From our Makerspace - Snapcircuits Artbot

Recently we attended a STEM event in our city. It was a family friendly event rich with Science, Engineering concepts. We got to meet a few enthusiastic basketball playing robots, R2D2 , attended a  great Q&A session with NASA astronaut Megan McArthur. The twins had quite a few hands on activities like building circuits with snapcircuits kit, building brushbots, making flashlights, building and launching their own  rocket etc.

Meeting R2D2

Nidhi building a Bristlebot

"Look a flashlight with popsicle stick!"

Their excitement lingered on for quite sometime after returning home. They played with their brushbots for long time. It is a very simple build with a toothbrush head, a small battery and motor.
We then wondered if they can use these brushbots to paint. They dipped the brush in some watered down acrylic paint and the little robots colored the paper beautifully.

Painting with little BristleBots

We then explored how we can build a bigger robot that make art. The solution is simple. We just need a bit bigger power source and motor. We had a snap circuits jr kit at home. May be we can use the components from that kit. This kit is much easier for little hands to build circuits.We also chose markers in place of brush.

The result was great. We enjoyed this project. I know there are lots of similar drawbot/artbot instructions scattered around the internet. However, it is more exciting to work with what we have at hand in the house. There was lot of learning and problem solving involved.

Sid and Nidhi have learnt a lot of technical vocabulary such as power source, motor, wire, open circuit, closed circuit, IC, series and parallel circuits.

Here is a video of our artbot making experience.

Today they noticed our malfunctioning doorbell and Sid said, "Mom, why don't we build our own doorbell circuit?". Sure!

Making - Learning by doing - Model Toy car

Maker education  fosters curiosity, tinkering and iterative learning, which in turn leads to better thinking through better questioning. - Laura Fleming

We have already discussed about Tinkering and creativity. But, have you heard of "Tinquiry"?  Tinquiry = Tinkering + Inquiry.
Tinkering is a marriage of play and inquiry. Children learn by tinkering/making.

Here is one of instances where our twins learnt to observe everyday world around us more closely by making.

One day Nidhi brought out a styrofoam block and asked "Mom, May I use this?". "For what?". "This looks like a bus, I ll build a bus with this."
"How?" "I ll just add four wheels and draw some windows."
"How will you add the wheels?"
She found some cylindrical foam blocks and taped them to the bottom of the styrofoam block.
She tested it out. "Oh no! the wheels don't move!" "How can we fix that?"  She brought out a toy car and observed its wheels closely. "I know! We need a stick between the wheels." "Yes, that is called an axle".
She picked two long skewer, inserted it into the styrofoam block and capped them with foam cylinders for wheels.
She tested it out again. "Mom, it still doesn't move." Back to observing the model toy car. She figured out that the axle spins easily inside the chassis. How can we make this? she was puzzled. I suggested that she use straws below the chassis.
We found another soap box to try our newer model. Here is a pic journal of the car model making.

Adding straws to make axles rotate freely

Adding axles

Inserting wheels using foam cylinder blocks

Model soap box car with freely rotating wheels ready!

Sid and Nidhi both made multiple cars and we raced them on a cookie sheet ramp.
We learnt about wheel axle assembly of a car by making a model. A lot of problem solving happened along the way such as , if the axles are too close to each other, the wheels cannot move.  A lot of inquiry happened.Why didn't front wheels rotate as smoothly as the rear ones? Why the car steered to left? Does the length of axle affect the stability of the car? A great deal of learning and inquiry happened by letting them make on their own!

I would like to share another everyday object that they observed closely in next post.

 Till then, Happy Holidays! :)

Encouraging creativity with TinkerBox

"To invent you need a good imagination and a pile of junk." - Thomas Edison

Have you ever noticed what kids do when they are given a pile of junk? Junk, not toys. Just Junk. Surprise!  They start to tinker with the pile in million ways we never would have thought about. This tinkering encourages them to think critically, solve problems, and most importantly stay creative.

What is tinkering?
To quote The Exploratorium,  "tinkering is thinking with your hands and learning through doing. It’s slowing down and getting curious about the mechanics and mysteries of the everyday stuff around you."

What is a Tinker box?
 A tinkerbox (also known as Tinker tray) at our house, is a simple divided box with various loose parts. You can read more about loose parts play and creativity in a post written a few months back.  So, when in mood to play with something new or just tinker with something, tinker box is our go to resource.

The Tinker Box

What is in our tinker box?
1. Rings and Sticks
2. Googly eyes - adds a character to anything it is attached to instantly.
3. Straws
4. Pipe cleaners/chenille sticks or wires
5. buttons and beads
6. Popsicle sticks/ craft sticks
7. Feathers
8. Push Pins
9. Yarn/String
10. Pattern blocks/shapes
11. Bonding materials such as tapes,glue and rubber bands
12. cardboard tubes and recyclables

Basically, a tinker box can comprise of any number of familiar, interesting materials left to be used in unfamiliar ways.

If tinker box contains craft items then what is the difference between tinkering and crafting for preschoolers?

Both tinkering and crafting are about making something. But in tinkering, you do not follow stepwise instructions to achieve a neat end result. When tinkering, the end result may reveal as you go.

How to initiate and maintain interest in tinkering?

If a new material is added to tinkerbox or tinkerbox is just being introduced, I would set up provocations displaying a few ways the materials can be used creatively.

A small provocation setup by me

To sustain kids' interest, I add other open ended materials such as play dough, paper and coloring materials etc.
I also rotate materials according to the kids current interest if the box goes unnoticed for some time.Say, the kids are currently interested in cars, adding materials for wheels (like bottle caps) and axles (sticks or skewers) can help bring their interest back to tinkering.

So what do Sid and Nidhi do with their tinkerbox?

Creative Expression
Sid and Nidhi enjoy using loose parts in the tinker box for expressing their creative thoughts, for story telling and to retell their experiences.

Here is Sid's depiction of a juggler after visiting a juggling show.

A juggler balancing on a ring by Sid

 Here is a story told by Nidhi about two little girls trying to find their way home. She also documented her representation as drawing on paper.

Girls walking on road by Nidhi

For Pretend/Imaginative play:

A simple tinkering of cardstock paper with couple of pipe cleaners can transform them into little prince and princess.

Prince and Cinderella with their self made crowns

Add a pair of googly eyes and you get an instant pretend companion.

Look! My little car is drinking juice(petrol)

Here is a short video of Sid singing with a  Banjo built by him and Nidhi listening to the song with her pretend headphones and mike.

Here is Sid playing a banjo made with cork board, a train track, push pins and rubber bands.

Sid playing a DIY banjo

For Preschool Math and literacy learning:

Though this way of using loose parts may not contribute towards tinkering, it reinforces versatility of tinker box.

Nidhi building alphabets with popsicle sticks

Sorting buttons by colors

Preschool Engineering:

Nidhi trying out a pulley system

Piggy's straw house

Art projects:

Often just having fun results in amazing art products like this mobile made by Nidhi hanging elegantly in our room.

A mobile made of loose parts from the tinker box

Another hanging mobile in making

And more importantly having fun!

A happy face with pins and rubber band

Do you have a tinker box for your preschooler? What's in it? Share your thoughts.

“The creative process in tinkering, I believe, lets your mind escape from the day-in and day-out of life. And I think it's so important, when we’re building something, to escape.” – Scott Weaver