Rocket Launch-Take 2

This past week, the Makers (Coding & Robotics club) finally launched their rockets that they had designed with the Tarleton State Aeronautics team! It was a beautiful spring day, albeit a little breezy, and we were very excited to get outside and see how our rockets performed!

Before we headed outside, we made some last minute adjustments to our rockets. The students listened carefully as Michael and Andrew explained what we were going to do.

Michael & Andrew, from the TSU Rocket Team, arranged three launch sites, positioned on the hill behind our school. This made for a wonderful viewing area. The students lined up to watch the rockets blast off.

Most times, the rockets would go off without a hitch, but every so often adjustments would have to be made before the rocket would launch.

The students were thrilled when their rocket would go off, and then would race to the landing site to collect it. Here are most of the launches, including the rocket launch from the week before. It is so fun to listen to their squeals of excitement!




Curtis Elementary students loved having this experience and truly appreciate all of the time and effort Michael and Andrew put into this project. We also appreciate Dr. Keith Emmert who connected us with the Tarleton State University Aeronautics program. This has been a great learning experience for all of us!

Actually, It Is Rocket Science!

This week, some of our students Skyped with members of the Tarleton State Aeronautical Team, or Rocket Team as we are calling them. 

Dr. Keith Emmert, our parent volunteer who helps lead our maker club, is a math professor at Tarleton State University, and he helped arrange this partnership. The plan is for the rocket team to Skype with our 5th and 6th graders, as well as our after school maker club. Then the team will visit Curtis in March, bringing their 3D printer and rockets. Fifth and Sixth grade students will be able to watch the team launch one of their rockets, after learning more about rockets and seeing their 3D printer up close.

On Tuesday, our 5th graders Skyped with the team. Michael Daigrepont and Andrew Olbrich, explained about the competitions they participate in, shared the process of building their rockets, and answered questions from the group. 

The students were very interested in how high the rockets could go and how much it costs to build the rockets! They were also able to see video footage from a competition and footage shot from inside the rocket! It was interesting to learn what all is involved in a competition, including how they track their rockets.

The rocket team, now including Suleima Rangel, repeated their presentation with our after school maker club. 

The maker club was excited to learn that they would be able to work with a partner to design their own rocket to launch. The Tarleton rocket team will use their 3D printer to print these pieces and bring them with them for our rocket day! 

The rocket team explained how their 3D printer works, and showed students some of the things that they have printed. Dr. Keith brought rocket parts that had been printed so students understood what they were selecting for their own rockets.

For our the last Skype for the week, our 6th graders listened intently as Michael explained all about their competitions, 3D printing, and what would take place during their visit on March 4th. 

During this Skype, we had approximately 20 visitors come in from the Weatherford Chamber of Commerce Leadership group.  We were happy to have them see the great things that are happening in Weatherford ISD and in education in general!

To say we are excited about the visit from the Tarleton Rocket team is an understatement! Stay tuned for news of our rocket launch! More information about the Tarleton Rocket team can be found at www.tsuaeronautics.org and on Twitter at TSUAeronautics.

Robotics, Coding & Beyond

The new year brought new members to our after school Robotics & Coding club. We had 30 students in the library for the first meeting of 2015. Thankfully, we also had two parents helping!

It was so fun to see the number of students who had received either a Sphero or an Ollie for Christmas! I encouraged them to bring their own Sphero & device, and they did!

The first thing we did was participate in a Google Hangout with a young man who has graduated with a degree in computer science and currently works as a programmer. Aaron happens to be friends with my oldest daughter and was kind enough to visit with our students about opportunities they might have if they learn computer coding.

He works in Austin, Texas for a start up company, but has also worked for Samsung. Aaron shared how he has people who approach him about jobs, having received an email just that day about a job opportunity. I wanted the students to know that although it is fun playing with the Sphero robotics balls, that it could lead to more. With House Bill 5, students will choose a focus in high school. One of the strands is STEM. Robotics and coding feed right into this, and I hope that through our after school club, students might decide that this is something they are interested in.

The students listened intently as Aaron shared that he did not do any coding until he got into college and how he was impressed that they were doing these things in elementary school. It was also very interesting to hear him say that the majority of the people he works with are men, but the few women he works with are very talented. We have quite a few girls in the club, and I saw smiles on their faces as he said this. It made me wonder how many of them might go into this field when they finish school.

After we finished visiting with Aaron, Dr. Keith talked to the students about an early form of coding-- Morse code. Some of the students were familiar with Morse code, and were excited to share what they knew. Dr. Keith talked to the students about using Morse code to program the Sphero balls. 

We are using the SPRK Education Program on the Sphero website. These lessons are a great way to extend the learning with Sphero. With these lessons, students learn to program Sphero and Ollie, instead of just driving them with an iPad app. 

Our after school club keeps growing and it will be exciting to see what all they learn this school year. I would love to hear from others who are using Sphero robotics balls and Ollies in the elementary school. 

Coding & Robotics Week 3

This week, during our Coding & Robotics club time, our students were actually able to program the Sphero Robotics balls using the app MacroLab.  Thankfully, Dr. Keith explained all of this to the students!

He started our club time by showing the students that they could actually do more with the Sphero balls that just drive them using the iPads as a remote control. Using our big screen, he demonstrated how to command the Sphero to do what you want it to do using an app called Sphero Macrolab.

Basic programming was explained to the students, as well as degrees and angles. The Sphero Macrolab site says, "The macro system we have developed for Sphero has very practical applications, such as teaching kids procedural thinking and basic programming skills."

It was very exciting to watch the students actually program the Sphero instead of driving it with the iPad app. There was definitely collaboration and critical thinking involved in this process, as pairs of students worked together to drive the Sphero ball.

iPads ready with the Sphero MacroLab app

The students did a great job of applying what Dr. Keith had taught them, and Sphero balls were buzzing all around the library! 

A few students worked with the new Sphero Ollie, using their own device to control it. We had a little difficulty finding the right device to pair with it as it seems our iPads are too old for the app to work. Luckily, a couple of our students had newer devices and downloaded the app. That is a great thing about being a BYOD campus! Someone usually has a device that will work!

As if learning to program the Sphero balls weren't enough, we also brought out the new Makey-Makey we received through Donors Choose. I have to admit that I have been a little intimidated by the Makey-Makey, but the students (with the help of Dr. Keith) figured it out quickly! We even had students come in during lunch the next day to explore it more!

Next week we will continue to learn programming using the Sphero ball and the Sphero Ollie. After the Christmas break we will bring in new members to learn coding and robotics, while the current members continue learning. It is exciting to hear the students talking about coding, coming into the library during lunch, recess and any free time, to work with the computers or Sphero balls! 

Robotics and Coding Club

Curtis students met for the second time last week  for the Robotics & Coding club. This session there are four weeks and students will be able to work with the Sphero robotics balls & Ollies for 2 weeks and code for two weeks. We are using Code.org for coding, as well as other sites that can be found on our Coding Symbaloo.

With 20 members in the club, and more wanting to join each day, having help is necessary. Thankfully, we have a parent who enjoys working with the students. Dr. Keith Emmert also happens to be a math professor at a nearby university so that is an added bonus! In addition to Dr. Keith, as the kiddos call him, we also had two high school students who were working for community service hours. This was a big help! 

The students loved the addition of the Ollies to the robotics club. We did have a little difficulty finding a device that would run the app. It seems are library iPads are too old to run it, and even my phone wouldn't run the app. Fortunately, two students had devices that would run the app, so we were able to see how they worked.

The plan will be to continue to work with these students with coding & robotics, even after the four weeks are up, and then bring in more students. 

There was a tweet recently that said something to the effect of "it isn't possible if you don't know it is possible". This is one of the main reasons we are introducing coding to our students. As they move through middle school and high school, they will pick a track to focus on. As the code.org site says in one of their videos, approximately one million jobs may go unfilled due to not having a skilled workforce for computer coders. Maybe a few of our students will choose to learn more. We have one student who created an app after participating in Hour of Code last year.

Grant explaining his app to Mrs. Rife

It is fun to see students becoming more comfortable with coding and operating the Sphero & Ollie. As we head into Hour of Code week, I'm excited to see what they discover! One thing I've learned is that I don't have to be an expert at something before I open it up to students. If I waited until I was comfortable with coding and robotics, our club would never have started. I am learning right beside my students!

Maker Clubs Finish Strong! Spooky Creations

Today we wrapped up the first session of our maker clubs and it was incredible to hear our students share what they learned from this experience. As parents began to enter the library for our presentation, there was a flurry of activity. The students were creating until the very last minute!

We had a full house, and the students were excited to show their creations! The maker club had created a haunted house, a graveyard with rotating tombstones, a spider and a scorpion. One of our Curtis parents, Dr. Keith Emmert worked with this group and the students really enjoyed having him lead their group. The green screen club had used those items, created a script, uploaded images and, using the Do Ink green screen app,  created a haunted movie. 

It was very impressive how eloquently the students explained what they did and what they learned. One student shared how even though what they were doing was "hard, really hard!" it made them want to do more and try harder.

Each student had the opportunity to speak, and I was so proud of their courage! They not only took ownership of their clubs, they took ownership of this presentation. I loved how one student talked about how they weren't always successful, that there were definite failures during the learning process. They talked about working together, not giving up, getting better at what they were doing, and thanked Dr. Keith a lot! 

After everyone spoke who wanted to, we showed their green screen creations, which highlighted the maker club's creations! There were a few giggles as they saw their haunted movies on the big screen. There was even requests to watch their "bloopers"! We will upload the creations to our YouTube channel so that students can see them again.

Here are some pictures of our time together. We met one day a week for five weeks. Some students came in during recess to work on their projects. 



The first session of the maker clubs was a success in everyone's eyes! Parents were proud, students were proud, and there was a very proud librarian! I can't wait to see what our next group accomplishes! Our next session will be basic programming using the Sphero robotics ball. Students are really excited about it!

We Make It Wednesdays-- Maker Clubs Begin!

One of the goals for the library this year is to have maker clubs with specific projects. Last year, our only maker club was a digital maker club. This club met throughout the year and used digital tools to promote reading. This year, with our makerspace stocked with all kinds of awesome things, we needed to provide opportunities for our students to use the space. Thanks to a Donors Choose project that was funded, we received the Hokki stools shown below. 

We also added MakeyMakeys and a Sphero robotics ball thanks to many donors, but the items we are using for the first maker club session were received through our Weatherford ISD Education Foundation. The littleBits, K'Nex, and Legos would all be put to use, as well as many craft items that we have stocked the makerspace with. littleBits are one of our students favorite things to use in the makerspace. If you aren't familiar with LittleBits, they are electronic modules that snap together with magnets. They are very easy to use and the students LOVE them!

A couple of parents had mentioned volunteering their time to help in the makerspace, so I visited with one at the beginning of the school year. Fortunately, he has knowledge and experience that lends itself to making. After talking, it was decided that we would have two clubs-- one a maker club (for creating with different objects) and one a media maker club (to use our new green screen) and then we would combine the two to create a haunted movie.

Students had to complete an application, sharing why they wanted in the club, and get a teacher recommendation. We were able to get all of the students in that turned in an application, which made me very happy. This was possible due to having an extra person, so I was very appreciative of Dr. Keith's help with our maker clubs!

The first meeting was this past Wednesday and the students were very excited! We met together as one big group and talked about what our goals were for the first session of maker clubs. We then separated into the two clubs. 

Maker club students gathered around Dr. Keith as he talked about circuits with them. He had built a ferris wheel and connected some of the littleBits to it. 

There were lots of "ooohs" and "aahhhs" as the students watched Dr. Keith connect the circuits to create buzzers, lights, and more. Then the students were given the opportunity to explore all of the pieces of the makerspace.

Also during this time, the media maker club was discovering how the green screen worked. Previously, I had contacted the creators of a green screen app called DoInk. They had shared some great tutorials for using the green screen, one of which we watched together during our meeting. It was created by dc2Norfolk and is shown below.

The students then worked to find images to use to create spooky scenes that would go into their haunted movie. Our hope is that the maker club will create the buildings and objects that will be in the movie, and the media maker club will take pictures and add those to their green screen creation. 

It seems that our first meeting was a success! We are excited to see what this week brings!