The district asked the library if we were willing to provide a maker space for the conference.  With very short notice, we  decided to create a play space for participants to try different technology.  (Maker space? Play space?  Are they the same thing?  I guess I’m not 100% sure of that. They were definitely creating things.)

Given two work days to make this happen, I was able to recruit two co-workers and my husband to spend time with me for four hours on a Saturday afternoon.  I also recruited one of the kids from my Robot Test Kitchen sessions last summer.  

We brought with us items familiar to anyone who normally reads this blog: Little Bits, Makey Makey, The Finch, Bee-bots, Snap Circuits, Cubelets, the 3Doodler, and Circuit Scribes.  (My husband is writing a guest post on the Circuit Scribes…) Armed with five Chromebooks, lots of extra batteries, and a MacBook for The Finch.  I rearranged the desks to create as close to tables as possible.

Much to our delight, kids decided they wanted to come to our session.  According to the site, the conference was open to kids in 3rd through 12th grades.  I would say we saw a majority of kids that were 3rd – 9th grade.  And they were all engaged and excited about our program.

On when it was time to switch sessions:

I don’t want to go to my next session, can I stay?

Yep!  And many came back too.

Here’s a play by play of what we did with things.  (I documented the day’s events on Vine and for longer videos YouTube.)

Makey Makey: this is where I sat my kid volunteer.  He needed prompting to stop playing the games and actually assist kids in using the Makey Makey.  A few of our alligator clips broke.  One Makey Makey board wouldn’t respond, so we went down to three and kept on playing.  Here are two girls laying down a bongo beat:

https://vine.co/v/OQbOAUg7xmb/embed/simple

Little Bits: We have several kits and the staff member working on this site knew his way around Little Bits.  It was always busy.  Investing in Little Bits was a great idea.

The 3Doodler: a 3D pen.  It’s not easy to use, but it was an excellent hands-on activity.  Kids could see that you have to build up on a structure to make it work.  This timelapse video is a taste of trying the 3Doodler for the first time:

https://vine.co/v/OQq3KL1I0AQ/embed/simple

I love this picture. She looks so focused on getting the robot working the way she wants it to.

Snap Circuits: We have four small Snap Circuit kits. The big ones are great, but they only come with one snap board. There was a lot of trying to get the whirligigs to fly.  I overheard one teacher having a really neat interaction with a participant, trying to figure out how to make the circuit complete.  That’s the thing about teachers, they ask the right questions.  Here are two whirligigs flying away! https://vine.co/v/OQbhLYWd1DQ/embed/simple

Bee-Bots:
The Bee-bots were sort of hidden in the corner on the ground. I had to direct people to them…but once I did, they were popular.  My two favorite memories were when a third grade girl looked at it and said,

Oh.  It’s coding.

Yes indeed.  My second favorite thing of the whole day was when I discovered three middle school boys on the ground with the Bee-bots.  You know, that bees have that special synchronized dance they do…

the Finch:
The Finch and I haven’t always had the best relationship. When it was my turn to test it last summer, I sort of failed completely and didn’t write about it. In part, because I had the hardest time loading the software onto our computer. This time around I had a better experience. No software problems. While I only know how to make the Finch walk 1000 repetitions, I imagined someone at this conference would have a better understanding of the situation. And indeed they did.

I captured this.  I tried taking a picture of the Snap screen.  He was able to make Finch do his bidding, going forward, backward, left and right.  Smart kids.

https://vine.co/v/OQbBimFdabh/embed/simple

Circuit Scribe: The Robot Test Kitchen review is forthcoming. I bought these last summer. Circuit Scribe was a Kickstarter. Basically, it’s electronic ink and you can draw your own circuits. There were lots of hits and misses. This was my favorite moment. My husband (who’s an excellent teacher, btw, although he’s not an educator), guiding this young girl (8th or 9th grade). He described it as doing it with finesse. She wrote out “Brightly Shine” and the circuit did just that. https://vine.co/v/OQqTgHj0Udr/embed/simple

It was an excellent conference.  We had about 115 students, parents, and teachers pop in to our session. It was fun to watch teachers leave the sessions they were babysitting to come see what the library had to offer.

As the webinar began, I experienced a moment of self doubt (which is unusual for me, but I know I’m not the only one to go through this) as I read the comments from the participants. So many of them have thriving Makerspaces, and are already using LittleBits in innovative ways that I thought, “Who am I to be a panelist and impart any knowledge to them?” I was already in and I accepted that plowing forward was the only option, so I gave myself a brief pep talk and carried on. I did talk about my experiences with LittleBits thus far, as well as plans for in-house use and circulation of kits.

Here are just some of the things I learned and ideas I gleaned:

• The other panelist, Jessica Lamarre, shared the fantastic idea to use small pictures of the LittleBits components to make sure they get put back correctly, whether they’re housed in the original packaging or in a plastic tackle-box type container.
• I learned that there is a LittleBits Synth Kit, which I think will be a great fit in my library for next summer’s Read to the Rhythm summer reading program.
• There is an Arduino component so you can use Scratch extensions, there is a LEGO brick adapter, and they’ve even been used to power 3D printed cars. Is there anything LittleBits don’t play nicely with?

In the end, I’m glad I had this experience. I may not be an expert, but I have a lot to share. I’m not new to this either, but I still enjoy learning, sharing, and being inspired by the ideas of others. It was worth it to step out of my comfort zone, sit in front of a webcam, and share what I know because this is all so very important.

Whatever we’re working on, our ultimate goal is enrich lives and build communities. At the same time, if you’re reading this you’re part of a community. Whatever fantastic things get made or invented in our schools and libraries, however many kids are inspired to pursue new interests, we are part of it. Just as we’re giving people in our communities a chance to create and connect, we need to keep on connecting with each other. We’re not just making the makerspaces so the makers can come make, we are the makers too. So let’s embrace that maker spirit and realize that each of has a unique perspective and something to share. Your experiences and even the questions you ask can spark an idea for someone else.

Robot Basics:

• What is it?

littleBits is a collection of modules, or “bits” that each has a specific function. There are power bits, switch bits, sound detecting bits, buzzers, lights, and many many others. The bits can be combined in numerous ways, and can be added to other projects for even more functionality.

• What’s in the Box?

The kit I have is the 18 module Deluxe Kit. In addition to the modules, it includes a really lovely instruction booklet with clearly written, visually simple descriptions of the modules, and project ideas ranging from simple recipes to more complex endeavors.

• How Much?

The kit retails for $199. Smaller kits are available for as little as $99. An educator discount is available.

• Age Range?

littleBits suggests ages 8 and up. I think that under supervision, even younger kids can enjoy and learn from the kits.

• How Did We Acquire it?

The kit was purchased with fund from the ILEAD USA grant.

Ideas for Use

Make connections: With the little ones, first we looked at all of the different pieces. I would look at the instructions and say, “Can you find a switch?” “Can you find one that says dimmer?” “What do you think the green ones do?” “Which one do you think gives it all power?” These explorations are helping them make connections from the world they know to the world in the box. A littleBits switch looks different than the switch on the wall or on a toy, but there is still and ON/OFF toggle that they can move back an forth. A switch is a switch – see?

Reading: My 7 year old could be called a reluctant reader, but given a purpose, she’s eager! Encouraging her to find the words on the bits let her use her growing phonics skills with the immediate reward of knowing one more piece of this puzzle.

Sorting and pattern recognition: We sorted the bits by color, then talked about how each color means a different set of functions. We looked at the simplest projects and noted how they all followed the same color pattern to do all kinds of different tasks.

Exploration and discovery: How can we make it light up? Why isn’t the buzzer buzzing? What can we do with the screwdriver? littleBits makes it so easy to switch gears, try things, fail, and keep going without breaking stride.

Time Involved

This is an activity that can take as little as five minutes or as much as an hour depending on your goal and your group.

One-time or Recurring Program

The flexibility and expandability allows lots of recurring program potential.

Extension Activities

Myriad. littleBits Education has lots of lesson plans to browse.

Skills You Need

None.

Other Tools You Need

Eventually you’ll need another 9v battery.

Good Stuff

see above!

Frustrations

More power sources would let more kids play at the same time. It’s a costly item to purchase, but I do think it would more than pay for itself in its repeatability and durability.

Ending Thoughts/Observations

Do it!

Overall Rating:

Full STEAM ahead.

Here are the robots that we cooked up, and what I learned from this first RTK program at my library:

Sphero

Sphero was the biggest hit with the most people, but is really a one-person activity unless teens are working together to build macros or do other, more advanced programming. It was so much fun though, and everyone enjoyed it and the variety of apps that were available to play with.

MaKey MaKey

I’d have to say that MaKey MaKey came in second for the “wow” factor. I didn’t bring in the variety of conductive stuff that I had would have if the full program was about it, but even with the few items that I had, the teens quickly figured it out and had fun playing Super Mario Brothers with Model Magic clay, the chairs they were sitting on, and pencil drawings.

littleBits

We purchased a Student Set of littleBits, which includes 26 modules. This was enough for two people to comfortably work together, or on their own projects exclusively with the Bits. One teen spent most of the two hour block constructing an elaborate, Rube Goldberg-esque contraption to turn a light on, involving most of the bits. I didn’t provide any additional material for creating the projects outlined in the instructions, but since no one read the instructions anyway, they didn’t seem to miss anything!

BeeBot & Finch

BeeBot is really designed with younger kids in mind, but mine had a fun enough time driving it around for a few minutes. On the other end of the spectrum, the Finch requires a lot more time and patience to start learning, and as a result, in this setting, it garnered their attention for just about as long as the Bee Bot did. In the future, I do think the Finch will be one of my preferred tools for working with this age group as it offers a lot of possibilities for expansion and building a whole program around this one, affordable device.

Cubelets

Cubelets are so easy to snap together into different configurations, test, change, and try again, that they were another highly played with device. I don’t see the basic set of six being something that would hold the interest of teens for a very long time though, without additional cubes or specific program goals in mind. The biggest fun came when the teens constructed the “Fraidy Bot” described in the included cards. This is a robot that runs away when it detects that anything is behind it. They liked antagonizing the Fraidy Bot with Sphero, driving Sphero in circles around the Fraidy Bot. Poor robot!

It was really great to see the teens get excited about the robots, and I am definitely encouraged to plan more in depth programs focusing on individual products, and after running my sample group through all of these, I have a much better sense of what will make for successful programs with each tool. More thorough descriptions and reviews of each of these products is forthcoming.