On October 9th, Grant Wood Technology Consultants spent the morning with a group of 1st graders from Benton Community Schools in the SCALE-UP classroom at Grant Wood AEA.  The students along with several staff were celebrating Socktober.  Which prompted my first question, what is Socktober?

From Soulpancake and Kid President:

“Every night in the United States an estimated 600,000 people live on the streets. This October, SoulPancake and Kid President want 2 million people to prove that even the smallest acts of love, like donating a pair of socks, can make a big difference in the lives of our neighbors who are homeless.”

For the 1st graders, the day was all about creating different artifacts to promote their upcoming Socktober event.  Their teacher, Anna Upah, organized the event in the Scale-Up Classroom because of the amount of flexibility and technology that the space offers.  The students were divided into small groups, each led by a Benton staff member.  The activities of the day centered around literacy blended with technology: 3-D printing, poster creation, video production, Chatterpix, Tagxedo, letters to the editor, coffee cup logo design, T-shirt design and iPad storytelling.  The projects created will be used to promote Socktober from their own voice to tell the story and why they think it is important.  Their goal is to get a pair of socks donated from all 50 states.

In coming to Grant Wood, Benton students were able to utilize the 3-D printer.  The students were tasked with designing a Socktober keychain which could be printed on the 3-D printer.  The students and their teacher, Mrs. Townsley, started by using the Scale-Up wipe board wall to brainstorm a design and reviewed some sample objects that had been made by the printer.  They settled on a tag-style keychain with the word “Socktober!” embossed on top.  We then used Design Something, a Chrome app, to build our 3-D model and sent the .stl file to the printer.  The students were able to watch one keychain being printed and were able to ask lots of questions about how it all works.  During the printing time, they explored several great iOS apps that work with the 3-D printer.  More keychains will be printed later and sent to the students through Grant Wood’s vanmail.

Overall, the Socktober creation session was a success.  The students were full of energy and engaged.  The SCALE-UP classroom, with its ability to easily be transformed, was the perfect location for this event.  In a little under two hours, students completed a variety of projects to promote Socktober and the students headed on to their next stop, a field trip at St. Luke’s Hospital.  

And the technology consultants retired for a nap... 

-Jason Marshall and Amber Bridge, Technology Consultants