A catered-space makerspace
Recently, we were asked to demonstrate what we're doing in CREATE at our district's first State of the District presentation. Out of the two-hour ceremony, we were allotted 30 minutes. We brought 30 "design challenge boxes" packed with tape, scissors, box cutters and more, two two-student video crews and five members of our Mouse Squad to show the local movers and shakers how it's done. Oh yes, and a first-grader to serve as our emcee.
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| The Design Challenge boxes, stacked and ready to go. (Note the blue tape Sphero track on the floor.) |
As soon as the boxes hit the tables, the energy in the room skyrocketed. The attendees went from listening to speeches to building "dogbone" shooters on their linen-covered tables.
I think we made our point.
What did you put in the boxes? What was the design challenge? I'm looking for ideas to help our teachers grasp the concept of design thinking & tinkering in anticipation of our maker carts in the fall.
ReplyDeletethanks!
The box contained scissors, a box cutter, rubber bands, masking tape, duct tape, a plastic driving cup a plastic spoon, a pencil, a sheet of paper and a ruler. They also got a wire clothes hanger.
ReplyDeleteThe design challenge was as follows:
Dog Bone Slinger Design Challenge
Situation:
The city of Mousopolis is in big trouble once again now that Dogzilla’s puppies are free! The Big Cheese and all the other mice must find a new way to keep the puppies away from their precious city and, of course, the Second-Annual Barbeque Cook-Off! They decide to create the incredible Dog Bone Slinger to run the pups far, far away from the city. The only problem is that the mice don’t know how to build it.
Challenge:
In your assigned groups, you will help the mice design the most incredible Dog Bone Slinger. Using the design loop and the materials below, create a machine that is easy to operate and will fling dog bones as far away as possible from the city.
Materials/Tools
Pencils
Ruler
Scissors
Box cutter
Rubber bands
Masking tape
Small cup
Duct tape
Paper
Cardboard
Clothes hanger
Plastic spoon
Test:
Test out your design and make any needed adjustments.
Once your design is at its very best, your group will present to everybody.
We’ll put all of the designs to the test and see which group’s Dog Bone Flinger could shoot the bones the farthest away.
Mark Loundy
Instructional Technology Specialist
Google Certified Educator, Level 1
De Vargas Elementary School
Cupertino (Calif.) Union School District