Book Review: Rosie Revere, Engineer

For a while I've been eying several books that would help support STEAM or Maker activities in the classroom. Rosie Revere, Engineer has been one that I've wanted to get for a while, so a few weeks ago, I ordered it off of The Book Depository. The story itself is a very nice tale of a shy girl who used to create a lot of creative and different inventions, but has been silenced because of the reaction of a family member. She learns later, from a family member that it's not about getting things perfect on the first go. This fits in perfectly with both the idea of Growth Mindset and the Design Thinking process.

There is a lot of potential for this book to lead into many different learning opportunities and ideas. It would be a great way to start a project where children build or create something.

But that's not all. There is also a companion book, Rosie Revere's Big Project Book for Bold Engineers, which gives an incredible amount of ideas to build upon the first book. You can find it at The Book Depository as well.

Though the book is primarily meant for individual children (it has many places for a child to draw or write) it can easily be adapted for a whole class to get them thinking in new and creative ways. As an adult, I was personally excited about the things in this book and potentially trying some of them on my own.

In the book there is a good deal of supporting information about engineers and engineering, as well as some advice about organizing your own "treasure" so that you can make your own inventions. There are also some step-by-step instructions to make a few different creative things (a small catapult and a solar oven).

The genius of this book does not end there though. There are also many real world challenges where the book asks readers to try to solve a specific problem in their own creative way. It also highlights the importance of "flops" and making mistakes.

At 94 pages this definitely is a recommended purchase for any classroom trying to bring out the creativity in children. It not only encourages children to build and invent things, but it gives them a few different methods and tons of inspiration.

There are a few other books in this series, so perhaps look for the reviews of those in the near future.

Science Unleashed: Making Motorized Cars

I'm super far behind on my blogging. I've actually already had the third Science Unleashed lesson, but I've not written about the second.

After the first night, I was very excited to get back to the North Shore (without the wrong turns this time!) and see what Chris had in store for us. When I walked in, there were a variety of some really cool things on the table: motors, cardboard, propellers, battery packs. This was clearly going to be a fun evening.

We were again working in partners and our task was to make a vehicle that moved. We had a certain amount of time to build our first prototype and test it, with very little direction - except for the basic concept of the car and how we could potentially make it. My partner and I quickly discussed what we wanted to make and divided up the tasks. We made our vehicle quickly and when it didn't really go, we looked at the problems - the wheels were a bit sticky and not turning easily, the motor didn't have enough power - and decided how we would modify it.  We made smoother wheels and added a second battery pack (some may say this was cheating, but I'm not among them).

Here's a video of how our test worked out at this point:

Afterwards we had the conference like we had the week before, but instead of just discussion what we could potentially test and change, we came up with a plan of who would investigate what. We ended up looking at whether or not weight made a difference or if more power made a difference.  When we tested these as a group, ours went quicker than everyone else's - most likely because of the extra battery packs.

Again, we had a discussion on how we could improve our vehicles.

What was interesting today was not necessarily what we did, but how our scientific community evolved from week to week. We learned from our mayhem the week before and became more organized in our methods, which led to us being more successful in coming to a consensus in the end. I'm going to give Chris the benefit of the doubt and say that this was his plan - get us to create our own community. I look forward to the last two sessions (spoiler - the next one was pretty good too!).

Hosting a #digitaledchat for #MakerEdNZ

Recently, I was give the opportunity from Stuart Kelly to host a #digitaledchat on #MakerEdNZ. I was very nervous about this proposition, but was also excited about the chance to not only run a major, international chat, but also to learn from others and start the conversation.

It was very difficult to set the questions as I wanted to encourage lots of rich discussion, but I also wanted to make sure that the talk was accessible. I initially made a few too many questions, so that I could whittle them down to the best ones.

In the end, I settled with the following 6 questions. None were earth shattering, but I felt that they would direct the discussion and help bridge the gap between the early adopters and those who were just learning about maker spaces for the first time.

1. What is your experience with makerspaces?
2. How would you define a makerspace?
3. What barriers have you had or do you have in getting a makerspace in your school?
4. What are the benefits or disadvantages to letting learners make or create whatever they want?
5. How much direction do you think should be given in a makerspace?
6. What are you going to do to either add to your makerspace or start one?

I wanted to focus on building the base and getting people motivated to start trying these things, which is one of the main reasons I started #MakerEdNZ

The chat went fairly well, and we had some good discussion. A transcript of the whole thing can be found here.

One of the first things that came out of the discussion was actually what a maker space is. Many schools probably have such a space and do maker activities, but they wouldn't necessarily call it that. Perhaps this is one of the realizations that we need to encourage in NZ schools so that educators can start thinking in terms of building on what they already have, rather than having to start a new thing that they've not heard of before.

We even came up with a new word: Thinkering, which given the mix of thinking and tinkering gives a great description of what learners would do in a makerspace - both expanding their mind and using the materials they have to create something.

Many of the barriers to makerspaces starting up were ones that we have heard before: time, money, space, a dedicated staff member, leadership buy-in. These are all things that need to be addressed, though one of them was seemingly discussed as an easily solvable problem. Maker spaces do not need to be full of expensive equipment. Many schools get by with using completely recyclable things, which are very easy to get within the community. Other barriers will need to be given a bit more time, but another purpose of MakerEdNZ is to help get through these.

Many teachers saw providing maker spaces as a positive way to encourage creativity, problem solving and to provide open ended problems. Some worried about wasted time and wasted resources. I've certainly cringed when I've seen my students spending hours on something, using a whole roll of tape in something that won't likely turn out to be useful, but the process of this does hold some value in my opinion. Thought it is tough to see all that wasted tape. Some other teachers echoed this sentiment during the chat as well.

Most teachers agreed that as little direction as possible would be best, though there is a need for some up front direction so as to keep children safe and to provide them with a starting off point. This has shown to be key for me and my learners and after some initial difficulty with the freedom of choice, they were able to become independent and self-directed quite quickly and easily. It's that getting lost or stuck that promotes real, authentic learning.

The actions that teachers are going to take are varied. Some were going to start using the term maker space, while others were very specific in their ideas going forward. Several wanted to get donations of materials for their spaces and find ways for learners to start making.

All in all it was a great conversation, and one that I hope to help continue. It definitely clarified what a maker space is for some and it got others starting to share with each other - an activity that will be key to growing the movement here in NZ.

I look forward to the next chat that I'll be able to host, whether it takes the same format or it pushes a bit beyond. Either way, this was a valuable experience and an important step forward in the #MakerEdNZ journey.

Lego Stop Motion Fun!

For those of you who know me and my classroom, you'll know that I have a massive collection of Lego, including many, many minifigures. My learners this year have, with much collaboration, become very creative with the Lego, building houses, cafes and many other things with incredible detail. A couple of my learners have even gone so far as to make a number of stop motion videos, but in the last week they've taken things to an entirely new level.

When I first introduced Stop Motion to my class, we had been using Stop Motion Animator on chromebooks. I had some webcams that worked (though the majority of the ones I bought did not) and that was going fine. Then we had some issues with the saving, so it became very frustrating to see my learners put a lot of effort into their videos and then be unable to save things. So we tried Monkey Jam on the class desktops. There was an improvement in being able to save an export, but it was still a cumbersome process.

Then we tried the Stop Motion Animator App on the iPads. Brilliant. Great resolution, easy to use, easy to add audio and easy to upload to Youtube. Over the past few days, the big sets have been used to create some really elaborate and creative stories from two of my students. I especially enjoyed the way they used Lego bodies with no heads as clothes. 

For anyone thinking about maker spaces, this is one way I have used my maker space to help develop literacy skills. Have a look at what they've done. My input was solely to provide the Lego and show briefly how to make a stop motion video. I'm really impressed with the direction they took with minimal direction. I think it goes to show that learners (of all ages) need an opportunity to explore. The first Lego creations and stop motion videos we did this year were not very exciting, creative or well done. But given time to try lots of things, they've been able to produce some amazing this. I only wish I could give this group of learners more time to develop these problem solving and collaborative skills.

TAP Lab Visit #3

This Wednesday I returned to the TAP Lab to continue my education in all things Maker. Most of this involves Arduino and other types of coding, but we'll see where things take me and how much time I'll actually have in the future to come back (it is pretty far away - but definitely worth it).

Today's session started with me figuring out another sensor - a temperature sensor which is surprisingly accurate. Then the very helpful people at the lab started telling me all about all the parts I had in my Arduino kit, including some displays. Well, I was intrigued. My big thought was to get the display to show the temperature. Well, it was a massive job just to 1) figure out how to hook up the display to the Arduino board and then 2) figuring out the coding, which had a very simple, but inexplicable error.

The code we found on the Internet for the lights was giving some really strange results. We poured through it, trying to figure out what went wrong. Then we started testing things to see what changed. It became apparent, at one point, that the lights were doing the opposite of what they were meant to do in the code. So, I changed all the 'trues' (which the code said meant the lights would go off) to 'falses' and amazingly, the display lit up as it should have. It was a good lesson in debugging, though it got pretty frustrating at one point, and I was definitely in the dip (growth mindset FTW!). But this only led to a static display. I managed to change the display to my birth year and then discussed ways in which I could program the numbers to change - though due to the tediousness of the code I'd have to write, I put that off for another day.

Learned how to code a 4digit display today at @TAPLabMakers Next step: make numbers change! #MakerEdNZ #hacksterlive pic.twitter.com/KkrINLhHb2

— Michael Davidson (@michaelteacher) August 31, 2016

Since I remembered to bring my mBot to the lab, I decided to have some fun with its display as well. It is much easier to program the lights there (it's all visual, and you just need to click on the squares), so I was able to spell out all the number words to ten and get it to count up. I bet I can modify this program to make it do addition or subtraction (or many other things). Hmmmmm.... I do love how learning one skill can get you thinking about how it can be applied. Have a look at the video of the lights changing.

Today was a fantastic lesson in what actually goes on in a makerspace. It was often quiet when I was working, but when I had a problem, many people there were willing and even eager to help me. That's the kind of atmosphere I'd like to create for makerspaces. I spent two hours there, but it felt like 10 minutes. Again, that's what I want for MakerEdNZ. 

The Case for MakerEdNZ

Since going to ISTE this year, it has become apparent that there is a gap in New Zealand education, at least from my perspective. That gap is makerspaces. Now, I know some of you will be reading this saying: "What are you going on about? I've got an awesome makerspace in my school! You don't know what you're talking about." And yes, you'd probably be right, I DON'T know what I'm talking about. Yes, there are lots of great and amazing makerspaces in New Zealand. However, when I asked the NZ Teachers (Primary) Facebook group about makerspaces, only 43% of the teachers had even HEARD of them and only 11% had one in their school. So I say to you people who have the makerspaces: "How can you help the rest of us?" (note: I'm actually in the 11%, so the question should be: "How can we help each other?")

Instead of getting worked up about it and saying that either: a) it's not fair, I want some cool stuff, or b) what's the point, someone else will fix it, I've decided to do something about it. And thus: MakerEdNZ was born. What is it, you ask? I'm not entirely sure. It's just an idea right now (ok, well actually, it's more than just an idea - but more on that later). But the idea is that we (the keen makers out there, those with makerspaces, and those who just want to bring them to NZ schools) can work together, share what is working for us and get those makerspaces into every New Zealand school. Ambitious? Check.

How this plays out is anyone's guess right now, but I believe that there is the desire to make this change, and that desire will increase as more and more teachers, schools and BOTs see what can happen in a makerspace and the real, authentic learning it can create.

I am currently in the process of applying to two separate programs to help me along in this journey. After being unsuccessful in my first application to the Google for Education Innovator Academy, I was speaking to an Innovator friend of mine about this very idea and it was suggested that this be the project I use in my application. And that's when things got real. When I started thinking about MakerEdNZ in those terms, I got a little more into it and have started work on a variety of angles of it (sneak peek: there's a website in the works, videos being planned, as well as twitter chats and many other ways of sharing) and have started thinking of it on a grander scale. I've literally just sent my application in for that. I'll know in a week (and so will you) whether or not I'll get the support of the amazing innovators at Google to help realize this vision of mine.

The second application I am working on (though mostly completed) is for the CORE education efellows. This will allow me to undertake some action research which will help me make the case for Makerspaces in New Zealand schools (something that would be amazingly helpful in convincing schools and BOTs to help find the space and resources for makerspaces). That application is due next week.

Whether or not I get into both or neither of these amazing programs, this initiative is going ahead full steam (But if you're reading this at Google or CORE right now, don't think that I don't want your help. I think being supported by both of you would really make this idea fly).  So if you're reading this thinking "I'd love to help, but I don't know how I can" leave a message on this post, follow me on twitter (@michaelteacher, @MakerEdNZ or our hashtag #MakerEdNZ), or get ahold of me in another way. We need knowledge, skills and experience, but more importantly we need people who want to make a change and be a part of something amazing. We'll work on the knowledge, skills and experience together. 

So why do this? What's the point of makerspaces. New Zealand education is fine you say. I have to disagree. Not to be disrespectful, but in my experience, way too many students have become disengaged with their education, right from the beginning. The looks on their faces when they are forced to sit still and listen is painful to me as a teacher (and yes, I know this is not the case everywhere, but it is in a lot of places). The lack of a chance for students to be creative and to make things is scary. Busy work and worksheets reign supreme in some schools and many students are left feeling like school is a prison, waiting excitedly for the end of the day and the weekends. Incidentally, as my students have been given more opportunities to make and create, the "Is it lunch yet?" questions have since been replaced with me trying to kick my students out of the classroom at playtimes. Is this not what we should all aspire to: students who actually want to be in school. 

It is absolutely imperative in 2016 that we listen to the voices of our students. What do they want to learn? What skills do they want to try? We need to provide opportunities for students to learn a variety of skills (or just learn how to learn new skills) and expose them to technologies - old and new - that they wouldn't normally get exposed to. We can do better for our students. Would we want to be a student in our own classrooms?

MakerEdNZ has the practical goal of making makerspaces available to all New Zealand students, but the aspirational goal of making every student wake up in the morning and want to go to school to work on their projects. 

In writing this, I've also come up with a great new slogan for MakerEdNZ:

MakerEdNZ. Making students want to stay in class during play time, since 2016

TAP Lab Visit #2

Once again, this past Wednesday I made my out to Te Atatu Peninsula Makerspace for their weekly meetup. I wanted to a) learn more about using Arduino (specifically sensors), b) potentially figure out what's wrong with my mBot and c) continue to build a relationship with people who actual know how to run and organize a makerspace so that I have some real-world experts to help with MakerEdNZ.

Overall it was a pretty good evening. Though the weather was bad there were a good number of people who could help me figure some things out. It was nice being in a room of problem solvers - people who will try different things to figure stuff out. With some help I set up a photoresistor sensor on the Arduino board to check for light. We had a good discussion on what the results actually meant (I was getting high numbers when it was dark and low numbers when it was light, which was confusing to me).

The subject of my non-working mBot came up as well. Another person there helped me use their mBot to try connecting it via the 2.4GHZ connection. It worked reasonably well and I was able to explore a little bit about the sensors on the mBot. It was good because while I was doing so, I was able to imagine in my head how these lessons and ideas could be put to use in a classroom or makerspace (and now I have some skills to work with as well).  The unfortunate part was that when I went to school the next day, I was unable to get the mBot working completely, so there must be some other issue. So there will be a visit #3 coming up soon (I've signed up to go next week and the week after, but we'll see if I can actually make those days). 

Anyone interested in makerspaces or joining us for #MakerEdNZ, I'd suggest visiting a community makerspace and see what they do. Everyone I've met has been very friendly and extremely willing to help. You can find lots of those on Meetup.

Passion Projects: A-learning We Will Go!

Last term my class started Passion Projects after having tried it last year at my last school. I had meant to write an update as to how the finished products went, but never found the time in a busy schedule straddling the last holidays. The presentations students shared (with myself, the class, our Principal and one Deputy Principal) were a good start. There was some nervousness. The students had mostly put a lot of effort and thought into their projects and it was great to see them share what they learned. But there were many things that could be improved - a lot of which fell on me. Preparing the students better was a priority of mine. Exposing them to better and more interesting ways of sharing what they've learned was another. We had a big reflection after the first round and then again when we started the second time. Students had a better idea of what was expected and way less time was wasted getting started.

This term I have stood back much more than I did last term (at least after the initial reflections) and have let my students explore their questions and take them in their directions. I probed when necessary and helped out when asked. But it was this week that the changes that had been brewing silently finally came bursting out in full view.

What was most startling was the variety of things students were doing this term. Many were using our classroom's Makerspace to create something. Some were coding. But it was apparent, the students were all enjoying what they were doing and were fully engrossed in their projects.

I think the biggest issue during the first go around of Passion Projects was that students were actually a bit tentative when it came to making choices about what they wanted to learn. They were a bit afraid of the choice and choose ways of sharing that were known, and thus easier. Now that they've had a chance to try it, they have begun to try new ways of displaying their information. And no doubt, my understanding and increased comfort level with the chaos has helped. 

As a teacher, the idea of letting go was not one that was difficult to come to grips with. I want my students to have choice and control over their education and learning. On a practical side, that isn't always the case. I'm constantly afraid someone will get hurt (hot glue gun, box cutters, kids being kids) or a massive mess (paint, glitter), Legos being lost or sucked up by the vacuum after school, or just things generally being broken or wasted. This does happen occasionally (usually not the getting hurt though) but it's just something I need to get over. Trusting the children is key and they will often surprise you if you give them real trust to learn their own way.

The students have become proud of their work as well, though they have been a bit hesitant to share their work. When they do, everyone has been extremely supportive of each other. It's not just the fact that students are choosing what they learn and are engaged - they have also become a supportive learning community. This has been key in their transformation.

I borrowed a Ricoh Theta this past week to make another video and tested it out by taking this 360 degree video of the class during Passion Project time. I really enjoyed this day (and the whole week) as we have been doing real learning, not just the kind where I stand up in front of (or sit with) a group of children. It was an extremely liberating feeling for me to be able to give my students a voice. I hope that these lessons stay with them for life.

ISTE 2016!

It has taken me a few weeks (almost a month, in fact) to fully come to grips with my ISTE 2016 experience. To sum it up in word: Amazing! But obviously there were some really good takeaways that came from the experience. I'll try my best to share all of what I learned, but no doubt some good stuff will get left out.

edit: Now it's almost two whole months after ISTE! But still thinking lots about it. Some of this may be repetitive because of the time between when I started writing and when I finished, but I think the tone that will likely be consistent throughout will convince you of the value this experience had for me and could have for you in the future.

People, People, People

The first place you need to start when dealing with ISTE is the people. I'm not talking about the sheer number (though that is staggering on its own). What I'm talking about is the people you meet. The biggest draw for something like ISTE is to meet lots and lots of like-minded and incredible people. And don't get me wrong, EVERYONE at ISTE is incredible. When I told one of the people I met that "I'm just a classroom teacher," she responded by saying that nobody is "Just" anything. We all have something to offer, no matter the title or experience. Though I did realize this before, it was interesting to see how our language can affect our perceptions (and the perceptions we create in others). Later on that day, I met someone who said pretty much the same thing about being "just" something. I was spurred on to share my new perspective.

There are also countless opportunities to meet and connect with educators around the world (well, mostly the US). There is so much value in this for all of us and our students who will benefit from these connections. I made a concerted and deliberate effort to seek out new people and talk to some who I wouldn't have otherwise spoken with - including the CEO of ISTE! I made several great connections which will help me make further connections in the future. It's all about the people. If that were the only result of the week in Denver it would have been worth it completely.

On top of meeting people at official conference events (probably the best source of that was the Global Ed Day - a great group of people to connect with, if you're looking), there were several social events which turned out to be just as valuable. I had made it my mission to find the "seedy underbelly of ISTE" this year, and while it definitely wasn't seedy, it made the conference that much more impactful. My only regret is that I didn't find more events to go to. In all, I attended events put on by Wonder Workshop (happy hour at a restaurant), the Ed Tech Team & Symbaloo (Karaoke), Gaggle (a party) and OSMO (a Sneak Peak event). All of those events, helping to strengthen my PLN (personal learning network for the uninitiated). I was able to build on some of the connections I made a year prior and hopefully will be able to build on these ones in 2017 (because yes, I'm going).

New Things and Old Things with More Pizazz

Having been at ISTE last year, I found that there were a lot of things repeated, but with more development. There were literally tons of resources (if you weighed them all together, there is no doubt of this) showing how makerspaces and making can be used in the classroom. Many people were sharing how they've been using their robots (many of which I bought last year after ISTE) and other cool gadgets in the classroom. For example, there were many people sharing what they've done with paper circuits (a shout out to Chibitronics & Spark Fun who both gave me some free samples to use in my classroom) as well as robots (guess who won a free kit from Hummingbird?) One really cool startup that was sharing in the expo was Hyperduino which had some really simple applications with their custom built arduino boards. They ran out of free samples by the time I got to their booth, but I may pony up the dough to get one.

It seemed like everyone had a Dash & Dot, Sphero & Ollie and Ozobots. Not to mention Makersaces. Perhaps this, too, was one of my big takeaways from the conference, and (since it's taking me forever to write this reflection) one of the things I've been most active promoting since I've returned. While I'm fully trying to gear up my classroom's Makerspace, ISTE this year has planted the seed of a big idea in my head. I'm working now to start #MakerEdNZ, a community of schools and teachers who are using Makerspaces in their classrooms. I'll write a long post about it later, but for now, just know that ISTE inspired me.

Global Connections

The only actual planned event I went to at ISTE was the Global Ed Day 2016. What a great group of people. Again, this is something I want to explore in much greater detail. Yes, we've done Twitter chats and Mystery Hangouts, but those connections are only on the surface (but again, much, much better than no connections at all). A lot of the talk around the Global Ed Day was starting collaborative projects between schools on different continents. This is another area for leadership within New Zealand, I feel, and something that is many people are primed for. We'll see what comes out of this, but perhaps someone reading this will take the call to arms and run with it. I only ask that you please include me.

Things I've Been Using

So it has taken me 2 months to get this far in my reflection. But that provides a great opportunity to reflect upon how those new things are going. Probably the most immediate thing I tried was Seesaw. For anyone who hasn't heard of this before, I urge you to have a look at it. I was lucky enough to have it explained to me by a teacher at the Seesaw booth in the expo. It's basically like Facebook for schools. Using the app (on tablets, phones or chromebooks) my students can take pictures or videos of their work, record an explanation over top of it, tag themselves in it and just generally share their amazing ideas. They can like each others' work and make comments - both written and oral! And I've only scratched the surface of what I can do with it. So far my students have found it super easy and have enjoyed sharing.

I also re-met my good friends at Kiva, which got me back to teaching the Kiva U curriculum (in the small amount of time that I can fit it in).'

I've also given my students focus with the Student Blogging Challenge. Though we may have been a few months late, meeting some of the people who have set this up, got me intrigued. My students have had some ups and downs with it (some of them spent a whole week or writing time making an avatar, not saving it, then making a new one), but overall it has helped teach them about blogging a bit more.

Another, practical thing I saw at ISTE and brought back to use were all the paper circuits that were being shown. I was extremely lucky to have been given those starter kits from Chibitronics AND Sparkfun, so I had a go with that at school AND at some educamps. It was interesting to say the least and something I want to look more into.  I was also given the chance to make a wearable circuit with some Lilypad Arduino components:

One of the sessions I went to was actually done as a walk around Downtown Denver. The presenter was telling us that we should be getting our students more active in class, and building movement into every activity. I had previously had swiss balls in my class but had given them up because of some behaviour issues. However, he inspired me to pump them back up and get my students moving more often. A small thing, but I think it's something that's important.

Conclusions

I could go on for pages and pages talking about how ISTE has changed me and my practice, but my biggest advice is: Go next year to San Antonio! It will change so many things about how you see teaching and give you so many ideas to help you do so. It will give you connections that will change your idea of teacher-teacher relationships and the way our profession should interact. It was honestly the best four days of the last year for me. Unlike a lot of the New Zealand based conferences that I've been to, ISTE has made me feel that we lone nuts are much stronger in numbers. It's nice to have our smallish group here, but expanding beyond our shores, in my opinion, is never a bad thing. Being part of something so big, is truly empowering. Meeting so many genuine people who only want the best for their students is inspiring. So, I urge all of you Kiwi teachers (and why not all my Canadian teacher friends as well, I belong to two countries), come with me next year! Come join my tribe!

Educamp Auckland

This past Saturday, I attended Educamp Auckland at Aorere College. I was quite nervous because, though I had attended two Educamps previously, this was the first I was going to stand up and share (though, I guess I did share at Sparkshop, but that was slightly different).

The nervousness turned out to be unnecessary, as everyone was amazingly supportive of me and what I was sharing. I guess I have become accustomed to people shooting me down and trying to get me to stop sharing.

I ended up having two sessions out of the three, which was good, but it also meant that I missed out on what a lot of other people were sharing. Though, the conversations are the best part (for me, at least) and I had lots of those.

It was also the first time where I publicly talked about my pet project: #MakerEdNZ. No doubt I will be sharing more of this along the journey, but suffice it to say, I was also overwhelmed by the support I got from many of my twitter friends (I guess they are real-life friends now). If anyone is interested in what this might be (i.e. if you know or want to know about makerspaces) please follow @MakerEdNZ on twitter (or me) and information will be coming out soonish (and probably another post on here as well - when I get caught up).

I did get a number of takeaways from the unconference. The first is (and I can't say it's the first time I've realized this) that I can easily go a bit too fast when sharing what I know. This is something for me to work on (but hey, I'll likely get a chance each of the next three weekends, so there's that).

I also have a few twitter chats planned with other people. It's amazing how quickly things can happen when you're in the right company. I'm excited and a bit nervous for this, but looking forward to both of those opportunities.

It was also a really great experience (going back to #MakerEdNZ) to give others a chance to spend some time doing some STEAM activities. I brought some copper tape, LEDs and batteries to make paper circuits. This is part of what I want Maker Ed NZ to be doing, so it was a good first step (though I wish I would have gotten some more pictures for the twitter account.

Steaming ahead with #STEAM #educampAKL @mrs_hyde @DianaWilkes @michaelteacher pic.twitter.com/4j0oNmST0E

— Caroline Bush (@CaroBush) July 30, 2016

If anyone reading this has never heard of an educamp, I strongly urge you to go to one (educampBOP is this weekend). Thanks to Jackie Allen and Stuart Kelly for all their organization of the day. Was definitely a positive way to spend my Saturday!

TAP Lab Visit

Last night I went to the Te Atatu Penisula Community Center where they have an awesome makerspace to learn about Arduino. I heard about this through meetup. The idea was that anyone interested in Arduino could get a crash course in the basics, even if they didn't know anything about it.

Some of this may be too technical for some, but keep on reading for my thoughts on makerspaces in general.

I figured that since I want to get students making robots (at some point), I'd better learn myself. There were a good number of people there and I was given help in a small group of 4 people. We were taught how to just use the Arduino to light up an LED using both parallel and series circuits. Then we got the chance to experiment with coding some LEDs to blink and to fade. While not completely earth shattering stuff, it was a good first step with not only the physical setup of the Arduino and breadboards, but also with the coding for Arduino.

As I have been slowly sharing with people, one of the things I'm attempting to do at the moment is to actually organize the maker educators in New Zealand, so this visit was also a good way of networking with other people, outside of schools, who have knowledge. In an long discussion with some of the regulars afterwards I was able to get a good idea of what is out there in New Zealand at the moment (a growing number of makerspaces for adults, along with a network connecting them - but still a lack of organized network for school, something which I'm prepared to start - Maker Ed NZ, which is quickly or slowly becoming my pet project).

I'll be writing more about makerspaces and why I think they are important and necessary in schools later, but I did want to share what I did and what I learned. Here's a short video of the LED lights I was able to get to blink in an alternating manner.

GEGNZ Sparkshop!

This past Saturday, I attended the first (I think) ever GEGNZ Sparkshop at Ormiston Primary School. Over the last few weeks and months, I've slowly started becoming someone who shares a lot, and it seemed like a good idea to come to this prepared to share.

Smorgasbord
The conference (or rather, unconference) started with a smorgasbord of ideas that people voted on. I put two ideas in. The first was sharing mystery hangouts (or skypes, depending on where your loyalty lies) by myself. The second was a collaboration with Angela Lee on makerspaces and robots.

I was pretty much the first person to share and it was quite nerve-racking to go up first, especially since I was trying to sell what I was sharing. I spoke quickly and tried not to be too imposing. I think I do give off a very nervous air, but that's ok.  It was then a lot of sitting and listening to other people share their ideas before we voted.

When all was said and done, both of my ideas were booked into places to share. I figured they might be. I'm not being full of myself, but they were interesting things. Luckily I was in the last two sessions, so I had a chance to go check out another session while I fretted away.

Forms (Sarah Allen, from Riverhills)

My one and only session that I participated in the audience was based around using Google Forms. This is something that I've done a lot lately, so I figured I might get some new pointers (there's always something new to learn) or at the very minimum be able to contribute something.

Among other new ideas, we were introduced to Poll Everywhere, a very quick way to get feedback from students and to get them to share. Like other tools (padlet comes to mind) it has some specific uses, but it was also extremely useful in that it can embed into slides (unlike so many other things).

We discussed reasons for gathering student voice (none of which were really earth shattering, but it's important to note that I do think it's important for a variety of reasons - I wouldn't be focusing changing my practice towards increasing this if I didn't), and also wondered whether or not Kahoot! can do similar things (I'm going to try this at some point in the near future).

We discussed various other uses of forms and some add-ons to use. I particularly liked the add-ons Choice Eliminator and Email Confirmation (it may be called something else).

A random idea that came up in the discussion (I actually brought it up) was to use a form to make a choose your own adventure story. I actually got so excited about this that on Sunday I went home and started making an example so we can do it as a class in the upcoming weeks. Hopefully I'll be able to write about that.

MakerSpaces

Next up was my joint presentation with Angela. We shared a few makerspace ideas, but in the end, it was the robots that were the most popular. Several other attendees loved playing with my Dash and Dot (I may, in fact, be one of the only - if not the only - classrooms in New Zealand that have these robots). I think Wonder Workshop may owe me a bit because I'm pretty sure I've convinced some people to buy them. I'd like some more myself.

We did have a lot more out - Squishy Circuits and Makey Makeys. The circuits got some attention, but I was naturally drawn to the robots and I think a lot of people followed me. I guess people can easily get overwhelmed.

Mystery Hangouts

The crowd for my second presentation was much smaller (6 people) but it was nice to have an intimate setting. I briefly talked about how a mystery hangout works and then we practiced it. I quite enjoyed watching adults have a go at figuring out different strategies for guessing. I think I sold the idea to them though as at least one had already booked a call for the week coming up!

Here's the slideshow I shared during that presentation (in case anyone else wants to try it).

All in all it was a good day. I had lots of interesting conversations about coding and got to know some more people (though to be honest, it's getting to the point where a lot of people know and remember me, but I can't remember them - at least I'm pretty good with faces, but it could make for an awkward meeting in the future. If you're reading this, I have't forgotten you on purpose, I'm sorry).

I do enjoy this presenting thing, though I do sometimes feel like I don't actually know what I'm talking about (ok, I don't actually know) but I think that's part of it. I don't ever want to feel like the expert, but rather I want to constantly be learning an improving.

That being said, apparently I've been included on a proposal for part of the pre-conference things (I think?) at ULearn this year. Should be fun.

Educamp Science

Introduction
This Saturday morning, I woke up early to run so that I could go to the first Educamp Science unconference. Luckily for me, it was local, so I was able to enjoy the sunshine before the conference. Having been a chemistry major before I went into education, science has always been something I enjoy. I got to meet several of my twitter friends early in the day and there were lots of choices for breakout sessions.

Data Logging with Stuart Hale
The first breakout session I went to was about Data Logging. The first bit of the talk was about using pictures, since they are a large part of collecting data in science. Stuart showed us how to share between devices when no wifi is available (through airplay on the iPads) as well as showing us how you can use a loupe (a magnifying glass for jewellers, if I'm not mistaken) to make a really cheap digital microscope. In fact, I was able to find loupes online for even less than what he shared. All you need beyond that is some blue tack.

Another neat thing he showed us with the iPads is to use the built in Time Lapse feature on the camera app. You can put it on things, such as leaves, construction sites (I'm trying that now in class, with the builders behind our room), tides, etc to see how things change over time.  He suggested putting a sticker in the corner of the iPad where the camera is, to help children who might put their finger in front of the lens.

Digital Microscope with Wooden Blocks as a Stand

He then went on to show us some really cool things that iPads can do. Most iPads have the ability to measure things such as vibrations (a seisometer), magnetism (telsameter) and acceleration (accelerometer). These things can be use to make graphs and conduct scientific investigations (he used an iPad to test what makes a bike ride smoother as well as to see how to make sturdy buildings).

On top of that, there are loads of sensors that can be purchased (temperature, movement, etc) that can be used to make graphs. PASCO was the company he suggested, though I imagine, a quick internet search will provide other, cheaper options.

Fischertechnik Makerspace with Jacqui Kao

The next session I went to showed us about some makerspace tools that you could use. The company that makes them is called Fischertechnik. They have reusable parts, which can be really useful in a classroom or for companies that don't want to spend money on something that might fail and be very expensive.

During the presentation, there was an interesting discussion on buying kits vs. buying parts to make things with. Both have things that can make using them prohibitive. Kits can be quite expensive, BUT buying parts can be a very daunting task for someone who is just learning how to use these things in a classroom. It was a good discussion, but I think the answer is a lot more grey than it is black or white.

An interesting website was shared during this presentation, that I hope to look at later: Thingiverse. The site contains a lot of pre-designed things (for lack of a better word) that can be printed out using a 3D printer.


Maker Spaces with Chris Clay & Mark Mack

The last session I went to was a discussion about maker spaces and maker clubs.  One of the teachers from Elim shared with us a project one of his students completed: a word clock. The student came and they discussed the process and challenges they faced in making it. The one student alone put about 60 or 70 hours into the project (which was quite impressive, as shown below). One thing that did come out of this discussion was that the original club had a lot of members and they all were working on the same project. Over time, the numbers dwindled until it was just the one boy who ended up finishing it. The teacher spoke that perhaps it was too difficult of a project to START with (not that it was too hard, there is a difference). So, big ideas are great, but aim for them one small step at a time.

Then Chris Clay (of Mind Lab fame, when I was in their course) spoke about making robots out of recycled materials which could cost less than $25. He uses Arduino boards and imports most of his parts from China (like I've started doing recently). He showed us several models he had made and discussed the challenges. He is one to keep following for tips about this as he has spent the last few months, testing and prototyping lots of different things and is in the process of helping schools along their journey. He spoke of a new way to program Arduino (I haven't learned the original way yet!) which is much like Scratch.  It's called Snap.

Another thing that Chris (briefly) showed was Lilypad Arduino. I have heard of this before and was considering it. It's a small arduino board that can be sewn into clothing to make wearable technology. I've ordered some of these parts to have a play with so hopefully that will be another post on this blog in the near future.

 Overall, it was an interesting day. Most of the things we talked about I had some knowledge of, but each session helped me build on that knowledge and has pushed me even further on my journey. I've got some more confidence to try some new things.

Also, I find that spending time in the real world (as opposed to the virtual world of twitter and blogs) is quite beneficial for my thinking process. People share ideas, ask questions and challenge me. I'll definitely keep attending more of these unconferences!