STEAMmaker Camp Day 1

Mrs. Henley used her first year running the district GATE program to create a career mindset in her classes. Students were exposed to technology, robotics, computer programing, graphic design, 3d printing, and pre-engineering along with many options that the area's local Tricounty Technology Center offers. With the career mindset in place, Mrs. Henley's focus for her second year is to create a STEAMmaker classroom and the plans are already in the works! STEAMmaker combines science, tinkering, engineering, aesthetics and mathematics with the education maker movement. The Maker Movement is a project-based learning environment where kids learn through the process of making, researching, collaborating, and building. This is exactly what students who qualify for GATE will be doing next year in class which is why she chose to send students to the camp even though it fell in that hectic finals week/ last week of school.

 Oklahoma CareerTech teamed up with ESSDACK, an educational service agency with headquarters in Hutchinson, Kan., to conduct STEAMmaker camps. Dewey GATE students applied and were accepted along with a handful of other participants to attend this STEAMmaker camp conducted by the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education where they had a chance to think, build and learn.  Dewey brought a team of two teachers (Mrs. Henley and Mrs. Sloan) and five 7th grade students to come up with answers to challenges, build prototypes and test them.

On Day 1 students were immediately challenged with the "amazing rubber band car." (Click here).
Teams of students were given limited quantities of odds and ends to create a car that not only moves forward, but also moves backward. Teams drew out their ideas and collaborated using the process of trial and error, created their prototypes to the best of their ability, and then presented their projects to an expert panel. Amazingly enough... our team created a successful model of the car! We were all a little shocked and very proud of our creation! After lunch, we were assigned to the Circuitry station where we learned about "Little Bits", "Makey Makey's" and circuitry in general…. The boys used the Little Bits to create a model of a chair that uses a pressure sensor. When a person sits on it, a fan blows on them, a reading light turns on and it vibrates for their relaxation! (View it in our video above!)

Tomorrow... 3D printing! We are so excited to take a step in our 3D know-how!