STEM Day Circuits

Thanks to PLEARN Day, the 6th grade team decided they wanted to try a STEM Day with their students.  Students moved through a series of 8 stations throughout the day.  They created catapults, stacked cups, created a density tube, used Spheros to solve math problems, created light up cards with paper circuits, used Makey Makey to create circuits and more.

I had the media center set up to create the light up cards and use Makey Makey.

Makey Makey Station

In this station, students had to find the items that conducted electricity in order to complete the circuit.  Students recorded their findings in the form of a quick checklist of which items did/ did not work.  We used this Scratch Makey Makey Piano to test the circuits.

Once the students had tested the items and found enough to fill all of the banana clips, they had to use the Makey Makey to play one of three simple songs.  I had gone through and put the corresponding Makey Makey direction on a page to help them.  (Makey Makey Piano Songs ).

If the group successfully played the song, they were taken to a PacMan game.  Students really had to work together to move PacMan around the board.  One student would hold the ground.  The other students used one hand to touch the grounded person and the other to touch their keys on the Makey Makey.  It would have been easier to have the items set up like a game controller, but it was much more fun having them work together with the separate keys.

Paper Circuits
This is one of my favorite activities to do with students.  Students are amazed that something so simple actually works.

For our activity we had students create a light up holiday card.  To do this we used construction paper, markers, LED bulbs, copper tape, and a 3V battery.  (None of these are affiliate links. ) I have used a couple of different types of copper tape and this seems to do a better job at creating the circuit.

Here's how we made our cards:
1.  Students folded a sheet of construction paper in 1/2 and drew a picture.
2.  They selected a bulb and where it would go on the card.  Students then pushed the bulb wires the entire way through the card.
3.  We removed the bulb and opened the card.  We used the marker to put a dot over the hole the wires created and drew the lines where the tape would go to create the circuit.  I'll include the typed instructions I gave students.
4.  Students measured and cut the copper tape to fit the lines on their paper leaving space for the bulb and the battery.
5.  Students used the copper tape to secure their bulb - paying attention to the positive and negative sites.
6.  Students tested their circuit by adding their battery.  If everything was in place, the bulb lit up.  If not we had to troubleshoot.

Troubleshooting:
1.  We found that tape had to completely overlap at the corners or the connection wasn't strong enough to complete the circuit.
2.  In some cases, students mixed up the positive and negative on the bulb and we had to flip over the battery.

It's PLEARN Time!

We had all of these awesome tools installed in the media center during the first of October.  I wanted a way for the teachers to learn to use them without having to attend a full scale training session.  They just needed time to play. On October 11th, we set up a Play and Learn Session- PLEARN time!


Our PLEARN time was set up so that teachers could come during their planning and spend as little or as much of their time playing as they chose.  The goal was that everyone who participated would leave with something they created on one of our new tools. 

We set up several stations.  The teachers could chose which ones they wanted to try.  The stations included:
- 3D Printer
- Cricut and our Heat Press
- 3D Pens
- Spheros
- Little Bits
- Green Screen
- Promethean ActivBoard




To provide support and guide teachers through the process they received this document:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gpKaLz1vzJh7lrx9x3ieD1hPzhj2iWe87SpBONX-ynw/edit
(  Template design by Genevieve Pacada  •   Text set  by Lisa Highfill )

Teachers left with decals, 3D printed name tags, tshirts they designed and made using our heat press, green screen pictures and more.  

The best part- This session led to a STEM Day for 6th grade students and collaborations with two other teachers.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work!

This is my 28th year in education.  I've been a classroom teacher, a K-5 media coordinator, a district level Instructional Technologist and am back in my happy place again as a media coordinator in a middle school.

One of the things I've struggled with the most as a media coordinator and Instructional Technologist over the years is collaborating with staff.  The higher the grade level, the harder it was because teachers at middle school and high school have such tight constraints on the time they have to cover their standards.  

When the stars align and you have a staff that works well together, you fall into every media coordinator's dream of collaboration nirvana.  Collaborating isn't a chore nor does it require a formal planning session.  All it takes is a simple conversation about what's being studied or a quick email and within a few minutes you've got a killer plan that will boost student engagement and actually make them want to complete their work.

So what kind of things can a media coordinator do with a dream team? Instead of traditional projects like presentations, we've worked together to:

- have students create historical artifacts on the 3D printer

- used the green screen to tell stories and present information

- explored the life of prehistoric man where all they had was the resources the land provided

- re-created historic scenes in Minecraft

- programmed spheros 

- made tshirts for clubs and events

- plan a STEM day for a grade level
-created circuits and programmed Arduinos

The Makerspace tools have really helped with collaboration beyond just Language Arts classes this year.  I love seeing just how creative our students are.  The collaborations I've taken part in so far have been phenomenal.  I can't want to see what the rest of the year brings.