Tales from a Loud Librarian

Using the LittleBits When the library received grant money last school year to begin a makerspace , I chose not to spend all the money at once. I was not sure which items would appeal most to the kids, so I took it slow. Though our school serves students in grades 6-12, it is the middle school students who spend the most time using the makerspace equipment and materials during their lunch period. The Lego cart There are class sets of iPads that live in the library, but I needed iPads that stayed in the library and would always be available to use in the makerspace. I bought 5 initially and added 2 more this time around. The iPads are used to watch videos detailing projects that can be constructed with LittleBits. Lego Wedo, or K'Nex or to find instructions for those projects. The tablets can also be used to make stop motion videos. The Sphero robots are powered by an iPad as well as the new Lego Wedo 2.0. Creation with the 3D pen I added some items that were a...

I really don't know what the students did in the library before we received all the gadgets and tools for our makerspace. Every day at lunch students are engaged in making and creating in collaboration with each other. It is fun to watch the students so excited, and they are having a blast.  Students who don't usually spend their time in here during lunch are visiting to have a go with the 3D pen. We bought the one from 7Tech, and it is working very well for us. I currently have only one pen, and we are waiting on delivery of two more. I think this is going to be a great tool for the kids to sit around, chat, and create together.  Fun with the 3D pen Students visit the library just to draw with the 3D pen, glad to have them The students used the Bird Brain Robot Server to access Snap to program the Finch Robot. Scratch works too, but you need the Scratch offline editor downloaded on the computer to do the programming. We downloaded the robot server, ...