Glencoe-Silver Lake’s Lincoln Elementary School put its new Maker Space Lab into operation last week.
The lab is located in the new school addition’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) room, and is an extra, voluntary component of the STEM program.
“Maker Space is a great way for students to use their skills and knowledge they have acquired through our PLTW (Project Lead The Way) STEM modules and go above and beyond,” wrote Heather Peirce in a letter to parents and guardians. Peirce is the STEM lead teacher at Lincoln Elementary.
Peirce said the program is voluntary; in fact, students are allowed to come once a week during recess, or at other times they do not have regular classes.
The first Maker Space time for second graders, held during recess on Jan. 29, was fairly simple. After an introduction of what students can expect each week when they come to the Maker Space Lab, Peirce led them through a lesson on magnets. After explaining how opposite poles on magnets attract each other, and how like poles repel each other, students used magnets to propel small cars around the Maker Space room, either through attraction or repelling.
That was just a first experience — Peirce said a variety of activities and lessons will be available, including the use of Bee-bots to teach elementary computer coding skills; using Legos to construct things (a Lego wall is coming soon), SMART Table activities, the use of a 3D printer, using a GarageBand app to create music on an iPad, using microscopes that project onto computers and Geoboards on iPads and handheld boards to work on skills in math and art.
For more about the Maker Space program, see the Feb. 7 print edition of The Chronicle.
Links:
[1] http://www.glencoenews.com/category/byline/lori-copler
[2] http://www.glencoenews.com/category/section/news