Past projects 2
Primary Grade Makerspace
Funded Feb 8, 2024I am writing to express my deepest gratitude for your generous contribution to our STEM Makerspace project on DonorsChoose. Your support has enabled us to allow our school's youngest learners into the Makerspace where they can continue to grow their collaboration and problem solving skills.
Your commitment to education and belief in the power of experiential learning is truly inspiring. With your help, we have been able to equip our Makerspace with bins of materials appropriate for kindergarten and first grade students. They are using these materials to collaboratively problem solve. They are designing inventions and creating settings for storybook characters. The Makerspace gives them a safe place to grow through success and failure.
Thank you so much for supporting my mission - to have an inclusive Makerspace in our school library where ALL students can master the skills that make up our community Portrait of a Graduate. Your generosity is appreciated.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Kerrigan
This classroom project was brought to life by Connecticut State Department of Education.“Creating Leaders and Techsperts in the Library”
Funded Dec 12, 2016I am incredibly grateful for the donation that helped our school acquire a set of Dash and Dot robots. Students are learning the value of patience, inquiry, and problem solving. It started with a small group of older students (4th and 5th grade.) I brought them to my library and showed them how to connect the robots to the iPad app. That was it. Students at first wanted to speed through all of the features of the app without stopping to think about what they could really do with the robots. With little prompting, students were able to discover that if they slow down and think about the robot capabilities, they could use the robots to solve problems (like pulling a retrieving a pencil case from across the room) or just for fun (like using the launcher and inventing a new robot basketball game.) Inquiry and problem solving are essential characteristics of a twenty-first century learner.
The most exciting part of this project was when my small group of older students got to present their learning to younger students and help teach them how to use the robots. During one of these lessons, it was amazing to see the older students shine with confidence. One of the students announced, "Look! They are doing it!" and beamed with pride that he had a hand in helping them learn. It is one thing to learn a new technology, but to be able to teach it to others shows true understanding.
It was exciting to see that some of my younger students who had difficulty problem solving during the Hour of Code (a week long initiative in the library where students used problem solving skills on laptops to use coding to complete mazes and puzzles) suddenly began to understand coding. Coding to make an object move across a screen isn't always meaningful to hands-on learners. Here, they were able to using coding skills to program a robot to move. Being able to see their program talk, move, and come alive increased their ability to use this skill.
We have never had a project like this at our school and I am thankful every day that I get to be a part of this wonderful initiative.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Kerrigan