Lots of news coming out of Wichita and Topeka in the terms of Makerspaces. Check out the following news articles from the Wichita Eagle and the Topeka Capital Journal about these exciting places
News from August 2014
http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article1280069.html
News from November 2014
http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article4167320.html#/tabPane=tabs-782060ac-1
http://cjonline.com/news/2014-11-28/712-innovations-facility-will-encourage-entrepreneurship-innovation
What are your thoughts?
Big News for Makerspaces in Wichita and Topeka.
Circuit Simulations
Good Morning
This week my class has been working on circuit design. We have talked about parallel, series, and combo circuits. The students took notes in their notebooks and had to draw the various circuits. After finishing notes the kids then has to go to the PhET Interactive Simulation site and recreate the circuits they had drawn. The kids had fun with the exploration piece on the site.
Here is a quick snap shot of the site
I am posting a link also if you want to check it out.
PhET DC Circuit Construction
New job, New Challenges
Ok, so I have not been on Blogger for a long, long time. Since being on here last I have taken a new position in my school district. I have left teaching elementary school for 19 years and am now teaching middle school technology. The summer was full of new trainings and learning. Getting my new classroom up and running was quite a task.
I currently have 6 preps for this new technology position;
+ 2 of the classes are part of Project Lead the Way(I will write more about this later on)
+ 2 classes are basic technology for the incoming 6th graders(I will include more later)
+ 1 class is a video production class
+ 1 class is something called Student Technology Leadership
It is already the end of October and we started in August, so there will be a lot to share really soon.
See you all again
Lego Robotics -- Let's Roll!!!!
My class is off and running with Lego Robotics. We are using the RCX version of Lego right now. I have 22 kids this year in my class and I have split them up into 7 groups total.
I started by showing the kids the various parts of the kits and their names. I explained the differences between plates, bricks, and beams. I also showed them how the everything is labeled for example 1x2, 1x6, 1x16 and so forth.
In another session, the groups worked on building their Tankbots. Most groups finished fairly quickly. I had to go back and show some groups how to tighten some bushings so that the axles would not slip and fall off.
In the next session, I showed the groups how the Robolab program works. We talked about the various toolbars that they would need to program their Tankbots. The groups also received sheets with the Robolab icons and explanations on it. I think the hardest part of getting the robotics going was making sure that the IR towers were connected properly and working. That took a lot of time.
Now it was time to get started with the robotics challenges. The groups were given a sheet of 10 challenges to complete. The challenges start off easy and move to a little more complex each time. Up to this point I have about 5 out of the 7 groups on at least the 7th challenge.
Lego Robotics Workshop
I recently attended a Lego Robotics workshop at the university down the street. The workshop was geared towards newcomers to Lego Mindstorms. The workshop offered information and tips on forming and preparing a team to participate in the local Mindstorms Challenge held the the university in the spring of 2012.
Some of the things we worked on were -
- learning the basics of Mindstorms 2.0
- how the NXT works
- basic building and programming
- problem solving
Here are some pictures from the day.
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| My 5 minute bot. |
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| Programming the 5 minute bot with NXT software, |
Robotics
The kids in my class are very excited this week. I announced last week that we would be doing Lego Robotics in my class. Yesterday the kids worked on getting the kits out to make sure that we had the proper items in the kits. I was really nice to see all of the kids working together to take apart last year's projects and getting excited about starting up this year. I am planning on going to a workshop this weekend that talks about robotics in the classroom. The workshop is going to be fun.
Updates coming soon
Have a great day.
L
New School Year
Hello to you all,
I have been away for a long time. I have told myself that I need to get started back to blogging on this site. I have taken some time to read some posts from teachers on various sites. After reading countless posts, I have made a commitment to blogging. I try to use a lot of technology in my class and I will reflect on what I find works and what doesn't. I also want to find out what works for you in your class. Thank you for reading and check back often.
Have a great year!!!!
L
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