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 Think-Make-Improve Robot At the very first PTA board meeting of the school year, our principal, Mrs. Kim Linz, mentioned something about a “Make Your Space”. She said that it involved inventing, design process, building, engineering side of STEM. This was something that she was really interested in bringing to our school. Everyone in the room is over-committed already, but our principal used words that hit home. When we finally figured out that “Make Your Space” was really a “Makerspace” and we watched the YouTube video, “What is a Makerspace?” by Andrew Goodin, we were sold. We needed this program at our school.
So now what?! We are at a public school in California. Funding is very tight and the only way to start anything new is for the parents to get it started. HELP!!! We asked the PTA to give us a budget of $2,000 to launch this program. We had no idea how much we really needed. Found “like-minded” moms, all of whom are overcommitted at the school already, and convinced them to help create this program. They all wanted to say “no”, but once they understood what this program was all about, they knew that they had to make it happen. Yay!! There are a bunch of great resources online, starting with the "Makerspace Playbook, School Edition”. Also, “Invent to Learn” is a must read. We visited the few schools in our area that have a Makerspace. All three are in private schools and run by tech teachers. They were amazing to check out and we are so thankful that everyone has been so willing to share what they are doing and offer suggestions on how to get started. The program that we are creating is being developed by parents and none of us are techie. So we have a bunch of information and great ideas, but how do we actually start the program? This was the hardest part. We finally just decided that we needed to start small and slowly grow the program. In January, 2014, our principal talked to the 4th grade classes about our pilot Makerspace program. The program would take place on Wednesday’s at lunch/lunch recess. The students could fill out an application to be in the program. We had over 25 kids lined up outside the school office by 7:20am the next morning. School doesn’t start until 8:15am. By the end of the day, we had over 45 applications for the program. Unfortunately, we could only start the program with 20 kids, so the wait list started. For the first group of kids in the program, we started with making bristle bots. We were not sure if the kids would make the bristle bot in 5 minutes and then look at us wondering, “What’s next?”. The lesson was less than two minutes and we let the kids figure out how to make the bots. Some struggled. We really wanted the kids to be figuring things out on their own and have the kids help each other. All of the kids that first day were able to make a bristle bot. Yay!!! The kids did not want to leave the room. We challenged the kids to think about what type of bot they would want to make the following week. All of us moms were so thrilled with how well everything went that first day. Over the next few weeks the kids made bigger bots, art bots, back scratchers, marble runs, cardboard games, etc. They really surprised all of us with their creativity. The kids continue to want to be in the space. After launching the pilot program with 4th grade students, we ended up expanding and offering the program to 3rd, 5th and finally 2nd grade students. Our 2nd grade students started the year late and not all students that wanted to be in the program were able to try it this year. Thankfully, the program was so well received by the school district, school board, parents and students, we are getting our own classroom this next school year. How crazy it that!?! Space is so tight, and we have our own room!!! This just goes to show you that programs like Makerspaces need to be available to our kids. We love that we are starting this program with elementary aged students. Get them while they are young and keep them thinking creatively. Let them know that they can make things. They are “Makers”. For the 2014 school year, we are creating projects that will teach the kids a skill and give them the freedom to make something with that skill. The students will also have the freedom to come into the space and make their own invention. All students will need to fill out the “Maker Plan” to get started. When the students do not have a plan, they end up wasting supplies and not really making something that they are proud of. Our goal is to get the kids to think and make something that they are interested in making. We have a ton of “how to” books in our Makerspace Reference Library that has books that range from low to high tech to give them ideas. We want the kids to be inspired to try new things. We want kids in the space working together and sharing ideas. We want the teachers to use the space for teaching math in a different way, making projects, etc. We want the other elementary schools in our district to have a Makerspace. We want our community to have a Makerspace in the new library. We want to have a Fab Lab in our community. Having a Makerspace in our elementary school is just the beginning of a much bigger goal. So far, we are very proud of what we have created and work daily to grow the program the right way. It is not as easy as just following a plan listed in a book. It takes finding parent volunteers to help in the room, learning about circuits, learning about woodworking, learning about arduino, etc. The list of things to learn seems unending. Creating this program is overwhelming and exciting. It takes having parents that are passionate about bringing this to our kids and administration that supports our efforts. Thank you to Kim Linz, our principal and Christina Lee, our tech advisor, for bringing the idea of this program to our school and helping us to make it happen. We all are so excited to see how this program grows and the impact that it has on our kids. Sample of Possible Projects: * Woodworking * Simple Circuits (sewn, squishy circuits, paper, etc) * Magnets * Architecture * Bridge Building * Paper Construction * Sewing/Needle Point/Knitting * Makey Makey * Arduino * Coding * Physic projects * Make a game * Pushes and pulleys * Jewelry making * Vehicles/gears * Wind & propulsion * Sound waves * Instrument Making * Earth Week - recycled project (water bottles/cardboard) * 3D printing * Make a video * The list never ends. If you can think it, you can try to make it... 4 'C's and International Society for Technology in Education
 Grades 3–8 and 11
The Smarter Balanced Practice and Training Tests are a fixed-form preview and do not include all the features of the computer adaptive assessments.
• Daily Breeze Article on Parent Technology & Learning Night • K-8 Computer Science Coding Resources - http://goo.gl/CtM688 Here are our Parent Technology Night Presentations. Click on the images to go to the Haiku Deck slides. Please let us know if you have any questions. Cheers, Christina and Jeanne
 Thank you to all the parents and teachers who joined us for the 2nd Annual Parent Technology Night at Mira Costa High School! Fabulous new building with a new Eno board and Epson projector that was brilliant, right?! We thought it was an awesome event and immensely enjoyed sharing our passions with you.
 Click on the iTunes links for Learning:
✔ iPad Apps for Elementary Schools ✔ iPad Apps for Middle and High Schools  MBUSD Edmodo Permission Agreement To DENY permission, please contact MBUSD Edmodo Administrator: Christina Lee at clee@mbusdapps.org.
Help: help.edmodo.com & Support: edmodo.com/community/support
Tutorial: Webinars and Video Tutorials 30GB shared between Drive, Gmail and photos to Google+ larger than 2048px Files created in Docs, Sheets and Slides don't count against your storage quota. To access MBUSD Google Apps, return the signed Google Apps Permission Agreement to your teacher. Please contact MBUSD Google Apps for Education Administrator: Christina Lee at clee@mbusdapps.org or Jeanne Reed at jreed@mbusdapps.org to register accounts. - Learn more at Technology Resources or Sign in to Google Apps for MBUSD at www.google.com/a/mbusdapps.org
 MBUSD TechCon 2013
Tuesday, August 20, 2013 Manhattan Beach Middle School We have a terrific line-up with multiple sessions being offered. Sign up or log in to bookmark your favorites and sync them to your phone or calendar. If you are a teacher out of Manhattan Beach Unified School District and would like to attend, please contact Karina Gerger at kgerger@mbusd.org. Visit http://mbusdtechcon2013.sched.org for the schedule and presenter bios. www.google.com/sky www.google.com/moon www.google.com/mars Google Earth Basics for K-12 Education (6) The Tools:
The Crib Sheets: Other Information:
www.easyreadernews.com/46222/manhattan-beach-unified-ipad-pilot by Alene Tchekmedyian Does Manhattan Beach Unified’s iPad pilot program represent the future of education?  Kindergarten students at Grand View Elementary School use iPads two times a week.
Photo by Alene Tchekmedyian/Easy Reader Excerpts from www.dailybreeze.com/education/ci_20001723 South Bay schools on an iPad mission By Rob Kuznia/Daily Breeze Pacific School Mission IMovie from Paula Noda on Vimeo. ...At Pacific Elementary School in Manhattan Beach, fourth-graders in Paula Noda's class no longer write essays about an annual trip to a mission in Orange County - now they put together an iPad video, complete with theme music, sound effects and panning... Questions or suggestions? Post your messages anonymously, or not, at http://padlet.com/wall/mbusdnet (comments post on the wall after approval). iPad Apps for Learning View more lists from Christina and Jeanne Technology = science + engineering + design + math + etc... OurAmazingPlanet.com: Tallest Mountain to Deepest Ocean Trench The Scale of the Universe 2 iPad Must-have Apps View more lists from Christina and Jeanne iPaid Apps for Education View more lists from Christina and Jeanne iPad Apps for Elementary Schools View more lists from Christina and Jeanne 29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo. Excerpts from www.mbef.org Donations to MBEF help our Children Succeed The steps to success aren’t always glamorous, or obvious; take typing for example.Our children start typing their reports in third grade. Their typing proficiency makes a difference then and for years to come. Typing also establishes a foundation for using technology across applications: research, communications, design, animation, virtual reality… That is why Pacific’s Computer Specialist, Ms. Lee, has these second graders typing. She has also set up a special typing club. Thank you Ms. Lee, and thank you to the MBEF donations that fund Computer Specialists across our schools. Can you type faster than a second grader?   |
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