LIBRARY AS MAKERSPACE

Another round of weekly summer Mad Science Mondays comes to a close. These were drop in science & art based programs for grades K and up with an adult taking place in the children's room for a 2 hour drop in. We did this for the first time last summer . It was so successful we decided to do it again. Our schedule was as follows: (keeping in mind Superheroes as our summer reading theme) Superhero Gadgets-Use littleBits to make your own gadgets for your hero tool belt Superhero Lairs- Make your own secret hideout Superhero Traps-Make Rube Goldberg inspired designs to capture your enemies Superhero Minions- Build and program your own Lego robot to do your bidding We were fortunate enough to get a donation of refrigerator boxes from a local appliance store to help us with lairs (think about where you can store these before the program. In our case we had a delivery of boxes two months before and things got tight!).  If lairs would be too big to store, I suggest making superh...

Our Mad Scientist Monday for this week was dedicated to cartoonist and "inventor", Rube Goldberg. I just learned that he did not actually create these machines but rather drew these silly contraptions only on paper. What an influence he has had! There's a challenge devoted to him every year hosted by high schools and colleges all over the county. You can sponsor your own teen team at your library or encourage them to apply to the international online contest. Each year has a goal such as apply toothpaste to a toothbrush and the kids are invited to make their own contraptions to accomplish the goal. Having an open experimental day like ours would be a great introduction to forming your team.   Set up:  Thanks to our iPads we featured a video with 75 Rube Goldberg Ideas to explain our vision. We also downloaded the official game, Rubeworks app ($2.99 for the iPad).  Each level features an animated cartoon Rube Goldberg challenge like squeeze an orange for orang...

Our young teens have discovered Rube Goldberg! Not only are his illustrations funny and timeless, but it is more challenging than it looks and I am convinced that learning how things work together mechanically is a big plus in the Maker World. This kind of making doesn't have to cost much. You can pull found object from an amazing array of places. The 2 metal pulleys cost a total of $5 at our local hardware store in the clothesline section. We always need to put it all away so another program can use our room. That's where a screen really comes in handy. Casey and Peter send a marble down to hit a whiffle ball which drops the cup, sending the counter weight up the pulley..... Here are some shots of our teens experimenting with pulleys, levers, chain reactions... Check out the Rube Goldberg app you can purchase from your app store: Robert and Stephen experiment with a fan, a feather, and an inflatable globe....           ...