Mini Makers: making, tinkering and engineering

Stage 1 Pearl Mini-Makers

Stage 1 Pearl Mini-Makers

We are some of the Stage 1 Mini-Makers. Our teacher challenges our imagination and creativity. We think about making the things we imagine after talking and working together with our teacher.            

Our teacher encourages us to think critically and creatively. We use lots of leftover goodies to make our amazing imaginings. Sometimes we use our digital age skills and sometimes we don’t.

Our teachers provide us with opportunities to:

  • Program.  Programming is the key to controlling the new world of computational devices.  There are many programming languages and they are designed to cater for every purpose and every age group. Bee Bots are a beginning for developing familiarity with programming.
  • Physical Computing. Microcontrollers, sensors and interfaces connect the physical world to the digital world in an infinite number of ways. Robotics are just one facet of this interface. Lego and games based equipment support early understanding of how the digital and the physical world interface.
  • Visual and Audio Creation: every person has a story to tell and never has it been easier to create something amazing:  imovies, garageband, ipads+apps and so much more
  • Computer controlled fabrication devices. 3 D printers are the best publicised of these. Put it in the budget for 2018.

Our Mini-Maker Program draws on the arts, music, engineering, design and computer science skills.

Making is not a novelty, a fad or a trend that will fade it is a way of learning by doing. Our students have authentic problems to solve, they are challenged to think creatively and critically, reflect and re-do if need be. Our Mini- Makers program is based on the premise that children engage with learning when it is challenging and fun.

Implementation

Stay tuned as we show you what we do as we work through our exciting and interesting week.

  • Make it Monday
  • Technie Tuesday
  • Work Out Wednesday
  • Thinkers Thursday
  • Finishing Off Friday