This semester at Mitchell we had two new helping hands, Sarah and Tori! With four pairs of hands, we thought we might introduce Sarah and Tori as helpers first on two projects, zines (which we had been excited about for a while, and Sarah had experience in) and boardgames (which Ben really digs as a means to collaboration and choice for the students).

So we split the students up into two groups and had one group work on zines this week, and the other on designing boardgames in groups of two or three. The following week, the groups switched. If they finished early they could work on engineering toys or other items that we had brought in.

Over the two weeks we had a lot of zines made that were very thoughtful and described what the students were interested in. Some used some Ed Emberly books to enhance their drawing skills, but some created stories of their cats or about their interest in soccer. The boardgames also turned out well, as students were encouraged to use only the materials that were presented to them in a small ziploc bag. We were happy to get Tori and Sarah used to how Michigan Makers worked by using familiar projects!