Maker Education is such a valuable role. These stories will bring you the latest information and tales of maker educators who area spreading the maker mindset. Help others learn how to make things or how to think like a maker at makerspaces, schools, universities, and local communities. The importance of maker education can not be understated. We appreciate our educators.
Knock Knock is a clever Arduino-controlled calculator toy, designed for small children. The user knocks out a calculation on the surface — addition, multiplication, subtraction, or division — and Knock Knock will spit back the solution, in the form of knocks, of course. It’s a fun idea for a toy, but good luck trying to use this in secret during a “no calculators” test at school!
From the Museum of Mathematics The Math Mondays Experimental Making Labs recently received numerous binder rings in its Incoming Raw Materials box. You know — the little circles that clip closed, used to hold a sheaf of hole-punched paper together. According to the donor: “Here’s an office supply item that you’ve never used on Math […]
For young makers, making is more than learning how to use a particular tool or a technique. It’s experiencing the power of a material, technology, or tool as a language of self expression. It’s PLAYING with different languages and experiencing the magic of connections that is made when what you have made makes someone laugh, cry, or wonder.
Last month, Super Awesome Sylvia, one of our favorite young makers, was selected to show off her WaterColorBot at the White House and meet President Obama. Yesterday, Joey Hudy, another young maker and MAKE regular, was named by Business Insider as one of 10 smartest kids in the world. Wow.
A detailed, step-by-step illustration of how to make a tensegrity structure that you may not find in a lot of other places — a frustum of a pentagonal pyramid.
As the Los Angeles host for the Maker Education Initiative’s Maker Corp program, The Exploratory has had the honor of seeing 18+ adults using the same materials that we use with 4+ Maker Scouts and noticing the differences and similarities. It occurred to me today, that children are more apt to have a story – a narrative that is connected to their making projects. Sometimes, its a story that comes from the project – a way for them to establish a sense of place. Other times, we find that a provocation is helpful as a starting point. I’ve done e-textile projects before and without a provocation, I have noticed that the young makers tend to make copies of other people’s design. So, for this introduction to e-textiles, I thought that I would ask ” What kind of superhero would you be and where would your power come from?” I also asked ” What do you LOVE so much that you feel a strong need to protect it?” We had the best answers – ” Cats, Dogs, Eagles, my family, and best of all – MILK.”
The lever is one of the six classic simple machines. A simple machine is a mechanical device that changes a force’s direction or magnitude. The other five simple machines are the wheel and axle, the pulley, the inclined plane, the wedge and the screw. Explaining simple machines to kids can be a fun learning experience, especially if you include some demonstrations in the lesson. Here’s how I built a lever for a demonstration of simple machines for my son’s 3rd grade clas
