2016 MEET UPS
TAKE AWAYS...
- Public librarians, school librarians, and classroom teachers need time to meet and collaborate.
- By working together we can help our youth to become college and career ready.
- Makerspaces and the maker movement can take many different forms depending on students, staff, support, space, and stuff.
- Making has meaningful purpose, and can help to engage people from all walks of life.
- Breakout EDU is a wonderful way to create an environment of collaboration and critical thinking.
IDEAS...
- Maker meetups at other locations every month or every other month with agendas and themes.
- Inviting other stakeholders to join the Long Island Makes consortium.
- Offer professional development to educators under the umbrella of a teacher center.
- Create a database of resources such as lesson plans, best practices, and programming.
- Find ways to create relationships with other organizations and community members.
|
|
|
TAKE AWAYS...
- Coding and robotics.
- Family Code night.
- Computational thinking, problem-solving, independence, collaboration, communication
- Presentation by a 12th grader about coding
- Coding is for everyone!
|
|
|
On November 17th I drove out to South Huntington Library to attend Long Island Leads’ “Design Thinking Maker Meet-up Meeting”. Leaving Freeport, where I work as a school librarian in an elementary school, at 4pm I found myself in quite a bit of traffic. Normally I would be feeling a bit frustrated after a long day at school, but on this day I was not. I was actually excited. I knew that the commute would be worth it. I was not disappointed!
For me, being part of this organization is a wonderful opportunity to share with other passionate educators and to learn from experts. As advertised, John Fiore from The Extraordinaires Design Studio gave a powerful presentation on the importance of integrating design thinking into our curriculum. He explained how the model of “Research-Design-Improve” translates into “Empathy-Creativity-Reflection”. It is clear that unless the student has empathy or a personal connection to a project it will be less engaging and deny the student a purpose for his efforts. His question “Who will be helped by your project today?” illuminates this point. At the end of this interactive presentation, John demonstrated how the game Extraordinaires gives teachers the ability to train their students in “Design Thinking” in a fun and user friendly way. I was convinced of this after playing with the game with the other participants. I know I can use this in my library. And lucky me …I won the game that was raffled off! Can’t wait for the next Meet-up on December 15. - Deborah Bergen
For me, being part of this organization is a wonderful opportunity to share with other passionate educators and to learn from experts. As advertised, John Fiore from The Extraordinaires Design Studio gave a powerful presentation on the importance of integrating design thinking into our curriculum. He explained how the model of “Research-Design-Improve” translates into “Empathy-Creativity-Reflection”. It is clear that unless the student has empathy or a personal connection to a project it will be less engaging and deny the student a purpose for his efforts. His question “Who will be helped by your project today?” illuminates this point. At the end of this interactive presentation, John demonstrated how the game Extraordinaires gives teachers the ability to train their students in “Design Thinking” in a fun and user friendly way. I was convinced of this after playing with the game with the other participants. I know I can use this in my library. And lucky me …I won the game that was raffled off! Can’t wait for the next Meet-up on December 15. - Deborah Bergen
|
|
|
I was lucky enough to attend the last Building STEAM Maker Workshop. I was not 100% sure what we would be doing, but I just knew it would be worthwhile because I enjoyed my experience at SLIME. I was not disappointed! I was able to take a tour of the Extreme STEAM Science Kids facility on the campus of Park Shore Day Camp. From the upstairs robotics room, to the first floor classroom, to the basement aquarium and touchtank I was excited to learn that children as young as two years old have access to these hands-on learning activities. I had a wonderful time learning how to transform a piece of paper into a beautiful Christmas tree. I also learned how to create a simple circuit with only an LED and a coin battery.
These Maker Meetup workshops provide me with a chance to learn something, and meet other people who are also interested in education and STEAM. It made me think about how I can improve on my own programs. I have already registered for the next workshop! - Leslie Sattler of Green Earth Craft, Inc.
These Maker Meetup workshops provide me with a chance to learn something, and meet other people who are also interested in education and STEAM. It made me think about how I can improve on my own programs. I have already registered for the next workshop! - Leslie Sattler of Green Earth Craft, Inc.
