I recently had the privilege of attending the ITEC Conference in Des Moines, Iowa. I was able to attend some great sessions by Aaron Maurer. His hands on sessions highlighted how powerful play/tinkering can be in the classroom. Upon returning to my 5th graders, I have been working on the idea of a Maker Space within my classroom. I want to harness the power of students being able to tinker, play, invent, collaborate and learn from the successes and failures along the way. One challenge was gathering the materials that I needed to launch this space in my classroom. I contacted a local bank, The University of Iowa Community Credit Union, about a grant. They had an online application that I could fill out and submit for a grant. They were awesome and supportive of my proposal. They will be providing some significant funds to purchase materials to get my Maker Space up and going. Thanks to the Credit Union! To keep track of my Maker Space ideas, I began cataloging items in a spreadsheet. You can see the document embedded below. You can access the most recent version by clicking here. Pixel Press Floors To kick off my maker space, we began with the app Pixel Press Floors. If you are unfamiliar with this app, check out this video. In a nutshell, it is an app that lets students design their own video games. On the education portion of Pixel Press' website, they have pre-made lesson plans. They have a one day lesson plan as well as a five day lesson plan. They are very easy to follow and perfect for opening your students' eyes to all the possibilities. My class will be using the five day lesson plan. We kicked off the new maker space along with Pixel Press Floors today. We watched the video and then I let the students play levels from the arcade to begin exploring some of the different elements they may want to add to their own designs. Tomorrow we will begin creating our interview questions and interviewing "gamers" to develop empathy in the design process. My students are super excited to work through this project. I will be documenting our journey. Can't wait to see what they learn as well as what I will be able to learn along the way. Share This:
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Andrew FenstermakerInstructional Technology Coordinator | Innovation Coach | Google Certified Innovator | Presenter | Blogger | Adjunct @UiowaEducation | Owner @kids_f_i_r_s_t |