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This Week in the Classroom: Cajón Drums
Cajón drums are wood drums native to South America with deeper roots in the Africa. The cajon is a wood rectangular prism, with two thin faces. One of the thin sides, usually the back, has a large...
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This Week in the Classroom: 3D Printed Pinhole Camera
Last spring, I had the opportunity to teach one of my dream units: Light and Waves. We completed three projects during this time: camera obsuras, cajon drums and a pinhole camera. This 3D-printed...
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This Week in the Classroom: DIY Wood Covered Lab Notebooks
This fall, I opened the classroom with a very simple (sort-of) multi-media project for my students. Last year, I piloted a number of different end-of-project reflection formats (long form, short form,...
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Top Five Maker Projects for the Beginning Maker Ed Teacher
Do you want to get into Making and Maker Ed? Don’t know where to start? Don’t have a makerspace? No problem! Here’s five ideas, classroom tested, which can be built using a minimum of tools for...
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This Week in the Classroom: 3D Printed Pinhole Camera
Last spring, I had the opportunity to teach one of my dream units: Light and Waves. We completed three projects during this time: camera obsuras, cajon drums and a pinhole camera. This 3D-printed...
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This Week in the Classroom: A MakerEd Pathway Into Computer Science
This year, I invested more time than ever to developing a pathway into coding for my most reluctant learners. I also researched extensions for the handful of young people who can really stretch my...
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The Home Makerspace: The Museum Display (Dioramas To Win the Science Fair)
Here’s a cool project that takes an old standby, the diorama, and adds a little Maker flair to it. The diorama incorporates a MakeyMakey, laptop and Scratch programming environments to turn a stand...
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The Home Makerspace: The Autodesk 123D Suite
This week I took some time to explore Autodesk’s 123D family of CAD/surface modeler/maker-magic software. 123D uses cloud-based social community and project storage to allow makers to sculpt, design,...
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#MakerED Book Review: 3D CAD with Autodesk 123D #makerspace
As I detailed in my most recent post, 123D is a free suite of CAD tools for the creative maker/designer. It acts as an introduction to CAD modeling for beginner and intermediate users. Through 123D,...
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Home #Makerspace: Decoupage #makered Treasure Boxes
My sons love treasure boxes. It doesn’t matter if the boxes are big, small or medium-sized. Nor do they care to actually keep track of their little treasures or can they be bothered placing stuff in...
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Home #Makerspace: Two Tools to Teach #CompSci & #Coding to #MakerEd Youngsters
The last five years have seen an explosion in Maker Edu-themed products geared for the younger set. Young kids make enthusiastic makers. They love challenging puzzles, approachable crafts and as long...
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Home #Makerspace: Natural Material Sculptures & Glue Gun Safety
Rachelle Dooley of TinkerLab is one of my go-to arts blogs and one of my favorite small-person maker-educators. She has a fantastic book, Tinkerlab: A Hands-On Guide for Little Inventors, and blog,...
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Home #Makerspace: The Bread Box Project #woodworking #makerEd
This quick project makes a great starter box for grown woodworkers, but it especially shines as an approachable young person skill builder. This slick box teaches three major skills: measurement,...
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Home #Makerspace: Miter Boxes for #Woodworking #Makered
Sometimes, young (and old…) woodworkers can use a little help sawing a board accurately, especially if the board must have a specific angle or length. A miter box helps a woodworker saw a 90 or 45...
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Home #Makerspace: Making Geometric Nets with Vinyl Cutter
In this project, young makers use a vinyl cutter to cut and score geometric nets, connecting 2D shapes to 3D prisms, polyhedrons, etc. They learn to recognize the difference between two and...
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Home #Makerspace: Simple Kid’s Game Boards for Young Makers #Woodworking
For young children, games aren’t just fun – games provide vital, necessary childhood lessons. Games teach us to deal with loss, how to cooperate, work towards a goal and become devious, clever problem...
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Home #Makerspace: Halloween Pumpkin String Lights #3DPrinting #makered Project
Here’s a great “getting started” 3D printing project for young #MakerEd students. It combines rudimentary circuit knowledge, gross motor skills and safe tool use. It costs about $5 to make...
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Home #Makerspace: The Bench Hook is a Secret Weapon for #Woodworkers
Bench hooks are portable work surfaces used to make basic woodworking tasks, such as crosscutting boards and drilling holes, easier to perform. As a bonus, they help protect the surface of your...
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Home #Makerspace: A Small Bookshelf Using Only Hand Tools
This week we will build a small, simple shelf to practice our hand tool skills. We will learn the rip cut and how to use the coping saw successfully. We will assemble and hang our shelf using wood...
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Home #Makerspace: How to Saw (for Young and Beginning #Woodworkers)
I use Japanese-style saws exclusively in my classroom and home shop because I have young makers. I love the quick bite and accuracy of a pull stroke, the low cost and high quality, but mostly, enjoy...
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