Past projects 17
Everyone Can Sew! So Can You!
Funded Aug 14, 2024I cannot thank you enough for your generous support providing the equipment necessary to add sewing to the many forms of making possible in our Maker Tech Lab. Although sewing is not traditionally seen by many as in the same category of building as woodworking or other production tools, my advanced students were incredibly excited to learn to use the sewing machine. Their excited reactions using it for the first time were on par with their first reactions to any of the more powerful tools in our classroom. I saw a rush of excitement and power when their fabric surged and they realized how easily they could join fabrics together professionally.
This machine also demystified working with fabric for this male-heavy group of advanced students. Before learning the sewing machine, they saw something crude like hot glue or staples as their best means of joining fabric together. But in a moment, they were able to see as possible properly sewn joints without a ton of hand work. I could see the possibility in their eyes open up as something that previously seemed almost mystical became doable.
Now that the students have gotten a taste of practicing sewing, their next step will be to put these skills to use in service projects. The first service project will be creating custom curtains for our makerspace, covering windows that have blinding beams of light coming through them during certain times of day. Personally, I am excited to learn the more advanced features of this new-to-us machine. But above all, I love that a group of boys is now outwardly excited to create projects involving sewn fabric.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Singer
This classroom project was brought to life by The Gates Foundation and 3 other donors.Learning Robotics Without Frustration
Funded Jan 10, 2020Please accept our deepest (albeit quite delayed) gratitude for your generous support of having 6th graders doing robotics! Although last year's students began working with this amazing equipment a few days before lockdown in March and never got to finish, it wasn't until this fall that we could get this amazing robotic equipment into the hands of our students learning remotely! I am thrilled to report that thanks to your donation, in October our first group of 6th graders were all able to build functioning robots at home during pandemic remote learning! Later this year, 3 other batches of 6th graders will thankfully be able to have this same opportunity! It was, by far, the most engaged and excited I saw my 6th grade students being during the entire quarter! I can't thank you enough!
The most exciting part of the robotics adapters you helped fund was the ease the students had in getting the tech to work at home, regardless of what kind of device they happened to have. The Hummingbird adapter allowed the students to build a robot out of easily cut materials like cardboard, add LED lights and then create moving parts with servos, and finally send instructions to the robot using the new adapter. For the first time in my teaching career, I didn't have a single student struggling with getting it to work!
I hope you understand what a difference this has made in our student's lives! Instead of spending their limited emotional energy on struggling with error messages, my remote learning students could focus all their energies on realizing their idea and refining the construction and coding instructions so the robot worked the way they had dreamed. The students were thrilled, from getting to open their box of equipment all the way to the victorious yelps of finally achieving a success, your generosity has brought a depth of experience I thought not possible in remote learning. Thank you so much again for transforming the students' experience!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Singer
Hot 2D Designs On T-shirts!
Funded Oct 15, 2018How can I thank you enough for supporting our zany idea of creating custom t-shirts in our Maker Club? As a teacher, I am always looking for ways to spark my students' excitement, and wow did this project deliver! After enjoying custom t-shirt making as a one-off activity in our after-school maker club, a number of students proceeded to devote their entire December club time to passionately designing and creating t-shirt after t-shirt as gifts for friends and family. With the equipment and supplies purchased through this project, we now have a portable t-shirt factory where students can jump from idea to finished product in a very short time!
Students first create a design on a computer, then cut out the colored heat-transfer vinyl on the vinyl cutter, then meticulously weed the negative space away with tweezers. Lastly, students use the heat-press to bond the heat transfer vinyl to the t-shirt and pull away the protective coating to reveal their custom creation!
The amount of pride the students showed in their work, the level of care I saw in creating the designs, and the sheer enthusiasm for use of digital design and manufacturing tools made this project a slam dunk. The students truly got to a place where they were making from their hearts. I can't thank you enough for putting your support behind crazy ideas like this one. Students for years to come will get to experience the joys of using digital and physical tools in our t-shirt factory to create awesome creations they can proudly wear.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you again for supporting middle school student opportunities to design and create.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Singer
Laser Cutting Into the Future
Funded May 23, 2018My students and I are overflowing with gratitude that your generosity has secured many future years of laser cutting in our maker program. The laser tube you funded will give another 2-5 years of life to our laser cutter, ensuring that thousands of makers will get to use professional tools to make their ideas come alive!
Students have been using the laser cutter for making many parts for their projects, from simple inspirational quote bookmarks to learn 2D design to functional parts like spinners for their pinball machines and pulleys for their solar powered cars. Wonderful decorative items have been getting cut to enhance their pinball machine designs along a theme. Advanced students are using the laser cutter to design precision parts for service projects they are currently working on.
The wonderful laser cutter (which you have helped fund many years of future operation) allows students to get an idea, make a design and have a physical object to test out, all within about 10 minutes. For making functional objects like pulleys, spinners or parts that need to fit something, the ability to quickly test an idea out and see the problems really keeps easily frustrated students in the game and still excited about what they are making. Using these digital tools also helps kids with challenges in fine-motor coordination produce professional-quality products.
Thank you so much for believing in the value of maker education and the ideas of young people.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Singer
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Arts Funder and 16 other donors.Launching Young Engineers Into Robotic Programming
Funded Mar 27, 2018I cannot thank you enough for your generous donation to help our Maker Tech Lab acquire a class set of Micro:bit basic robotic platforms. Just this week, my first set of students to get to learn on these amazingly simple and powerful platforms took to robotic programming more fearlessly than I have ever witnessed before! Instead of enduring frustration, it was so wonderful to watch students learn robotic physical programming through excited tinkering! I overheard students sharing discoveries with each other and excitedly exploring what the platforms could do.
In years past, students would have to first spend a few days learning to wire up parts and endure frustrating problem solving before they would experience their first success. With these incredible Micro:bit boards with lights, buttons, and sensors already built in, students were tasting success on their first day seeing their programs work on a device off the computer, displaying images and text as well as working with inputs like buttons and motion, just like their phones can do!
No longer do I have to encourage a new robotics student to "hang in there" before they know what success feels like. Now I have 200 excited students hungry to build more complex ideas like games (which will teach concepts like variables). So many of these students come from backgrounds where they would never have had access to technology like this. Soon their creativity will outgrow this board and their confidence will be fortified to take on the frustration of making complex systems work. Until then, your generosity has fueled the kind of excitement that a teacher only dreams of working with. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for believing in and supporting Maker Education.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Singer
Making Robotics Accessible for Every Student
Funded Jan 14, 2017On behalf of our current and future technology students, I want to extend our deepest gratitude for your generous donation making the purchase of a class set of Hummingbird Robotics boards and parts possible. This equipment has been truly transformative in increasing access and ease of understanding to our robotics students. Even though I had, for years, eyed this product as a great solution for getting beginners started in robotics, I never thought it possible that our program could ever afford to own them. Thanks to your generosity, a great tool normally only accessibly by affluent independent schools is now in the hands of all of our students.
Today I asked the students what they appreciated about these boards. Their leading answers included: it makes wiring robots really simple, it makes programming the robots very understandable and straight-forward, and that you can usually get your robot to do something within a few minutes. I have to agree with all the sentiments expressed above. Whereas more advanced robotics usually requires lots of wiring on a breadboard, and usual days before a success, these start with labeled plugs and have it doing something in a matter of minutes. The programming is done in a visual block-based language called Scratch which students can pick up quickly with little direct instruction. Thankfully, the successes come early and quickly getting students past the frustration wall and into a creative headspace. As a result, these beginner robotics kits now have a solid place in our curriculum for years to come.
Thanks to the accessibility of these kits, I now start more advanced 7th and 8th grade students on these boards where they learn wiring and programming basics far more easily than they would starting with more complex equipment and languages. After a couple of days on these boards, they have the basic concepts down and are ready for a more powerful and advanced platform. And for the first time (I believe) in our school's history, I was able to teach a small robotics unit to our 6th graders inside a short elective wheel rotation, where students created quick interactive cardboard-based robotics creations. These students also come in at lunch and teach their friends how to make robots! So many students getting to explore the wonderful work of microelectronics!
Thank you so much again for believing in and generously supporting the idea of bringing engineering thinking to public middle school students! I can't wait to see what the next batch of students create with these kits!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Singer
Laser Cutter for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Projects
Funded Dec 30, 2016On behalf of all of our current and future technology students, I want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the extraordinary generosity you showed in making our seemingly impossible dream come true of having our middle school students access a professional laser cutter with which to invent and innovate. It was a mighty ask of the school community to support a $14,000 idea, and I will be forever moved by the support you donors showed to make this happen. With this amazing tool, students have been able to digitally design, create, test, and improve their inventions extremely quickly, harnessing that incredible middle school enthusiasm while the iron is still hot! I can easily say that the inclusion of this versatile tool in our makerspace has been nothing short of transformative.
We also deeply appreciate your incredible patience as we navigated the formidable obstacles: from shipping delays, waiting through the February and March floods for delivery and installation, the steep learning curve, and even a faulty power supply that put the machine out of commission for 3 weeks! But even through all those delays, our students kept true to our problem-solving mission and worked through each obstacle until we arrived at a solution.
My students and I first tackled learning to use the laser cutter while working on their "solve a teacher problem" project. In this project, students identified needs around the school, then designed and created solutions to fill those needs. Through this project, we experimented with cutting and engraving a variety of materials, and as a result, our student designers found success in creating high-quality products that the teacher "customers" truly appreciated and will use for a long time to come.
As May arrived, we finally got to begin the anticipated project of designing, constructing, testing, and improving an energy-efficient model house. Thanks to the laser cutter, our young engineers were able to fabricate precision house parts with extremely tight joints (far more complex and tight than anything which could have been made by hand). Energy-efficient house features included double-pane windows, awnings, and insulated walls. Today I am happy to report that we tested our homes in the June heat with great success!
As we look into the future, we are thrilled to now have this incredible tool at the students' disposal. It is so incredibly fast and precise, our young designers will be able to use it for creating mechanical, structural and decorative parts for projects large and small, keeping their enthusiasm burning brightly. Today's students are so comfortable designing digitally, and this tool allows them to think through their frustrating setbacks and design professional solutions to their problems which leave them filled with pride.
Once again, I thank you for supporting the dream of inspiring our young engineers and inventors, and transforming what is possible for our students for a long time to come.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Singer
Animations from Every Angle
Funded Sep 16, 2015The computer students and I are ecstatic to finally get to be working with high quality animation and sound recording equipment thanks to your generosity! We can't thank you enough for providing the classes with rugged, dependable stands for our webcams and numerous high quality microphones for recording dialog and sound effects.
I think the best way of describing the impact of your donation is through the eyes of our advanced students, all of whom are in their second year and made animations last year without this wonderful new equipment. In the past, students would have to spend much of their precious filming time trying to invent ways of keeping their camera stable: from duct taping the cameras to blocks of wood or furniture to trying to use tiny fragile tripods that would tip over or break. For a few brave students trying do simulated camera motions like panning, this proved to be next to impossible with the cameras inevitably tipping over when they tried to move them. We also only had 2 microphones for a class of 30, so there was always a long waiting list to do any sound recording. I literally heard oohs and aahs from the advanced group when I unveiled the new equipment. The advanced students insist the new students don't know how good they have it!
Many students have remarked that the new sturdy stands free them up to focus on making their stories and animations better instead of struggling with the equipment. Others have remarked that the goosenecks allow for minute and precise camera motions, getting exactly the realistic shots they want. And the battery of microphones means that any time a student needs to record a sound, there is a high-quality microphone ready for them to use!
What makes me most excited is that the class is getting to learn about and apply more advanced filming techniques instead of wasting time on problems and wrestling with failing equipment, keeping the budding filmmakers enthusiastic and engaged through the process of realizing their visions.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for applying your generosity in a way that has truly transformed our work.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Singer
Soldering Stations for Electronics Inventions
Funded Sep 8, 2015How can I begin to thank you for your incredible generosity in supporting our students in technology classes and in the Maker Club in their efforts to create electronic inventions? The students are so excited about the new soldering stations that your donations funded! These stations have given students an easy-to-use set-up that takes most of the frustration out of the difficult task of soldering electronics components. Soldering is one of those tasks that is much harder than it looks, and is made even harder by not having the right tools for the job. For years, I have been envious of other schools for being able to provide their students with better setups to make this challenging task easier: good clamps, magnifiers, cleaning tools, and hand tools. I know we were lucky to even have soldering irons, but it really warms my heart that you were willing to get these high quality setups for the current and future students to create with!
Right out of the gates, students were excited to try out these awesome new stations. Many students have commented how wonderful it is to be able to easily see the tiny details of their work thanks to the great lighted magnifiers. Other students have remarked how adding a cleaning pad (for wiping their hot tips off) makes the soldering go smoothly with a clean tip each time. And they love having all the hand tools they need right there when the need arises! All together, they now spend less time frustrated and more time thinking of what comes next!
What this all means for the students is that they get to build their inventions more easily, gain confidence quickly with the difficult task of soldering, waste far less time running around the room looking for needed tools, and most importantly, enjoy the process of designing and building. These new stations have already helped many students construct their robotic inventions, and we're just getting started. I can't wait to see what our students create on these wonderful platforms for years to come. Thank you so very much again for all your support of making and creating!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Singer
Rapid Inventions With Recycled Materials
Funded Sep 5, 2015On behalf of our class and club students, I want to send a huge heartfelt thank you for your incredible generosity. The gift of these cardboard cutting tools to our Maker Shop has been nothing short of transformative, giving students tools which cut and help them build at the speed of their creativity. Very quickly after they were introduced, these tools became some of the most popular in the shop, getting put to use far beyond what I had originally envisioned.
Students in the Maker Club got right to work transforming cardboard from some of the larger delivery boxes arriving at the school into old-fashioned arcade games like skeeball and foosball. For many of the club students, being able to work in cardboard meant that they could dream of a project and construct it quickly, making progress even within the 20 minute lunch sessions, which was simply impossible in slower materials like wood. These students could even iterate and improve their designs, since these great cutting tools made making changes to a part so quick, safe, and easy. Building was no longer about getting it right on the first try: it has transformed building into a process of figuring it out as you go, which contains far more learning opportunities.
Students in my shop technology class immediately began to use these tools to cut thin materials around the shop, literally cutting days off of construction time for their wired building projects, as well as making the process of cutting their foam core walls far safer than it ever was with utility blades. The power cutters make quick work of straight cut lines on larger pieces of material, and the trauma shears make cutting curves in even thick cardboard not only possible but easy, even for a 6th grader.
Lastly, and possibly most transformative, students now see the value in quickly making a cardboard prototype of a project idea to be able to visualize potential problems before wrestling with a less forgiving material like wood. Our shop technology classes have begun their mechanical project which involves cams and cranks, and already, many students have constructed prototypes and have improved their designs before cutting their first piece of wood!
The students and I are so happy to have these amazing new cardboard cutting tools in the maker shop, and I am happy to spend my afternoons stalking the food service and office delivery areas for nice big boxes for raw materials. These tools have not only lowered the entry skill and time commitment thresholds for making something, made cutting any thin material much safer, and made prototyping something so quick that a middle school student will actually try making one! Thank you so much again for supporting such a transformative set of tools to our Maker program!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Singer