{"id":5204,"date":"2016-05-17T16:13:50","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T20:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=5204"},"modified":"2016-05-20T16:44:40","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T20:44:40","slug":"makerspace-event-lets-families-create-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/makerspace-event-lets-families-create-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Makerspace event lets families create together"},"content":{"rendered":"

Schools share information about student learning experiences through various means \u2013 newsletters,\u00a0websites, social media and email. Cooke Elementary School took it one step further and invited parents to take part in learning experiences themselves at its Family Makerspace Night. The event showcased activities ranging from green screen videos to coding Ozobots.<\/p>\n

\"greenParents and students visited activity stations set up in three locations in the school, rotating to a new location every 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe event allows the parents and families to see what we are doing with our makerspace,\u201d said Kaitlin Jensen, instructional technology specialist at Cooke.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the library, it\u2019s more technology-based items. Down the hall we have more building and construction type things \u2013 building with cardboard, building with paper, building with cups. And downstairs in the cafeteria we have our Ozobots out, origami and paper airplane design challenge and binary code bracelets,\u201d Jensen explained.<\/p>\n

\"makerspaceShe turned her attention to the room full of people waiting to use the 3-D printer purchased by the school with support from a Virginia Beach Education Foundation (VBEF) innovative learning grant.<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight you\u2019re going to design your own keychain with your name,\u201d Jensen announced. \u201cIf you want to see what it looks like when it comes out of the printer, you can see the one I printed out there. I\u2019m going to turn on the printer and start printing another one in just a second.\u201d<\/p>\n

They did want to see, and they were eager to create their own.<\/p>\n

\"3-DNearby, Cooke library media specialist Amy Rille coached students to use expressions related to the green screen background they selected.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook this way and look scared,\u201d she told one student who wanted to be under the sea with a shark.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow paddle real fast like you\u2019re trying to escape,\u201d coached Rille joined by parents behind the iPad filming the scene.<\/p>\n

\"paddling\"Another student hula danced across a green screen beach. A third student opted to sit and fly on a magic carpet.<\/p>\n

Families also used various circuit kits to make propellers spin and lightbulbs turn on. One station showed participants how to turn bananas and playdoh into conductive materials used as controllers to play video games.<\/p>\n

\"videoOn the less technical side were building activities that brought an equal amount of joy to students and parents.<\/p>\n

Cup-stacking structures. Lego construction. Binary code bracelets. Paper airplanes. Origami animals.<\/p>\n

Posters in each location encouraged families to take photos with their devices and share them with the hashtag #CookeMakers.<\/p>\n

\"origami\"Both hands-on building and technology use were combined in a station featuring Lego StoryStarter kits.\u00a0Students create story scenes with Legos, take photos with devices and use software to adjust visual styles of their imported images for a finished product.<\/p>\n

Rille purchased kits this year with support from a VBEF innovative learning grant and has seen more engagement from students who don\u2019t typically enjoy writing.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids who get stuck coming up with a story have a hard time and don\u2019t know what to do. With this, they can build. Kids will build without thinking about it,\u201d said Rille. \u201cAnd then you ask them questions, \u2018Well, why do you have this? Where is this taking place? Who is this character? Why did they show up?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When students begin to explain their scenes, Rille coaches them to make note of the details to help them write complete stories.<\/p>\n

\"storystarter\"\u201cKids who don\u2019t like to write, love to build,\u201d Rille said. \u201cYou get that hook.\u201d<\/p>\n

A student at the family makerspace event explained in detail the cops and robber scene he constructed. It featured four cops in uniform only inches from a fugitive with handcuffs dangling from one wrist.<\/p>\n

It had a happy ending \u2013 for the robber.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cops are after him,\u201d he said, \u201cbut he gets away even though they are really close.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"cops\"Inviting parents to participate in makerspace activities after school hours was a first-time event for Cooke, and the positive response from attendees likely means it will host more opportunities in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope families are excited about makerspace and the different ways of learning this brings the kids,\u201d said Jensen. \u201cIt\u2019s going to challenge them to think in a different way and learn different skills they\u2019ll need when they graduate from school and go on to the workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Schools share information about student learning experiences through various means \u2013 newsletters,\u00a0websites, social media and email. Cooke Elementary School took it one step further and invited parents to take part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":5207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[30,31,21],"class_list":["post-5204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cooke-elementary","tag-literacy","tag-stem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5213,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5204\/revisions\/5213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}