Blog Archives

Mrs. Newburger takes Piedmont's "Maker" Show on the Road

10/20/2015

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Makey Makey parts students used to create their own game controller.

Student makes adjustments to his giant game controller made from foil, cardboard, and a makey makey!

Magnetic builting tiles donated to the library become a 3D bunny in this image

Disassembling our 3D printer extruder nozzle.

Piedmont Media Center MakerSpace Featured at NC Conference

Congratulations to Piedmont Media Specialist Mrs. Lisa Newburger on her hard work creating a cutting edge MakerSpace for our students. School districts across the state of North Carolina will be learning about Piedmont's MakerSpace as an example of a modern media center when Mrs. Newburger shares this video Thursday.

Mrs. Newburger is always redesigning the space and materials to bring the latest to students... even when "latest" means antique and vintage typewriters!

From coding to sewing, the MakerSpace always has some interesting Science, Tech, Engineering, Arts and Math to explore, all from donations and grants Mrs. Newburger has orchestrated! (Shout out to our awesome parent and faculty donors!) Stop by the media center sometime to see it in action.

Mrs. Newburger also teaches the MakerSpace club on Mondays. MakerSpace club students create with Raspberry Pi, programmable robotics like Dash and Dot, and electronics projects like this littleBits doorbell : (click tweet below view if you don't see the image)

New doorbell in @PiedmontIB #mediacenter! Deja made it in MakerSpace with @LisaNewburger #cmspl @CharMeckSchools pic.twitter.com/ibuKc2nguT
— Lisa Gurthie (@LisGurthie) October 19, 2015

MakerSpace materials are available for teacher checkout for use in lessons. See Ms. Gurthie in the media center to learn about reserving mobile MakerSpace travelling STEAMcarts.

Youtube Direct Link
Google Drive Direct Link
Drive embed below for those who cannot view the youtube one above:

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Positive Piedmont

10/12/2015

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Introducing Positive Piedmont- written by YOU!

So much good happens at Piedmont, that this one blog can't cover it all. If you'd like to submit a photo, story or other postive piedmont work to the Piedmont Point of View Blog , please upload it to Google Drive then add the link(s) in the comments section or Submit it to this google form. Open to all members of the Piedmont Community - Students, Staff and parents!

More info at the PTSA website

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21st Century Pep Rally

10/8/2015

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Students were pointing skyward at the pep rally today because even at a high tech school like Piedmont it's a big deal to see a drone flying overhead.
A Myers Park High School student (and Piedmont alum!) piloted the drone as techy-kids in all the grades looked on enviously. I guess we have something to add to our MakerSpace wish list.
Until we get the drone footage, here are a few shots of the event taken from the ground:

Not even the novelty of the drone could take away from the athletes who were the stars of the event.

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Culture Cluster

10/1/2015

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7th grade classes joined together in the gym today for their interdisciplinary culture cluster showcase to share their representations of the multiple cultures that shape them. This event speaks for itself so a video of the event is coming soon. Congratulations, Skulls team, for bringing humanities, language arts, visual and performance arts, community and family involvement and social emotional learning together at Piedmont!

A student holds wrestling figurines from his own project as he bends to read his classmate's Catalan traditions her family as brought to NC

Students set up their projects for sharing.

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Celebrating Creation

10/1/2015

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It started with the makerspace sewing machines and the group of girls in sixth grade who spent their recess at them. They kept coming into my office to show off their designs.

Their pride was infectious.

Every student should have the joy of innovating in school. The media center makerspace has become a hub of creation, but it's not just the Makerspace where the magic happens, its in all the classrooms and in the hallways too and that makes Piedmont extra commendable.
So thank you for taking the time to let your students experiment and try out and create. Thank you for dealing with their messes and talking them through their frustrations.

From art to language to music to math; From science to healthy kids our students have a chance to create and innovate and that's why they smile so wide.