Lanterns for the River of Light Parade

Today I attended a lantern building workshop at Thatcher Brook Primary School, taught by +MK Monley and +gowri savoor. These brilliant educators are in the midst of preparing for the 6th annual River of Lights parade, which will be held in Waterbury on Saturday, 5 December.

MK invited me to attend this workshop after we collaborated to teach some of her third and fourth grade students basic paper circuitry, which they will be integrating into their own bug-inspired lantern projects later this month.

Having the opportunity to create my own bug lantern, and hearing about some of the various ways that they are constructed and illuminated around the world, was incredibly fun! We started out by taping willow branches into square-based pyramids.  After designing them (I was inspired by ladybugs) we glued coffee filters to outside, for the light to shine through.

Please check out the official River of Light site to learn more, or enjoy this video from 2012's parade.

Champlain Mini Maker Faire

I spent a few hours volunteering at the Champlain Mini Maker Faire this weekend, along with several other participants of this summer's Create Make Learn cohort.  Under the expert guidance of Lucie deLaBruere and Craig Lyndes, I got to help build (and entice others to do the same) a 3D printer.  While my contribution was minimal (I inventoried the parts, sorted screws, and took photographs) I learned some practical tips about assembling a kit and witnessed how easy it was to help people achieve a sense of accomplishment.

I was most impressed by how diverse, curious, and eager our visitors were.  All most people needed to jump in and help out was a friendly invitation.  An open invitation to sit down and do just one piece of the collaborative build of this printer was enough to entice the most reticent onlooker. It served as a good reminder that people are generally eager to help build and create things; they are just in need of opportunities to do so.

Ideal Collaboration (30 Day Blogging Challenge: Day 25)

What would the ideal collaboration between students look like?

   by  lumaxart 

Ever mindful of the fact that well-designed collaborative activities have the potential to result in deep, authentic learning experiences for all participants, I believe that an ideal collaboration between students resembles a movie production crew.  When everyone in a group has a clear purpose, enough time to work, and an important role to play, collaborative magic can happen.  (I've written about my experience working on a video production crew in an earlier post).

When a group of students is tasked to create a video presentation, whether in the form of a documentary, parody, or public service announcement, quite a bit of coordination, planning, and revising has to take place. Among the roles required in this type of collaborative venture, there is a need for a director, script writers, actors, set decorators, audio techs, and video editors.  Since there are a variety of tasks requiring different talents, skills, and personality types in video production teams, participants may contribute in many different ways. 

If all goes well, and the students are given enough support, they will have created something that could not have been done by one person on their own.