The Global Cardboard Challenge 2019

I am so excited to announce that our Collaboratory Cubs embarked on a new adventure this year!  Our students joined 1.9 million other students around the world in 80 different countries to participate in the Global Cardboard Challenge!

The Global Cardboard Challenge was inspired by a short film called "Caine's Arcade" that shares the story of a boy named Caine who built an entire arcade out of cardboard in his dad's store.  For the Global Cardboard Challenge, kids of all ages are encouraged to get creative and use their imaginations to build something amazing out of cardboard and recycled materials.  Check out these links to learn more about the challenge: http://imagination.org/our-projects/cardboard-challenge/ and 

https://cardboardchallenge.com/.

We kicked off the Global Cardboard Challenge with one of my favorite cardboard-themed books:

Then, we set up our Cardboard Control Center:

Each grade was given a special type of cardboard to start off with for the challenge, and from there, they could expand their creations with other types of cardboard and recycled materials.  

The kindergarten students used toilet paper rolls and egg cartons.  The first graders used toilet paper rolls and miniature boxes.  The second graders used shoe boxes and medium-sized boxes.  The third graders were given a random piece of cardboard that had an interesting shape, and the fourth graders were given an "industrial-sized" piece of cardboard.  One of the coolest parts about this project is that every material used for construction was donated by members of our Tabernacle family.  I am very thankful for all of the support that our incredible Tabernacle community has shown for our Collaboratory program since we started on this adventure three years ago.  I am proud and honored to work with such amazing people!

The students worked really hard for multiple class periods working through all of the steps of the Engineering Design Process for their creations.  

When the cardboard masterpieces were finally complete, we set up our own Cardboard Museum in the TES Library!  A big thank you to Mrs. Smith, our TES Media Specialist, for all of her help with our displays!

 

I am so proud of our students for their hard work, dedication, and creativity!  I think the Collaboratory has found a new annual tradition!  I'm already looking forward to next year's projects!

Our Trek for Tech

I love the beginning of the year when our youngest learners are just starting to explore the world of technology.  I love the looks on the students' faces when they realize that technology doesn't have to have a touchscreen or a charger or batteries.  I love explaining how technology is anything that was designed to help people or solve a problem in some way, and I challenge the students to find things in the Collaboratory that are technology that maybe they didn't even realize were technology before.  

The students start taking tape rolls out of the Makerspace and toilet paper rolls out of the Recycling Center and start talking to each other about why these items are technology.  To reward their smart thinking, I like to end the lesson with a "Trek for Tech" where the students go on a scavenger hunt through the school to find as many pieces of technology as they can.  They take pictures as "evidence" and when we regroup back in the Collaboratory, the students share, explain, and compare their "research".  It really gets the students thinking about why different items were created and how those items have improved our lives.  Thank you to Mr. Banin, Mrs. O'Malley, and Mrs. Greaser for inviting us into the office and participating in our activity!  

The best part of these types of lessons is getting to witness my students have those lightbulb moments when I can see the new learning and realizations on their faces.  

Here is one of my favorite lightbulb moments from a student this year:  

"Mrs. Murro, just wait until I go home and tell my mom that I am going to eat my dinner off of a piece of technology tonight!  She's going to think I want to put food on my iPad!"

Our oldest learners have already developed into technology experts, so they explore technology in a different way!  They focus on learning how technology doesn't necessarily have to be an object; technology can also be a process, such as the Engineering Design Process.  Therefore, these students get to participate in what I call the Triple Tech Challenge:  they use the technology of the Engineering Design Process to design and create a new piece of technology using only the assorted technologies in their mystery bags.  We love to use the character cards from our Design Extraordinaires kit because the students like to learn about the backstories of the characters.  The students had a blast, and I did, too!

New School Year, New Ideas

The Collaboratory is back open for business and buzzing with excitement!  Our amazing Collaboratory Cubs have really enjoyed checking out all that our learning studio has to offer!  

We also began our first official project:  Makerspace Magic.  We started our project by reading and discussing one of my favorite books:  What Do You Do With an Idea? by Kobi Yamada.  The students shared some of their experiences with their past ideas and discussed how they have shared them with the world.  The last page in the book ("And then, I realized what you do with an idea...You change the world.") sparked some really interesting conversations about how so many of the technologies that we rely on today started as small ideas that were given time and attention until they transformed into the creations that they are today.

Students were inspired by the book's message and eager to start brainstorming some ideas so that they, too, could experience that magical feeling that comes with growing and developing ideas.   So how did we get those ideas to grow into creations? Using the Engineering Design Process, of course! 

Students reviewed the steps of the Engineering Design Process (Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Improve) before beginning their challenge:  How might you create an object that represents something that you love?  Students started imagining all types of ideas, and then they created their blueprints for one idea that that they wanted to grow and develop into a creation.  

The students designed some truly creative items!  Check out their awesome work:

     

a metal detector

a magnifying glass

a lizard

an iguana

a purse

a snake

a dog

a gumball machine

a bunny

a clapperboard

a piano

buddy birds

a butterfly

a bow

a camera

beach scenes

Cheez-its

Stitch

an airplane

a soccer trophy

a tutu

a car

turtles

cats

a shark

I'm so excited to see these creative students in action throughout the rest of the year!

Happy New Year!

There is something magical about the start of a new school year.  I love the opportunity to reunite with my school family and catch up with everyone, hearing about everyone's summer adventures and their upcoming plans for the school year.  I always greet people when I first see them with a "Happy New Year" and they chuckle, probably partially because we are still in the heat of August and not in January but also because they realize that, for educators, the start of school really is our new year.  Just like January 1st, the start of school is filled with hope.  It's the filled with the ability to reorganize, refresh, and reinvent.  It's filled with opportunities for new beginnings.

Speaking of new beginnings, I am thrilled to share that I will be embarking on a new adventure of my own this year!  In addition to being the TES Collaboratory teacher, I will also be the TES Gifted and Talented teacher!  I am so excited to dive into PERC (Program for Enrichment, Reasoning, and Creativity) this year!

Of course, I was also excited to get the Collaboratory up and running for the start of the 2019-2020 school year!  Take a peek at how it looks so far!

Good luck to all of the educators and students out there getting ready for their first day of school!  I wish you all the happiest new year!