Our Personal Favorites

Not all of these are new ideas, but they are the spaces our tinkerers keep coming back to. They are well tested and well loved by our makers.

This Presentation: www.bit.ly/50Makerspaces

Rubik's Cube Mosaics

If you have never tried this, reserve your set NOW! You can borrow up to 600 cubes for 6 weeks (you just pay return shipping and replace any lost or broken cubes). We used some of their mosaic patterns, and I made the students guess what they were building. You can also have students create their own original mosaics to build and enter their competition. This was a huge hit with students and staff! (they are currently--Fall 2021-- NOT lending cubes, but you can still access mosaic patterns, etc., if you have your own)

www.youcandothecube.com/build-mosaics-with-rubiks-cubes/

Laser Engraver:

Full Spectrum or glowforge

Laser engravers can be used to engrave glass, cardboard, metal, paper and other nontoxic materials. The curriculum connections are multitude, and the wow factor is huge! We love ours!

Beware! Laser engravers require ventilation so they either have to be vented to the outside, or you need to purchase the fume extractor for your school environment. Glowforge has a separate ventilation system you can purchase that is self-contained. ($995, available 9/19).

Silhouette cameo

This has been invaluable for many of our students and staff. Our students are required to complete Science Fair projects, so we use the Cameo to create their lettering for their boards. Teachers use it to create vinyl letters for walls, and cardstock cutouts for bulletin boards. Our goal is to have students create their own designs that could be used as vinyl appliques or iron-ons (what a great fundraiser project!)

airblock programmable drone

Made of foam with break-away construction, so collisions don't matter. Can be reconfigured to be a hovercraft on air or water.

Create a drone obstacle course!

Vendor: Amazon, (Follett carries the batteries and charging stand)

button makers

We've had the 2 1/4" button maker for a while now, but I recently purchased a 1" machine. I think I like the smaller size even better. Our most recent fad has been the buttons made from dictionary pages (and the Harry Potter book we had to weed).

Moth Style Storytelling

(Podcasting too!)

This is brand new at CLHS. We started with a Moth Storytelling club that performs once a month at our "Library Fridays" events, and are now progressing to at least half open mic and half club members for Moth Storytelling on those days. We are recording these performances for CLHS Library Podcasts to be posted in our district intranet, but are still working on district permissions to post those to the world wide web. Keep an eye out for us!

Sharpie watercolor tiles

We made these at our March Library Lunch Club, and the students LOVED them. It was easy and relatively inexpensive to do. I would recommend disposable pipettes for the rubbing alcohol. I used 2" tiles (you can find a whole sheet of them at Home Depot that you can cut apart). You also need colored Sharpies and some spray clearcoat.

onelittleproject.com/sharpie-dyed-tile-coasters/

Publishing Lab

Fellowes Thermal Binding Machine & Covers: Office Depot. A comb binding machine works, too!

This was Erin's original grant, and I stole it! The publishing lab has many uses including supporting creative writing or poetry both in class and for those who write independently! At the high school, we also have students using it to publish their independent study reports and other projects.

sugar skulls

We made these for Dia de los Muertos this year, and I will definitely be making this an annual event. We watched the movie Coco while they decorated. Our Culinary Arts teacher even joined in the fun. You can order the skulls premade at the link below, or you can make your own (no thanks!). I made 3 colors of royal icing and bought sugar decorations at Michaels.

www.teachersdiscovery.com/product/13075/spanish

Keva Planks

SO MUCH can be done with these, and my students LOVE them! Just google it.

Vendor: Demco

Slime

It doesn't matter how often I offer this--it fills up fast! The favorite has been Hot Chocolate Slime.

www.fantasticfunandlearning.com/hot-chocolate-slime-sensory-play.html

Geodesic Dome

Vendor: Zip Tie Domes

My high school students LOVE this. The geodesic dome is made of PVC and put together entirely by zip ties, so it is a build-and-rebuild project that we bring out every year. Once it is constructed, we put a card table under it and the kids can play cards, do origami, or whatever project we choose to put in there. It is like a big-kid fort, and they are always inside it!

StickTogether mosaics

We are starting our 5th one, and they have been a big hit! I love the collaborative aspect, and they definitely get competitive with this! This was the perfect image for the week before STAAR. The new one is going to be Van Gogh's Starry Night (Shhh! Don't tell!) During Covid shutdown, we used their virtual mosaics that students could work on from anywhere.

If you build it, they will come!

$3,000.00 Foundation Grant for more large builds, written in 2 parts:

Build and re-build structures like the geodesic dome (For this part, we have settled on purchasing 500 two-foot pvc pipes and various connectors so that makers can build and rebuild with infinite possibilities!)
Permanent builds which will become a part of CLHS seating areas permanently (This is the Design Challenge. Parts for the winning teams are arriving now, and photos will be available soon!)

We received 43 student entries for the PVC Design challenge, and are waiting for parts to arrive for the winning makers.

Vendor: HomeDepot.com (where they have furniture grade PVC available in several colors--but only online!).

If we build it they will come/ part 2!

Here is a photo of our first large build & rebuild project. 24" PVC pipe, 4 different connectors, and a modified cart. Super simple, with infinite build possibilities, and popular with the kids!

Vendor: Home Depot, for everything including the cart!

Merge cubes

I actually won a class set of these from a webinar I attended! The basic Merge app has games as well as some AR/VR that is more educational, but there are new apps being developed constantly. I wrote a grant to get more iPods and goggles, as well as a subscription to CoSpaces EDU so that students will be able to create their own content for the cubes. Think of the possibilities!

sphero

Sphero can be used 3 ways: drive it, game it, or code it.

We introduced our sphero at CLHS using a giant floor PacMan game where we had 4 Sphero Ghosts and 1 Sphero PacMan. As they played, the tinkerers strategized and improved it until we went from just a floor map using painter's tape, to a full on arena using keva planks and keva connectors to create 3 dimensional pathways where the Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde could chase PacMan without breaking down all the walls or leaving the play area. It was a super awesome problem solving adventure for my tinkerers. Pure Maker.

Hour of code

We participate in the Hour of Code every December. I work with my Science Research classes to set up the activities--the timing is perfect for us because it's right after Science Fair (students and teachers appreciate the break!), but you could do this anytime.

hourofcode.com/us/learn

Keyboard piano

This keyboard is hooked up to a computer with Noteflight.com (free). When the students log in to NoteFlight, the program will write the music notes as they play the keyboard which allows our students to easily compose original music.

(The truth is that I REALLY LOVE all the music makerspaces. Those and the big builds are my very favorite spaces, so make certain that you visit the music page on this site!)

Kindness rocks

I did this with students for the first time last year, and students and teachers loved it. We left the rocks all around campus (outside), and the students were so excited to find them. There are schools where they have filled in flower beds, pathways, etc., with all the rocks their students have created. It's a fun, easy project (and it never hurts to promote kindness!)

www.thekindnessrocksproject.com/

Dear Diary

This is a Makerspace that displays diary books, and then invites students to write their thoughts in one of the provided diaries. This was a phenomenal success! We have the most beautiful, funny, and frightening entries. We even identified a few students who were in crisis and got them to the counselors they needed. Some students will bring you their entries to read, other will leave their entries for you to find. Either way, it was a joy!

Virtuali-tees

Using the free Curiscope app and the tee, students can see their virtual heart beating in time to their own pulse and explore the circulatory, digestive, and respiratory systems. I got the tee in different sizes on Amazon and we've been having a lot of fun with them (and learning, of course!)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19NV4wsw2M

Cardboard Challenge

At CLHS, we do this for the annual Physics Boat Races, which the students LOVE-- but there are many, many ways to do a cardboard challenge!

Have your custodial staff gather cardboard for you for a month or so before the challenge begins!

Circuit cards

We have made these for Valentine's Day, Christmas, and Mothers Day. You can use conductive paint or copper tape (I actually prefer the tape). I give them time to explore with the materials, since most students don't really know much about how electrical circuits work.

leftbraincraftbrain.com/light-circuit-valentines/

Collaboration stations (& gaming!)

These are 4 flat screen TVs with all the hookups necessary for 5 students at each collaboration station to hook up their laptop for collaborative work on the visual display. Classes book into the library to use them.

At lunch every day they double as our gaming area, which is very popular!

Take Home Maker kits

This was a grant I won several years ago, jointly with our feeder elementary and high school. We were finding that students didn't often have enough time to devote at school to making, so this allows them to take things home and spend more time with them.

Take Home Maker kits

Lake has these now, too, but not as many as Seabrook! Lake has the following kits: Learn to Play the Ukulele!; Making Music with SpecDrums; Make Your Own Chia Pet! , Virtual Reality Just Got Real! (Merge VR Kits), Doodlin'! (3D Doodler Pens), Paracord Creations, Movie Making! (Stop Motion Animation), Coding with Sphero

Collaborative work stations and whiteboard areas are a staple in any Maker Lab. True collaboration happens in these spaces, and graduating students with top notch collaboration skills is a must for today's schools and work force.

Collaboration Stations/Giant Whiteboard

SO MANY USES! Collaborative group work; magnetic poetry, Tumble Trax, Cooperative Games like SOS and Tic Tac Toe!

These are available everywhere: Office Depot, Demco, Amazon etc.

Poetry creation station

I set this one up every April for Poetry Month. My student aides keep it stocked with words. It's super-easy and pretty popular. (Credit: South East Junior High)

Green Screen

Our green screen gets used at least 3 times a week both by our audio visual classes, and by individual students who use it to complete class projects. If you are successful getting teacher buy in for this PBL tool, it will be very well used by your campus. This is a makerspace staple.

There are many vendors. This one is an amazon.com kit, including light. The software we use for IOS is Do-Ink and for PC is Photo Creator which was purchased from Demco

bloxels

So versatile! Students love creating their own 13-bit video games, and we can use them in any subject area, or just for fun--we've barely scratched the surface!

Deconstruct Space

This is the space where your tinkerers will take apart any device you give to them. Then, they will use it to build something else. It is pure maker.

You will need:

old electronics/obsolete equipment. Both our teachers and our tech department donate items to our pile on a regular basis.
Tools and a secure place to keep them.
If you have a Maker Club, they can be a huge help keeping this area fresh since old parts move through it constantly and it does need to be cleaned out now and then.

slingshot rockets

These are fairly inexpensive to make and I love how competitive the students get! Most of the supplies come from Office Depot.

www.instructables.com/id/Teach-Engineering-Slingshot-Rockets/

Interactive Mural!

Still in progress at Lake, but so awesome!

View the sample video here: https://vimeo.com/121878247

CANDY SUSHI

This was so much fun! I got mini-rolling pins for the Rice Krispie treats, and we also used plastic knives for cutting. I offered this during lunch last year--definitely a big hit!

Sample directions