Makerspace Spring Break Camp - Day 1

Wow!  These kids are super creative! We started off our Makerspace camp today talking about the way things work and how we can can put things together to make amazing toys and machines.  The kids who hadn't yet had an opportunity to take apart an Edison robot started with that project.  We dissected an Edison robot with a hope to fix it (it was previously broken from a different class).  I haven't had the chance to check and see if we fixed the motor problem, but we did get a good look around at the inside of Edison.  We compared balanced and unbalanced motors and how much they vibrate.  Then we all got to work building our own amazing creations.

As students become makers they go through a stage of observation and mimicry. It was fascinating to observe which children were ready to forge out into the world of creating an unknown versus watching another maker and trying to recreate what you've watched.  As an adult I do a fair amount of watching others and mimicking them - it's a fantastic way to learn! 

We had a couple fans (by the way - they hurt! and some adjustments needed to be made so they didn't accidentally wack your face!), a couple of air powered cars, some balloon creations, and some serious failures.  Did you see my post a while back about failing?  I believe that failing is one of the most important gifts we can give our children and students, but only if then coupled with a reflection of why there was failure and brainstorming about how to correct the failure.  We are stronger when we fail, reflect, and try again.

Anyway, off my soap box now....  We started exploring with axles, gears, and motors today but haven't yet been successful.  I look forward to working with these kids again as we try to iron out the details and stretch our brains!