December 30th, 2017
21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM
MakerSpace comes alive at city school
By ERICA BERTUCCI
Special to the Messenger
ST. ALBANS — If you dropped by the St. Albans City School Makerspace this fall, you may have encountered students figuring out the best way to make a stamp, weeding vinyl to heat press onto fabric or watching with awe as the laser cutter created their stencil.
The St. Albans City School Makerspace is available to all students from grades pre-kindergarten through eight. It is a place where students can come to work on a project for a class, learn more about something they are passionate about or just make.
This fall it saw a huge increase in usage, especially by the lower grades, as the whole school worked together to create a school mall for their economics unit. Each team was tasked with creating a business plan including a description of their products, materials needed, safety procedures, and environmental impact.
Once their plan was approved they received their start up funds and had to create and market their product. To set your business up for success it is always important to utilize the resources available; in our case a huge resource available to all was the makerspace.
Often when students and teachers came to the makerspace they had an idea in mind but were unsure what tools would help them achieve their goal. Therefore, they were tasked with trying different methods and then evaluating what worked best and if they need to revise their idea.
Teams embraced going through the design cycle to figure out the ideal process to accomplish what they needed. One example of this was the Explorers team, owners of ‘SCENT’-sational Soap, who created a stamp using the laser cutter and also 3D printed a stamp. After testing, they decided to use the 3D printed stamp.
While they were refining their design for the stamp, they realized they also wanted to create stencils for their gift tags. Stencils of lavender and mint were created to identify the two soap scents. When students tried using the stencils they found it was more challenging and time consuming than they had expected. Therefore, through some creative problem solving, they decided to do crayon rubbings with the stencils instead.
Different groups often wereinthemakerspaceatthe same time which provided them an opportunity to learn from each other and problem solve together. One example of this learning was seen in the process Kids Kranz went through to get a stencil to put on their tag. Representatives from Kids Kranz, a kindergarten and pre-kindergarten business, came to the makerspace to learn about creating a stamp and saw another business 3D printing a stamp. The students trying to 3D print their stamp talked to the Kids Kranz students about the difficulties they were having. With this information, Kids Kranz decided to create a stencil instead. They took the time to look at different designs and evaluate what they liked about each. From there they checked out how the laser cutter created their stencil.
Makerspace tools were used to help the manufacturing process occur efficiently and create a consistently good quality product. Stencils helped Renaissance signs look professional and uniform, along with giving each phrase their own unique lettering. Multiple groups used the vinyl cutter to put their designs onto fabric.
Students learned they could design their object on paper and then take a picture of the object or they could draw it on a tablet or even use the google draw app to design what they wanted to vinyl cut. Rock the Bay (Team Imagination) and The Barkery (Team Investigators) created custom packaging by heat pressing their vinyl logos onto bags used to package their products. While the heat press is quick and easy, students had to prepare the vinyl by weeding it. Weeding was a time consuming process where students had to diligently focus on carefully pull out the vinyl pieces that were not part of their design without removing the pieces that made up their logo. Team USA utilized the vinyl to create faces for all their flannel buddies, dolls designed with different emotions on their faces.
While students came with a specific economic project goal in mind, they often left wanting to do more and explore all the Makerspace has to offer. One of the phrases heard over and over again was “Wow, I didn’t know you could do this here.” Often, the most challenging part about a busy makerspace was telling students their time was up or telling them they had to come back another time to try out the different projects. Therefore, while the economic unit has wrapped up, with stores sold out of products, the making is just beginning.
Students have started signing up for open lab time and bringing their friends. Interests range from programming robots to building with cardboard to exploring the 3D printer. Some students come in with a problem to solve while others want to just explore and try everything. With the holiday season upon us, a recent request was to learn how to make a present for a sibling.
-- Erica Bertucci is an innovation specialist at St. Albans City School
MakerSpace comes alive at city school
By ERICA BERTUCCI
Special to the Messenger
ST. ALBANS — If you dropped by the St. Albans City School Makerspace this fall, you may have encountered students figuring out the best way to make a stamp, weeding vinyl to heat press onto fabric or watching with awe as the laser cutter created their stencil.
The St. Albans City School Makerspace is available to all students from grades pre-kindergarten through eight. It is a place where students can come to work on a project for a class, learn more about something they are passionate about or just make.
This fall it saw a huge increase in usage, especially by the lower grades, as the whole school worked together to create a school mall for their economics unit. Each team was tasked with creating a business plan including a description of their products, materials needed, safety procedures, and environmental impact.
Once their plan was approved they received their start up funds and had to create and market their product. To set your business up for success it is always important to utilize the resources available; in our case a huge resource available to all was the makerspace.
Often when students and teachers came to the makerspace they had an idea in mind but were unsure what tools would help them achieve their goal. Therefore, they were tasked with trying different methods and then evaluating what worked best and if they need to revise their idea.
Teams embraced going through the design cycle to figure out the ideal process to accomplish what they needed. One example of this was the Explorers team, owners of ‘SCENT’-sational Soap, who created a stamp using the laser cutter and also 3D printed a stamp. After testing, they decided to use the 3D printed stamp.
While they were refining their design for the stamp, they realized they also wanted to create stencils for their gift tags. Stencils of lavender and mint were created to identify the two soap scents. When students tried using the stencils they found it was more challenging and time consuming than they had expected. Therefore, through some creative problem solving, they decided to do crayon rubbings with the stencils instead.
Different groups often wereinthemakerspaceatthe same time which provided them an opportunity to learn from each other and problem solve together. One example of this learning was seen in the process Kids Kranz went through to get a stencil to put on their tag. Representatives from Kids Kranz, a kindergarten and pre-kindergarten business, came to the makerspace to learn about creating a stamp and saw another business 3D printing a stamp. The students trying to 3D print their stamp talked to the Kids Kranz students about the difficulties they were having. With this information, Kids Kranz decided to create a stencil instead. They took the time to look at different designs and evaluate what they liked about each. From there they checked out how the laser cutter created their stencil.
Makerspace tools were used to help the manufacturing process occur efficiently and create a consistently good quality product. Stencils helped Renaissance signs look professional and uniform, along with giving each phrase their own unique lettering. Multiple groups used the vinyl cutter to put their designs onto fabric.
Students learned they could design their object on paper and then take a picture of the object or they could draw it on a tablet or even use the google draw app to design what they wanted to vinyl cut. Rock the Bay (Team Imagination) and The Barkery (Team Investigators) created custom packaging by heat pressing their vinyl logos onto bags used to package their products. While the heat press is quick and easy, students had to prepare the vinyl by weeding it. Weeding was a time consuming process where students had to diligently focus on carefully pull out the vinyl pieces that were not part of their design without removing the pieces that made up their logo. Team USA utilized the vinyl to create faces for all their flannel buddies, dolls designed with different emotions on their faces.
While students came with a specific economic project goal in mind, they often left wanting to do more and explore all the Makerspace has to offer. One of the phrases heard over and over again was “Wow, I didn’t know you could do this here.” Often, the most challenging part about a busy makerspace was telling students their time was up or telling them they had to come back another time to try out the different projects. Therefore, while the economic unit has wrapped up, with stores sold out of products, the making is just beginning.
Students have started signing up for open lab time and bringing their friends. Interests range from programming robots to building with cardboard to exploring the 3D printer. Some students come in with a problem to solve while others want to just explore and try everything. With the holiday season upon us, a recent request was to learn how to make a present for a sibling.
-- Erica Bertucci is an innovation specialist at St. Albans City School