MAKERSPACES: MAKING CONNECTIONS WITH LITERATURE
ARTICLES SUPPORTING MAKERSPACES:
Anderson, C. (2012). Makers: The new industrial revolution. Toronto, ON: McClelland& Stewart.
Burke, J. J. (2014). Makerspaces: A practical guide for librarians (Vol. 8).
Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield
Canino-Fluitt, A. A. (2014). School library makerspaces.Teacher Librarian, 41(5),
21-27.
Fleming, L. (2015). Worlds of making: Best practices for establishing a
makerspace for your school. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press
Hlubinka, M., Dougherty, D., Thomas, P., Chang, S., Hoefer, S., Alexander, I.
McGuire, D. (2013).Makerspace playbook school edition.
Loertscher, D. V., Preddy, L., & Derry, B. (2013). Makerspaces in the school
library learning commons and the uTEC maker model.Teacher Librarian,41(2), 48-51.
Resnick, M., & Rosenbaum, E. (2013). Designing for tinkerability. In M. Honey &
D.E. Kanter, Design, Make, Play: Growing the next generation of STEM
innovators (pp. 163- 181). New York, NY: Routledge.
Slatter, D., & Howard, Z. (2013). A place to make, hack, and learn: Makerspaces in
Australian public libraries.Australian Library Journal,62(4), 272-284.
ACTIVITIES AND SUPPORTING LITERATURE:
100 Cup Challenge:
Supplies:
•100 plastic drinking cups (for each group)
•Tape measure
•Timer
•Small weight
•Notebook to record results
Directions:
•Give each group 100 cups
•They are to build a tower as tall as they can within the time limit
•After time is done, place the small weight at the top of each tower
•Measure for height
Challenge:
•How high can you build your tower? AND have it hold the weight?
Suggested Books:
•Harris, Trudy. 100 Days of School.
•Lemay, Violet. 100 Picassos.
•Slate, Joseph. Mrs. Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten.
•DK. 100 Events that Shaped History.
Origami:
Supplies:
•Copier paper
•Origami paper (optional)
•Origami books or printed origami directions
Directions:
•Let the students read the books and choose which folding to do.
Challenge:
•Reading and following directions.
•The challenge is to complete 2 figures in the allotted time.
Suggested Books:
•Angleberger, Tom. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda.
•Coerr, Eleanor. Sadako
•Say, Allen. Tree of Cranes.
•Harbo, Christopher. Easy Space Origami.
Airplane Launch
Supplies:
•Paper for making the planes
•Paper clips
•Tape
•Stool or chair with four legs
•Large rubber bands
•Measuring tape
Directions:
•Make a paper airplane
•Fly it and measure how far it flew
•Attach a paper clip to the plane
•Take it to the launcher (the overturned chair with the rubber band attached)
•Launch the plane and measure how far it flew
Challenge:
•See how far your plane can fly
Suggested Books:
•DK. See How They Go: Airplanes.
•Troupe, Thomas Kingsley. The Wright Brothers’ First Flight: A Fly on the Wall History.
•Lee, Kyong Hwa. Amazing Paper Airplanes.
•Ryan, Pam Munoz. Eleanor and Amelia Go for a Ride
Balloon Powered Lego Cars
Supplies:
•Lego bricks and wheels
•Balloons
•Tape measure or yardstick
Directions:
•Build a car using the Legos; leave an opening in the back
•See how far it will go with a gentle push & measure
•Attach a balloon to the opening in the back
•Let the car go & measure
Challenge:
•How far can you make your car go using propulsion?
Suggested Books:
•Elsmore, Lawrence. Brick Cars and Trucks: 40 Clever and Creative Ideas to Make from Classic Legos.
•Reiss, Ronald. Henry Ford for Kids: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities.
•Sander, Sonia. Lego City: Calling all Cars.
•Van Dusen, Chris. If I Built a Car.
Paper Bridges
Supplies:
•Construction paper
•2 plastic or paper cups
•Pennies
•Scissors
•tape
Directions:
Bridge 1
•Fold a piece of paper in half lengthwise
•Place over the two cups
•Add pennies & see how many it will hold
Bridge 2
•Cut a second piece of paper in half lengthwise
•Fold each strip on each side to form a “U”
•Place on the cups
• Add pennies & see how many it will hold
Bridge 3
•Take a piece of paper & fold like an accordion
•Balance the paper on the cups
•Add pennies
•How many pennies will it hold?
Challenge:
•How many pennies will your bridge hold?
•Design your own bridge and see how many pennies it will hold.
Suggested Books:
•Curlee, Lynn. Brooklyn Bridge.
•Johman, Carol. Bridges: Amazing Structures to Design, Build, and Test.
•Mann, Elizabeth. Brooklyn Bridge: The Story of the World’s Most Famous Bridge and the Remarkable Family that Built It.
•Paterson, Katherine. Bridge to Terabithia.
Ozobots
Supplies:
•Ozobots
•Markers
•Paper
Directions:
•Following the directions, see what you can program the Ozbot to do
Challenge:
•Can you create your own programs?
Suggested Books:
•Lovell, Amber. Controlling an Oozobot
•Scott, Marc. A Beginners Guide to Coding
Can You See your Pulse?
Supplies:
•Bag of small marshmallows
•Box of toothpicks
Directions:
•Put toothpick in middle of marshmallow. Make sure that the toothpick is stable.
•Place marshmallow with toothpick in palm of hand. Can you see it move?
Challenge:
•Ask students how fast they think their heart beats a minute. Have students count how many beats in 30 seconds. Have them chart how fast their pulse is. Have them jump for 15 seconds and measure their pulse again and chart. Have them figure out how to slow the pulse down.
Suggested Books:
•Bauer, Joan. Soar
•Simon, Seymour. The Heart.
Bendy Bones
Supplies:
•Leftover chicken or turkey bones, all meat removed
•Vinegar
•Glass containers with lids
Directions:
•Fill container with vinegar. Place bone in container. Seal.
•Let it sit for 2-3 days.
•Remove bones, rinse, and try to bend.
Challenge:
•Can you make bones bend? Try other solutions to see if the same thing happens as the vinegar.
Suggested Books:
•Glaser, Byron. Bonz Inside-Out: A Rhythm, Rhyme and Reason Bone-Anza
•Jenkins, Steve. Bones.
What Will Sink the Boat?
Supplies:
•Pint milk cartons or newspaper or toy boats—be creative
•Small objects to put in boats—coins, small toy figures, beans—be creative
•Kitchen scale—this can be optional if objects used are equal in weight
•Sink, small swimming pool, water table, large bowl—something you can fill with water and is large enough to hold at least 2 boats.
Directions:
•Cut milk cartons in half—tape or staple spouts closed; cut in half lengthwise or make newspaper boats. Put in water.
•You can weigh objects with scale and so who can put the most weight in a boat or if objects are the same weight, just how many objects.
Challenge:
•How much weight or how many objects can a boat hold? For older kids, provide different types of material and let them their own boats and compete.
Suggested Books
•Adler, David. Things that Float and Things that Don’t
•Allen, Pamela. Who Sank the Boat?
Polar Bear’s Underwear
Supplies:
•Template or cutouts in shape of underwear
•Paper
•Glue
•Markers, crayons, and/or colored pencils
Directions:
•Have kids decide what animal they want to make underwear for and draw the animal.
•Decorate the underwear.
•Glue on to animal.
Challenge:
•Play “Pin the underwear on the…..” and see which child can get closest to the right place.
•Use as a springboard to animal research
Suggested Books:
•Swain, Ruth Freeman. Underwear: What We Wear Under There
•Tupera, Tupera. Polar Bear’s Underwear.
How Much Water Does it Take?
Supplies:
•A small wading pool, a sink, or anything that is large enough to pour water into. (Could minimize with smaller containers and spoons.)
•Buckets, cups, milk cartons—anything that can be filled with water (bonus if it has an actual measurement—quarts, pints, cups, etc.
•Water from hose or faucet.
Directions:
•Fill containers with water and pour into larger container, counting how many it takes to fill the pool, sink, etc
Challenge:
•Have students “guess” how much it will take to fill the pool, etc. using the smaller container.
•Divide into groups with different sizes to fill and to fill with and compare.
Suggested Books:
•Lyon, George Ella. All the Water in the World
•Pluckrose, Henry. Math Counts: Capacity.
•Wick, Walter. A Drop of Water
RESOURCES
Andrews, Beth. 2012. Hands On Engineering. Prufrock Press,
Challoner, Jack. 2016. Smithsonian Maker Lab: 28 Super Cool Projects. DK Penguin Random House
Graves, Holly and Aaron. 2016. The Big Book of Makerspace Projects.McGraw Hill.
Horner, Holly. 2016. The 101 Coolest Simple Science Experiments..Page Street Publishing.
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