Chicago Architecture: Collaboration with Research, 3D Printing and NFC tags!

One thing that can be challenging as a school librarian is rethinking projects that have been successful. There are times when you have a project that was a great success with students, incorporates learning goals and collaboration with classroom teachers. All of that is wonderful and what we are hoping for when designing curriculum but after a couple of years that wonderfully successful project can start to feel stale. The challenge is to keep some of the wonderful aspects of the project but find ways to refresh it. Looking at new technologies can be just the thing to make an old project feel new!

At my school each grade level has a central topic. This topic flows through their literature, social studies and other studies. In third grade the central topic is Chicago. Students look at the history of the city, the neighborhoods and cultural and public spaces. The city of Chicago is known for many things including its Architecture. Chicago is the birthplace of the skyscraper and the home of many famous structures. Over the years I have done different projects that connect with the central topic, one of my favorites is a 3D printing project about buildings and spaces in Chicago that has evolved over the years. The most recent iteration involves new technologies that have made it a really cool and fun interactive share out of students’ ideas and knowledge.

The project started with reading some picture books about the innovative history of Chicago. We read the book Prairie Boy: Frank Lloyd Wright. We talked about the style of architecture that Wright created and how his home and studio is now a museum in Oak Park, IL (just outside the city of Chicago). Next, we discussed Chicago as a place that is known for its architecture. I shared the Chicago Architecture Foundation database. This is a website curated by the foundation to share information about buildings and architecture in Chicago. We explored some of the different articles together. Then I introduced the project.

Third graders did research on a building or space in Chicago. I created a list of options for each class and every student was able to pick the one they were most interested in researching. Several students picked the same topic. Then students did research using the Chicago Architecture Foundation database. This database is not designed for elementary school students so teachers worked with students to read and comprehend the facts and information shared in the database. Each student was asked to find information on the address and what neighborhood their building was in, the architect or firm that designed the building, and two to three interesting facts about their building or space. I then showed students how to use Google sites to make and create a website about their building or space. Students found pictures doing a Google image search and then learned how to create text and picture boxes on Google sites to build their website.

After students finished up their information websites, I moved to the next step: 3D printing. We have several Makerbot printers in our library makerspace. In second grade, students were introduced to a 3D design program Tinkercad. This is a web based cad software that uses different shapes and objects to create three dimensional objects. In the past students used the squiggle tool to draw their simple designs. For this project we asked them to use not only the squiggle tool but the different shape options to create a 3D object that connected to their building or space. Students spent several classes looking at the different shape options and the pictures and information they learned about their topic. Some students choose to recreate the building, for example the Hancock building has distinctive x shapes along the side. Some students created mini replicas of that building using the rectangle shape and created x marks and placed them along the building. For other students they focused on something special or unique about their space. One student had Maggie Daley Park and learned about the ice skating ribbon the park has every winter, she created a 3D print illustrating that feature.

The final step was putting these two pieces together! Using an app called NFC Tools and NFC stickers we were able to make their 3D prints interactive. With the app you can link a website to an NFC tag. Then when someone taps the tag on the top of a smartphone or a NFC reader the website pops up on the device. Now each student’s project was an interactive display that connected their 3D print to their website. We created a display in the library with the 3D prints and a computer connected to the NFC reader so students from throughout the school could come and see the designs and websites that third graders created. Students were also able to take their 3D prints home and share their creations and websites with their families and friends.

Learning about the use of NFC tags added an element to this project that made it new and fresh. In the past, I did the 3D printing element but with the addition of the NFC tags I was able to add instruction on how to make a Google site and connect the pieces together to make a really cool interactive display. Students were also able to take their projects home and have an interactive project to share. The project continues to be a great collaboration with the third grade classroom teachers and their curriculum. It also continued to meet the library curriculum goals for research and connecting with information they learn in books. With the addition of the NFC technology I have been able to illustrate some new ways to share their learning and how technology can help share their ideas and what they create.

Making Beautiful Coded Music with Kindergarteners: Connections with books, music, coding and MakeyMakey

 With my younger students I am working on making connections with books, what we are reading and connections to their lives as well as a way to make connections with technology and introducing new types of  technology. I have always loved the Makey/Makey piano. It is such a fun and exciting way to share the concept of physical computing and young students love it and are filled with such joy when they use it. This sparked an idea to connect books, physical computing, a real piano and some collaborative making!

We started out this three weeks long project with reading books that featured a piano. We read two picture books “The Bear and the Piano” by David Litchfield and “Khalinda and the Most Beautiful Song” by Amanda Moechel. Students made connections with similarities between the books, the characters and the role of music and the piano in each of the stories. We then talked about how a piano works. We read the nonfiction book “Musical Instruments” by Claude Delafosse. We also looked at pictures of a piano and talked about how the instrument works. Kindergarteners learned that when you press on a key that a hammer hits the string and makes the sound, the length of the string determines the note that the piano plays.

During our next class, we took a field trip to the public piano in the main lobby of the school. The piano is open and available for students to use during breaks and free time. Kindergarteners were able to see the keys, strings and hammers move and create the music and sounds. Each student was able to press the keys and see the hammers move to hit the strings. This hands-on experience helped them to see and better understand how the piano works.

Then we made connections with the idea of how when you touch the key it triggers the hammer to make the sound and the idea of physical computing. Students have lots of experience with Scratch Jr coding app, they learned how to code different characters to move in the program. With this project, I wanted to make deeper connections with the idea of connecting a physical object with code to make it do something. Students made connections with the instructions they give to the characters in Scratch. For example, add the green flag code block and a move forward code block, when the green flag is pressed the character moves forward one space.

After making the connections with the work they had already done, I introduced the  Makey/Makey, a circuit board that connects everyday objects to the computer keyboard. The Makey/Makey was connected to the plug and play piano app. The Makey/Makey connects to conductive materials that trigger code connected to the up, down, right, left and space bar on the computer. For example if you have an alligator clip connected to the up arrow, a user can press the alligator clip connected to the home key and the up arrow and that triggers the code to play the sound connected to the up arrow in the code.

During our next class together, students tested different objects and everyday items to figure out what was conductive. Fun things like fruit, vegetables and water are conductive but stuffed animals, books, and plastic toys are not. Students learned that metal is a conductive material including tinfoil. Now it was time to make their own conductive piano. KIndergarteners were put into groups of four and each group was given a long pieces of cardboard and a sheet of tinfoil, They were able to decorate their piano key anyway they wanted with paper, stickers, markers, tissue paper etc, making sure they had a tinfoil key as part of their design.

The final celebration was a whole class piano recital. Each group was set up with a computer, a MakeyMakey, their tinfoil piano keys were connected to the plug and play piano, and they each had a home key to complete the circuit. KIndergarteners made beautiful tinfoil, physical computing coded piano music! 

This project made many connections for kindergarten students. They made connections with the picture books they read and the real instrument that they see and use in school and at home. Kindergarteners also advanced their thinking and understanding about coding and how it works in an app but also the foundations of how it is used to make objects move and work. Students worked together in small groups to make fun, creative and unique pianos and then had a great time working together to make beautiful music!