Slowly but surely my (errr, my school’s) maker space is coming together. It has been one of my favorite weeks in recent memory as I have had lunch dates with my fifth graders as we constructed circuits and coded Sphero (or as it is now named Mosk-o).

The amazing moments of learning and thinking and problem-solving during these two hours this week are too numerous to begin to mention them all, so I will share a few.

The first began when we made the first circuit actually work and the light lit up on its own. There were shrieks of happiness in the media center. It’s been a long time since I have heard such a vibe of excitement in students. The vocabulary that they used as they read the workbook that came with our Circuit Scribe and created lights of varying colors as well as sound and changed the volume….you’d have to hear it to believe it!

Then two of them with birthdays approaching said they would have to ask for a kit –imagine that, science kit for their birthday. Imagine that.

These students wouldn’t leave for recess. It was the first nice day in a long time. That’s right. No outdoors. Just circuits for them.

Today’s lunch involved Sphero, a ball that one controls with an app and some basic computer coding. Once we had the the hang of it, we were chasing it through the halls of the school. They learned to control it, move it, make it spin, and change the color. 

Definitely computer coders in the making…

Looking forward to what post-spring break holds!