MakerSpace Friday: 2016-17 (Year 2)

Here it is November and so much has happened since my last blog post!  As a Media Specialist I presented three times this past summer on MakerSpace in our school library.  It was a growth experience for me as, but more so, for our school's program.  Each time I shared I learned from my colleagues and gained confidence in pushing forward with this program to serve our students at Mt. Carmel Elementary.

School started back and so did MakerSpace.  As of this post there have been 11 MakerSpace Fridays and with over 500 students participating.  This would not have been possible without the dedicated parent volunteers and also volunteers from U.A.H. students, such as Dr. Carmen's Engineering Design class and also, Dr. Sarah Roller's Math Education students.  Our program received a "shot in the arm" when STEDTRAIN fully funded our grant application for almost $2,000 worth of S.T.E.M. tools.
 Some of the latest additions have been 2 littleBits Electronics Gizmos & Gadgets sets littleBits

and also a hive of Bee-Bots bee-bot

Our students are learning quickly about snap circuits and programmable robots.

Sharing the Student Voice

Listening to the student voice is an important part of being a teacher.  As the Librarian, I hear a lot of stories, but recently, the story shared with me by Christian Lindsey, 3rd Grade teacher +Mt. Carmel Elementary School has moved me to action and I have transcribed the journey of a dream:

Hope and Compassion from 3^rd Grade Community to the Homeless Community

One little girl, moved by compassion to help others, found two friends to share her hopes for the homeless, and thus the warmth of her caring was kindled into a burning desire to make a difference.  Gaby Stout is that little girl who dreamed of making a difference in her community by helping the homeless; she shared that dream with her classmates, Kylie Jean and Katie Hastings.  After verbalizing her vision, Gaby came home from school and went to work researching a familiar cause, the Rose of Sharon Soup Kitchen; she had heard of them before.  For her birthday she had requested donations for the homeless and her mother told her about Huntsville’s community soup kitchen.  Gaby decided to champion the cause for Rose of Sharon Soup Kitchen and, with a little assistance from her father, she prepared a donation flyer to show her friends.

The third grade girls were excited about their purpose and shared the flyer with their compassionate teacher, Mrs. Christian Lindsey. Knowing this was not just an everyday occurrence, Mrs. Lindsey led the girls to discuss their plan with their school principal, Mrs. Kerrie Bass.  After talking with the girls and their teacher, Mrs. Bass approved their vision of a Third Grade Community Service Project to raise donations for the Rose of Sharon Soup Kitchen.

Sharon Walker shares Rose of Sharon's Mission

Kylie and Gaby meet Ann Miller

Connections were growing between students and adults, but the circle wasn’t complete until the plan was shared with Sharon Walker and Ann Miller of Rose of Sharon. Teachers and staff were lining up behind this cause to help the girls. After hearing about the project, the school librarian, Cyndy Dunning, visited Rose of Sharon to meet Sharon Walker to let her know of their dream. 

Ms. Walker extended an invitation for the girls to come by and Gaby and Kylie were able to visit the kitchen and meet with Ms. Miller. 

The girls created a green screen Community Service Announcement in their school library to air on the school news network and the official donation drive began with hundreds of flyers going home with the students of Mt. Carmel. 

Creating a Public Service Announcement in MakerSpace

Three young girls have taken their hopes and turned them into action. The response has been steady and donations are finding their way to the organized area that this little team of community leaders has worked to organize and sort donations daily.  

Sharing this will help show our students that their ideas can become a powerful change in our community and make a difference in the life of a fellow community member.  Donations will be collected at Mt. Carmel Elementary until Wednesday, May 18^th and then delivered to the Rose of Sharon Soup Kitchen. For a list of needed items visit:  http://roseofsharonsoupkitchen.org/

Donations are Accepted till May 18, 2016

UAH Engineering Students Demo & Donate Wind Tunnel

 Team 3Allies developed a desktop wind tunnel as their senior level engineering design project, and representatives Brandon Laing and Rebecca Green shared the project in school outreach visits. Their UAH Professor, Dr. Christina Carmen helped our 2nd grade students in Ms. Janet Vines and Mrs. Michele Reid's class understand the science and application of wind tunnels. Team 3Allies donated the wind tunnel along with several grade appropriate experiments and lesson plans to Mt.Carmel Elementary. The community partnership with UAH directly impacts our students' interest in STEM careers and applications.

STEAM & STEM

MakerSpace in an idea, a space, and an opportunity at Mt. Carmel Elementary Library. As new maker mentors, the Librarian and community volunteers have been learning alongside the students. Each time we offer a session we become better at scientific exploration and learn more about the technology we are applying.  

Create a Catapult

Today was our 22nd Maker Space Friday at Mt. Carmel Elementary.  It started off with a scheduling challenge because of the winter weather early dismissal work-around, but the volunteers were ready and willing and students were eager to get started.  Our first group split into two different challenges: one of our 2nd grade student created a "how-to-video" to show fellow students how he so easily draws Captain Underpants.  That video will be placed on our blog soon.  Other students were given a bag of Mystery Materials and each student was instructed to create a device to project a pom-pom through the air.  The students quickly learned to trade materials to create their design, pushed forward with their 20 time limit to accomplish goals, and came up with many different methods of working out this challenge.  Here are a few pictures of their work in action.

Update on MakerSpace

Here at Mt. Carmel Elementary, our MakerSpace efforts were funded by a small percentage of our Scholastic Book Fair in Spring, 2015.  That said, we have been supplementing A LOT with recycled materials and donations from volunteers.  We are excited to have Sphero, Green Screen set up, our STEM Station recording booths and an OSMO.  If you know of a grant the librarian might apply for to help fund an expansion of our MakerSpace program, please email Mrs. Dunning at cdunning@madison.k12.al.us

New Books Chosen by Librarian

As a librarian, I get to know our students and their interest, issues and challenges. Here are the books from #Capstone that we received that I selected for the students

#PPG Grant Books

We were so lucky to have received a grant for $1,000 from PPG so we could have Heather L. Montgomery, children's nonfiction author visit. We included the purchase of her books we didn't have in the grant

More New Titles

New Titles!

Sharing New Stories

Ever wonder how your school librarian decides how to spend the money earned from our one fundraiser, #Scholastic Book Fair? @MTCES last fall we had our most successful book fair in eight years so we had $2,000 to work with; sounds like an awful lot but with so many books choices and reasons for choosing, it's quite a challenge to begin selection. 

In our library we have a well loved and worn Wish List 3-ring binder. Throughout the year, student and teacher request are added to the notebook. Sometimes the request might be just one title, author or subject, sometimes it may be several pages of books an entire grade level it working with for a new focus on sharing literature in their curriculum, and of course favorite titles wear out and awesome new books are published. Weighing the needs of our teachers and students is very important and the Wish List notebook is never empty. 

This week in the library we expect a couple of very important shipments from two of our favorite vendors, #Capstone and #BoundtoStayBound. Because our books are used by so many children, library binding is our preferred binding. This increases the cost of the book, but the number of circulations per book make this a worthwhile trade.  As these books are processed and ready to shelve you will  see lots of happy faces in the school library!