LIBRARY AS MAKERSPACE

We're very excited to announce that we were able to get remote Lynda access so that anyone with a Duxbury Free Library card can enjoy learning at their own pace from the comfort of their own home. What a great to beat the winter blues and get those new years resolutions started! Lynda is full of professional easy to understand video tutorials on a wide variety of topics. Learn about 3D printing, Adobe products, resume building, MS Office and more. The breadth of Lynda is amazing. I have watched a variety of photography classes and I cannot estimate that amount of money I have saved by learning from home with these free videos.  I am now proficient in Photoshop, introductory flash, and understanding exposure. What I love about Lynda is it not only teaches you a topic but it helps you with studying tips along the way. Check it out today!

  We're trying to get kids excited about learning about science and if Goldieblox has a major point it's that sometimes it's all about the marketing and packaging of the idea. Since I was going to do snow and ice during my next preschool STEM session, why not call it "Frozen" Preschool STEM and use those beloved character faces (maybe Photoshop some lab coats on them). Will more girls come? The possibilities are endless for this so here's my 2 session plan: Session 1: Making Snow What happened to the weather in Frozen after Anna leaves?  Talk about meteorologists and tools What makes a Blizzard? Making our own blizzards in a jar Materials: Glitter Paint Baby Oil Alkaseltzer Jars Water Tools: Thermometer Weathervane   Session 2: Melting Snow What did they do when Anna was Frozen? (You could also base it around what would happen to Olaf during the "in summer" song?) Talk about archeologists and tools Stages of Water Ice...

Just got my Lego We-Do and Mindstorms robotics shipment thanks to a generous grant. It took me about 30 minutes from out of the box to my first finished We Do project which always boosts my self esteem as a scientist. It helped to have background familiarity with a simple coding program like Scratch or Hopscotch and Lego instructions. The curriculum suggests as young as 2nd grade and I can see that this would be right up their alley not to mention filling a gap in our programming for 2nd and 3rd graders. I ended up purchasing the 16 person classroom set from Lego Education which includes 8 We Do sets, a site license, and curriculum binder so I can put it on as many computers as I need for a total of almost $1500 (you can buy them separately for a much cheaper price). I wanted a site license because we don't have enough laptops necessary for single licenses to run a program and I wanted the freedom of downloading them to as many computers in house as I could. The teacher curri...