Have you checked in with Think, Make, Innovate lately?
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It's hard to believe that we are into Season 3 of sharing maker ideas and highlighting schools who are encouraging their students to be makers.  There are 22 different Think, Make, Innovate episodes out there waiting for you to take up the challenge.  As always, you can complete any challenge in any order you want to best fit your students' creativity.  We have recently reorganized our Think, Make, Innovate page into maker themes, like No or Low Tech Challenges or Coding Challenges to help you easily find maker challenges for your students.

But I would say that the biggest, WOW for me has been how you've taken up the challenge! 

A part of every episode, either the students or Jason and I will say, "We Challenge You" to encourage students in Iowa or anywhere to take up the maker challenge.  We've added so many schools from across the state (and a few other states as well) to our online maker community.  It's been super inspiring to see!! 

A huge surprise for us has been how you have empowered yourselves to challenge each other! 

Check out rockstar librarian, Chelsea Sims & her maker crew (@sejhlibrary on Instagram - if you are not following you are missing out) challenge other schools in her district to take up a cardboard challenge.

And then, there are these two inspiring teachers, Gina Miller (@ginabeckmiller) from Belle Plaine and Manda Marshall (@mw_techlabA) from Mary Welsh Elementary in Williamsburg.  Their story of collaboration is so fun and authentically awesome.  Coming from two different school districts, crossing paths through professional development and being inspired and by each other.  They had an idea to bring their students together for Bot Smackdown Challenge Day and it all came together yesterday.  It was an amazing day of collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity for these students.  I was overjoyed to be able to help be a part of it and capture it to share in the NEXT episode of Think, Make, Innovate coming out in January.  Click here to subscribe to our mailing list if you want to be notified of future episodes like this one!

Listen to them tell their story, and tune in to their Think, Make, Innovate Episode in January!

How have you taken up the maker challenge? 
We'd love to hear from you, share your students' work on our maker community, or collaborate with you on a future Think, Make, Innovate episode!  We love to see you tag us on social media or use #havefunmaking to share the fun and joy of making that your students are involved in.

Leave us a comment and let us know how your school is moving forward with the maker movement.

Grant Wood AEA’s Digital Learning Team is introducing our makerspace challenge show called Think, Make, Innovate.  The idea behind a makerspace challenge is to spark ideas and innovation, by putting out a simple idea and seeing what can be created.

Get to know our show:

Each month we will test you with a new makerspace challenge on our Think, Make, Innovate Page.  When a challenge is released, it will include a video that can be shared with students to introduce them to the month’s challenge and will be supported with a lesson plan for teachers to assist in implementation.  The challenges are designed to be adaptable to various grade levels and will range from low to high tech.  In each episode, we do a demonstration of the challenge or highlight a school participating in the challenge, to give students some inspiration to get started.  As it often is with making, we show failure and that learning is not always perfect.  We hope that your students will take the episode idea and build off of it to stretch their creativity and try out their making skills to create their own original products.

Our hope is that you will take up the challenge and share your process with us.  Take photos or short videos of your students’ creativity and we will post on them our Community Inspiration Board.  Sharing is easy, just email us at makerspace@gwaea.org or send us the links through this Google Form.

Stay tuned, our first episode, Green Screen Photo Booth, will be released on September 1st.  
Want to know when we release new challenges?  
Or would you like to have your school highlighted in an episode?  
Join our mailing list so we can connect with you.

Remember, Have Fun Making!


~Amber Bridge and Jason Marshall, Think, Make, Innovate Hosts, Technology Consultants

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She is an enthusiastic tween who is sharing her love of science and making with the world through social media.  She started with a YouTube Show showcasing different projects she has made, which led her to become an author!  She an excellent example and role model for the students of today to inspire them in their maker journey.  

Super Awesome Slyvia could be a student in your class, who inspires you and their classmates to embrace their creative and unique self.  As you prepare for the start of the next school year, I hope you take steps to lay the foundation for making for your students, by providing opportunities and experiences and time for them to explore their maker side.

Who inspires you?  Is there someone I’ve forgotten?  Let me know in the comments section.

~Amber Bridge, Technology Consultant, Grant Wood AEA, (@abridgesmith)


For more posts like this, please subscribe to our blog! You can also connect with us on social media if you Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter or add us to your circles on Google+.

Creativity is at the heart of a makerspace.  The possibilities are endless and the supplies in a makerspace can spark ideas.  One of my favorite creativity-fueling components of our makerspace is a Makey Makey, or as they're known as - an invention kit for everyone.  The Makey Makey comes in a simple box with very little instructions.  For non-techies, the wires and alligator clips could scare people from exploring.  So, let’s break this down, because there is no reason to fear the unknown.

The Makey Makey comes with a circuit board (your home base), a USB connector to connect to your computer, and alligator clips and wires (these help you connect and create).  All of these components allow you to connect back to your computer to control what’s happening on screen through the USB cord.  You can connect the wires in any combination you'd like to work with different programs on your computer.

The front is designed for the alligator clip connections.  It has places to connect to your computer’s arrows, space, key and click buttons.  Just pinch them right into the designated holes.  Along the bottom, you’ll find a row of the ground connectors (more about this in a minute).  

The back is where you can utilize the wires.  There are small wire ports along the sides where wires can be inserted to connect to even more parts of your computer.  The left side will connect with letters on your keyboard (W, A, S, D, F, G) and the right has similar connections to the front, but also includes other mouse features like a right and left click.  The top connections allow you to link into the Arduino components and the bottom connections offer more ground connections.  
If you find the wires to be too short, you can extend the wire connections by adding an alligator clip.

The wires or alligator clips can be connected to any object that can conduct electricity.  This is what will test your knowledge of electrical conductors and has excellent classroom connections to teaching electricity, which is part of the Next Generation Science Standards.  There are loads of inquiry-based learning you can do with your students to help them learn about what can conduct electricity.  Let your students choose what to connect to the Makey Makey.  People have used bananas or potatoes and even pencil graphite!

Now the last piece of the Makey Makey magic is the ground connectors.  The ground connectors allow you to be interactive with your Makey Makey as you help to complete the circuit.  You hold an end of an alligator clip connected to the ground and then touch your electrically conductive object you selected (like Play Dough in the picture).  Your computer will react as you complete the circuit.  If you forget to pick up the ground connection, your Makey Makey won't respond.

To get started, try the Makey Makey piano or bongos and use to have students write music on their own banana piano.

I’ve seen students become completely fascinated with how the electrical connections work with a Makey Makey, a completely different reaction than how I saw them react to traditional electrical circuits in science class.  The main reason is how multiple people can connect and interact with the Makey Makey as long as they are holding a ground connection or if they are touching the person holding the ground connection.  I witnessed one group of students creating a Makey Makey people chain to see how many people could touch hands and still have the Makey Makey work!  This naturally leads into great learning conversations about how electricity works. 

There are loads of great starters and project ideas on the Makey Makey website.  Check out how these people have utilized the Makey Makey to fuel their imaginations - it's awesome!  Also, Makey Makey has a Kickstarter going on right now for the new Makey Makey Go - a great price point and option for schools!

~Amber Bridge, Technology Consultant, Grant Wood AEA 
@abridgesmith


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