Authored by Rachel Scott
This year has been quite a change of pace in the Makerspace and PBL world at the Lower School. Not only are students engaging in a more integrated approach in the classrooms, 1st through 4th grade students are also spending scheduled time in the Makerspace workshop each week. Throughout the year, I want to take time to showcase the maker magic that is taking place both in the classrooms and inside the makerspace.
International Day of Peace
As you may already know, September 21st was the International Day of Peace. Students in the ECC and the Lower School spent time prior to the International Day of Peace on learning and discussing this special day, as well as brainstorming what peace means to them and how they each can spread kindness in their homes, classrooms, and greater communities.
4th grade students worked on a special project as a result of collaboration between Hailey Allin, the Lower School chaplin, Mayson McKey, Asst. Director of Global Studies, and myself, Technology Coordinator and Integration Specialist over the Makerspace. The 4th grade students in Mrs. Black’s, Mrs. Cosgrave’s, Mrs. Frame’s, and Mrs. Lin’s classes spent 2 weeks designing, and constructing their very own peace lanterns.
Students drew and traced out designs that symbolize peace and kindness. They later laser cut their designs into a thin plywood, and constructed the lanterns that were later displayed during the Lower School chapel service.
Take a look at their final peach lantern project:
Coding Competition
Each year students from several schools are invited to attend a coding competition sponsored by CSpire at the Mississippi Children’s Museum. This year, the event took place on September 14th. I was honored to bring four 4th grade students to participate in the all-day event. Grant Abston, Kaiden Ambrose, Robert Farr, and Beau Wright attended the competition where they were able to work with mentors from CSpire where they worked as a team to design and build a course. They then worked to complete the coding sequence for a Cue robot to complete the course of their own design.
It was a day full of learning new things, hard work, and lots of FUN!
I can’t wait to share more of what our little makers are working on next time!