Month: January 2017

Lesson Plan: MLK March on Washington Artifact

Introduction The 1960s Civil Rights Movement sought to end segregation and discrimination against African Americans. One of the largest political rallies of the Civil Rights Movement was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. A key moment of the march was the “I have a dream” speech delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. from… Read more »

New Year’s Resolution: Meaningfully Engaging Families.

Henry Ossawa Tanner’s 1893 painting The Banjo Lesson is one of my favorite depictions of inter-generational learning. So many details from the painting illustrate my vision of what a perfect moment of mentorship looks like: The comfort and trust embodied in the way the boy is perched steadily on his grandfather’s knee. The trance of learning. The flow state. The “hard… Read more »

A good rubric for projects

It’s hard to get a good rubric to fit the type of scaffolded, interdisciplinary, team oriented, projects we often do in our classrooms/labs. Here is one that I have found pretty worthwhile. It is editable! https://www.edutopia.org/sites/default/files/resources/edutopia-dl-camarata-editable-rubric.doc edutopia-dl-camarata-editable-rubric-1

Swarm Intelligence and how it relates to Making, Design Thinking, and Creativity….

A couple of years ago I attended the 2014 WESTAF Cultural Policy Symposium, co-hosted by the California Arts Council and Gehry Partners. It had a rock star line-up of big brains talking about creativity, many of them referred to STEAM education, Makers education, and creativity. Today I was reminded of one speaker in particular of… Read more »

WIP 004: Getting Things Done

This week’s Work In Progress has a number of ideas for articles and designs that I managed to publish before uploading this post. The time from idea to product is getting shorter. I’m approaching publishing something every day or two which is a step up from my typical post every two weeks. Sylvia Martinez’s urgings to the… Read more »

How Do you Get Young Students Used to New Concepts?

Kepler Tech Lab and its middle-high school students who take after-school engineering classes and workshops have had epic November and December of 2016! Wow, I cannot imagine it’s been two months teaching young students! It was an extraordinary experience to get young students with zero knowledge about engineering and tinkering with things get started with experimenting… Read more »

Stuff for Cutting Cardboard

My daughter’s class is doing some sort of maker project and the teacher asked for students to bring in stacks of cardboard. To be helpful I grabbed a few shears from my personal makerspace and sent them in. The next day I was looking through a bin of odds and ends and ran into a… Read more »

What’s in Your Makerspace?

A common question I hear from fellow maker educators is, “What’s in your makerspace?” My school is one of 10 winners of the US Department of Education’s CTE Makeover Challenge so my answer is much different this year than last. In total, we won $50,000 in cash in prizes in addition to the existing hardware provided… Read more »

Giving a Makerspace

Today, my friend Nichole Thomas @MrsThomasTRT and I gave away a Super Deluxe Makerspace Starter Kit to a colleague. @DesignMakeTeach #lcpstrts helping TRTs. Maker space starter kit presentation. pic.twitter.com/51WKKErqMf — Joe Schwarz (@eLearnVL) January 11, 2017 Nichole and I hosted an Edcamp style session on makerspaces at the December meeting for Technology Resource Teachers (TRTs) in… Read more »

Mystery Artifact Lesson

What is this object? What does it do? What is its historical significance and value? You are professional appraiser brought in as an expert by shows such as Antiques Roadshow, American Pickers and Pawn Stars to determine the value of an unknown artifact. Your job is to research the object and give a 3 minute… Read more »