I lead a makerspace at my kids' elementary school. We do no coding or modern making, or whatever it is adult nerds like to play with. Mostly because this age group can't manage it, especially in 40 minute session, and I'm competing with a Lego corner. Mostly we try to get new views on the natural world and get exposed to different tools.
This week, we managed to bang out some bee houses of some scrap lumber I had. We learned about why mason bees are great, and got to use power tools in the library. They had so much fun and we were goal-oriented, so that even the troublemakers among them were helpful.
The most engaging activity (especially for younger grades) was a bunch of light bulbs, batteries and switches, all mounted on wood tiles and connected with alligator clips. So simple but let kids experiment with making huge circuits together, debug unexpected behavior (why did it turn off when the switch closed?), and learn about conductors that could substitute for wire.
About the most complicated thing we've done is paper circuits (with copper tape), lighting up LED skull eyes for a Día de los Muertos card. The debugging was hard, and a lot of kids would've benefitted from doing the light bulb activity first with an eye toward this.
My "worst" activity was digging soil samples (fun) and seeing how the layers separated in water after days to settle in order to classify the soil type (boring, pointless). Luckily I also brought our vermicomposter, and everyone had a great time playing with worms.
Another parent did an ambitious sewing project, which took 2-3 sessions to complete but was great to get kids to get exposed to sewing machines, and they had a gift for a parent.
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Yes, pick the topics that you're passionate about because your visible enthusiasm is critical to engagement, but don't make it about, say, 3D printing because you want to use your printer (you'll just end up doing a lot of work for indifferent kids). Keep it simple and learn from what the kids respond to.
This week, we managed to bang out some bee houses of some scrap lumber I had. We learned about why mason bees are great, and got to use power tools in the library. They had so much fun and we were goal-oriented, so that even the troublemakers among them were helpful.
The most engaging activity (especially for younger grades) was a bunch of light bulbs, batteries and switches, all mounted on wood tiles and connected with alligator clips. So simple but let kids experiment with making huge circuits together, debug unexpected behavior (why did it turn off when the switch closed?), and learn about conductors that could substitute for wire.
About the most complicated thing we've done is paper circuits (with copper tape), lighting up LED skull eyes for a Día de los Muertos card. The debugging was hard, and a lot of kids would've benefitted from doing the light bulb activity first with an eye toward this.
My "worst" activity was digging soil samples (fun) and seeing how the layers separated in water after days to settle in order to classify the soil type (boring, pointless). Luckily I also brought our vermicomposter, and everyone had a great time playing with worms.
Another parent did an ambitious sewing project, which took 2-3 sessions to complete but was great to get kids to get exposed to sewing machines, and they had a gift for a parent.
--
Yes, pick the topics that you're passionate about because your visible enthusiasm is critical to engagement, but don't make it about, say, 3D printing because you want to use your printer (you'll just end up doing a lot of work for indifferent kids). Keep it simple and learn from what the kids respond to.