What we did:

• Set up stations for various hands-on activities. I provided a menu of what tech tools were available for tinkering.
• Allowed for all ages, so families could come together.
• Made it a drop-in event over two hours so families could come when it was convenient for them.
• Had back up staff available in case of crowds or technology trouble shooting needs.

Successes: 

• The menu and the stations worked really well. We had tools that would appeal to a wide variety of ages: Bee-Bots and the Osmo for the younger set – Sphero and Lego WeDo for older kids. Kids were able to check out what they were interested in and we had enough stuff for there never to be long lines (except for Sphero).
• Having the event be for all ages worked wonderfully. That way families could attend the event with all their kids. I’ve found that parents and caregivers are very curious about anything STEAM related. This lets the parents try the tools with their kids and do a little tinkering themselves.

Challenges:

• The Spero! Our library Sphero is having trouble holding it’s charge. Luckily we had a back up, which worked great, for an hour. But our program was two hours! Those who came at the end really didn’t get to try out the Sphero and well, that is just a bummer.
• Staffing this type of even can be difficult. Luckily we had staff who was ready and willing to lend a hand. But if you are solo on your own, two hours of eight hands on activities might be a little overwhelming.

Overall this was a great event, and I’m really glad it went well. We also made sure to promote the Make Your Break activities to the schools and through our other outlets. This was key! Patrons who attended appreciated the opportunity to tinker and many asked if the materials would be circulating soon. Circulating STEAM and maker kits is the next step at my library and I can’t wait to get started on the project!

Ann Carpenter is the Youth Services Librarian at the Brooks Free Library in Harwch, MA. Among many other programs, she runs a monthly Engineering Challenge for school aged children.

• Program:

Engineering Challenge: Marble Runs

• Age range:

Around 15-20 school aged kids can participate. More can be accommodated if you have them work in groups. Each group should have at least two pieces of foam.

• Cost:

10 6 foot pipe foam pieces at $1 a piece. You will also need marbles and masking tape, but those are things I had around the library anyway.

• Activity:

We talked about momentum demonstrating that a marble rolled along a mostly flat track will stop, but a marble rolled down an inclined track will keep going, and that marble rolled down a very steep track can build up enough momentum to keep going even uphill. Once they had the general idea, I gave them the first challenge: to build a roller coaster that allowed the marble to go up and over a hill. I purposefully make my first level of challenge relatively simple so that every child participating will have at least one success by the end of the program.

To accomplish their challenge the children were given pipe foam that I had cut in half lengthwise, forming a channeled track. The pipe foam was perfect for our purposes: very flexible for young hands to manipulate and very cheap at about $1 for a 6 ft tube, which provided 2 channels. I also gave them access to lots of tape. Our second level of challenge was to create a loop-the-loop. I told the children who completed the second challenge that they could either do a free design, or they could try for two loop-the-loops. Most chose to try for two loops.

• Difficulties and challenges:

One thing I noticed during this program was that it was not enough for the children to accomplish the task: they needed me to be a witness to their success. This meant running around the room quite a bit so that I could personally watch marbles rolling around the tracks. The looks of delight were definitely worth it. Emphasize that engineering is a process, and they may need to try out their design, then go back and make adjustments based on results.

So when you have those moments of, “why is no one coming to my program?” or “why do my coworkers not understand what I’m doing?” or “why can’t I do this because of (insert whatever you are struggling with here)?” It might be good to stop and make sure whatever you are doing is inviting and welcoming. Is your program at a bad time for the people you are trying to serve but fits awesome in the library schedule? Well, that’s not very inviting for the people you are trying to serve. If you get a chance ask people why they couldn’t make it and then give them a reason to come to the library – extend an invitation.

Do you sometimes struggle with advocating for kids with your coworkers? I think everyone feels this at some point and it hits like a brick. And sometimes it is really hard to work your way out from that feeling. And that’s okay. But dwelling too long in that feeling won’t help. Advocacy can be a friend here. A large part of advocacy is getting the entire library team on the same page, and that means you have to understand and appreciate. I think inviting people to see what you do and why you do it is a huge way to break down some walls. Invite staff to programs personally, let them observe. Show them the tech you are using. Did you get Sphero/Cubelets/MakeyMakey/etc.? Let them try it and if they have concerns – listen! Talk about why you do what you do, and why. Then ASK them about what they are doing – congratulate them on their success. Because the library is one team and that team deserves the recognition.

Inviting people is essential and I think it is taken it for granted. We must honor the trust the public gives us for wanting librarians and library staff to serve their community. After all, the library belongs to the people – make sure they know they are welcome and wanted.

Instead of worrying about whether or not you are talking about yourself too much, think about the people you serve. What do your patrons deserve? Do they deserve to have that ridiculous awesome service? What do they need? Is what you are trying to do amazing for your patrons?

Advocacy is not about you – get away from your ego. It’s not about that. It’s about the people we are serving and the services provided. When you go out in the world and talk about the library, or talk about it your services with your patrons, or talk about exciting programs with other library staff – make sure you know the end goal. Keep that big picture in mind.

To advocate for our patrons and libraries we need to be able to find a way to communicate our services in a way that emphasizes how we are helping and serving our library users. Don’t worry about coming across too confident or too “braggy.” Guess what, you are doing something that is worth bragging about! After all, awesome library services are put forth by awesome librarians and library workers – and that is definitely worth talking about.

The idea for this program came from what I consider a children’s librarian’s best friend – pinterest. Originally posted on the smART Class blog, we thought 3-D roller coasters would be a hit! The activity incorporates elements of design, building, and creativity. It was also just plain old fun!

Age:

Our program was for grades K-1, but I think it can be adapted for a lot of ages.

Cost:

$0 – $10

I think most libraries will have the supplies on hand. The one thing that you will need to purchase are the pizza circles.

Supplies:

• Cardboard Pizza Circles (You can get these in bulk for cheap)
• Strips of construction paper
• Paper of various weights
• Markers/crayons
• Glue
• Tape
• Scissors
• Digital Camera and set up for printing photos quickly. (I’m assuming most libraries can get their hands on one).

Time:

The prep time for this is fairly quick. You need some pre-cut strips, but otherwise you can just let the kids create! During the program you will need a staffer to take photos of the kids in their roller coaster poses and print them while the kid’s are building their structures. That way they can add themselves to their roller coasters.

I do know I can advocate well with patrons. It feels good to talk about library services, tell library users what is new and talk about where the library is going. I’m enthusiastic about library services, so I love to share what we provide. I can speak confidently about the library in a non library settings, too. The profession is in the middle of a transformation and I like to share that with others. My job is a unique one, and as a youth librarian focusing on technology I have learned the importance of advocating outside the library building about the different programs and offerings at libraries.

However, when it comes to one area of advocacy where I am still learning. I often find myself struggling when it comes to advocating internally. I’d like to think that I’m failing forward, but sometimes it just feels like a fail. Advocating in-house is a challenge, and I’ve had to figure out how to communicate effectively. I tend to get excited about things quickly and am naturally very optimistic (I relate to Leslie Knope), but I’ve discovered this can sometimes backfire. I try not to let it bring me down instead I take a bit to regroup then figure out a way to keep moving forward.

In March, Robot Test Kitchen will spend some time talking about advocacy. We will discuss strategies and small changes that can help make advocacy more approachable. We are going to be open and honest. We hope you join in the conversation. Stay tuned.

Hello! Mindy Perry here, guest posting about Sphero 2.0. This is my 2nd year as a school librarian at Greenbrook School. We are a K-5 building and serve approximately 500 students. I’m very new into the world of robotics, although I love technology. My motto is books + tech. Sphero 2.0 is my first robotic type purchase for the library. I participated in ILEADUSA 2014 alongside Robot Test Kitchen. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE what they are doing and I’m honored to be a guest blogger for this very cool site.

Robot Basics

• What is it?

A robotic ball with internal leds that can be driven by any mobile device. Sphero can do tricks, is sensitive enough to dance to music being played, is waterproof and pet-proof.

• What’s in the Box?

It came with the Sphero 2.0 ball, charger, and necessary cords.

• How much?

Price is $129.99 off of Sphero’s website. Mine was ordered through Amazon. Watch for deals on both sites. Amazon was running a sale around Christmas. Sphero had their accessories on sale through there website.

• Age Range?

I’d say Kindergarten and up. Most people of all ages will enjoy Sphero 2.0.

• How we acquired it

I asked for Sphero 2.0 and Ollie as my Christmas present. I left the decision on which one I was going to get in the hands of my mom. I like surprises and would have been happy with either model. The kids were blown away that I would ask for a robot for Christmas just so they could get to play with it during library.

Ideas for use

My first concern and thoughts when I opened the box was about how I was going to set up my Nexus 7 tablet so that it would be easy for students to manage on their own while playing and how I was going to manage the Sphero 2.0.

But first he needed a name. My mom told me a story about a TV show from when she was young about a robot named Tobor (Robot spelled backwards). I couldn’t resist the name so my Sphero 2.0 is now known as Tobor.

Then my brain was flooded with a million questions…..

When will the students play? Who gets to drive? What will the other students do? Where will I house the device? How will it charge during the day? How will I set up the apps on the phone? How will I teach it? My brain has a way of running away without me.

On the Nexus 7, I created a second profile so that I controlled which apps they had access to and at what times. On the homescreen, I downloaded 6 Sphero apps. I took all other apps off the homescreen because the Nexus 7’s only use at this point is to drive the Sphero ball. This minimized confusion of apps. So far so good but I’d be open to any suggestions on better management of Sphero 2.0.

So what does this look like in use at an elementary school of approximately 500 students? I chose to introduce Sphero 2.0 to grades 3-5, much to the dismay of 2nd grade. They were not pleased! Once I get a handle on all of this and the kinks are worked out, I will most likely reconsider for them. I like to jump into things, but I don’t want push myself over the deep end either. Teaching is hard enough. I spend 30 minutes with each class each week. The first 15 minutes, I teach. The last half of the class is for check out. It doesn’t take some students that long to check out so I have different activities and stations that they can do on their own until the end of class. The kids learns on their own and I’m free to help students find worthy reads. Sphero 2.0 has become an option to play with after checking out books. This not enough time! I hear groans and “we’re leaving already?!?” at the end of library. I made it very clear that they need to share the tablet amongst themselves and to problem solve who drives. I wasn’t going to create a spreadsheet on who wants to drive and who drove last. I want them to take ownership of working together without my involvement. The non-drivers for the week can build obstacle courses with the terrain park, 3 chariots, 2 covers, and 3 lbs of Lego’s I purchased.

In a few weeks I will be introducing a project that will take us to the end of the school year. I am modifying Sphero Education’s Chariot Challenge. I will be incorporating lessons on searching, notetaking, and citation into the research portion about chariots. You know, all the librarian stuff we teach. I am thrilled to introduce this project!

Good stuff

Best conversation ever:

Student #1: The library has a robot? No way.

Student #2: You haven’t heard? Everyone’s talking about it. It’s over there……

Enough said. The library is pretty much the coolest place right now. Word spread pretty quickly, as did the amount of questions I answered in the hallway by students who had library later in the week. Tobor’s popularity even reached the middle school. My 5th graders last year found out through the library’s Instagram account.

Frustrations

I’m still trying to figure out if it’s my WiFi connection or the Bluetooth pairing that is causing the connection to say: “Sphero not found” occasionally. The WiFi is not the greatest in the library. It doesn’t happen every time I try to play, but enough that it is causing a little frustration. The students want to drive it, not wait around for it to connect.

Only having one Sphero 2.0 to play with between 20+ students at a time can get a little tricky. So far they’ve been good at sharing and dividing tasks, but it’s only been a week so this may change.

Not enough time to play. This has nothing to do with the robot itself, it has to do with my scheduled amount of time I have to see students each week. They get a few minutes each week and it’s just not enough. I have really excited students who just want to keep building, playing, and learning.

Ending Thoughts and Observations

All I knew was that I wanted to bring a robot into the library. I had no idea what I was going to do with it or if it would be worthwhile. If you’re on the fence, take the jump. It’s warm in the water. It’s very easy to use with little setup. Just search the many apps Sphero has, download and play. Don’t worry if you think you won’t be able to figure it out. You will be able to understand a few key components of the Sphero and then hand it over to the kids. They’ll teach you.

Robots was our theme for my library’s storytime sessions this week. I thought, it would be fun to let kids play with a real robot – so I pulled out the Bee-Bots. See reviews for the Bee-Bot, here and here. I love them because they are an approachable hands on technology for any age. (And they are also adorable.) 

Why does this work in storytime?

• I am a proponent of hands on activities during storytimes. They help develop motor skill and control at a lot of ages.
• The Bee-Bot is very good at teaching sequencing and if/then relationships – which we teach with stories, flannels and rhymes – why not try a hands on way too?
• I like giving little ones autonomy. Letting kid’s pick what buttons they want to press helps them begin to explore.

 How we did it?

This is the hard part. The idea of doing something nontraditional in storytime can be scary or some might even look down on it. But my view is there are always unknowns with small children, so why is this any different? Why not explore sequencing by using the Bee-Bot instead of a flannel?

The storytimes we used Bee-Bots with were our 1,2,3 Storytimes which have kids ages 1-3 with their caregivers, and our Together Time which is kids ages 3-5 with caregivers. (Yes you can do this with Toddlers.) 

I drew a flower on a poster board. The middle of the flower was a circle just enough to fit Bee-Bot – that was his starting point for the activity. Each petal had a different color and pattern, so we could also work on colors and patterns while we did Bee-Bot.

We started the Bee-Bot activity towards the end of each storytime. Since we have two Bee-Bots and two librarians for most of our storytimes, we were able to split into two smaller groups. Each parent and child have a turn to interact with Bee-Bot. It is actually a very good circle activity and the kids worked on patience and turn taking – which is another developing skill for this age range. We explored with Bee-Bot for about ten minutes, then came back together as one group and did our ending song.

This went really well and the parents really enjoyed seeing their kids interact. Bee-Bot is such a great tool for younger kids, so why not try it in a storytime?

Basics:

The four shapes.

• What are they? Tiggly Shapes are a set of four shapes designed to work with the iPad and certain apps.
• What’s in the Box? Tiggly Shapes.
• How Much? $29.95
• Age Range? Ages 2 – 6
• How Did We Acquire it? My library purchased for patron and program use. 

How we use them:

We bought Tiggly Shapes to use with the iPads we let patrons sign out while they are in the library. When we came across Tiggly Shapes we thought they would be a great addition to our iPads. Our space encourages lots of play, so having the shapes go with the iPads was a nice complement to our early literacy efforts. Patrons simply ask for the bag of Tiggly Shapes when they sign out an iPads. We have loaded the three apps that work with Tiggly to each iPad so the patrons can easily choose which app they like best.

Playing with Tiggly Draw

There are three apps to use with Tiggly Shapes: Tiggly Stamp, Tiggly Draw, and Tiggly Safari. They each work a little bit different, but have similar play styles. Tiggly Stamp uses the shape to make different pictures set against various backdrops. Tiggly Draw lets you use the shapes on the iPad to create pictures of whatever you’d like. Tiggly Safari is a little more interactive. It asks for certain shapes to be placed on the iPad, and makes different animals. Tiggly Safari is by far the most popular app kids use!

Tiggly can also easily be used in Storytimes. I’ve used it with toddlers (age 2-3). Tiggly is a great compliment for when you are exploring shape themes. The apps are easy to use, and you can let the kids use the Tiggly Shapes on the iPads. It is a great way to incorporate some interactive technology with the younger set.

Skills Needed:

You have to be able to put apps on iPads, and that is it.

Good Stuff:

I love Tiggly! Our patrons really love using them. Once they see how they work, kids like using them with the iPads. I like how they allow for more motor skill development.

Frustrations:

I do wish there were some classroom sets for Tiggly. While I love what they do, I can’t help but wish they had a few more options for educators.

Overall Rating:

Great fun for the younger set!

Some highlights:

Check it out! This is what Sphero looks like inside! The folks from Orbotics were at the fair, so we got to tell them how much we like Sphero in a library setting. They also encouraged us to try the Sphero out in water (they’re very confident of it’s structural integrity), so look out soon for our test of Sphero in the water.

The DJYRO  provides a DJ turntable experience with an iPhone or iPad. We liked that it’s 3D printed, and this could provide programming inspiration for 2015 iREAD’s Read to the Rhythm. It is only compatible with Apple products at this time, and the Android users among us hope someday this will be available for our devices too.

HEXBUGs can be assembled into robotic bug shapes, or the pieces can be used to build other robots. The exhibitor had a large table of components for us to start putting together, which can be great fun for some and intimidating for others.

Perplexus is a puzzle maze game that we thought could be a nice manipulative to have in a library setting. It’s all self-contained so there are no pieces to loose. Plus, it’s hard, so you could have it out in a teen area as well as in the kids’ area where you might think it would belong. Check out the giant Perplexus ball to the left of Michelle. Cool, right? Unfortunately, they aren’t for sale. But hey – wouldn’t it be a cool item for the library if they were?!

A toy we didn’t notice at the fair but that one of our community members who also went was talking about (and even posted about it on the library’s Facebook page) the next day is ITSPHUN —  Interlocking Triangles, Squares, Pentragons, and Hexagons Using Notches. The Girl Scouts she took (admission was also free for troop leaders and scouts in uniform) had a great time building with them.

Overall Impressions:

The Toy and Game Fair was a unique experience. It is not something librarians would probably think of visiting, but I would suggest checking one out if you get a chance. Vendors are eager to talk to you once you tell them you are a librarian so you get a chance to talk to a lot of different perspectives. If you do programming at all, you will probably also get a few ideas and contacts.

I will say I did expect the fair to be larger – it was a bit smaller than I expected. Maybe it is because I’m used to the giantness of ALA. The selection is definitely more limited, but you will come back to your library with a few ideas after attending the fair.

*As librarians, we were able to attend the fair for free. We received no compensation for our coverage or reviews on any of these products. All opinions are our own.