We are so excited now that the decisions have been made and we have begun the creative work on the "Seekers Space" section of our mini-museum, which will be student-created displays. If you have never seen this blog, you might want to read the archived posts (October and November - see right of screen). In the weeks before and after the winter break, students have been honing in on some novel topics and investigating questions that they feel are interesting and would be of interest to others, too. There are some amazing projects in progress! Here is a list of what we have so far:
- What's Outside of our Solar System?
- What is Biomimicry?
- How will Technology of the Future Impact our Lives?
- What Happens When We Dream?
- What Do We Know about Stars?
- How Does a Camera Work?
- How is Animation Done?
- How Do Music and Art Help Us?
- What Do We Know About Black Holes?
- How Have Codes Been Used in Times of War?
For the "Puzzle Parlor" room, the students have approved of the following puzzle stations: (1) Chocolate Fix, a logic puzzle in which candy shapes are placed on a grid according to clues given; (2) Scramble Squares Puzzles, visual-spatial puzzles in which 9 square pieces are placed so that there is a continuous picture or pattern; and (3) Kanoodle, a 2-D and 3-D puzzle in which pieces are stacked into pyramids or arranged in a rectangular tray. We will be purchasing the "extreme" and "genius" versions of Kanoodle. The idea is that when a class enters this room, there will be enough seating for at least eight students at each puzzle station. We may also place poster-sized puzzles around the room, so that there is plenty to keep visitors busy!
The kids are most excited about the "Tech Town" space, especially since our Little Bits arrived and they've had a chance to try them out. We have discussed several ideas for other activities in this room, and one student brought in his "virtual reality" viewmaster to share. We knew we'd need to have cell phones to operate those, and to acquire enough for an 8-person station did not seem feasible. So I investigated a few other materials to share with the students, technology materials that would engage our visitors in problem solving and exploration. We are excited about the addition of Cubelets and Osmos to this area of our "DoSeum" and are waiting to see if we can acquire those. Unfortunately, Osmo is not an approved vendor in our district, so we have had to request these through Donors Choose. For the next few weeks, the DC team is matching any donation made, so we are crossing our fingers that it will be fully funded!
The kids are most excited about the "Tech Town" space, especially since our Little Bits arrived and they've had a chance to try them out. We have discussed several ideas for other activities in this room, and one student brought in his "virtual reality" viewmaster to share. We knew we'd need to have cell phones to operate those, and to acquire enough for an 8-person station did not seem feasible. So I investigated a few other materials to share with the students, technology materials that would engage our visitors in problem solving and exploration. We are excited about the addition of Cubelets and Osmos to this area of our "DoSeum" and are waiting to see if we can acquire those. Unfortunately, Osmo is not an approved vendor in our district, so we have had to request these through Donors Choose. For the next few weeks, the DC team is matching any donation made, so we are crossing our fingers that it will be fully funded!