log in through Grovo, which provides the same videos accompanied by assessment questions and a tracking system. In this manner, I can monitor their progress and learning. These lessons are often assigned as homework, so that students can learn and "get certified" before coming to school the following day. Lessons range from how to design in 2D and 3D, to how to solder or use the drill press.

To further increase the immediacy with which students (and teachers, parents, visitors) can access these video-based lessons, I have posted QR codes throughout PIRL and PIRL Terrace, strategically located near the tools for which they are designed. Using free tools like QR Code Generator, one can easily create the QR code to point to any website resource. 

As a visitor to our space, one can use apps like QR Code Reader and Scanner,  Quick Scan, or Red Laser on a mobile device to quickly jump to the video instruction pages.

As I mentioned, I don't have a complete answer as to how we might create the ideal conditions for learning within the time constraints of traditional schooling. But given those constraints, creative methods can be found for managing how we organize and prioritize the quality time we spend with our students. 

Between the fall and spring sessions of Creator's Studio, I highlight other events on campus that may be related to making, design, engineering, or any other creative activity. This month we had two larger events take place, our annual 8th grade Physics project in science, and new this year, the K-8 Buddies Maker Day.

I've blogged about Physics Day before (here and here) so won't go into great detail. The overall idea is that students in science class build Rube Goldberg devices that demonstrate a minimum of 7 physics concepts, such as momentum, acceleration, and potential and kinetic energy. One highlight I will point out this year is that a group chose to include a hummingbird robotics board into the design. Their goal was to integrate light and distance sensors into their project, such that the traveling marble would trigger these sensors and make something else in the design take action. Originally, they had hoped to make LEDs light up, but chose instead to incorporate servo motors so that the rotation of those motors would lead to the next step in the marble's path.

I enjoy Physics Day, even though it does not directly involve me. I help students during the build day, and take pictures and video on exhibit day, but the real work is done by our science teacher and the students. However, it's moments like this where I have the opportunity to work with individual students in an area where I may be helpful, that validate my decision to go back into the classroom. One of these girls is a former Creator's Studio student, and thus had the experience of working with Hummingbirds, and knew the potential of the tool. It was her vision that made the design possible, and the two worked together to test their ideas, modify where necessary, and ultimately find success in the final product.

Here's a short clip of the design in action, during exhibit day. You will notice that when the domino drops into the cup, it shuts off light to a sensor inside, thereby moving a servo controlled L-shaped bracket that releases a new marble. This marble then drops into a cup which uses a pulley to bring another cup into view of a distance sensor. That sensor then triggers yet another cup to pour sprinkles onto a cupcake! 

The second activity this month was new for our campus. Each year, the 8th graders are assigned a kindergarten buddy, and the pair (sometimes threesome) meet regularly during various scheduled activities. This year the K and 8th grade teachers asked for a day to allow K-8 partners to utilize our PIRL space and explore some of the tools we have available. We set up seven stations, both inside and outside of PIRL.

Station One: Simple Marble Machines
Having so recently worked on their Rube Goldberg devices, the 8th graders showed their K buddies how to build a simple marble machine. I provided a more modular and flexible design for this activity so that groups could easily build, take apart, and build again. While I set up three different boards to work with, some students chose to incorporate all three into one large project.

Station Two: Dash and Ollie Maze
Students in this station used the Tickle Coding App on the iPad to help Dash and Ollie navigate a floor maze. Along the way they toppled cans and rolled through cardboard bridges.

Station Three: Construction Zone
At this station, students used cardboard, foam, construction paper, googly eyes, and anything else they could get their hands on to build something that the kindergartner wanted. We saw doll houses, snow plows and minecraft creatures coming out of this area. 

Station Four: Wind Tunnel!
Students here were tasked with constructing an object with at least three items available on the table. The object was then tested in the wind tunnel. Could they make an object that zoomed up quickly, floated slowly, or hovered in place?

Station Five: Sphero Playground
Similar to the Ollie and Dash station, students programmed and navigated a maze with their Spheros.

Station Six: Make it Light Up, Make it Move
Using simple home-made circuit blocks or the more finely tuned LittleBits kits, students explored how to build circuits. Here they learned to categorize different types of components (power, load, control) in order to understand how electricity flows, what provides the energy, and where it is used.

Station Seven: Smile!
All students visited this station at one point during the day. Pictures were taken with the green screen for a future project (sssh!). 

The K-8 Buddies Maker Day was a fun, collaborative experience that we hope to repeat each year. It will be interesting to see how new tools are introduced into the process as the technology advances. Is there an Oculus Rift or Microsoft Hololens in our future? More likely than not, it will be something that doesn't even exist today.

The semester has come to an end, and what a whirlwind it has been. Students completed three projects (Electrical, Mechanical and Robotic) and had just six class meetings with which to design, build, test and iterate on their personal project. 

As a result of the three initial projects, some students chose to expand or improve on one of these earlier works in their personal project phase. One student, for example, worked on a wooden version of the automaton as a gift for her father. 

A few students delved deeper into Hummingbird, this time using Duos in order to eliminate the tethering to the computer. They sent their Visual Programmer code to the Arduino on the other side of the board and powered their projects with battery packs. While one group found success in creating a distance sensing, object-avoidance car (hacking an existing RC car), the other group ran into some design and coding problems while trying to get a 3D printed boat to work in a similar manner. In the end, this latter group did not complete their project, but were able to show their code, their process and final build.

Finally, the remaining students worked on unique projects such as 3D designed and printed surf board fins, a water-based timer, and an LED lit iPhone case. One student, inspired by a previous student's light box project, designed a decorative box in 2D, laser cut and assembled it in wood, then 3D designed and printed a base. She then added two circuits, one for slow color changing LEDs, and another for an adjustable speed DC motor. Her final project is below. 

Once again, I enjoyed seeing the creativity, persistence, and ingenuity demonstrated by my students throughout the semester. The curriculum modification to four specific projects (including personal project) worked well, and I look forward to the spring semester. 

​For further details about student projects, please be sure to visit the Student Blogs section.

Project #3 this semester is called "I Am Robot" and the tool of choice is the Hummingbird robotics kit. This is the third semester of usage for hummingbird and with each subsequent go round I learn something new about this wonderful platform. This semester, I have a few groups who needed to do more with motors than the provided DC motors would easily allow. They have decided to de-construct some old remote control cars, and are integrating the parts into their project. While one can program the standard DC motor to spin, and can even add a 3D printed wheel, how much more fun is it to take an existing car chassis and rewire the motors to accelerate and/or turn through coding, and build in a sensor to detect objects?

Project criteria is as follows:
Design something, using the Hummingbird robotics kit and any materials found in class or otherwise acquired, that senses the environment, analyzes the data, and reacts in some manner (sound, movement, lights). The process is Sense, Think, Act. Students work in pairs or individually to develop the code, make all necessary connections, build and test the project. 

I believe that going through projects #1 (simple circuit) and #2 (automata) has helped to prepare students for this current project. They've had experience in working with LEDs, motors, switches, power, as well as exploring the way parts interact and move. Students therefore approach the robotics unit with more background knowledge and skills than groups in the past. To add to the knowledge and skills, there is a certain level of fearlessness that they have grown accustomed to, given their ability to try things out in the previous two projects, make adjustments, make mistakes, and make improvements.

In terms of process, having students go through the design, build, iterate process for each project provides a good deal of necessary practice. In a sense, therefore, the process itself has gone through its own iterations. My ultimate hope is that they take all of this experience into their personal projects. Below are some short clips of students at work.