By Julie McCay Turner
According to Lane School Principal Rob Ackerman, “The importance of learning by doing is often left out of formal education,” and so Maker Day came to the school’s third grade on Valentine’s Day.
According to Ackerman’s post on Facebook, the first-ever Maker Day was a success. “We had students doing woodworking, sewing, computer programming, LED projects, marble pegboard runs, catapults, origami, drawing, jewelry, snow globes, insect vacuums, disassembling of computers, mosaics, and of course Legos,” Ackerman said, ”just to name some of the activities.”
Teachers and parents of students in grade three helped to make sure that all the activities were adequately staffed. Freedom Dumlao remembered the day when things like televisions were repaired rather than replaced and wants his children to have more than a consumer’s mentality. He brought the idea for an insect vacuum to Ackerman’s attention and was on the stage in the cafeteria with Jennifer Adams, using PVC pipe, power tools and compressed air to create the vacuums with groups of students.
The computer programming activities included automating a slide show of photographs of the day into a movie; coding to make a turtle dance on a computer screen; and exploring circuit theory by holding hands in a circle, then breaking the circuit when one student moved aside. The circuitry exercise was followed by an experiment using a MaKey MaKey® kit where mini-mother boards and alligator clips harnessed the electrical power of carrots and other common materials.
A mid-morning visit to the school found students in deep concentration at each of the activities.
The Citizen is grateful to Assistant Principal Keith Kinney who graciously shared these photographs documenting the day.
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my daughter couldn’t stop talking about this, she had so much fun! Great job Lane School and all who were involved!