All posts by Ben Rearick

Michigan Makers at Scarlett, Fall 2017, Meeting #2: Stop Motion

Click to play!
Click to play!

It’s boy versus girls in the ultimate stop motion movie show off! Today we combined the digital with the physical in creating stop motion movies. We had an even number of boys and girls show up, so when it was time to split up into teams they divided themselves up into a competition of the sexes. Through this activity personalities and leadership styles set the members apart and in some cases caused a little bit of conflict. The teams took radically different approaches and each came out with a movie in the end.

For the girls, one girl took on the role of the leader. She knew exactly what story she wanted to do so she took charge. She became the director, producer, writer and actor in one fell swoop. We tried to encourage story boarding to get the ideas flowing and create a coherent story but the girls were more interested in just jumping in. They used Legos, wax sticks, paper, fabric, and other materials to create their characters and scenery. They story was of a girl going to a haunted house. I encouraged one of the quieter girls to take charge of taking the pictures that would turn into the movie, while encouraging the other to speak up and participate. Their movie, while completed, was not the cleanest. Some pictures were blurry and the camera was not always held in the same spot so not all of the transitions were smooth. In a lot of their shots you could see their hands moving the pieces. Even so, they were proud that they had finished. In the future, it would be helpful to encourage them to think about ways in which they can improve their finished product.

The boys had a more difficult time with their production. In the beginning a lot of ideas were flowing and they really took to storyboarding their films. It took a while for them to transition into making props and filming. Compared to the girls, the boys took the tasks more seriously. There was some trial and error when it came to creating a device that would keep the camera in the same spot, ultimately they decided to hold the phone very still and hope that worked. Once they got started their attempts were fraught with technological complications. In the beginning there was debate on whether to have the app automatically take pictures or if they would manually take pictures. The automatic pictures went too quickly and it created a frantic energy in the group. For their movie the plan was to have a time lapse of them creating a building with Legos. There were debates on which Legos would go on in which order, along with debates on the sizes and types. The whole process seemed to create an energy of tension, riddled with minor disagreements and a constant feeling of being rushed against the clock. Unfortunately, when they did produce a film it was deleted by mistake. These boys were not willing to give up and kept working until they at the end of the day had a short GIF of the word “FAIL” written with Legos- which seemed to be their opinion on the whole process. While it didn’t work out they did not seem overly frustrated.

Both groups came at the challenge with a different perspective and mindset. While no group was particularly successful they both had fun. This is a challenge that I think will only get better with more practice and time for trial and error.

Michigan Makers at Scarlett, Fall 2017, Meeting #1: Monster Pillows

It’s the first day of Michigan Makers at Scarlett for the 2017-2018 school year! Today as an introduction into making we are making monster pillows. Monster pillows are pillows made with felt, thread, and embellishments, to create cute or scary monsters. Some of the skills the students will be learning are using a straight stitch or overcast stitch to close the edges of their monsters.

The students were ready to jump in once we introduced ourselves. There were a lot of questions about how to thread needles, and how to get started. However, once they mastered their basic stitch of choice they were ready to go all for it. Some went from crazy shapes out of the felt while others made more traditional square pillow shapes. For colors we had a couple different options making this a fun cast of monsters. Some students quickly learned that the larger the shape and the smaller the stitches the longer it took to finish sewing the pieces together to get to the stuffing and decorating part.

For decorations there was a big box of junk. The best part was exploring the box to see what was inside and see what could be made with all the random pieces of stuff. One student found a necklace that lit up when a switch was hit. There was plenty of yarn and string. As the items got more unique so too did the final monster creations. Even those who were not able to finish had fun monsters to show for it at the end of the day.

Slides for Makerspaces Library 2.017 Webinar

Decorative - logo for Library 2.017 conference on makerspaces

Ben and Kristin are presenting today at the Library 2.017 mini-conference on makerspaces.

If you’d like to see our work in action, check out our Flickr page.

Ben’s Summer Reflection

I always feel a distant sort of sadness when I see Buzzfeed style list posts about the dozen most beautiful libraries, or other such lists because they reinforce the idea that books and buildings are what make up a library. It’s completely true that a physical space and a collection are necessary for a library to exist, but the context (community, history, overall setting) and the people (librarians, community organizations, patrons) make up much more of the library-as-imagined.

With all that said here’s a list of seven lessons (to represent the seven different places our team went this summer) I learned from traveling all over Michigan, focusing on the context and the people:

  1. There are smart, very active librarians all over Michigan who are deeply in touch with their community. They are running programs and regularly adjusting for needs that come up within their communities.
  2. Librarians are interested in reaching out to the people in their community who aren’t there. They are reaching out and doing the work to identify the people who aren’t coming through the doors.
  3. Librarians love to tell stories — about their impact, their patrons, successful programs they’ve run. Our workshops were heavily seasoned with these stories, and of course we repeatedly shared the ones we heard!
  4. Community members can be spark plugs for change, and librarians can identify these people. The community members we met through our workshops were dedicated to improving their communities and many of them have the time and commitment to make change happen.
  5. The Maker Movement is defined by the people who are doing the moving. In the rural setting, we’ve seen the physicality and creativity shine through over technology much of the time. Librarians learn from teachers and are able to implement learning activities that teachers don’t always have time for.
  6. People of all ages hunger for programs emphasizing making, creativity, and agency. While following a set of instructions can be great, injecting the stale directions with a bit of individual flair, or better yet, having a challenge that can be solved in a multitude of ways can be extremely empowering for people of all ages.
  7. Librarians in conjunction with communities can solve many problems, including small scale economic development. There’s much more thinking to be done on this topic, but we think that libraries in rural settings can be agents of change for younger entrepreneurs to take their first steps. By combining the impact of fellow entrepreneurs, Kristin likes to say that they can be “amplifying” forces.

That’s all from me on the topic of the summer. Thanks to everyone for their hard work this summer! It couldn’t have happened without all of you! Stay tuned for more events this fall, including time at local Ann Arbor schools!

Workshop in Houghton Lake: Creating Design Challenges

We had a great final workshop in Houghton Lake by learning more about the usefulness of Design Challengs for libraries and schools.

We started by introducing our design thinking game. We then explained the design thinking cycle and had the participants complete one iteration of it. We finished by exploring other subject areas and how they can use design challenges as well.

Check out our folder of resources here. More pictures can be found here on our Flickr. Stay tuned for more events in Benzonia and around the state this fall!

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Workshop in Coopersville: Selling Handmade Goods Online

Our final workshop in Coopersville was on how libraries can amplify the work of beginning or intermediate sellers of online arts or crafts. Here are our resources from the workshop.

We taught the participants of the importance of photography, and SEO, as well as brainstormed potential ways the library could help surface sellers from its own community.

For connecting sellers, we including several examples of ways that other libraries have been able to amplify the sellers in their community.

Finally, we included a brief overview of several sites that stock inventory and can be used especially with budding entrepreneurs or artists.

Check out our Flickr for photos of the event. And let others know about our remaining events in Coopersville and Benzonia.

Workshop in Coopersville: Creating Design Challenges

Our final day in Coopersville started off with everyone showing up early (including us!), and learning about how to balance open-endedness with structure to increase creativity among students or people at our programs. Here are the resources from the day.

We started by introducing the room to Strawbees, and had some fantastic responses to our first challenge.

Then we broke down the design thinking cycle so participants could implement it. They went outside in the sprinkling rain and research each other’s vehicle dashboards.

Eventually, after going through the steps of the design thinking cycle, they made prototypes with cardboard (and junk box materials — and Strawbees) and Make-Do screws.

Finally, we introduced the idea of a challenge not simply based around technology, but rather drama, with our paper puppet people. After getting used to the movement, participants did short skits.

Check out more photos on our Flickr. And let others know about our remaining events in Coopersville and Benzonia.

Workshop in Coopersville: Fashion Hacking Full Day

We had a lot of fun learning about fashion hacking today in Coopersville! Here are our slides and other info from the day.

Due to the high amount of knowledge in the room we tweaked our usual run-through and covered some of the theory behind fashion hacking.

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We discussed different uses for a t-shirt, including costumes for kids and dog toys. Yarn from t-shirts was another topic.

sewing

It wasn’t long before our participants were making some pretty amazing things. We even had several finished pieces before lunch!

hackfash

In the afternoon, we were able to teach the participants about making stencils using a Silhouette machine. Additionally, we taught them about how fun kids find the button-maker.

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Hope you can join us at some of our remaining events throughout the summer. Check out the rest of our pictures at our Flickr album here.