NEIT14+Open+Space+1I+-+Suite130

IDEAL Making

NEIT14 - OpenSpace Session

IDEAL School - still expanding, launching high school next year. Opportunity with new and non-traditional school to reinvent practices. 30% of students have special needs, but not a special needs school. Inclusion school, highly racially and economically diverse body of students. Committed to "just and equitable world."

Technology being used with middle school students. Maker oriented and tech driven curriculum. Starting with Scratch and TinkerCad, all students use Chromebooks starting in 4th grade. Makey Makeys, Arduinos, and Raspberry Pis are being used and tinkered with.

Design Thinking - vocabulary words - As a style of thinking, design thinking is combining empathy with ability to solve problems. Project based learning and maker culture. Engaging students in learning in a new way.

Engineering projects with Makey Makey and Scratch and used bananas as a drum kit in tech club (middle school). Talking about circuits and seeing the connections in action quickly.

Occupational therapy and having students work with others to help with fine motor control challenges. Changing the switches for motorized toys in order to make the toys or devices more accessible. As inclusion school, this is part of the mission and they feel invested in creating objects/devices for others. (EQ: "How do we accommodate or modify so all students can use technology?" Purposeful design.

Music recording project with musicians from record label. Not only making music but reading contracts.

No assumptions that students have access to technology at home. Open school early in morning and leaving it open till late, providing opportunity for tech use.

Started noticing that students were purchasing expensive cups and straws, and thought they could make that on the 3-d printer. With one student, customized a handle to a screw driver on Thingiverse, customized it for a pencil grip. Trying to think more deeply about what the 3-d printer is creating to make purposeful designs.