Why It's Time to Make Learning Fun Again

Yesterday afternoon I visited a former student, Tanya. She was in my fifth grade class in 1993. What a joy it was to see her and meet her family. She is tapping maple trees on her property to make syrup. This is something that she learned in my class. We reminisced about all of the things we did in fifth grade. The many field trips, edible wild plants, rockets, and camp. 

Tanya, who is now a school board member at my former school, is passing this passion for learning and trying new things to her children. Her family also raises beef, chickens and sheep on four acres of land. Tanya’s husband, Dave is a tool and die maker and is adept at fabricating tools. This led us to a discussion about educational philosophy. We discussed how schools have developed a culture of testing and the negative effects on children. We spoke about how learning should be novel, hands-on and authentic and the importance of play and imagination in the learning process. We talked about how maker’s labs can foster that kind of learning. 

Too often as teachers, we are overwhelmed with all of the things that we have to get done in our classrooms and it is difficult to step out and develop new things. I want to encourage you as a teacher to put aside the textbook, and engage in something fun and novel for both you and your students. 

Yes, it is scary to step out of your comfort zone, but it is equally rewarding for both you and your students. Will you fail? Yes, you probably will at some aspect of your activity. This is how you learn. Revise what went wrong and then set the activity aside for next year and try a new activity. 

If you set a goal of developing a hands-on activity once a week or even once a month it will make your job a lot more fun and will provide for an enjoyable learning experience for your students. Build your repertoire of activities and soon your classroom will be the talk of the school!  

March 14 Pi Day Classroom Spectacular!

Don't forget about March 14 - 3.14 - also known as Pi Day! Pi Day is a great opportunity for you to encourage exciting and hands-on learning in your classroom teaching about the radius, the diameter, and the circumference of circles. Pi = 3.14159265359... and keeps on going.... We really like to have fun with math. When you make math fun and applicable to real life for students, the principles come to life.

Just as a refresher...the circumference of a circle is determined by multiplying Pi times the diameter (Circumference = Pi x Diameter) . And the area of a circle is determined by multiplying Pi by the radius squared (Area = Pi x Radius²). Pi Day is perfect for exploring this seemingly magic math number. Give your kids challenges for determining area and circumference and then toward the end of class enjoy some pie of your own! Your students will go crazy.

You can also work backwards with these computations. If you know the area of a circle, divide by Pi to get the radius squared (Radius² = Area / Pi). And if you know the circumference of a circle, divide by Pi to get the diameter (Diameter = Circumference / Pi).

So why is Pi such a big deal? Because it works for EVERY circle! It's a constant, regardless of the size of the circle!

We like pie around here.
We especially like lemon meringue pie.

Sue remembers the Pi equation using this little formula:

Area = Pi Are Squared

No. Pie are round. 
Cakes are square.


....We're working with some real jokers here...

For some great classroom activities, check out our Pi Day Spectacular just in time for you to whip together an impressive and fun day for Pi Day on March 14! Students especially enjoy celebrating with pie or pizza pie at the end of the day! Lemon meringue, anyone?

Friday Follies: Meet The Parent

I snagged her on the way out the door this morning. She's going to flip when she sees I used this photo.
She thinks she looks terrible - I think she's adorable!

This morning we're going to give you a little Behind the Scenes Tour at Brain Brigade. Well, really, I'm going to introduce you to my mom who keeps this place from exploding during our hands-on science projects. My parents have been married for a long time. I don't exactly know how long because no one here is talking (but...if you ask my four year old, Finn, he'll tell you about 500 years). My mom has seen more of my dad's crazy and creative classroom projects than she can recount. Sometimes my dad tested his science experiments and projects at home. And he's always making something or tinkering around the house. She has stories to tell.

 Sue will be joining us here at the blog a little more regularly. She's funny. And intelligent. And organized. And she's got all the dirt on my dad. Sue works for Fisher & Paykel...and is a sleep medicine expert. She has worked in the sleep industry for over 20 years. First as a sleep technologist and now working on the sleep products side helping people with sleep disorders get better sleep. If you have a question, she is not a doctor! But she probably has seen it happen or has some good suggestions to make sleeping easier for those of you who struggle. Leave your comments and fan mail below ;)

When Sue isn't working you can find her attempting amazing feats while riding a hover board, working on her house (like right now at this moment she's actually tiling a back splash in her kitchen!), or find her hanging out with her grandkids (she has five). She also loves to travel. She loves to read. And she totes her little dog, Daisy, around with her often.

Daisy giving the hover board a try.

My dog, Odin, not making much of an effort to ride the hover board...

She has never had a specific hobby, until this week. After learning how to tile her kitchen back splash she is now ready to tile anything. 

"It's so picky and annoying and I loved every minute of it! Even the clean up is easy!" - yes, that is a direct quote!

She's the ultimate multitasker. And you're in for a treat!

Let's Talk About Maker Spaces

Hello friends. What does it mean to have a maker space in your school? First of all, there is not a standard definition of what a maker space should be. It can be as simple as a corner of your classroom where students can tinker, disassemble a broken computer, make a truss bridge with craft sticks, or just experiment with some safe chemicals. The whole premise is to get ideas flowing, to fail and find solutions through trial and error, to answer the question what if? Or, it can be a dedicated room where there are many high tech machines that can create almost anything you need or want. The two primary factors are cost and space. You can make it what you want based on funding and space and your own comfort zone. The important thing is to get students tinkering, creating, being curious and making connections to real life….authentic learning. Just do it! 

Take the first step. Get out of your rut, step into a world where you learn along with your students. 

Your students will love the experience and will benefit in ways that you couldn’t imagine. 

Once I challenged my students to design a cardboard and duct tape boat that could hold two of them. The finished boat could have only one layer of water-proofing on the exterior. This simple challenge excited them so much that they were doing research on designs, building prototypes and discussing the best way to build their yachts. Of course, some just dove in and started building without any idea of how to do it, but isn’t that what it is all about? 

Learning by doing, failing, trying again, and finally reaching success. 

Too often, as teachers we want students to follow our guidelines because we are the “experts”, and for purposes of efficiency we can save time. But by making things easier for our students we are missing an important piece in the learning puzzle. Two key ideas, choice and trial and error, are critical to creativity and learning.

Learning Through Play

Do you remember as a child how you would play with your dolls or with your army set? You used your imagination in creating real life scenarios. The concept of using play to learn is key for children to enrich their experiences and make connections with real life. Play is hands on. It requires curiosity and creativity. It is a perfect way to introduce authentic learning to your students.

Often children's museums have miniature sets. You'll find grocery stores, construction sets, play kitchen. Kids love to pretend using real life objects!

You can enrich your students' play in the classroom by using these concepts and integrating your curriculum.

For example, you can use cooking in your classroom to explore measurement, temperature, multiplying (halving, doubling or tripling a recipe!), fractions, portion size, reading a recipe, collaboration, following directions all while enjoying the experience. You don't need a worksheet to explore these concepts!

Taking a step farther, once you have the basic skills involved, students can create their own recipes and alter or tweak the recipe to their taste! This encourages creativity within the boundaries of skills they are learning.

One of our favorite ways to include play in the classroom is by setting up a miniature restaurant. We build a Hamburger Shack and stock it with pretend food items. Then students order from the workers and the workers must fill the order and calculate the cost of the order correctly.

Students hone their skills on charting, adding, using a calculator, making change, and customer service. We have a download available for you to make it easy to give the Hamburger Shack a try in your own classroom!

Hydroponics Strike Again!

I'm back in the classroom {greenhouse}!

I've finally graduate middle school...and in my retirement time am volunteering at our local high school ag department. I'm working with the agriculture teacher to start up aquaponics and hydroponics systems in the high school greenhouse.

I have ten students who have volunteered their free periods to work with me on getting these systems up and running.

Here Tyler is preparing the growing bed for the nutrient solution from the tilapia fish.

Our first steps were to obtain industrial bulk containers and cut the tops off to form the bottom tank and the top growing area. We had two of these tanks donated from Honey Acres in Ashippun, Wisconsin. Both will be used for aquaponics where we will grow about 100 tilapia over the next nine months.

I'll have more updates coming! In the meantime, if you want to try hydroponics on a small scale, check out these directions for a simple Windowsill Hydroponics system!

All you need is love...

Since my retirement last summer, I've picked up small teaching job and am volunteering at our local high school ag department. This week I met with five students and we have two IBC containers that we're getting aquaponics started in for the semester. If my experience is anything like in the past with aquaponics, that number of interested students will grow quickly!

However, the latest craze we have been exploring are using SMD LEDs to create holiday cards. We created a few for Christmas...but with Valentine's Day on the horizon we wanted to do something a little more impressive {if you're going to give your Valentine something, it's worth the effort to look good, right?!}. Check it out! Our technology experience is growing, too.

We even made a GIF.

For real.

We're getting pretty savvy around here...

via GIPHY

To make this card yourself, you can get our step-by-step directions by clicking here, or I can give you a rough breakdown. Basically you need three pieces of paper or cardstock, some SMD LEDs, (we used four in our example), copper tape, a coin battery, and some creativity!

Decorate your paper in any card style you'd like. On one piece, you'll need to decorate the "outside" to make a card, on the other, you'll decorate the "inside" and leave the back side blank. These will be fitted together at the end.

Run your tape to create a parallel circuit. Place your LEDs and battery in place, testing your LEDs as you go along. Take your third piece of paper, cut to fit over the copper wiring. Punch holes on that third piece of paper so that you can see the LEDs. We also cut a heart out of the middle so the lights really shine through! Tape the inside message to the outside message, fold, and send to your love. Full step-by-step directions can be found here.

Windowsill Gardening

Red white and blue for Independence Day!

What a whirlwind. I can't believe that after 39 years I have officially retired from teaching! But don't think that retirement is going to slow me down...In fact I have a host of hands on learning and teaching opportunities already scheduled! The week after school, I taught a three day course to teachers on developing Makers Labs in their schools. We made hands on projects. We visited two Makers Labs in our area. We had fun while learning.

Not sure what a Maker Space or Makers Lab is? Check out our free download that walks you through the philosophy of it.

After this course, these teachers plan to initiate Makers Labs and Maker Spaces in their school buildings.

I also participated in a Fourth of July Celebration for 60 students at a local school to learn about Thomas Jefferson and the tinkering and inventing that he did. Then we made hydroponic planters from deli containers. The kids went crazy over them! I painted theirs red white and blue to fit the theme.

Check out how quickly this lettuce is growing! These photos were taken just one week apart!

Freaky Flipping Friday!

Here I am on Freaky Flipping Friday! where we flipped the class and students do a science presentation! These girls enlightened us about the chemistry of an egg white facial (with a bit of yolk!). The egg was on my face and the yolk was on me!

Some of the other presentation topics included Radiation from Hiroshima and how Leukemia was more frequent after the bomb; and a demonstration how to disassemble an iPhone and replace a cracked screen. My eighth grade students are phenomenal this year. They just soak up knowledge and rise to the challenge that they are given. They are curious and creative kids.

Sleep Tech Visits Middle School Science

We are studying the nervous system. We had a Sleep Tech visit and explain how she reads and interprets brain waves and diagnoses sleep disorders. Students volunteered to be hooked up as if they were receiving a sleep study.

The classes realized the importance of sleep and being able to function at the highest levels of physical and mental states. And also how the lack of sleep plays an important role in creating diseases within people.

Aquaponics in Makers Lab - We've Got FISH!

We started lettuce and spinach just over two weeks ago. We have micro-greens ordered. When we see some growth, I'll get some photos posted!

Our other big news is that last Tuesday we picked up our tilapia fish for our aquaponics set up. We started with 44 fish this year. At the moment, we've only lost one!

Last year a week into our introduction, we had lost about 10 fish. We've made improvements this time around to prevent the losses we initially had last year.

Once of the changes is that we cycled the water longer with ammonia this year. I also think the clay pellets had old bacteria still embedded. When we brought the system up, I believe that the bacteria rejuvenated and is managing to break down the ammonia better.

We also had an great Makers Lab moment, which you can see in this photo (the fish are too tiny to capture a good photo right now, but this is the day we put them in!). We were having an evaporation issue and we need to add water every day. Our aquaponics system is on the opposite side of the classroom from our sink. We were running a hose across the floor (tripping hazard), rolling and unrolling hose each day (time consuming), and when we rolled hose there almost always was water spilled across the floor.

With a little finagling, we ran the hose up through the drop tiled ceiling and across the room. Now the hose stays in place, we save time, and have a safer and cleaner Makers Lab! 

Makers Lab: Train Table Update

For the past several weeks our construction crews in the Makers Lab have been busy building by first connecting two tables, then attaching styrofoam to the tables, and using a hot wire knife to cut and shape pieces of styrofoam for two large hills on our train tables.

The first hill (the one you see above) is Holy Hill on the top of which sits Holy Hill Church a landmark that can be seen for many surrounding miles. We've also planned and sketched the roads and railroad tracks as well as Friess Lake.

We also have students working on constructing scale trees, foliage, and a replica of the Holy Hill Church. These are all to scale. We used Google Earth photos, saw the length of a car in the parking lot, we extrapolated the length of the building from the length of that car.

In the photo above, a student is applying plaster gauze to form the contours of the hillside.

The second hill will be a local ski hill complete with a chalet and a working ski lift (we hope!). All this will be done in N-Scale.

Makers Space Tour - Illinois Children Museums

Last weekend we took a mini family vacation to Moline, Illinois. Our grandkids are crazy about John Deere and it's the perfect place to take them for big JOHN DEERE fun!

While in the Quad Cities, we visited the Family Museum a small, but fantastic place for children to learn through play. I combed for ideas for organizing our Makers Lab while we were there!

The Family Museum in Bettendorf, Iowa had an elegant way to lay out their workbenches where children could come in and build from materials that were provided. Just look at these work sites! They even have multiple heights to accommodate various heights of kids.

This museum was geared toward younger kids, which we witnessed with our younger grandchildren (those under 5) feeling right at home. The older two kids, 6 and 11, still had a good time and were able to make and create.

Our second museum stop was a detour on our way home. We stopped at the Discovery Center Museum in Rockford, Illinois which was amazing! We were visiting over Halloween weekend so we were lucky to participate in a Pumpkin Chuckin' special event where kids launched pumpkins using a large and a small scale trebuchet. Inside the museum, we couldn't get the kids out! This time we only had our two older grandkids, the rest had headed home. The older ones enjoyed themselves and I think our younger ones would have had just as much fun.

There were great opportunities for the kids to create and make. Our two kids designed their own woodworking projects and built upon their skills.

The following two photos are some of the items on display. The atmosphere was inspiring.

I saw some wonderful examples of organizing and establishing the Makers Lab that I couldn't help but comb for our Makers Lab. Check out the materials storage below. These are 3 and 5 gallon buckets set into crafted plywood shelving units. Holes are cut into the plywood and the buckets rest neatly inside. Duct tape in colorful patterns is placed across the bottom one-third of the buckets to help keep items contained. For any of you in a Makers Lab or Makers Space, you can imagine what this collection can bring to the chaos that is a Makers Space!

These are larger cardboard barrels with various pieces of wood, styrofoam, cardboard, plastic... essentially junk! But this junk can be treasure when sorted and stored so children can easily begin imagining and creating. And when the time is up, it's easy for the kids to sort their items back out.

If you're looking a creative way to spend an afternoon in the Midwest, I'd recommend both the Family Museum in the Quad Cities area and the Discovery Center in Rockford, Illinois. Your kids will thank you for it...and you'll probably have fun too!

Middle School Design Day

We had a middle-school-wide Design Day with our sixth, seventh and eighth graders. We wanted to give children the experience of using engineering design principles.

The engineering design principle is sophisticated trial and error method. First you create your idea, then sketch it out. Next you build a prototype. Finally you build your final project. All along the way you are testing, revising and modifying your project.

We we set aside about 45 minutes for this challenge. The students were working in multiple rooms so that they had enough room to work. We gave them their challenge and sent them to work!

CHALLENGE
Build the tallest tower.

MATERIALS

• Four half-sheets of newspaper per team
• Four full sheets of newspaper per team
• Duct tape
• Pencil
• Paper

Prototype materials: Four (4) half-sheets of newspaper and duct tape
Drawing materials: Paper, pencil
Final project: Four (4) full sheets of newspaper and 24 inches of duct tape

Students began by making a drawing of what they planned their tower should look like. They then constructed a small prototype. After which, they had about 20 minutes to construct a freestanding tower using 4 full sheets of newspaper and 24 inches of duct tape.

Here is the result. I didn't capture a photo of the tallest tower, but what I will tell you is that neither of these below are the tallest! The winner was over eight inches taller!

Makers Lab: Programming and Coding

During my visit last week to the Makers Lab, it was loud! Kids were using hand tools and power tools. They were collaborating. There was no shortage of noise and activity. In the adjoining room, I notice two students sitting quietly with an iPad and a MacBook, in complete contrast to the power tools revving on the other side of the room. 

Tyler shared his project with me. He was busy writing code for the video game, Minecraft. While I talked with him, he was trying to make the menu page more visually appealing. His first round of code, “made the menu a little jumbled up.” 

By the end of the Lab, he was moving on from the menu to creating a special Christmas version. When he is ready, he plans to move on from Minecraft to working on web pages and apps.

This demonstrated to me the diversity that a Makers Lab allows. As some students thrive in group environments, others are more introverted and work well on their own. I am so impressed with the ability of these students to dive into a project with focus and drive because they are curious and want to know more. What a triumph for a teacher to educate without force and pressure. To allow a student to express himself through a project. To create an environment with no limits.

I wish for that in all schools. I wish for students to be allowed to be curious and inventive. To generate their own successes from their own trials and errors. To love learning and solving problems. To become so engrossed that they forget that they are learning.

Makers Lab: Scale Model Railway and Local Community

When students in the Makers Lab are at a break in their own projects, they have a group project that they can work on. The class is making a replica of the surrounding landscape, roads, and railways on a scale train table. The train table is in the early stages. We believe that learning should be hands on and applicable to real life. 

The students had mapped out the local area and were beginning to make scenery using plants cut from their school prairie. Near the end of the class, Mr. Hoefs was showing them the next step: creating the Kettle Moraine glacier formations that make their local community unique in Southern Wisconsin. These glacial formations allow for stunning, albeit roller coaster-like, driving conditions during all seasons. In the coming classes, the students will begin forming these hills and valleys and the switchback main highway that runs through the stunning landscape.

Makers Lab: 3D Hologram Creation

Quiet and unassuming. I initially thought that Alex was avoiding me. I sat down next to him and asked him about his project. He's creating a 3D hologram. The day I visited, he was waiting on a shipment of glass that is thinner to arrive. But he was happy to show me his prototype that he has designed.

He has carefully drawn his pattern on the sheet of thicker and cumbersome glass. He showed me how he plans to us a glass cutting tool and then create a pyramid from the pieces. Once his pyramid is complete, he will create an iPad stand to shine the image from the top of the pyramid. The image will be, “cut into four pieces which will create the hologram,” as Alex explained to me.

I am astounded by these students. I am in awe. Each student is driven by a different motive. A different perspective. A different interest. But they are all equally enthused. It made me want to go back to school so that I could tinker and make right along with them.

Makers Lab: Magnetic Soccer Game

This is my last post from my visit to the Makers Lab last week. I'll be back to post updates on all of the projects in the next couple of weeks!

The enthusiasm of the kids is rubbing off on me as I hurry from group to group. I am nearing the end of the 45 minute class period and I hurry to the table next to Tyler programming and writing code, where Artie and Luke are creating a magnetic soccer board.

They are using cardboard for their prototype, but they explain that plywood conducts the magnets better so that is what they will use for their final product. They were using a hot glue gun and various magnets and metals to determine the smoothest playing. It was so fun to watch these two as they worked. They were a great team. They worked together and bounced ideas off of one another.

They were so happy to show me their work. Once they get their players glued onto their magnetic "skies" and moving smoothly on the board they will begin to move towards their final product. I can't wait to show you an update (and hopefully play a round or two! Seriously, who wouldn't want to play this game with these little magnetized-LEGO people?!). 

I can't wait!

Makers Lab: Solving a Teacher's Dilemma

“Mrs. N is always running late. This car will help her get between the Makers Lab and the math room faster,” explains Martina, a seventh grade student. “While traveling in style!” adds Rebecca, Martina’s classmate. Rebecca was using a handsaw to cut an axle. Their next step was to figure out how to connect the axle to the bike tires that they had disassembled from a donated bicycle.

I was impressed by the confidence in Martina and Rebecca. They were comfortable using a handsaw and a clamp. They measured twice before cutting. They were focused and enjoying themselves as they worked. And when the time came to clean up, they jumped in and helped their classmates clean up. In fact, they all worked together to get the Makers Lab back in shape for the next class.

Clean up time! The class worked as a team to get the room back into order at the end of the class period.