Monthly Archives: April 2018

Michigan Makers at Scarlett, Winter 2018, Session 10: Smaller Notebooks & Videogame Breakthrough

Again, in response to a student request, we tried another, smaller version of handmade notebooks, this time half-sized, with less sewing and thinner cardboard. We also made great strides in Bloxels game creation as we introduced a storyboard to plan out levels. We challenged the students to create at least six rooms for the character to navigate through. More attention was also helpful for students to ask questions of the mentors and be challenged at every step of the way. Stay tuned for our final week this week!

 
MM@ Scarlett 4/5/2018

Michigan Makers at Scarlett, Winter 2018, Session 8 & 9: Small Sewing & Cardboard Challenge

MM@Scarlett 3/22/2018
 

The next two weeks we had smaller groups as students were eager to get to spring break or were balancing other responsibilities. We had a lesson on sewing small monsters, but some people stuck with pillows because they were so tired! The week after that was a Cardboard Design Challenge that had some good engagement at first, but quickly dissipated as they reached something that satisfied them. One student really enjoyed the simple action of punching holes in the cardboard and then screwing in the MakeDo screws.

 

 

Michigan Makers at Scarlett, Winter 2018, Session 7: Variety is the Spice of Life

MM@Scarlett 3/8/2018

This week we had a wide range of activities: we returned with the sewing machine for any applique additions to the notebooks, but also had stop motion with a great Lego book and Bloxels for the students first introduction to videogame creation. We had a lot of fun, but there was much more “testing” of the videogames than actual creation. We made some progress on introducing the concepts though!

Michigan Makers at Scarlett, Winter 2018, Session 5 & 6: Zines & Handsewn Notebooks

MM@Scarlett: 2/8/2018

This week, we made Zines with the students! Having a few artists in the group meant that they got the chance to shine, but all the students enjoyed getting a chance to write something that was important to them!

We also took a suggestion for the following week about making our own notebooks using hand-sewing techniques. This was probably our most successful project from start to finish! We prepped the “signatures” (collections of blank pages, to be sewn together), with thumbtack-punched holes (6) down the middle. We also prepped several hand-sewing needles. The method for sewing them together was a little difficult for the students to understand, even with demonstrations and diagrams, but most of them eventually completed the sewing together of the signatures.

We then had several pieces of old clothing in different styles for the students to choose from for their cover of their notebook. One student really wanted the breast pocket to be on the front of his notebook! Others chose leather as their cover. This project took the whole 90 minute session and students left with something that was able to be used right away. Some students wanted to created addtional appliques for their notebooks in the coming weeks as well.

 
MM@Scarlett: 2/15/2018
 

Michigan Makers at Scarlett, Winter 2018, Session 4: Light Up T-Shirt Bracelets

MM@Scarlett: 2/1/2018
 

One of our most successful projects this semester was making T-Shirt Light Up Bracelets! We pre-cut rectangles of cloth from different colored t-shirts and gave students the option of picking their favorite color.

The students then sewed a simple straight line to make the rectangle into a tube. (Some of them stopped after this point and simply made an arm sleeve with no bulb or battery.) Then they took a battery and an LED bulb of their color choice and put the battery inside the tube and poked the LED wires through the fabric. To create an on/off button, the sleeve was turned inside-out and double-sided tape was positioned in such a way that the wire would only touch the battery when pressed!

Finally, the kids measured the bracelet around their wrist and made one more sewing line. We could imagine this with hand-sewing as well, but it was an extremely easy introduction to the sewing machine for many of the students!

 

 

Michigan Makers at Scarlett, Winter 2018, Session 3: Boardgames

MM@Scarlett: 1/25/2018
 

This week we wanted students to work as teams to create boardgames. We thought starting with boardgames could make an easy transition into videogames but the pathway wasn’t so clear. Students were very happy to make boardgames together though — we had a lot of cool ideas! Check out these pictures.

As the students wanted more exposure to videogames, we had considered Scratch, but the open-ended nature of the platform usually led to them just playing already-made videogames within a few minutes.

 

 

Michigan Makers at Scarlett, Winter 2018, Sessions 1 & 2

MM@Scarlett:1/18/2018
Returning to Scarlett we had contacted the after-school coordinator Sal Barrientes, and he had promoted our club more broadly throughout the school and when we returned we had more than double the students we had last semester! We almost ran out of buttons for students to make!

Our first couple sessions involved brainstorming what sessions would be most engaging for the students. We heard multiple students ask for building their own videogames and a couple for slime as well. Other suggestions, like “robots”, were a little beyond our abilities, but we tried to tease out what exactly the students wanted.

We also re-introduced the concept of Design Challenges, but students felt a little constrained by them. Since we had so many new students, we decided to do backstitching with them, but challenged them to first start with a sketch and a plan for how they wanted to use the completed design — what item would they end up ironing it onto back home?

 

 

Michigan Makers at Mitchell, Winter 2018, Sessions 7 & 8: Electric Jewelry & Cardboard Challenge

MM@Mitchell 3/13/2018: Cardboard and electric Jewelry

Our final set of projects over the last two weeks were Electric Jewelry (with Kristin and Ben) and a Cardboard Design Challenge (spearheaded by Sarah).

Similar to flashlights, but allowing for much more room for decoration and individual expression, our electric jewelry consisted of small LED bulbs with coincell batteries, and decorative/colored duct-tape. The students chose a duct-tape type, measured their wrists, and were able to use what they had learned previously to connect the bulb to the battery, then decorate their bracelets with knick-knacks which they hot-glued on.

Sarah’s Cardboard Challenge was a great success, engaging many of the students for the entire 90 minutes. Using our Design Thinking Game set of cards, each group of students was challenged to make an item for a specific audience (e.g. a Fat Cat, or a Librarian), that served some purpose (something to Relax, something to wear on the feet). A major design constraint was only using cardboard and MakeDo screws and plastic saws. It was amazing watching the students work together and stay focused after they had decided how to narrow down the scope of the challenge!

We sent the students home with two paper bags of junk from the junk box so they could keep making during their spring break! Many students sought out our autographs on things they had made as this was their last meeting with us. We’ll miss you all! Special thanks to Ms. Duncan the librarian, and Principal Matt Hilton for organizing such a successful semester!

 
MM@Mitchell 3/20/2018
 

Michigan Makers at Mitchell, Winter 2018, Sessions 5 & 6: ZineFest, Toy-Takeapart, Michigan ZOOMin

MM@Mitchell 2/20/2018
 

We had our ZineFest! Having the students sign their own work and hand it out to their peers was very exciting for them. We went around collecting zines from each author. We hope this small taste of authorship will continue to inspire and motivate the students to create something that means something to them.

After our successful mini-ZineFest, the students could participate in two mentor-led sessions: toy-takeapart, or finger-puppets. We also allowed students to just draw or continue with some of the projects from the previous weeks. Toy-takeapart continues to be an engaging project for students to work on as they puzzle over what’s inside their toys and how to make progress. Finger-puppets were a relaxing way to create small, inexpensive items for the students. We continued toy-takeapart the next week for those that didn’t get a chance to participate, and we also added crochet for those that found finger-knitting to be the most engaging.

Finally, we experimented with adding a couple of computers set up to use Michigan ZOOMin, a Zooniverse project by a professor at University of Michigan that can help students learn about Michigan wildlife by identifying pictures of deer, bears, raccoons, and other wildlife from trap cameras set  up around the state. This Citizen Science project helps students take part in real research and learn about animals along the way. We had a few students take part in this and they identified over 50 pictures!

 
MM@Mitchell 3/6/2018