Maker Faire Kansas City

Look for posts on Week 2 and Week 3 of Summer Camp the week of the 4th.  This week I am ever so busy preparing for Maker Faire KC this weekend at Union Station.

http://www.makerfairekc.com/

GO!  This is an amazing event with science, making, DIY, art, crafts, and way too much fun stuff.  People are enthusiastic and knowledgeable.  JUST GO!

I have a booth at Maker Faire KC so my time is cut between the kids as Science City and my Maker Faire projects and I have no time to go through photos and update until after this weekend.  

Space Exploration- Mars & Rovers

For our space exploration themed week we talked all about Mars, focusing on the rovers NASA has sent there.  Class 1 was all about designing our rovers and getting them (safely) to Mars.  We discussed the essentials that they rovers would need for the tasks they'd be carrying out on the red planet and then did two drawings; one as a group (a circle drawing) collaborating like NASA engineers must do and one individually to let their creative juices flow.

 

We had real rover images and some fantasy robot books to inspire us.

We talked about the orbital patterns of Mars and Earth and the varying distances between the two planets.  The class did an activity to see  how hard it is to "land" on a particular spot that is rather far away.  They launched their marshmallow rovers to see if they could make it to Mars with a marshmallow shooter.

We talked about the amazing ways NASA has landed other rovers safely on the surface of Mars.

Then we tried our hand at simulating landing on Mars with our "rovers". 

First we simulated Mars surface with clay:

(Rover tracks)

(Gale Crater reproduction from a 3D printed model)

Then they built their own egg enclosures to keep their egg rovers safe as they plummeted to Mars.

  

 

Here are some great resources I used in both my lessons and in class:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/participate/funzone/ Mars games from NASA

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/explore/curiosity/ Drive a rover around Mars- very nice!

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/interactives/edlcuriosity/index-2.html  

Video of curiosity landing

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/videos/index.cfm?v=32 Short video on how to get to Mars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRCIzZHpFtY How Spirit/Opportunity landed

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/videos/playVideo.cfm?videoID=30   

Short video on how to land on Mars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4lewqblsx4 Nice composites of Mars photos

Rover we used: http://www.robotshop.com/productinfo.aspx?pc=RB-Owi-47&lang=en-US
Marshmallow shooter instructions/kits: http://www.instructables.com/id/Marshmallow-gun/

About me

Here's a little about me and the scienc-ey/maker-y projects I've done with kids:

I'm an artist, teacher and lover of science, technology and making.

During the school year I am the lead toddler teacher at Alpha Montessori School.  I have taught everywhere from toddlers to kindergartners to fifth graders in both general education and science focused classes/camps.  Here are some photos of things I've done with students from earth science to technology and more:

 

            "Junk Robot" K class made in celebration of Maker Faire                             Dry Ice and Dish Soap

 

                                                  Blasting off Rockets                                            LED and coin cell battery

 

                                           Snake Skin                                              Baking Soda & Vinegar

 

                                      Car Paintings                                               Snake Banner (Chinese New Year)

  

                         Watching caterpillars turn into butterflies                                        Making Slime

This year at Science City Summer Camp I'm going to be doing TONS of fun stuff to help kids learn about, understand, and interact with technology.  Keep checking back to see the great things we are doing.