Are you considering trying a STEAM-infused student-choice-driven product into a curriculum that is usually paper and pen based? Ms. Brown and I use these talking points to introduce Maker Movement STEAM-infused learning into her sevent grade English Language Arts class for a novel project.  



Here is the basic gist of how we introduced it together that you can adapt to suit your needs:

• Say:

 "A new project is coming."

• Show photos of maker projects from last year's Whirligig unit
  
• Discuss why each is special (use of Minecraft redstone to power, battery power instead of wind, recycled materials, artistic theme...)
  
• Ask students:
  

"Does each person in this classroom in back and in front and on side of you know what you are amazing at?" Does Ms Brown? Do you?

• Explain the Maker Movement and why you assigning a maker project in your class:

"The Maker Movement is something teachers are excited about in education because it gives you an opportunity to use your gifts that may not be traditionally gifts you can use or show off in school.
Now some of you are straight A students (is it cool to be straight A? Yes it is!) and for you writing might be your gift. You should choose to re write the ending. 
Maybe writing is your thing but you are usually a songwriter - then write a song.
Maybe you struggle with words but you are good at building. This is your chance to use that skill. Many people say that the future will need you to use your skills for entrepreneurship more than we had to in Ms. Brown and my's day.  So you need to know what your good at and how to sell yourself as a brand so people will want to hire you.  
Don't choose the art choice if you don't have still in drawing. Don't wait til the last day and try to draw something on the bus when you have no skill, haven't made it special. 
If you know what makes you special, then do that. If you don't know come see me in the media center and I'll help you choose. 
One skill that is becoming more and more important is the skill of videography. (Tell story of $75,000 Belk Video Contest) If you'd like to do a video trailer of the book, I will be back next week to show you how. You need to really tell the story with video. Make a trailer, but don't make a video that doesn't really speak to the book or show your knowledge of the characters.  
Maybe you'd like to create a 3D Object- Choose the whirligig building choice. If you know someone who is good with tools and that is something you'd like to do ask them to help you build with wood. You can also just cut paper and straws. But whatever you do make it great. 
One of the points of maker movement is to use skills we don't always give you a chance to develop in school.  You can code a whirligig in Scratch, engineer one to move, anything you want. But start work early so you have time to do a good job, or to fail and decide you want to change. Don't wait unitl the due date. Show off so I can post it and make you famous! Hopefully what you make will inspire other students to be their best and other teachers to try more projects like this. 

• Remind students of the content goal:
  

Don't forget to pay attention as your read so you can find themes and details to make your work amazing. 

• Offer support:
  

Don't be frustrated by false starts and prototype failures that are part of the maker process. If you can't start or get overwhelmed,  see me for help.


RELATED POSTS:
http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/celebrating-piedmont/whirligigs-an-example-of-maker-movement-in-education
http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/lesson-ideas/have-students-make-a-movie
http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/lesson-ideas/makerspace-resources4pbl
http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/celebrating-piedmont/love-of-learning-at-piedmont

Many teachers here at Piedmont have used student-created movies to teach their content. Above are just two examples - a stop motion film of an scene from Seedfolks for Language arts and a video of a student created Minecraft Pyramid from Mrs. Kay's social studies Ancient Egypt unit. 

Try these lesson plans to get started 

• Example of Instructions to Students: Coach Ashley's Dance Movie Assignment
• http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/vocabulary-learning-filmmaking-vocabulary-30683.html?tab=4#session7
  
• http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/movie-making-classroom
  

Our School Resources:

1. Student BYOT devices with a camera and free or paid video editing app 
   
2. our iPads have Movie Maker, Action Movie HD, and iMotionHD loaded
   
3. Our Makerspace's Video SteamCart http://piratesteamship.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/STEAMshipCarts Tech Theater: Photography and Videography STEAMcart Contains:
   

• Greenscreen
• Video slapboard

• How to Book and How to Videos http://video.klutz.com/animation/
• Various cameras- video and still (students may also use their phones and BYOT devices)
• Paper and markers for paper slide videos
• 37 beanie babies for puppet theater or stop motion videos
• lego bricks and figures for stop motion videos
• How to Make RSA animate Style Videos
• Goal Setting, Goal Achieving, and Bulldog puppets

Recommended BYOT apps for movie making :

1. iMovie  Videolicious if students cannot get iMovie
   
2. Action Movie HD
   
3. Lego Movie
   
4. Do Ink App - (costs $2.99) Do Ink  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/green-screen-by-do-ink/id730091131?mt=8
   

If using a shared ipad, you can upload and download the video as needed from Google Drive:
(Sorry I ironically broke the cardinal rule of movie making - NEVER HOLD  YOUR DEVICE LONGWAYS Learn from my mistake!)

This video shows how to upload and share from your device

This video shows how to turn in a video link for an assigment on Google Classroom

In my crystal ball I see the future of education will be makerspaces. Maybe that prediction my own wishful thinking, but I sure hope it's true. A move from content-driven fact regurgitation to studio, and lab-driven workshops can only be a good thing for our students' futures.  At the rate of change in todays world, a skills-based, passion-driven, and failure-tolerant exploratory environment is the way to go!

Makerspace FAQ

What is a makerspace?
Jake Standish defines a makerspace as any place or process that provides students the opportunity for creative expression and the pride of feeling "I made something cool!" I see it as a way in school to experience what visionary STEAM educator Seymour Pappert terms "hard fun." Makerspaces are a place to both instill and nurture students' interests organically. If you are ONLY looking for quickest test score increases, maker ed will not be for you (and I feel sad for your students.) However, done well the maker method results are INCOMPARABLY more long lasting and far reaching than traditional instruction.

How did the maker movement in education start?
Makerspaces in school grew out of the hackerspace movement as a way of integrating STEM or STEAM back into schools and a response to the oversanitization of education. If you are curious how they look outside of a school stetting, there is a hackerspace near our school.  google "Charlotte Hackerspace" to find where and maybe do a field trip. There are also maker faires in many areas.

Do I need to be an engineer, a tech expert or a scientist to run a makerspace with my students?
Not at all. Students can teach each other, learn from videos or instructions, or get help from adult or high school volunteers. Just provide the supplies and let students decide what to do with them.

Makerspaces do not have to include electronics but there are many creative electronic kits out there that are affordable even for a beginning school. Check the resources question below for a few.

" if you know the right end of a soldering iron , adafruot will get you the rest of the way." - Jake Standish of CMS

I can't abide chaos, should I even try this?
Yes, frustration and false starts will be common, valuable, and instructive, but you can minimize the chaos with rubrics and directed projects and minimize the mess with 3D printed and computer based projects. Ideas are on the Pirate STEAMShip page. I also recommend partnering with a chaos-tolerant co-teacher! Put your classes together!

How can I get started?
Rather than worry about who would use it or how, we got started by gathering anything that could be used into one spot and cataloging it:

• gathered my children's old science toys, manipulatives, recycled items, crafts and building materials then wrote possible multidisciplinary lesson ideas to go along with them
• hung a green screenI created a website that listed the supplies.
• rescued a sewing machine from our now-defunct home-ec cabinet.
• got a  MakerBot Replicator 2 as soon as the CEO announced a grant
• loaded up the ipads with free STEM and STEAM apps including video and music-making apps.

When Ms. Newburger came back as our media specialist, she created a permanent makerspace home and improved the vision and -while waiting for the funding for her larger vision, immediately re-created the media center. She

• upcycled two whiteboards and mounted them one on top of the other to create a giant collaborative design area.
• put a table in the lobby for crafting supplies and to use as a workbench.
• moved the green screen for better lighting and to expand usable space
  

Where can my students and I find ideas?

• If you want some cool project ideas start at: Make.com Projects http://makezine.com/projects/
• If you want to develop 21st century maker friendly skills try DIY.org/skills - great way to do independent learning and badging

What equipment?

• K'Nex,Snap circuits, Legos, Lego Mindstorms
• apps green screen whiteboards
• Makey makey, rasperry pi and other ardruino based products like  "Drawduino"_Line circuit sound Adafruit
• • middle school sample website of supplies -PirateSTEAMship (sorry it's not fancy)
  Also recommended:
  
  
  • 700 science experiments for everyone -  book on amazon 
  • Tinnovations - have instructions and YouTube videos
  
  What can we use the makerspace to do?
  
  
  • see photos below and at the blog Celebrating Piedmont
    
  • example of middle school PBL maker driven fair http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/6/post/2014/04/love-of-learning-at-piedmont.html  and Resources to start your own http://piratesteamship.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/Operation+STEAMship+Pilot
  
  Can you guarantee me higher test scores if I try this?
  No.
  
  Then why should I bother?
  
  
  • because right now some of your students hate coming to school
  • because some of your students will drop out
  • because some of your students making "A's" now are ill-prepared for life
  • because some of your students don't know how to fail
  • because some of your students are gifted and you have yet to recognize that
  • because some of your students have never felt the pride of creation
  • because if you want "grit" (shudder) this uncovers grit in children heretofore thought of as lazy in school. (that's a blog post for another day)
  
  This kind of learning may not be  the most efficient for producing a clear linear and incremental gain by the end of one school year on paper, but it provides lasting learning that is transferrable, motivating, respectful of multiple intelligences and values to society and is not artificially separate the way traditional education has been. I'll let astronaut Mae Jemison make the case better than I ever could:
  
  

PBL - project based learning, also called Passion based learning can be student-driven and creation driven. 

This kind of PBL - known as Love of learning, 20% time and Genius hour is creating some great results is based on the idea of flipping blooms (see image) while also giving students a voice in what is created.

It rewards intelligences often ignored in traditonal education and is more motivating that a teacher-driven class. It can also be the bait that drives students to grow their skills as they see the need.

At Piedmont we are one of the first CMS schools to create a makerspace. 

Our MakerSpace supplies are the perfect compliment to make-ify your lessons and/or nurture the variety of genius in your classroom!  In addition to our extensive collection of multiple intelligences apps, Green Screen, Collaboration Board area, MakerSpace workbench and Makerbot Replicator 2 3Dprinter housed in the media center, we have mobile carts of supplies available for checkout to your room.

Check this link for the full list of offerings http://piratesteamship.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/STEAMshipCarts

See Lisa Gurthie or Lisa Newburger for ideas of how to use these in projects or curriculum.

The full information about STEAM integration at Piedmont via the PirateSTEAMship is here
http://piratesteamship.cmswiki.wikispaces.net

Read this article with your students.
http://www.livescience.com/43455-lego-braille-printer.html
Curriculum connections:

•  practice close reading and annotation
• introduce Love of Learning, Genius Hour, or  Google 20% time project
• introduce Maker Movement project
• Tier 2 vocabulary

- I can also help you connect it to your specific content! send me an email or drop by.