Making is not just about STEAM, reserved for science class, or even meant to be just an activity for after school. Making across the curriculum can change the way students are thinking, interacting, collaborating, and engaged. Gather some simple materials, offer students the chance to design, create, and dream up a new way to engage and connect with the world. For example, integrating making into reflecting on a favorite book, creating to demonstrate a concept visually, investigating and interpreting the use of materials to show thinking? It takes learning to a whole new level, allows students to drive, and best of all? It can be FUN! It can be overwhelming to look at the products and projects floating around the internet and people often ask, “Where do I even begin?” Here are a few simple ways to get started with making in your classroom – no matter what subject you teach!
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Chibitronics Circuit Stickers: These little LED stickers, when paired with adhesive copper tape can make a super fun way to create light up art. It’s a great idea to sketch out the design first to help determine where to place the tape.
Project possibilities: Add lighting to a map, design and build a cardboard house and wire it yourself with paper circuits to add lighting – you could even find the area and perimeter of rooms in that house and determine how much it might cost to wall paper it! Create a poem and light up the rhyming words. Write a book, create the pages, and add lights. Create a light up graph with your data for a presentation.
Little Bits: Snap together magnetic modules for instant connection and cause and effect exploration. Power + Input + Wire + Output. Make adjustments and choices in the module you use, and the possibilities for creative fun and design are endless. Bits are reusable, easy to tinker with, and ready to go when you open the box upon delivery.
Project possibilities: Create a monument for a famous person you are studying and add a part that spins or lights up. Choose a favorite book character and incorporate a sensor, Mp3 recording of the character talking, and a speaker. Instead of just filling in a diagram of the life cycle of a butterfly, create a working, spinning model to show a scientific concept. Develop a weather detector by using the CloudBit, IFTTT.com, and the number output.
Pop Up Circuit Cards: This isn’t a kit, but there are lots of ideas around the web for getting started with creating pop ups. Add a few pop up books to spark the imagination, and some plain paper to practice folding, and get started. Add in some basic LED lights, copper tape, and simple batteries and light up designs make for even more fun. The Chibitronics shared above could work great for this, too.
Project Ideas: If one character gave a pop up card to another character, what would it look like? Create a pop-up Haiku or other poetry. Instead of a presentation with keynote, design a pop up to tell the story. Experiment with 3d shapes and take math to another level. Since pop-ups have an outside of the card and an inside, design a cause and effect story, a before and after tale, or an abstract to demonstrate a concept like water cycle or plant growth.
ArtBot: Using basic parts and some markers, design a robot that moves his way around to create art. There are tons of project ideas all around the web, and be sure to let kids experiment with different parts, markers, and designs.
Project Ideas: Experiment by timing the art bot for a designated amount of time, measure the circumference of his design. Analyze the data and create a graph to compare with a friend’s design. Learn more about friction by experimenting with different surfaces or writing materials. Write a story about the adventures of Art Bot.
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These ideas will help get your students (and you!) started, but don’t stop there. As the comfort level increases, open things up even more. The next time a student asks, “What if I….?” be open to saying, “Find out!” or if someone asks, “Can I…?” Ask yourself “Why not?” The most frightening thing as a teacher can be that relinquish of “control,” but the reward for opening the door to student driven learning is waiting – and worth it. All you have to do is get started.
