Makers Gonna Make

Session Descripton: We might be crammed in a preso room, but we WILL still make. Bring your computer and let's unleash some creativity with Google. Oh, the possibilities for your Makerspace!

Make a Snowman

Eric Curts: When you click on the "Build a Snowman with Google Slides" image, you will be prompted to make a copy. Each user has their own copy.

Peggy Reimers: When you click on my" Snowman Building" slide image, everyone works on the same slide deck. To make your own copy.

Pixel Art by Eric Curts

My definition of “pixel art” is using a spreadsheet to color. All one needs to do is resize the rows and columns into small blocks and then use your paint bucket to fill in each cell. However, this process is very time consuming. But hold on; the wonderful Eric Curts has designed a ready-made template for this that uses conditional formatting.

This simply means that when you type a letter and press return/enter, the square will turn a color. I press a “k” and the cell turns green or I press a “p” and it turns purple. Eric has provided a free, 20-color pixel art template to get you started. Check out my bluebonnet pixel art masterpiece. =0)

Make a copy of the template

Eric’s full explanation of Pixel Art

Eric’s YouTube video on Pixel Art (start at 32:12)

Stop Motion Animation with Google Slides by Joy Kidd

Last May, I attended a session delivered by Joy Kidd, a science teacher from Prosper ISD. She uses Google Slides to create stop-motion-effect presentations without the use of a camera. This is such a cool and easy creation tool. The big takeaway (besides the resource of how-to directions, a stop-motion example, and curriculum connections) I heard her say:

Students try to one-up each other on how many slides it takes to create their presentation. “My deck is 125 slides.” Another student responds, “Well my deck has 181.”

Her colleagues do not want her to teach this technique, because the kids constantly work on this project in their other classes.

The 5 Easy Steps to Create a Stop-Motion-Effect Presentation

Make a slide

Duplicate the slide

Make a change

Duplicate new slide

Make a change (you know rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat…)

Joy’s presentation is very through and will get you up and running in no time. I have one thing to add: use a hot-air balloon lifting off from the ground and rising up into the clouds for a demo.