In the past year, we had the pleasure of organizing our first young maker program serving 15 young ladies from our community partner, Real Impact. Through this program entitled Project Renaissance, our students gained exposure to STEAM skills including coding, 3D modeling, 3D printing, laser cutting, costume making, Arduino hacking, Read more…
In this blog post, I wanted to share a tool for anyone who cares about improving their clarity in writing. As a blogger, I always appreciate any tool that helps me communicate well. Honestly, it takes a great deal of internal focus to make sure I’m following the rules Read more…
In our educational makerspace, our team has promoted the python programming language with young makers. The python programming language has engaged students young and old for many reasons. The language tends to be approachable and concise. The language connects to a broad range of situations including Minecraft programming, Raspberry Pi, Read more…
A friend of mine had just finished doing “Hour of code” on Code.org with her STEM club. She asked me to comment upon what you might be able to do next to extend their learning experiences from code.org. The website does an amazing job of introducing the basic Read more…
My kids and I really enjoy playing Minecraft together. There’s something magical about designing a 3D structure and getting to see it in a game world. Using my favorite 3D modeling tool for students, TinkerCAD, we tried importing stuff from Thingiverse into Minecraft. Here’s some of the results from our Read more…
A good friend of mine from our local makerspace enjoys teaching students about electronics by taking stuff a part. He has a talent for finding free or inexpensive pieces that students enjoy deconstructing. Through this experience, he has the opportunity to connect the theory of electronics/mechanics to real Read more…
[View the story “Historic #SpaceX launch! Amazing Booster landing!” on Storify]
In the past few months, I have had the opportunity to lead Minecraft coding workshops using ScriptCraft in our makerspace and a local museum. Walter Higgins had done an amazing job of creating documentation and tools to help students learn JavaScript while playing with Minecraft. I wanted to Read more…
Girls from Real Impact Center learning about 3D printing at SparkMacon Makerspace During a teacher meetup through we held last night, we mentioned ways that makerspaces and project based learning directed by student interest can inspire student curiosity, creativity, and personalized learning. We organized this meetup to listen Read more…
Building paper stomp rockets can be a fun way to engage students and your kids in learning about experimentation, designing by iteration, and aerodynamics. Let me put extra emphasis on fun!! My kids have really loved this build. In anticipation for a local arts, technology, and maker festival in Macon, GA, I Read more…