Connecting with the Library to Get Outside Resources

Do yourself a favor and get in touch with your local library!

OF COURSE the library would have a ton of resources!!!

I regret not getting in touch with our library sooner....I wish I knew about the resources that they offer to schools and teachers!

Our local library has phenomenal resources like:

• Resource Bags - Just fill out a short form about what you will be studying...and in a week, you will have a bag of goodies (books, digital resources, and more!) all about the topic!

• STEM Kits - What!? I had no idea! In the last week, I was able to check out Arduinos, Makey-Makeys, and Finch Robots! 

• Tours/Visits - The library will host tours of its facilities OR come to your school to do book talks, story time, database demonstrations, or more!

• Partnerships - Our library has a lot of great makerspace resources like 3D printers and Makey-Makeys! A middle school teacher in our district partnered with the library to have his students learn about the different resources...then collaborated with our elementary school!

• Host Events - Ready to celebrate your kids' hard work or show off genius hour/makers' projects, see if your library would be willing to host! It would be neat to have community members and students presenting alongside each other! We also hosted our celebration of our 3D printing project collaborations there!

Contact your library as soon as you can before you find yourself doing this...

3D Printing Collaboration - Connecting with Other Schools!

3D Printing Collaboration - Elementary School & Middle School

WOW! We just finished collaborating with some 8th graders on a 3D printing project...and I was blown away by the process!

If you are at an elementary school, check out the courses offered at your local middle school and reach out to the teachers to see if you can collaborate! Or vice versa...

At the middle school level, our district offers Creative Arts options for students. These include: World Culture, Industrial Technology, and Career Connections.

We were fortunate to have our Industrial Technology teacher reach out to us to form a partnership. Four of his eighth grade students worked with four of our 5th graders to plan, design, and create 3D printed projects!

Our PHENOMENAL local library then hosted an event where people shared their projects with the community. What a great way to celebrate their hard-work and creativity!



What did our students learn from this process:

• Communication Skills: Students communicated using Google HangOuts and Google Docs. This gave students a chance to practice communicating in different ways...and to do something similar to what engineers who are working together across the world do!

• Technical Skills: Students worked with Tinkercad (a free online software program that can be used to 

 

Thingiverse.com is a great site that allows you to upload and download projects that you can then tweak.

• Habits of Mind: Designing a 3D project is hard. Really hard. It requires a lot of trial and error...and collaboration! Want to do more with Habits of Mind? Check this out!

Check out the "finished" projects. We still have some tweaks to do!

Part of a Desk Organizer
We need to re-print one of the pieces. 

3D Globe Puzzle
We still need to problem-solve on how to make it so the pieces fit on the globe.