[Activity 2] Make Something!

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Welcome to Project week!

This week we invite you to make something!

The possibilities are endless, and that can be intimidating.
So here are some suggestions to help you get started!

You can make something:

  • very big, very small, green, sweet, loud, unusual, …
  • in your kitchen, in a makerspace, outside, …
  • with paper, with wood, with Scratch, …
  • for yourself, for someone else, for work, for fun, …

It can be something you do only for this week, or a piece of a bigger project you’d like to work on.

When you are ready, reply to this post to share your project (picture, link, and/or description) and a reflection about your process.

As you reflect on your process, here are some questions to possibly consider:

How did you get the idea? What was a challenge you encountered? What would you do if you had more time? How did the suggested constraints influence how you approached the activity?

We are excited to see what you’ll make this week, and how you’ll make it! :smiley:

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I’ll try to come up with something new to do with the kids this week, but since this is already available I want to go ahead and share two. The first one is from when I was teaching high school and was well documented by the district so I think it is worth sharing: The Arcade Project - YouTube

The second one is my kids two weeks ago. They are 3 and 5, and here they are designing a video game out of Lego bricks: Egg Hunt Project for Mommy - YouTube
This is also my current passion project. That is to say helping other kids/families do the same thing. I think the ideal next step would be something similar to SkyParade (help wanted): SkyParade: an Invitation for Open Ended Creativity With LEGO : 6 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables

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Salve in questi giorni sto costruendo delle bambole per uno spettacolo con gli alunni; l’anno scorso era il centenario della nascita di Giorgio Strehler , il teatro Piccolo di Milano ha proposto un corso ai docenti e un spettacolo teatrale per i bambini LA STORIA DELLA BAMBOLA ABBANDONATA.
Perciò ho ideato con gli alunni una nuova rappresentazione teatrale con delle bambole immaginate da loro. Dal loro disegno ne ho cucito per ora due. I bambini hanno costruito le scarpe, i capelli , alcuni attrezzi di lavoro e ne hanno imbottito il corpo.



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Because much of my work-time is spent at a screen making/teaching digital art, I often pursue
analog creations on my own time, and have taken to creating patterns on my driveway.

The timing and process is often impromptu. I choose my “brush” based on how much snow needs to be removed (Snowblower, Shovel, Broom, or stick) and the “resolution” or brush-size with which I want to create. After a very short thought to planning, I begin work.
Yes, I have very patient and understanding neighbors.

I appreciate the movement, it’s sometimes repetitive and can feel a bit like Tai Chi.
There is low-stress, low commitment, and lack of materials or permanence means that I am not left with an artifact. This piece melted within a few hours.
In the spirit of iteration, I do think about “what could have gone better” - and question whether “better” means more consistency in measurement, or not.

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Ok…so you said kitchen was ok so it’s gotta be juicing!

Why - because it’s coming up to the summer. Time to get healthier! :wink:

Challenge - actually, for the first time, my juicer wouldn’t switch on. Hmmm :thinking: So, I did a bit of trouble shooting. A process of elimination. Was it the socket? Tried the coffee the machine. Nope. It’s not the socket. Tried changing the adapter. It wasn’t that either. Then I realised that both sides of the machine were not locked down so it wouldn’t switch on as a safety precaution. Troubleshooting - excellent skill in class and out!

If I had more time, it would be fun to make a Scratch animation explaining how to make this juice. Using the analogy of following a recipe is also a good way to explain what an algorithm is. Following a set of steps to arrive at a predetermined solution. Children can understand that easily.

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[Επιφόρτωση: IMG_20220414_093938.jpg

Wooden Easter Eggs!

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I am a makeaholic…. I love making puppets, and have been working on foam sculpting them. I need a head harness with magnet so I can hold my puppet with my head and use both hands to animate movement. To get this done in a week is not always realistic, but I can certainly play with some different mechanisms that don’t give me a headache… literally.

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As a former school kid I like that here we are empowered to make projects in different kinds of media. Of course I understand that the teachers in my day didn’t have the option to let students pick the media. If the module said that everyone in school would create a poster board then there was no choice.

I hated poster board assignments. I knew that I was going to get a “C” before I even started. Maybe you can’t let kids make a book report using a bowl of mud but some flexibility in what must be delivered might help with creativity.

I do a lot with Scratch and I decided that my project for here would connect with last week’s play assignment. You can run the project and play with it but what I was really trying to make was something that people would click the “see inside” button, make changes, and then play and create. Go ahead. Stick your hands in the mud.

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/660445135/

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The Arcade Project looks like such an amazing opportunity. Thank you for sharing. You’ve inspired me to try and do something similar at our school. We don’t have the same machines to create the cabinets but we might be able to partner with our welding and woods teachers.

I had other things I was going to do, but I played in the mud instead. :slight_smile:

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/680653028

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Since the beginning of the year I have been participating in a weekly creativity challenge. Each week presents a new theme and you are encouraged to create anything based on that theme. I’ve been using an app on my iPad called Nomad Sculpt to create 3D models, and find the process quite satisfying. My most recent sculpt was made from the theme of “messy.” I tend to bounce around a few ideas and decided to make a messy room in an isometric view. I learn something new every week I work with this app.

This weeks challenge is bridge. I have a project started using Nomad but maybe I can stretch it a little further and make something interactive with it. More to come!

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Thank you for sharing the arcade video with us. It has inspired me and my sons to make something like this. Obviously our games aren’t going to be anything like this but it will be a good learning process

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I remixed your project and here you can find it: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/680675336/
Thanks for inspiration. It was fun to do the remix.

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In a project with Rwandan teacher training college tutors we have been jointly learning and developing teacher training materials on the topic learning through play for early childhood. Part of the teacher materials will be some example/inspirational lesson plans that build competencies from the numeracy curriculum through play. I -as the facilitator- also want to design a lesson plan, which I will expose the tutors to for them to experience the activity and to better understand how a playful numeracy activity in preprimary could look like.

Inspired by this course I decided to go for a coding activity, using locally available materials. No computers, no fancy materials. Totally unplugged. So I am working on the activity and on Marty, the robot. I used a milk carton, kitchen towel rolls, toilet rolls. After finishing the work, someone told me my robot looked very similar to one of the robots of Zorabots, called Marty.
I will update when I have tried the activity out with the tutors.

Reflection on the activity:

  • This is a short term project. One of my longer term projects relates to growing Belgian endives in Rwanda. Not sure yet how that will work out. :blush:
  • My biggest challenge, besides the glue not being as strong as I would have wished it to be, was my own confidence to call this project a project. See the reflection on the Forum Reflection.
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My mum loves knitting. She makes dolls and animals by knitting. I love her products. She says it is difficult and I’m too lazy to knit. I decided to try and I saw a cute doll. I tried harder. I finished my doll with the help of my mum. It was relaxing to see my own handmade toy but I’ll never try again. It is really difficult. If I had more time, I could finish it without help.

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Wow the dolls look beautifully made! I love seeing the process from drawing to stuffing to sewing, thanks for sharing.

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I made this hat for my little peanut. I wanted to make something for Spring that was colorful and functional. And, I love to create things for him- he always appreciates them and tries to add his own stitch or two along the way. A challenge was a hand injury I am working through, which caused me to work slower and more intentionally than I might otherwise like. If I had more time, I would make something bigger, maybe a sweater. I am a constant maker; making helps me feel like I’ve accomplished something, like I’m useful in some way, and usually makes the person who receives the item feel good.

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Ciao, Grazie

Ciao si tratta di acvere pazienza . io ho provato a fare pizzi on il tomboloLezioni di tombolo Questo sì che è difficile!

Interessante app, voglio provarla

These knitting projects are inspiring me to try, @VasileTeacher @Becky ! Maybe I will get some needles and yarn to experiment with in the next weeks :)

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