Clever teachers around the world have found ways to adapt the popular open world block-building game Minecraft to teach lessons ranging from computer programming, math, history, and more. Minecraft is like having an infinite bag of Legos. Minecraft has empowered players young and old to build amazing environments and inspires Read more…
I’m in one of those seasons of life where my schedule feels three notches beyond packed. We enjoy staying active in our church, our community, and family. My wife and I believe in the concept of going above and beyond in our professional lives too. We, however, recognize that packing Read more…
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…
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…
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…
Over the weekend, we had the opportunity to present a coding for teachers workshop at the NASA Regional Educator Resource Center (RERC) at the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins, GA and had a blast! Our team had a wonderful time coaching teachers on using code.org, Scratch, and maker tools Read more…
Real Impact Center of Macon, an organization dedicated to helping young ladies gain exposure and proficiency in STEM skills, offers a number of summer camp experiences and fun/engaging workshops through out the year. I have had the pleasure of getting to know the Real Impact team and students through Read more…