Solve Raspberry Pi problems. Learn to diagnose and fix issues with Raspberry Pi. Get rid of glitches and odd behaviour, sort out boot problems, reconnect networking problems, and discover advanced troubleshooting tips.
Track weather and pollution with Raspberry Pi. Set up a Raspberry Pi to measure air quality, humidity, UV monitoring, and make your own weather forecasts.
Tweet with a hacked Morse code key. Learn Morse and send tweets using a simple switch!
Add facial recognition to a magic mirror. Take your mirror to the next level with customised responses based on who gazes into it.
Discover Instaclock. Building a clock with Raspberry Pi computers and four screens that take images from Instagram.
Make a safe cracker game. Use continuously rotating control for Raspberry Pi to create a rotary encoder game.
Solar powered security camera. Set up an eye in the sky using Raspberry Pi. This camera can be placed in the garden, and provides itself with power.
Make bread with a sourdough incubator. Here’s a radical baker using his loaf. The Chamber Sourdough Incubator uses a Raspberry Pi to keep a starter at the correct temperature.
Top 10 audio projects. Want to build something that sounds amazing? Here are ten amazing sound-based projects.
How do you build a making culture within your school? This was the question we were left to ponder after a year in our brand new makerspace. We felt that the space was ready. We had stocked the shelves with everything from cardboard to hot glue sticks and we had purchased the tools to program, cut, build and break. We had even rearranged the physical space to invite creation…. BUT we were missing a crucial piece, the MAKERS.
One thing I’ve been very interested in with our makerspace is “making with a cause”. I see so many posts on social media where someone has done something amazing for someone else by using skills and materials often found in makerspaces. From 3D-printed shells for turtles to scarves for the homeless shelter, there are so many ways we can give back to our community through making.
I love that my friend, Gina Seymour, has created a whole book on “making with a cause” and I look forward to my copy arriving in the mail. Her book, Makers with a Cause: Creative Service Projects For Library Youth, has a whole section on getting started and another section with examples of projects from animal welfare to health/wellness to community service.
Delivering authentic experiences in the classroom and learning how to juggle district data are two wide themes that will monopolize education discussion in the next 12 months.
If your region is anything like mine, there is a tremendous need for support related to makerspaces. The Maker Movement is one that centers on putting the design of learning, and all that comes along with it, ultimately in the hands of the learners themselves. Whether putting a pre-existing device together, solving a problem through the building of a device or designing a model for something that doesn’t yet exist, making is as much about the process of behind-the-scenes learning as it is about the product being formed.
In truth, making is so much more than re-imagining the tech or shop classes of our past. We’ve learned over the last few years that to appropriately support schools and districts in their journey to make meaning through making, we need to keep in mind a few important ideas.
Multiple times per week, I see claims on social media that teachers "who aren’t coding are somehow causing inequities amongst students or are inefficient themselves.
It’s mind boggling to me that people can say this and even more so considering that the same statement used to be said about teachers who fail to use technology when we all know that having a teacher who puts her/his heart and soul into students trumps tech every time.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely believe that kids should indeed have access to use technology just as teachers should be using it but this generic message of tech being the definer of great teaching ignores all of the systemic inequities that keep it from happening.
This challenge focuses on students creating their own newspaper beanstalk tower like in the book, Jack in the Beanstalk. The students from Van Allen Elementary explored this challenge and tried to get their tower to hold the weight of a giant.
In recent years, libraries have broadened their scope of offerings to the local community to involve more making activities like 3-D printing and sewing. Some libraries even have a facilitator for maker projects.
At Millvale Community Library in Pennsylvania, maker program coordinator Nora Peters saw an opportunity to better connect the activities of the maker space with the library’s mission to promote literacy. So, she set out to build a bridge between making and reading by creating maker activities for children’s books.
arvard Graduate School of Education runs the course Thinking and Learning in the Maker-Centered Classroom. For me this was an eye opening experience. I would not consider myself an expert in the Maker Movement, however quite apt about what it is and what it looks like in schools. Boy, was I wrong! Like many others, I too got caught up in the shinning new toys approach to making. Making is all about technologies, coding, robots, etc. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
For the past three years, Aaron and I have been co-facilitating a two-day workshop called Designing Making Experiences where our goal is to introduce educators to making and maker-centric learning through designing curriculum and prototyping projects that they can take back and use in their classrooms. We teach skills and tools as it becomes appropriate to each educator’s projects but we emphasize that this is not a workshop where they should expect to “get taught” how to use a 3D printer, Arduinos, etc.
While we love the DME workshop model and plan to continue running it, in our own classroom practices, we have been feeling a desire to explore the specific reasons behind why we want students to engage in making projects. The questions we keep returning to in our own practices are:
“How do we design making projects that are purposeful?” “To what end are students engaging in making?” “Are the making projects impacting students’ lives in a positive way?” “If we can’t figure out why we want students to engage in a making project, is the project worth doing?”
A child’s wellbeing is of utmost importance and a Makerspace can be one place to assist in ensuring a child is stimulated yet feels cheery, unanxious and relaxed. The joy and happiness we have seen in our Makerspace is evident of students’ wellbeing.
How many of us remember watching educational videos in school? How many of us remember having to perform as a group in front of the class? How many of us remember creating posters or PowerPoint presentations? Nowadays, students can combine all three by creating videos for class. These videos can be performances of short stories or narratives written by the students for English class. They can be videos of experiments done at home for science. They can be reenactments of historical events or raps about math concepts. Graphics and text can be added to these videos for context, and students can even release their creative side by including special effects.
True, students in the 90s and from 2000-2010 could create videos for their class projects. But, it was more of a hassle. They had to use cameras with video options. They had to work at home. They had to use movie mixing programs on their computer. They had to find a CD-ROM with enough storage space to save it. And they had to hope that the class computer could read the CD.
But now, with most students owning smartphones and with many classrooms using smart pads, making videos for a class has become easier than ever. There are many movie making apps available for smartphones and tablets to create videos, but we’ve decided to share the top 5 that are the easiest for students to use.
This post discusses a range of Movie Making Apps for students to utilise within classrooms. I found this resource valuable as it considers the pro's, con's, features and price of a range of apps. This is particularly important as some students cannot afford to purchase apps and I don't believe we should be encouraging students to make purchases with the range of free options available. The use of movies will support students to move into the transformative stages in Science classrooms, by creating a fun and engaging environment. For example, students could document, through the use of a movie, their experiment findings or report or develop a reflective journal. The use of movies allows students to demonstrate their creativity and include different aspects such as animations, audio, models, diagrams, re-enactments and much more. Therefore the use of this technology would increase students engagement and result in the development of deeper understanding and knowledge.
When educators take the time to explicitly frame the maker activities and build meaningful reflection in at the end, they're helping to ensure kids are reaching
Design is an artistic endeavor that values the creative and human centered application of math, science and technology. Using design to help others learn science is not intuitive, however, once practiced you will see how humanistic and authentic it is to incorporate design in any subject. Below is a list of the most promising benefits that I have noticed in the past six years for using design as a framework and making as the engine to empower students as they gain and apply their scientific literacy.
Valid question… Right?! I often get asked this when gushing about Miss Makey and the Magic Bin, or sharing my passion for making as an instructional strategy. I could respond to this question both literally and figuratively. Literally, the students are making just about anything out of absolutely everything.
They could be tackling a design challenge, 3D printing, coding a robot, or repurposing used materials in an innovative way. Figuratively, I am making experiences. These experiences empower students to explore their interests and talents, as well as think divergently and gain fluency with diverse materials. I design learning spaces and projects that are conducive to creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration.
The following is a guest post by Fran Kompar. Fran is the Director, Digital Learning for Wilton Public Schools in Connecticut, who offers us insight into a fabulous professional learning exercise surrounding making, design thinking and entepreneurship. It is my hope that readers will bring the learning experience that Fran outlines, back to their own school districts.
I am thrilled to be a guest author for this blog. The following details the “Making to Learn” journey taken by teams of educators from Fairfield County, Connecticut. The experiences of this group, provides a connection to GREAT Makerspaces and the endless possibilities they provide in supporting a school’s plan for Social Emotional Learning, STEM, Personalized Learning, Inquiry, Reading, Math and Computational Thinking. In fact, we can expand on the 21st Century Skills and develop our own 2025 vision for our students as confident, creative, collaborative and caring citizens – the new 4C’s.
Travis Lape shares his journey as the Innovation Program Director in South Dakota where students are creating, making, and self-directing their learning.
Every day, I ask my kids, “What did you make in school today?” Too often, they can’t give me an answer. But on the days that they do, their eyes light up and they passionately describe their projects. It’s in those moments that I am reminded that making is magic.
"What’s the difference between a makerspace and a great makerspace?” asks Laura Fleming, library/media specialist at New Milford High School in New Milford (NJ), and author of The Kickstart Guide to Making Great Makerspaces (Corwin Press). “Great makerspaces are unique to your school community, relevant to your world, meaningful, and sustainable.”
Just as we’ve learned with strong 1:1 initiatives that it’s not about the device, makerspaces are not about the products. On the contrary, Fleming says successful makerspaces allow students to connect to their curriculum, their community, and the world.
To improve your makerspace, she suggests asking students what they want to learn about. If you want it to appeal to girls, ask the girls what they want. Assess your curriculum, clubs, programs, activities, and offerings, because your makerspace can leverage what’s already happening or it can fill in the gaps. You can even get ideas from global trends, particularly business-related ones. “Last year, every time I turned on the news I saw something about drones,” says Fleming. “They were everywhere—except in our curriculum—so we chose flight as a theme for our makerspace and integrated drones into it.”
When done right, your makerspace can extend learning opportunities and take students to incredible places. Here are some stellar examples."
"Makerspaces are popping up in classrooms everywhere as teachers look for ways to spark creativity and nurture engagement. New Jersey educators Laura Fleming and Billy Krakower were among 20 educators selected this past spring to participate in littleBits Lead Educator program and test the company's new code kits with their students. Fleming, a high-school library media specialist, and Krakower, an elementary-school teacher, teamed up with their students to use the kits to create learning activities for other students and the littleBits community.
Here, the educators share the lessons they learned from the experience with SmartBrief. This content has been edited for space and clarity."
Billy’s history with littleBits started in 2015 when he heard about littleBits at an ISTE conference and won a free kit later that Summer at an education conference. That fall, Billy applied for a Donor’s Choose grant and was able to start his small collection of littleBits which he used with his Gifted and Talented students. Billy slowly built his collection the following year with a donation from the Home and School Association. Students loved exploring and learning with the kits.
Billy and I were thrilled to as being selected as one of 20 participants in the littleBits Lead Educator program that took place back in May and June of this past school year. As a result, we were one of the very first educators in the world to get the new littleBits Code Kit and had the opportunity to test the kit with their students and create resources and activities to use in the classroom.
I’ve spent much of the summer working with teachers who are eager to integrate making and writing but uncertain where to begin.
This is what I tell them:
I tell them that making must elevate writing, otherwise it will merely replace it. And writing matters.
I tell them that we need frameworks that help us see how making and writing can connect inside of our classrooms and workshops. Making writing looks like play, but it’s purposeful. Intentional.
I tell them that we need tools and strategies and protocols that inspire complex, creative, and high quality work.
I tell them that for all of these reasons, planning matters.
Planning really matters. So, this is where my return to blogging will begin.
For me, one of the most powerful pieces of the Maker Movement is that it is based on the belief that regardless of race, gender or even age, there is something in it for everyone. Makerspaces in K-12 have had a profound impact on education, but for me, it also has had a profound impact on myself as a parent, and relationship building with my son. Every spring, since my son has been a toddler, I have prepared a Pinterest board with maker activities for the summer that he and I would be able to complete together. Throughout the spring, we gather and order all necessary materials, this way on the very first day of summer, we can hit the ground running. ‘Making’ is something that is not a focus in his school, so it provided us with the perfect opportunity to invent, explore, experiment and create at home during the summer months.
You see it everywhere in K-12. Kindergarteners design toys for their friends to practice empathy, while learning to use a saw and glue-gun along the way. Second graders deepen their understanding of character traits while designing and sewing puppets to represent a character in a folk-tale. In high school physics, students make wind turbines in order to internalize an understanding of how magnetism can create electricity.
The “it” I’m referring to is “Making,” and simply put, Making is any activity where people create something, often with their hands.
I often define Making by looking at what people bring to the Maker Faire, which does include more technical aspects like 3D printing, physical computing and programming. But Making also includes woodworking, growing food, making art and crafts.
Making is as old as learning itself. While the maker movement may only be about a decade old, the human desire to create dates back to the earliest forms of human activity, from making stone tools to drawing on cave walls (Halverson & Sheridan, 2014; Martinez & Stager, 2014). Thinkers such as Pestalozzi, Montessori, and Papert helped paved the way for the maker movement by stressing the importance of hands-on, student-centered, meaningful learning. Instead of viewing learning as the transmission of knowledge from teacher to student, these thinkers embraced the idea that children learn best when encouraged to discover, play, and experiment.
More recently, maker education is being used as a way to connect do-it-yourself informal learning to classrooms. Driven by new technologies such as 3D printing, robotics, and kid-friendly coding, making is emerging as an effective way to introduce students to STEM, particularly women and minorities. By incorporating elements of making into the classroom, educators can bridge the gap between what students are passionate about and what they're learning in school.
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