Maker Space Presentation

What an amazing night!  We had over 100 hundred people from the Calgary Board of Education attend our Makerspace presentation last night!  We shared our learning journey from transitioning from library to learning commons to our Discovery and Learning Center.  The focus of our presentation was not to show the what but the how.  How we implemented the process of getting our teachers on board with the design thinking model, along with some examples of us going through the Design Loop to define our learning journey.
Here is the link or our presentation:
http://bit.ly/svsdlcmakerspace

As well I sent our a challenge to all school in attendance to add to our maker manifest.  This is a networking opportunity so we can get system wide buy in, rather than pockets of innovation.
bit.ly/svsmakerchallenge

Follow us @svsmakerspace

Simons Valley DLC Robot

Parent Volunteers are amazing! Our DLC has been given a robot made by one of our grade 1 parents. The great part about this is that the robot can come apart and be put back together in different ways.  Students are currently naming him and as a school community we will be voting on the top name.  Once he is named students will then be putting a skin on him.  The skin will be from our take apart station in our DLC Makerspace.  Many students have brainstormed that circuit boards will work well for this.  The following are some pictures of our amazing 'nameless' robot'.

Makerspaces

The following pictures are our Makerspaces set up around the Discovery Learning Center.  Students are given a design challenge and are then required to complete the task using the provided resources. 

Design a bridge that is able to span the gap. You must drive the remote control car across it. 

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Design a car that is able to carry an egg down the ramp. 

Design a house that you are able to fit four people inside of. 

Create a free standing pendulum that is able to dispense paint. 

Design a hat that you are able to show off to a friend. 

Design a car that is able to roll 2 meters. 

Using the cardboard sleeves, create an animal. 

Using the connects, can you create a spaceship. 

Take apart station...I wonder what I can find?

Creative Expressionism

STEAM CREW

Science
Technology
Engineering
Art
Mathematics

At Simons Valley School we have a program called STEAM.  This program runs first thing in the morning when our sister program called SPARKS occurs.  Students who participate in SPARKS are students who need a high intensity elevated heart level prior to learning to help them focus through out the day.  Students in STEAM, are those students who don't fit into the SPARK profile. STEAM students are identified by teachers in grades 4,5,6.  When students participate in STEAM they are not permanently in the 'spot' for the rest of the year.  We approach this program in rounds.  Through rounds, we are able to allow more students to participate in the iteration process. Student who participate in STEAM go through a series of design challenges utilizing the design loop.  They are then required to fill out a google form identifying their own project that they want to work on.  I tell students that their self identified project needs to help someone or themselves in some aspect of their life. They then proceed to work on their project during the STEAM time utilizing the THINK/MAKE/IMPROVE rubric as a guide to steer their thinking.  At the end of the round, which lasts about a month, students then pitch their idea to a panel of parents, students, and teachers during a lunch hour period.  Students participating in STEAM that have successfully pitched their ideas are then asked to share at our Parent Council meeting. Currently we are in our second round of STEAM and planning stages for myself has been an iteration process.   I am excited to see what our 2nd round of students will come up with to help someone.
If anyone has any idea's or current problems that you feel students would be able to help you solve by building a prototype and then pitching their idea; please leave a comment.

Cross Grade Collaboration

Students in Grade 3 designed and created free standing paint pendulums with inspiration from Jackson Polluck. The grade 6 students assisted the grade 3's in making this happen.  The purpose of this task design challenge was to develop a writing piece for the grade 5 students to explore artistic expressionism.  Students in grade 5 discussed perspectives and how every picture tells a story.