Students Having Fun!

We started our second Mobile Makerspace program last week. This time we moved our program to the local 3-5 elementary school. Our goal was similar: Introduce young students to circuits. We had ten girls and ten boys show up on day one, as well as our five Makerspace Mentors (high school volunteer leaders) and our adult supervisor.


I could tell you how well it went, and how amazing the students all were, but instead I will let you read it from the email of one of our Mentors...

It was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY fun and awesome. The kids were so smart and so nice, and they said that they had fun (it wasn't the polite kind of "it was fun", it was pretty genuine). However, they were so fast and excited that we basically got our week 2 stuff done. They definitely liked the new stuff more than the edison circuits (and they did like the buzzers) so when we introduced the new stuff, they kind of ditched the edison circuits. So maybe we give them more time to do their individual project or should we plan an additional (small) activity? Next time, I think we need more batteries though (the 9 volts ones). 

The excitement of both the participants and the mentors came through so clearly for me when I read this that I had to share it with my colleagues, Twitter, and now you.

We will be brainstorming ideas on how to enhance what we had already planned (play-dough
circuits), and we will be getting back to work in just a few days. Any ideas on simple, but fun things to do with those just learning circuits? We have lots of loose parts, play dough, and batteries. Leave your ideas in the comment section.

Until next time, make it your world.