October 7th, 2017
21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM
Students become teachers at maker faire
By EMILY PARENT
Special to the Messenger
ST. ALBANS — Sometimes you are given an opportunity and you just cannot pass up on it. When St. Albans City School was given the chance to help at the Champlain Mini Maker Faire at Shelburne Farms this year, they couldn’t possibly say no.
Lucie DeLaBruere, a former STEAM teacher at the school, had invited the school’s Robotic class to come help the booth she was running along with E.M.M.A (Everyone May Make Anywhere). Together they ran a booth titled “Creating Confidence with Circuits and Coding.” After a hard decision process choosing students, six students, along with their STEAM robotics teacher, Erica Bertucci took Sunday, September 24 to head to the faire and help out.
Students Ryan Demore, Ben Birnbaum, Isabella Williams, Caleb Hudak, Kaya Hudak and Emily Parent all rode up to Shelburne Farms with high energy and expectations. City School students were put to work explaining how a Makey Makey, an invention kit that allows you to turn anything constructive into the keys on your computer keyboard, worked to people who may have never seen one before. These students had been working in their Robotics classes with the Makey Makeys creating a band to play different sounds coding it all in Scratch, so they already had knowledge about these devices going into the event. The students showed attendees of the faire two examples of the Makey Makeys at work.
The first example being an array of different decorated PVC pipes, with wires connecting each to the Makey Makey. When the pipe was put into a body of water, which had another wire running to Makey Makey, it played the sound students coded it to. Each PVC pipe played a different sound so each time an attendee put a pipe in the water, they were amazed to hear that it played a new sound. It was surprising that it even did anything to some! As for the second example, there was different PVC pipes, still decorated, but now the pipes were hitting differenthomemade drums. Some drums were filled with water, others had a tin foil top on it. This time, it wasn’t the drumsticks (PVC pipes) that made the new noises, it was the different drums. Each drum had a wire that was connected to another Makey Makey that, when hit with a drum stick, made a different sound per drum.
Many younger children came to visit the booth. As they arrived, City School helpers showed them the examples of the Makey Makeys at work, and then gave them an interactive project. Children were able to make either a sand bucket drum or a PVC pipe drum stick. Using different materials such as feathers, duct tape, markers ext. The students leaders were able to show the students how they hooked up the different drums and drum sticks once each child had finished and even let them choose the sound that it played once activated.
The students from St. Albans City School didn’t just work the whole event. Rather, they all switched out working and exploring. Students saw ChampBot races in Lake Champlain, made teddy bear pillows with Vermont Teddy Bear, among other things. Students rounded out the day with a cupcake and a whole bunch of new stories to tell about the event. When asked about her experience at the event, student Kaya Hudak said: “I think it was a really great experience and, if given the chance, would definitely do it again.” All of the students who participated in the event say they would love to go back again and plan on teaching the other students at the school about everything they learned at the Champlain Mini Maker Faire. --Emily Parent is an eighth-grade
Students become teachers at maker faire
By EMILY PARENT
Special to the Messenger
ST. ALBANS — Sometimes you are given an opportunity and you just cannot pass up on it. When St. Albans City School was given the chance to help at the Champlain Mini Maker Faire at Shelburne Farms this year, they couldn’t possibly say no.
Lucie DeLaBruere, a former STEAM teacher at the school, had invited the school’s Robotic class to come help the booth she was running along with E.M.M.A (Everyone May Make Anywhere). Together they ran a booth titled “Creating Confidence with Circuits and Coding.” After a hard decision process choosing students, six students, along with their STEAM robotics teacher, Erica Bertucci took Sunday, September 24 to head to the faire and help out.
Students Ryan Demore, Ben Birnbaum, Isabella Williams, Caleb Hudak, Kaya Hudak and Emily Parent all rode up to Shelburne Farms with high energy and expectations. City School students were put to work explaining how a Makey Makey, an invention kit that allows you to turn anything constructive into the keys on your computer keyboard, worked to people who may have never seen one before. These students had been working in their Robotics classes with the Makey Makeys creating a band to play different sounds coding it all in Scratch, so they already had knowledge about these devices going into the event. The students showed attendees of the faire two examples of the Makey Makeys at work.
The first example being an array of different decorated PVC pipes, with wires connecting each to the Makey Makey. When the pipe was put into a body of water, which had another wire running to Makey Makey, it played the sound students coded it to. Each PVC pipe played a different sound so each time an attendee put a pipe in the water, they were amazed to hear that it played a new sound. It was surprising that it even did anything to some! As for the second example, there was different PVC pipes, still decorated, but now the pipes were hitting differenthomemade drums. Some drums were filled with water, others had a tin foil top on it. This time, it wasn’t the drumsticks (PVC pipes) that made the new noises, it was the different drums. Each drum had a wire that was connected to another Makey Makey that, when hit with a drum stick, made a different sound per drum.
Many younger children came to visit the booth. As they arrived, City School helpers showed them the examples of the Makey Makeys at work, and then gave them an interactive project. Children were able to make either a sand bucket drum or a PVC pipe drum stick. Using different materials such as feathers, duct tape, markers ext. The students leaders were able to show the students how they hooked up the different drums and drum sticks once each child had finished and even let them choose the sound that it played once activated.
The students from St. Albans City School didn’t just work the whole event. Rather, they all switched out working and exploring. Students saw ChampBot races in Lake Champlain, made teddy bear pillows with Vermont Teddy Bear, among other things. Students rounded out the day with a cupcake and a whole bunch of new stories to tell about the event. When asked about her experience at the event, student Kaya Hudak said: “I think it was a really great experience and, if given the chance, would definitely do it again.” All of the students who participated in the event say they would love to go back again and plan on teaching the other students at the school about everything they learned at the Champlain Mini Maker Faire. --Emily Parent is an eighth-grade