Welcome to Makerspace with Ms. Kramer
Our Makerspace Vision: Students will be resilient makers and innovators who work individually and collaboratively to use the engineering design process and skills with digital and manual tools to construct creative solutions to complex challenges.
Parent Volunteers Are Essential & Appreciated! The makerspace needs parent volunteers to support young makers -- during their classes, and also by helping prepare materials for them to use. A sign-up link will go out through WhatsApp and through PTA communications in the first month of school.
Projects (these are only a few!)
-- Students work with robots at all grade levels -- Indi cars in kindergarten, on to Dash, VEX-GO, Ozobots, and VEX-IQ.
-- Physical projects range from designing and building bridges for the Billy Goats Gruff in K, to 5th grade makers measuring and sawing wood for bookends that will feature insets laser-cut from students' own drawings.
-- Physical projects range from designing and building different iterations of bridges for the Billy Goats Gruff in K, to measuring and sawing wood for bookends that have laser-cut inserts of students own drawings.
-- K makers le
arn about using glue and scissors to create basic cardboard support structures; they are introduced to the engineering design process
-- 1st Grade makers work individually and with partners to meet a variety of challenges: tall (and strong) paper towers, and coding a character named Awbie to meet his goals.
-- 2nd Grade makers engineer impressive models of str
uctures from around the world for multicultural week.
-- 3rd Grade makers build cardboard mazes, then code their Ozobots to successfully maneuver through the mazes.
-- 4th Grade makers problem-solve to create cardboard arcade games
arn about using glue and scissors to create basic cardboard support structures; they are introduced to the engineering design process-- 1st Grade makers work individually and with partners to meet a variety of challenges: tall (and strong) paper towers, and coding a character named Awbie to meet his goals.
-- 2nd Grade makers engineer impressive models of str
uctures from around the world for multicultural week. -- 3rd Grade makers build cardboard mazes, then code their Ozobots to successfully maneuver through the mazes.
-- 4th Grade makers problem-solve to create cardboard arcade games
-- 5th Grade makers build and program advanced VEX IQ robots, then complete coding challenges with them
Standards interwoven through the year:
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Beliefs that guide my teaching (and my learning)
- Engineering practices from the NextGen Science Standards
- Skills from the International Society for Technology in Education standards
- National makerspace standards that emphasize collaboration, empathy, communication, and an ethic of excellence for improvement through peer- and self-feedback
- Skills in the state's computer science standards
. Beliefs that guide my teaching (and my learning)
- Failure recovery goes hand-in-hand with another key competency ...
- A growth mindset lets us see ourselves as capable of growing our abilities to accomplish great things
- Building an ethic of excellence helps us do more than we could have imagined
- The abilities to collaborate and communicate effectively are essential
- We need to be challenged -- and have fun!
Donations of "found" materials are welcome!
- Corrugated cardboard: Moving size boxes and large TV or appliance boxes are great for the 4th Grade Cardboard Arcade!
- Cardboard tubes from empty paper towel rolls, aluminum foil rolls, wrapping paper rolls, etc.
- Flexible cardboard (the corrugation has thin, flat cardboard on only one side)
- Adult boot and shoe boxes
- Buttons!!!
My background:
- Born and raised in Michigan
- BA in English (University of Michigan - Ann Arbor)
- First career: Newspaper reporting (Wrote articles that helped earn our San Jose Mercury News staff a Pulitzer Prize!)
- 2nd career: 23 years in education in BHUSD and in Los Angeles Unified School District
- Masters in Education Technology (UC-Fullerton)
- National Board-Certified Teacher
