Tag: FabLearn

8 grandes ideas Papert’s Eight Big Ideas translation to spanish

8 grandes ideas detrás del Laboratorio Construccionista de Aprendizaje Extracto de la tesis doctoral “An Investigation of Contructionism at the Maine Youth Center” de Gary Stager 2007. La primera gran idea es aprender haciendo. Todos aprendemos mejor cuando el aprendizaje es parte de hacer algo que nos parece realmente interesante. Aprendemos de la mejor manera… Read more »

WIP 005: More Questions Than Answers

My son’s Peace and Love car entry into the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. A maker rite of passage for scouting family in the US. (My daughter’s Girl Scout troop also participates in an annual derby.) Woodshop Cowboy published a blog post this week about the experience of making a Pinewood Derby car in the home makerspace…. Read more »

How Do We Scale Up MakerEd?

What is the essential question that drives your work as a FabLearn Fellow? I spoke with Chief FabLearn Fellow Cat Herder, Sylvia Martinez, today. It was a mix of status report, pep talk and kick in the pants. In core maker educator mode, it doesn’t matter what the student has accomplished up to that point… Read more »

Mystery Artifact: Getting Started and Rubric

I’m working with Super Star Social Science educator Andrea Relator, @AndreaRelator, on a Mystery Artifact project. Over the last 2 days, we kicked off the project with 4 of her classes, taking approximately 45 minutes of class time. Students will be creating an artifact related to a specific president that illustrates the Constitutional powers of the… 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 »

3D Printing with Primary Students

When I started teaching my students about 3D printing, I limited my audience to only students in intermediate and middle school grades. I knew there could be value in also having younger students experience the process, but I wasn’t sure where to start. In my experience, many of the apps that transform 2D drawing to… Read more »

Giving as a Core Value

Whenever I go to a conference or a maker event, I bring gifts. A small topo map of Virginia for the FabLearn conference, makerspace starter kits and business card flashlights for education conferences or personalized gifts for fellow makers at Maker Faire. I’m lucky to have access to a makerspace filled with shiny tools. The… Read more »

Toy Hacking for Accessibility

One of the most impactful projects my fifth-grade students take part in is a project to hack toys to make them accessible for kids with disabilities. This simple project, that typically costs families upwards of a hundred dollars can be done for under one dollar. The toys, which began as a standard plush toy with… Read more »

Experimenting the power of Hands-on-learning

When I started working as a FabLab member and then as a FabLab manager, I never thought that it will be such a great experience in term of leadership, professional and personal development. My journey as an “African Fablaber” started 4 years ago as a volunteer with an NGO in Lomé (Togo). I used to… Read more »

My FabLearn Fellow Application

Here is my FabLearn Fellow application which I’m posting as a reference for a reflection piece at the end of the fellowship. It might also be useful for folks interested in applying for the program in the future. The FabLearn Fellows application itself was fairly straight forward requesting basic contact and job info as well as… Read more »