I wanted to start by introducing myself. My name is Stephanie Ghee and I am the teacher’s assistant for VAMPY MakerSpace this year. Day 1 has already been a great success. We started off by discussing prior interests as well as the student’s interests. All the students vary in their experience and interests, which has been great for the group building activities. The students really used their strengths to help their group complete the tasks given to them.
The first activity was to build a castle. The teachers built a castle made of styrofoam cups and other random materials and hid it from the class. One student from each group was then allowed to peek at the castle for 1 minute and return what they gathered to their group. Each group was to replicate the castle model, but was to also make it more stable. The ending results were awesome.
The final activity we worked on today was a Rube Goldberg machine activity. The students created “simple” machines to complete a task. They could use any materials they wanted to either turn on a light, put play-doh in its container, or knocking down the styrofoam castle that was built earlier in the day. The machines involved flying balloons, falling hammers, ramps, battery powered fans, and so much more just to complete this small task. Each group did an amazing job. We are looking forward to the many exciting things to come and I will keep you posted with posts and pictures.
Thanks,
Stephanie Ghee