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