WHAT ARE STEAMaker SESSIONS?
Our STEAMaker program is a true gem of Barclay Brook. During these cyclical sessions, students are given various tasks using a variety of media. The core goal of all of these session is the same... DEVELOP GRIT! The library transforms into the "I Can Do It Myself" room and the teachers are LARGELY hands off during STEAMaker times. Help is only given when it is NEEDED. When the students simply WANT help, they are redirected to dig deep and find those self help skills which are the cornerstone of this program. All too often our students give up when a task is hard. They will look to their teachers to "solve the problem" for them instead of working to find the solution on their own. We describe it in terms of building the brain muscle. You've got to lift those heavy waeights to get strong :-)
1st Grade
In our final STEAMaker Session, students were challenged to work together with a partner and recreate a robot out of Lego, This robot include a motor and a "brain" which connects via Bluetooth to our iPads. Students, then, had to program their robot with a simple set of commands. Once this was completed properly they brought their robots to the "Robot Playgroun" and experiment with different commands to see what else they could make their robots do! We had teams coding their robots to interact, sing songs, race... even give piggy back rides!
1st graders delved a little deeper into the world of coding with OSMO Coding during the 4th STEAMaker Session. In this program, they are able to hold pieces of code in their hands and attach them to each other to build a program. This program makes Awby Monster move around the screen and gather materials to rebuild his home. They learn about different coding concepts and order of operations and how those things work together to form a program.
Our 3rd STEAMaker Session will have our 1st graders learning about coding with an app called Lightbot Jr. The will use rudimentary blockly-style commands to create programs enabling their "bot" to light up a blue tiles in a series of puzzles. The program moves through basics and even gets into loops and processes! Great as an early introduction to the world of computer coding!
During our 2nd STEAMaker cycle, 1st graders will be learning about resilience and will become "gritty" learners with the ThinkRolls app. This is a super fun (and FRUSTRATING) problem solving app that helps kids understand that failure is not permanent through a series of logic puzzle challenges.
The 1st graders will be practicing basic tech skills such as startup, mouse use, log in, navigation. They will also begin some keyboarding practice with EdClub's wonderful product TypingClub. All Barclay Brook 1st and 2nd graders have access to Typing Club through their Clever accounts and are encouraged to practice their typing as often as possible! As so much standardized testing is done electronically now, basic keyboarding and computer navigation skills can alleviate some of the additional stresses our students are experiencing at this time. It also prevents them from fatiguing so quickly due to unfamiliarity with a standard computer keyboard.
2nd Grade
Our final STEAMaker session of the year had our 2nd graders become Music Engineers as they experimented with code to produce music! He used the code.org website and had a Music Jam Session! Code.org is a completely free resource... no account needed to use the majority of the programs on the website. If your 2nd grader would like to conitnue their Musical Engineering adventure, they can find the activities at: https://code.org/music
2nd graders will be learning about 3D design this cycle. They will learn how to design and manipulate an object in 3D with the Tinkercad website. They will add design elements like text, texture and shape to craft a calming/focus token. They will be able to “shop” for filament so that their design can be printed out!
During the 3rd round of STEAMaker sessions, 2nd graders will move up a level with their coding and work with a Root robot. They will work in groups to code with intention... programming their robots to write letters, move through and around obstacles and make a myriad of sounds (among other things).
2nd graders are continuing their coding adventure with a robot called Dash. We will be spicing things up a bit with some problem solving tasks. Not only will students need to demonstrate simple Blockly coding skills, they will need to apply comprehension of these skills, as well as employ problem solving skills, to code their robot to move to/around objects and complete tasks. Cooperative work and preplanning will be essential here as they will be working in groups :-)
2nd graders will jump right into rudimentary coding with Lego Education's Lego WeDo. Here, students are challenged to build and code a replica "space rover". When the prescribed task is complete, students are challenged to see what else they can make their rover do through coding and building ingenuity.