Teaching the Teachers

Recently, some of our STEAM Punks joined us at a Teacher In-Service. Through rotations, they helped teachers explore with a number of areas we had been working on in STEAM Club. Some taught the challenges and movements of Dash and Dot, the extreme awesomeness that can be completed through a Makey Makey, and how to create your own character through Bloxels. What great leaders!

Independent Projects

From now until May, our STEAM Punks will be working on independent projects. These are projects that they are excited, interested, or passionate about. They range anywhere from sewing a quilt from scratch to creating a dust accumulator for a combine to exploring with robotics.

Exploration

The Central STEAM Punks have spent the last 5 weeks exploring in small groups. We were able to have 5-7 makers in a group that rotated around the following stations: Dash and Dot, Sewing, 3-D Printing, and Legos. Week 6 was spent exploring Bloxels. Through Bloxels, makers are able to create their own video game, detailing the background,  functions, and characters. We have some future game creators in our midst!

Exploring With New Gadgets

       Today STEAM Punks got to explore with new gadgets.  We set up three stations, allowing makers to explore at each for 15 minutes.  The first station was equipped with Makey Makeys. I encourage you to check out the following link: Video About Makey Makey. The second station was Code.org. Finally, at the last station, makers were able to explore through Legos, Goldieblocks, and other building materials. They were asked to come create something useful.  Check out what they came up with!

Guest Speaker

Our STEAM Punks Club has partnered with professors from MU to build and foster a love for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math within our makers. Today, we were visited by one of our partners. Mrs. Annie Arnone from NASA discussed the world of engineering. We learned that engineers are regular men and women who want to make the World great! Our mission for the day: Solve a life problem through the use of magnets.

Paper Roller Coasters

Thursday was our second creation session with our makers, and they were excited! We presented makers with a question: How could you work with a group to design a roller coaster that amusement parks would want to purchase for their own parks? What is going to be unique about your roller coaster?

Preparation: We purchased a template that assisted students in building columns, beams, supports and more. Using Card Stock (stronger than normal paper), we copied all of the templates off on different colored paper according to the piece it was labeled. A big shout out to Mrs. Hand for helping us prepare the materials! Makers were broken into groups, and each group was given the same materials.

Let the Creations Begin: Makers took charge! They worked together to decide whether they wanted the tallest, widest, loopiest, roundest (etc.) roller coasters.  Given foam board, they set out to divide and conquer. Some worked on building the paper beams, columns, and supports while other shaped the foundation to fit their unique roller coaster. Leadership and teamwork took place without teacher prompting. What a neat experience to watch!

The makers will be working on their paper roller coasters over the next few weeks. We will keep you posted on their progress! :)

Parent Information

Two surveys went home with your maker today. One is a parent survey (to be filled out by you), and the other is a student survey (to be filled out by your maker). Please complete and return to Mrs. Chambers or Mrs. Beck by next Thursday. Our next creation session will be Thursday, September 22, 2016, from 3:15-4:15. We will be starting paper roller coasters!