Tag Archives: STEM

Monday Musings: Working together to make a difference in the world

27 Feb
Fish, plants, and test tubes are just some of the things you'll see when you visit The Greenhouse Effect at Western Hills Middle School.

Fish, plants, and test tubes are just some of the things you’ll see when you visit The Greenhouse Effect team at Western Hills Middle School.

I know I say it often, but I truly love my job as a newspaper reporter. I love what I do every day, even on the busiest, toughest days. One of the reasons I love it is that as a reporter who focuses on school news for the Cranston Herald, I get to see some really amazing things being done in the schools. Another reason I love it is that I often get a glimpse into the educational goings-on for my own three children as I get to cover many of the big things they are involved in at school. Today’s post shares the news about a story which combines both of those perks.

My second daughter Liz has been involved in the after school extra-curricular STEM program at her middle school for both of the years she has been enrolled at the school. My youngest daughter has also joined this school year as a new sixth-grader. The club usually meets a couple of times a week and over the past four years or so that it’s been in existence the group has worked with app development, coding, drones, 3D printing, and more. The club has had a team of their students win the Verizon App Challenge “Best in State” title for several years in a row and the “Best in Region” title once as well. They have had a great reputation for winning this challenge, which provided money for the program and prizes for the kids, and over the years the club has grown to 100 or more members, with a second faculty advisor, John Worthington, recently stepping in to help out the founder, Michael Blackburn, because the numbers were so big.

This past fall, the students finished up the annual Verizon App Challenge and went right into a new challenge, the Lexus Eco Challenge. Multiple teams ranging from approximately four to six students had just two weeks to complete the Lexus Eco Challenge. This was a brand new challenge that the STEM club had never tried before and they were under the gun with just two weeks to complete the challenge before the deadline. The challenge asked the students to choose from a variety of environmental issues, such as pollution and poor air quality. They then had to work together as a team to find a possible innovative solution for the chosen problem, create a PowerPoint presentation, a prototype, a video and a Public Service Announcement (PSA) if they had extra time. You can read about all of the teams and their innovative ideas for the Lexus Eco Challenge in this article.

Friday the 13th of January turned out to be a very lucky day for Liz and her Lexus Eco Challenge team, The Greenhouse Effect.

Friday the 13th of January turned out to be a very lucky day for Liz and her Lexus Eco Challenge team, The Greenhouse Effect. Here she is, stunned, shortly after receiving the news that their team had won.

On Friday, January 13th, Liz got an urgent request from a student at her school on behalf of Mr. Blackburn, to take a Facetime call at 3:15 pm, just minutes after she’d gotten off the school bus. It seemed odd, unusual, almost concerning, so she took the call and was given the news from Mr. Blackburn: her team, The Greenhouse Effect had won the Lexus Eco Challenge! She was stunned. We were thrilled for her. In winning, her team became one of just four middle schools and four high schools across the country to win. Each child was given a cash prize, splitting $7,000 between them. The school and the teachers were also given cash prizes. When the check arrived, along with it was a memo that said, “Thank you for making a difference in the world.” You can read about the winning team and their reactions to the news here. They are a special group of amazingly smart students.

More than two dozen plants are being grown as part of The Greenhouse Effect's final project. They are hoping to feed the world and save it, all at the same time.

More than two dozen plants are being grown as part of The Greenhouse Effect’s final project. They are hoping to feed the world and save it, all at the same time.

Now, the students are continuing their mission to make a difference in the world. The Greenhouse Effect team has taken on the next and final stage of the Lexus Eco Challenge. They are working to feed the world, and to save the world. Visiting their team recently, speaking to them, listening to them describing their project, their prototype and their end goal was humbling. I don’t think I was ever this smart as a child, this forward-thinking. I am proud to know these kids, and grateful for their teachers who go above and beyond, and then above and beyond that, every single day. You can read about their final challenge project here. I wish them all the best as a reporter, and I am proud to be able to help them spread the word about what they are doing and what they have already accomplished. I am also proud as a parent and thankful that I have the privilege to take an occasional peek into the world in which my kids spend much of their day.

Fish are an integral part of The Greenhouse Effect's final project.

Fish are an integral part of The Greenhouse Effect’s final project.

If you would, please also take a moment to check out The Greenhouse Effect on their blog and on a variety of social media platforms. Like them on Facebook. Read their blog. Part of their challenge involves spreading the word about their project and let everyone, everywhere know what they are doing. Please help them change the world, do your little part to help them out by visiting their sites:

Facebook

Blog

Twitter: @LexusEco,  Instagram: @The_Greenhouseeffect

Snapchat: Greenhouse_whms,  and on their YouTube channel.

Congratulations again, and best of luck to The Greenhouse Effect and to their amazing, wonderful teachers, Mr. Michael Blackburn and Mr. John Worthington.

The best Lexus Eco Challenge team around, The Greenhouse Effect!

The best Lexus Eco Challenge team around, The Greenhouse Effect!

 

*Thanks to The Greenhouse Effect for the use of their photos for this blog post!*

 

 

 

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What we’re doing this summer: Oobleck

18 Jul
Not your typical summer recipe.

Not your typical summer recipe.

Hello summer, how are you?

I love summer. I love having everyone home, having no specific daily schedule most days, taking some time off, and having much less stress, overall.

It’s not that we’re not busy, it’s just a nicer pace. After the hectic school year, we enjoy the slower pace of the summer. It’s often a balancing act, balancing our work schedules over the summer with family and vacation time, but it works well for us. Since I am self-employed, I only get paid if I work, so I always make sure that I work much harder during the school year so that I can take some time off in the summertime and enjoy my kids while I have them home. I know that those days are fleeting, and the time is going fast.

Sometimes in the summer the kids, like lots of families we know, will make Bucket Lists: things they want to do over the summer. I always remind them that their lists are simply wish lists, things they hope to do, but won’t necessarily get to do. What I like about the lists is it gives us a starting point when we’re looking for fun things to do with them to make their time off more memorable. I have my own mental list of things I’d like to do with them, but I don’t tell them what they are. I like to keep some things unexpected and different.

Orange flavoring added a new element to the science experiment, something I had never thought of before.

Orange flavoring added a new element to the science experiment, something I had never thought of before.

My kids, like many other kids their age, follow a lot of YouTubers. They learn all kinds of life hacks, tricks, hairstyles, DIY projects, STEM ideas, crafts and more by watching these YouTubers. One thing they’d been asking me to do for weeks was to make Oobleck. I’d done Oobleck years ago when I hosted a Family Science Night as a teacher, but I had not done it in years. I remembered the basic premise of it and remembered how cool it was to make, but during the school year the thought of it was too much for me to handle. I told the kids to save it for summertime.

And so, it went onto the Bucket List.

Last week I got the question again, “Can we make Oobleck today?” I finally said yes. The thing about having older kids is that you don’t have to oversee every little project. This “recipe” had just two ingredients: cornstarch and water. As an added twist, the kids had seen that you could add food coloring to make it a unique color, which I’d done before, and flavoring such as mint, vanilla or orange extract for example, to add a scent, which I’d never heard of before. We had a few choices, and they went with orange extract and purple food coloring.

Within minutes we had a lot of cornstarch on the counter, but overall not that much of a mess, thankfully. The kids had done the whole thing themselves, and they were mesmerized looking at and playing with their Oobleck. It was neat to watch it liquify and solidify as they played with it. I managed to wrangle it into zippered closed bags for them so they could do some more observing for a couple more days before it eventually went into the trash. I noticed a purple tint to my wet paper towels and wipes as I wiped up my counter the next few times, but overall, we survived the science experiment unscathed.

It was a fun, easy, relatively quick activity and it was a little bit educational too, different than some of the typical summer activities we do. I liked that this item on their list was something they had found and wanted to learn about and create on their own, rather than something I thought of and carried out for them. And, I liked being able to check one thing off their list. They enjoy making the lists, but they enjoy crossing things off just as much.

For more information about Oobleck, you can do your own search and check out the many available instructions and options, or go here for starters.

Have fun!

Keeping your Oobleck contained and (out of the bedrooms) is key.

Keeping your Oobleck contained and (out of the bedrooms) is key.

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GoldieBlox and the Movie Machine

9 Feb
Stuck inside again? Make your own animation with the GoldiBlox Movie Maker kit!

Stuck inside again? Make your own animation with the GoldieBlox Movie Maker kit!

Is it snowing where you are? Since I heard a crazy statistic last night that something like 42 million people across the country were expecting snow, I’m going to guess that there is a good chance that you, like me, are watching snowflakes fall right at this very moment.

Again.

It’s snowing here this morning, and I’ve begun to get very used to all these days out of school and work. Too used to them actually, and I worry for the next full week of school, which isn’t for two more weeks still. It’s going to be a harsh, harsh reality for all of us when it happens though, of that I am sure.

In the meantime, this weekend we brought back all our unused batteries and unused hand, foot and body warmers from the January 25 blizzard, and instead, we bought new sleds to replace our broken ones. A good purchase, in my opinion, given that by the end of this week’s storm we will have something like 50 inches of snow in total since the middle of January.

We’ve been doing fine on the days off. We haven’t been stuck inside too many days in a row, so we’re not even really going stir crazy. We’ve had enough work to do to keep us busy part of the time and enough other things to do inside to keep everyone relaxed and occupied. I work from home oftentimes no matter what the weather, so I’ve been able to basically maintain my schedule for the most part. I can’t say I’m not enjoying the less stressful weeks either. A cancellation here and there is one less thing on my crazy list of things to do, and I can’t say I hate that. It’s been a nice break.

This was the GoldieBlox kit that had my daughter the most intrigued when she first heard about Goldie and all she had to offer.

This was the GoldieBlox kit that had my daughter the most intrigued when she first heard about Goldie and all she had to offer.

If you’re looking for something to occupy your kids during the days at home, especially if you have daughters like we do, I have the perfect answer for you. I recently reviewed a GoldieBlox Zipline toy and when I did, I mentioned that I had one more GoldieBlox toy to review at a later date. Welcome to my later date.

When my daughter first discovered the GoldieBlox product line, she researched them all and she was very interested in several of them, one of them being the Zipline kit, and one of them being the Movie Machine kit, pictured here. It was this kit that she used her Christmas money to buy just a few days after Christmas had passed. She was so excited to have it in hand, that the very first night we had it, she put almost the whole thing together while still wearing her winter coat. She came in the door and just got started right away.

This kit combines many things my kids love: hands on STEAM activities, history, and literacy. It teaches them the history of the zoetrope, which is the very first type of animation, and teaches them step-by-step how to make their own animated movies in their own zoetrope.

It’s amazing. Truly. When you watch our YouTube video showing one of the animations my daughter made that day, you might actually hear me gasp out loud. It.was.so.cool.  Of course, you might also hear my youngest daughter at the end, telling me that the dog just walked through the room during the video, but that’s okay too, that’s real life.

Making the video of her step-by-step animation actually shows her movie as an animated video, taking the zoetrope project even one step further, which we really enjoyed doing each time she created her animation.

Our very own zoetrope! How cool is that?!?!

Our very own zoetrope! How cool is that?!?!

The kit comes with everything you need to make your own zoetrope and lots of opportunities to make various animated movies, some that are provided and some ideas for creating your own. Each one is more fabulous than the next.

I love that there’s “an app for that” for everything, but I also love when our kids can find out the history and the workings behind the originals for things just like this. My girls love making “Video Star” movies using an app, but I really enjoyed watching them learn about the very first type of animation and see for themselves just how to make images move. One of my favorite animations that came with the kit is the jumping animation shown in our YouTube video link, but one of my favorites that she did on her own was a clock. She made the exact same clock twelve times, moving one hour ahead each time.

So. Amazing.

This kit was affordable enough that my daughter could use her own money to buy it, and it was challenging yet not at all frustrating, so she could create the zoetrope, learn about it, learn how it works and why, and create her animations and enjoy every minute. The kit comes with a box in which you can store all your parts and pieces when not in use, and the zoetrope rolls right back up for easy storage in that same box, which is great for organizational purposes.

If you’re looking for something new and exciting to do on your kids’ next snow day, I’d say definitely check out the GoldieBlox product line and give their kits a try! It’ll be a nice change from being stuck inside with nothing to do but watch TV or play video games. And I guarantee, your kids won’t look at the next animated movie they see, quite the same way ever again.

 

 

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Got a future engineer? Try the Young Architect kit!

2 Feb

This project takes some time to complete, which is something I like about it. It shows just how much time and thought is involved in creating house plans.

I spent much of last month discussing many of the STEAM-focused gifts my girls received for Christmas, but there was one that I held off reviewing because although we’d opened it and played with it, it’s not a one-and-done type of project. It’s something that takes some time, and as my nine year-old daughter worked on it, I watched her and took pictures, but I wanted the project to be more complete than not, when I shared it in a blog post. We’re finally getting to that point where she’s almost done, not 100%, but enough where I can share it and you can get the whole picture.

After watching her do some pretty complex house plans on the old Etch-a-Sketch toy, it was clear she was ready for the next step.

After watching our nine year-old do some pretty complex house plans on the old Etch-a-Sketch toy, it was clear she was ready for the next step.

At our house we watch a lot of house hunting/renovating/designing types of shows. We’re big fans of “Love It or List It” and other shows like that. Our youngest daughter in particular has been quite inspired by the house planning and design portions of those types of shows. She’s on the edge of her seat, watching the blueprints take shape and it’s really influenced how she plays and the thing she likes to do in her spare time. She started off this fall, playing with our old Etch-a-Sketch, creating blueprints of imaginary houses, and announced that she’d like to be an engineer when she grows up (she’s also wanted to be a real estate agent, a dog groomer, and a veterinarian in the past, so things could change at any moment, and we get that.)

We know that engineering, like many other math, science and technology jobs, is a career in which women are a minority, and we’ve talked about that with her, but that doesn’t seem to scare her off, at least not so far, which is great. We work hard to keep our kids’ love for these subjects going as they approach their teenage years because we know that it’s often at that time where they get scared away and lose their confidence as compared to males in that same age bracket. We talk a lot about future careers and programs, even at a young age. We’ve already taken her to see the Computer Aided Design department at our local high school’s Career and Technical Center to check out what’s available for her in a few more years. Her mouth dropped when she saw the drafting tables and computer technology available to her there. She was amazed by the 3D houses on display that the students had created. Had she been able to enroll that day at age nine, I think she would’ve signed right up; she was in her glory during that visit. She looked up at the sign that said, “Architectural Engineering” and she said, “That’s me. That’s what I want to be.”

This kit includes everything you need to go from a paper design to a 3D design.

This kit includes everything you need to go from a paper design to a 3D design.

In November last year, as the girls were making their Santa lists, our daughter found a similar kit in a magazine catalog to the Alex brand Scientific Explorer Young Architects kit pictured here, and she put it on her list. At the time, it could be found for $55 on the Walmart website, and ran about $75 in the other catalog where she first saw it.

Watching and listening to the thought process and problem solving that goes into these house plans was amazing.

Watching and listening to the thought process and problem solving that goes into these house plans was amazing.

The kit came with everything she’d need to create a blueprint house design on paper, fill it with furniture and then add walls, windows and doors using plexiglass fixtures, creating an entire 3D house plan. It was very exciting when she opened it on Christmas morning. She was so thrilled and could not wait to get started.

Over the vacation weeks she began

It was fascinating to watch the project go from its beginning stages of using stencils to outline the rooms to the more complex stages.

It was fascinating to watch the project go from its beginning stages of using stencils to outline the rooms to the more complex stages.

working, using the stencils to lay out her walls and determine what spaces would be which kinds of rooms. That alone, took some time. It was fascinating for me to be a fly on the wall, watching her figure things out, thinking out loud and problem solving as she went along. She worked for hours at a time, several nights in a row, until she had all the rooms drawn out. She asked me for little post it-notes to label each room so she wouldn’t forget what was what when it came time to add in furniture. Picturing the doors for each room as a little half circle was a little confusing for her, so we went into our bedrooms and I showed her how the doors made the half circle marks on the rugs, which on paper would indicate where an actual door would be, and then she got it, adding them in and figuring out in which direction they opened and closed in or out of a room.

The kit has absolutely everything she needs to create a very comprehensive house plan.

The kit has absolutely everything she needs to create a very comprehensive house plan.

The kit included a plexiglass table-top board, extra-large pieces of tracing paper, stencils for outlining the rooms, diagrams for tracing all kinds of furniture, doors and appliances into the rooms, colored pencils for coloring the furniture (we added in a bigger variety of colored pencils), and plexiglass walls of all sizes, along with the cubes to connect them and keep them standing upright, which creates the 3D effect, as is seen at the top of the blog post.

When we had our blizzard last week, she took out her kit and finished up coloring in her furniture and began placing the cubes in the corners of each room so that she could put up her walls. Her house plan currently looks just as the photo shows it at the top of this blog post. I couldn’t be more proud, and more amazed at her work, at the level of the complexity of her thinking, and at her talent. The only step she really has left is to use the included removable decals to add in windows and doors on the walls of her rooms. We can’t wait to see the finished product, and I think she’s already looking forward to having it on display for a little while and then taking it all apart in order to start all over again. Thankfully there are six pieces of tracing paper in the kit so that she can do up to six different house designs before I have to find more paper for her.

I’d highly recommend this Alex Young Architect design kit for all your aspiring young architects and engineers whether they are boys are girls. The kit is moderately priced, and is well stocked with everything they need for hours and hours of creating and designing. It’s been a perfect, perfect STEAM gift for our aspiring female architectural engineer, and I can’t wait to see what she creates next.

Young Architect Kit 7

 

 

 

 

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Fun Friday: GoldieBlox Zipline

23 Jan
We love the Goldiblox toys! STEM at its best!

We love the Goldiblox toys! STEM at its best!

Every year at Thanksgiving it’s our tradition to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade while we munch on homemade pumpkin bread. This year, while watching the parade one of my daughters noticed a new parade float whose description intrigued her: GoldieBlox.

When the parade was over, she asked me if I’d heard of GoldieBlox, and I realized that I thought I had heard of it, and that I could’ve sworn that she was a STEM toy created for girls by a woman who was originally from our own home state. Sure enough, we did our research, and I was right!  The fact that the creator was from our state made us even more excited about this new toy created especially for girls with interests in STEM. My kids have always loved STEM toys, and we have had our share of “boy toys” such as Hotwheels matchbox cars, building blocks, Lincoln Logs, and LEGOS over the years. This toy however, seemed to also combine an element of literacy with the STEM skills, because the toy kits often come with a

A couple of days after Christmas we suddenly had a zipline in the dining room, in the hallway, in the bedroom and outside in the backyard.

A couple of days after Christmas we suddenly had a zipline in the dining room, in the hallway, in the bedroom and outside in the backyard.

book, as well as the doll and the items needed to build the particular project in each kit.

My daughter had two specific GoldieBlox toys on her mind, and she was thrilled when she received the Zipline kit, which included the doll, for Christmas from a family member.

The kit came with all of the tools and instructions my daughter needed to create a zipline for GoldieBlox and came with a great deal of information to explain why the zipline had to be put together as it was, and what made it work. It was exciting as the girls got the pieces put together and Goldie took her first ride from the top of our sliding glass door down to the handle of the door next to it.

Before we knew it, Goldie was zipping all over the place, even outdoors. Thankfully we have had a relatively warm, snowless winter so far, and playing outside in the days after Christmas was definitely an option. Goldie zipped right off the deck and into the yard in the sunshine and fresh air.

Zipping off the top of the deck and right into the backyard!

Zipping off the top of the deck and right into the backyard!

Afterwards, my daughter played with the part of the toy that Goldie holds on to when she’s zipping, to see what else she could create with all the same pieces and materials. At one point Goldie was even on a scooter that my daughter created.

I like everything about this toy, all of the STEM parts to it, all of the reading and learning that goes with it, and the fact that it can come with a doll that’s a smart doll who’s into reading, building, math, science and engineering just like my girls always have been. I’m also always very proud when I can show my daughters a local person, especially if it’s a female who has done great things, and this latest opportunity made me especially happy.

I also like that GoldieBlox toys are reasonably priced. They range anywhere from about $25 for some of the simpler kits like the Zipline, to more expensive for more complicated kits like the one that replicates the Macy’s Parade float, and everywhere in between.

We have one more GoldieBlox toy here that I’ll talk about next week, but if you haven’t heard of GoldieBlox until now, I encourage you to check out their website and learn more about her! You can buy right on their site or find a store locally that sells her near you! There’s even an interactive game spot on the GoldieBlox site!

 

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Fun Friday: A surprising teachable moment

16 Jan
Freaky, yes. Educational? Who knew?

Freaky, yes. Educational? Who knew?

Have you seen them? Have you seen the Monster High dolls yet?

They are bizarre-looking, zombie-like dolls, about the size and shape of a Barbie doll, but clearly *not* a Barbie.

My younger kids love them. They have lots of them. The Monster High dolls room with their Ever After High dolls downstairs in the Barbie Dreamhouse, lounging by the pool together. The Monster High dolls have grey, green or blue skin colors (there might even be other skin colors, but these are the ones we have) and some really monster-ish features to them. They’re unique for sure, and we don’t discriminate on skin color at our house, no matter what color it is. That in itself is a good lesson.

But whatever, not everything can be a stellar STEM/STEAM learning toy, right?

Or can it?

Surprisingly, it can, and no one was more shocked by this fact than I was, believe me.

Now clearly, we don’t have any kind of toy rule or anything, where every toy we buy has to be educational in nature, or STEM/STEAM related. A toy can just be a toy, too, so I was shocked when it turned out that my daughter’s recent purchase of a Freaky Fusion Monster High doll, the newest in the Monster High collection, was found at Barnes and Noble Bookstore. Usually the bookstore sells, well…books. And devices, and learning toys. But a Monster High Freaky Fusion doll? That must’ve been a mistake.

We do have a toy rule with our kids that leading up to the holidays they are not to use their own money to make any frivolous purchases. They need to wait until after the holidays, see what they’ve received, see what old toys need to be given to someone who will make good use of them, and only then can they take their money they’ve saved as well as any money they received as a gift for Christmas and then they can make some spending choices.

Oh my goodness....

Oh my goodness….

The day after Christmas, my youngest wanted to purchase one of the things that was not brought by Santa, and not given to her from anyone else: a Freaky Fusion doll and a Recharge Chamber. This is when we say, “It’s your money, you saved it and if this is how you want to spend it, that’s up to you.” Sometimes we hope they’ll reconsider and think that it’s a silly way to blow twenty bucks, or in this case almost $50, but it doesn’t always happen that way. To me though, the true-er lesson is a week or two later when they have nothing left in their spending money and they see something they like, but now can’t buy because they own whatever it was they so desperately “needed” two weeks prior.  Financial responsibility…it’s a work in progress. They earn their money, they save it, they spend it, sometimes they’re happy they did, sometimes they wish they didn’t. It’s an on-going thing.

Anyway, I digress….

On December 27 we happened to be in Barnes and Noble looking for a different toy that was supposed to be educational for another daughter who desperately wanted it (and you’ll see that one on here next week). They didn’t have it, but lo and behold, there on the shelf was Frankie Stein and her Recharge Chamber. I just happened to have daughter #3’s money envelope in my pocketbook. We counted, we checked the price, and she had enough money. She didn’t want to shop around for a cheaper price or a better deal. She had the money, she wanted the doll, wanted the chamber and she got it.

Well now....wait a minute, what's that say?

Well now….wait a minute, what’s that say?

Imagine my surprise when I see the note on the box that talks about the fact that this toy employs the use of static electricity and then gives a spot on their website where the kids can go and watch some videos to learn more about static electricity! Well now…that’s kind of cool.

Did I make her go home and immediately find the link, watch it and learn about static?

No. By the time we got to the car, I was already on to the next thing, and I really didn’t care if this was a learning toy or not. That wasn’t my objective this time.

Did she do it on her own, unbeknownst to me?

Got Static?

Got Static?

Yes, and she actually learned something.

I know this because later on, on a different day when she was playing with the toy at the dining room table, holding her hand up to the doll’s hair as it flew out all over the place from the static, she told me about the Recharge Chamber, and how it worked and what static was, and why.

I must say, I was impressed, and surprised.

Shocked, you might say.

Get it? It’s a static electricity pun!

So…although this was not our goal, to buy a STEM doll of the Monster High Freaky Fusion sort, it turns out that we did. I say “we,” but really it was my daughter. She saved her money, chose what she wanted to buy, and chose an educational, unique toy and she was pretty happy with her choice.

Who knew?!

 

 

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Post-holiday review: 6 in 1 Solar Robotikits

12 Jan
There's nothing more rewarding than working on something mechanical and seeing it do what it's supposed to do!

There’s nothing more rewarding than working on something mechanical and seeing it do what it’s supposed to do!

As I’ve been mentioning over the past week or so during my post-holiday reviews, our over-arching theme for gifts this year was definitely a STEAM theme: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. Today’s review is for the Robotikits 6 in 1 Educational Solar Kit. I know that  we’ve often seen this kit in catalogs, especially the Mindwares catalog, and my kids have always thought it looked like a cool toy, but the kit we received from Santa this year was a less expensive kit, kind of an overstocks type of deal such as this one where you get the barebones supplies for a very low cost and your item is shipped to you just in a clear plastic bag with the supplies and directions enclosed. Not pretty in the packaging, but it’s very budget-friendly and you still have everything you need. I believe that this particular kit cost Santa less than $5.00.

This kit allows you to use one gear box and one solar panel and 21 plastic pieces to create six different solar powered machines: a windmill, a dog, a revolving plane, an airboat, a car and a plane. You can also use the pieces enclosed to try creating your own inventions.

The kit is for ages 10 and up, and our 9 year old was on the receiving end. It was definitely not something that she could do on her own yet, and we had to end up calling Dad to the rescue due to some initial confusion on my part. But, they worked on the project she chose to be her first one, a windmill, and then took it outside in the sunshine to give it a try. Seeing her face light up when it began spinning was priceless. You can catch a quick glimpse of it spinning in this short YouTube video. Even I was amazed, watching it go. It was fascinating watching it stop as you moved it out of the direct sunlight and then go again when you moved it back into the direct sunlight. You can hear my amazement and a little bit of our discussion about direct sunlight vs. indirect sunlight in this short video.

I think that projects that cause you to go outside of your comfort zone, that allow parents and kids to problem-solve together, and that produce a tangible result are great. This is one of those gifts. For now, our daughter’s windmill is proudly displayed in her bedroom, but she’ll eventually change it up and choose another solar powered machine to create. She may need some help with it, but she’s learning great hands-on lessons about the mechanics of solar power, and I think she’s really loving her gift.

I would definitely recommend this gift, and whether you choose to go with pretty packaging or bare bones, I think you’ll be pleased with the product itself. It’s been a great learning experience for all of our daughters.

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Post-holiday review: Crayola Virtual Design Pro Fashion Collection

9 Jan
Art, technology and affordability all in one. More STEAM gifts for my kids this Christmas.

Art, technology and affordability all in one. More STEAM gifts for my kids this Christmas.

In my first holiday review post on Wednesday, I talked a bit about how my kids love both science and art, and how this year their Christmas gifts were a great combination of STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, ART and Math, not just the STEM area alone. Today’s product is a gift that is quite artistic and creative in nature, and yet uses technology as well.

The Crayola Virtual Design Pro Fashion Collection is something the kids saw on TV in a commercial prior to Christmas. It appealed to them immensely because for two years now, they have all three been students at Jerilyn’s Sewing School here in our city. It’s a sewing school primarily for kids, although it’s expanding now to include adults as well, since moving from Jerilyn’s basement out into an actual storefront facility, and it’s the only one in our state licensed to teach the Kids Can Sew and Fashion Design curriculum, which is a kid-friendly, step-by-step sewing curriculum. It’s a school I stumbled upon as part of my job when I was asked to cover their 2013 fashion show at the end of the school year. It’s an annual event that allows the kids to walk the runway, modeling all of the items they made during that school year. I was astounded as I saw dozens of kids of all ages from first grade through high school showing off items as simple as funky pillow cases, to as complicated as floor-length prom gowns for a senior prom. My kids had been asking to sew for years, but I don’t know how and I had no idea this even existed. I signed them all up the next month and it’s been an amazing experience, opening up a whole new creative avenue for them as well as a whole new option for a future career path in the fashion design and merchandising world, if they so desire.

As it is, sewing is a technical and mathematical skill but it’s also a creative, artistic skill. My most favorite thing of all, besides seeing their finished products, is watching them the day we go to the fabric store to pick out the fabrics for whatever their next project will be. I love watching their creative thought process play out in front of me as the compare fabrics and choose something that’s either “so me” or something that’s so unusual and out-of-the-box, that I can’t wait to see it come together in their next piece.

Designing on paper is only the first half of the fun!

Designing on paper is only the first half of the fun!

The Crayola Virtual Design Fashion Collection (which also has a car collection for boys) is a complete art set in a hard carrying case, which allows you to download an app so that once you have completed your designs on paper, you can see them on a model on the runway, virtually. We allowed the kids to download the app on one of our phones, since the younger ones don’t have their own phones until middle school. That piece is the technology piece and is consistent with real life. There’s an “app for that” for everything, including room design and fashion design, so seeing the virtual models walk the runway in the clothes they’ve designed is a great parallel to a real life experience in a career like fashion design.

Priced at less than $30, and with frequent coupons and sales dropping the price even lower leading up to the holidays, I think this makes a great, affordable gift for kids who are into design. With the advent of shows such as Threads and Project Runway, which make sewing “cool” and “trendy,” this gives kids a chance to do a little bit of what they see on some of the television shows, especially my own kids who not only can draw it on paper, and see it on the virtual runway, but also now have the skills to go in their room and create it for real, and even model it in a real fashion show through Jerilyn’s.

Virtual Design Pro 2

There’s an app for that!! See your designs walk down the runway, turning around to show both front and back, once your designs are complete!

As an added bonus at our house, our television has a Chromecast set up with it, allowing you to “cast” what’s on your phone screen (or other device such as a Nook for example) onto the big screen television. So not only do they see the virtual fashion show of model after model walking down the runway in all of their own designs, but they can see it here on the big screen. It was beyond exciting the first time we did it and saw it come to life on television.

Initially upon opening up the art portfolio, we thought that you could only use the types of media that were found in the case. However, my friend Gina, whose daughter also received this for Christmas, let me know that she tried glitter pens and metallic markers and those worked as well. The model shown here is modeling a dress which used a silver metallic marker and red glitter glue pens in the design, a perfect dress for the holidays!

The more designs you create, the more models that participate in your fashion show, encouraging kids to keep up the great work.

I’ve been so pleased with this gift, another A+ for Santa! I highly recommend it for girls interested in the world of fashion and design. It goes perfectly with our mission of keeping girls moving forward in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math!

 

 

 

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Post-holiday review: Quick attach microscope

7 Jan
Can you guess what this is?

Can you guess what this is?

I’m slowly getting back into our regular school and work routines this week, but I missed blogging on Monday, my usual first post of the week. I had several appointments through the day that just threw my schedule right off. So here we are on Wednesday already, and I’m set to start off blogging about some of the fun gifts the kids received this year for Christmas. I do this because throughout the year your kids and my kids all have birthdays to attend and events that involve gift-giving and gift buying, and I like to post some great, affordable gifts that could be used by my readers all year long. If you see something really great, it’s nice to have it on your mental list as a go-to idea.

I know that everyone’s budgets are different, but nothing I’ll share here costs more than about $50. I know that if we’re buying for our own kids, our budget is higher and if we’re shopping for a birthday gift for someone else, it might be lower, so these gift ideas will have a good range for you.

The lens didn't come with this carrying case, but it's an old jewelry pouch I had which was the perfect size.

The lens didn’t come with this carrying case, but it’s an old jewelry pouch I had which was the perfect size.

Our girls have always tended to be kids who love hands-on activities, crafts and projects, but they’ve also tended to love, love, love science. They are interested in much of what the mayor of our city calls STEAM rather than just STEM. STEM is the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, but STEAM adds in the Art component to that. During a recent interview that I did with one of our high school art teachers, she talked about the natural connection between art and science and even the fact that long, long ago, the scientists depended on the artists for accurate representations of what they were studying and discovering; something I’d never thought of before. I used to think that Art was involving one side of the brain, and Science and the like involved the other, and never the two shall meet, as they say. However, over the years I’ve come to learn that’s not true at all.

This year, Santa did a wonderful job of getting a great mix of artistic and creative gifts and a great job of mixing in some science, technology and engineering gifts, and best of all, he seemed to find gifts that were affordable. Great job Santa!!

Or this? Any guesses what this is a picture of? Answers can be found at the bottom of the post.

Or this? Any guesses what this is a picture of? Answers can be found at the bottom of the post.

Today’s focus (no pun intended) will be on the Quick Attach Microscope, which is a small, amazing tool. It’s a lens that fits onto one’s hand-held device, whether it’s a phone or an iPod, and uses the built in camera on the device along with the lens itself to magnify things 3x their normal size, just as a tabletop microscope would. Users can use the camera on their device to take a photo of whatever they’re looking at, and save it to their device, magnified at 3x its normal size.

I’ve added some photos to my post on the left side that shows just a couple of the close-up shots taken using this lens. Can you guess what they are? Answers will be at the end of my post. We’ve been doing mostly indoor shots, but the kids are excited for the warmer weather to return and along with it, things like bugs and worms so that they can take close up shots of those as well.

I like this tool for many reasons.

1) It’s fascinating to use and see so many things around the house, inside or out, at 3x their normal size.

2) It’s small and portable, easy to take anywhere with us, which is different than a tabletop microscope.

3) No slides needed, and things don’t need to be flat to be magnified.

4) Your pictures are saved right onto your device for quick and easy accessibility later on, any time.

5) Affordability. Ultimately, things often come down to budget, and this tool, as amazing as it is, costs $20 or less, depending where you get it and depending on sales, coupon codes etc. Doing a search today, I found it here for $2.98!!! At that cost, you could get a bunch and stock up on future birthday party gifts!! You can even pick it up in store, if you have one near you. I am pretty sure that I can guarantee that Santa probably did not have such luck when he was shopping!!  If you can’t find it there, or it’s out of stock, here’s the Amazon link as well.

Now, I know you’ve all been making your mental notes as to what you think the two photos are, which are pictured on the left side of my post, so here you go:

Photo one, top of the page: Fur lining on the hood of a grey winter coat

Photo two, further down the page: Lips of one of the girls, not sure if it’s a lip selfie or if she took a photo of her sister’s lips, but either way, it’s lips!

We’ve also explored skin, scrapes, and human hair, for starters.

I hope you have enjoyed the first in my series of gift reviews today! Tune in Friday for the next one!

 

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Snowy weather or winter boredom? No problem!

6 Jan
Stuck inside? No worries!

Stuck inside? No worries!

Living in the Northeast, we are prone to lots of cold, snowy winter weather. Sometimes we can get outside, go sledding, build a snowman. Sometimes though, it’s either snowing too hard or it’s just too cold to be out or out for long.

On those days, when we’re stuck inside, it’s fun to find some neat things to pass the time other than watching TV or playing one device or another.

Lucky for us, this weather usually follows our Christmas holidays and we have lots of great, new things to keep us busy. As I did last year, I thought I’d highlight and review a few of the really great things we received this year, which have already provided us with some great, indoor fun.

Today’s review is for one of my daughter Elizabeth’s (age 11) gifts from Santa: Snap Circuits, Jr.

The mat included in the kit really helps the kids to see where to place their pieces.

The mat included in the kit really helps the kids to see where to place their pieces.

This was a gift she put at the top of her list after seeing it in a catalog that came in our mail, but it was one that we didn’t know very much about. It has turned out to be one, very cool gift. Focusing on Science, Engineering and Technology skills, this kit contains over 100 projects that the kids can do, all of which produce an action: a light turns on, a fan runs, music stops or starts; things of that nature. To create the action however, the kids must connect a series of circuits. A flat surface is included, similar to the work mat that comes with LEGO kits. The circuits are all able to be created and put together on that mat. The mat helps the kids map out how far apart the various pieces need to be placed in order to be connected.

As a parent and as a former teacher, I liked so many things about this kit and I really had a great time delving into it with her one afternoon when it was just she and I at home for a little while.

First off, I loved that it was STEM related (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). I was so pleased to see my daughter enjoying utilizing those types of skills. We often tend to lean towards the crafty activities. We love to craft and create, but this was a whole different type of creativity and her eyes lit up that very first time she made the light bulb turn on with a flip of the switch that she’d connected herself.

The kit comes in a box that helps to keep the pieces organized and helps the kids know which piece is which.

The kit comes in a box that helps to keep the pieces organized and helps the kids know which piece is which.

Second, I loved how organized and easy to understand this kit was. It has many, many pieces and they’re all organized and easy to store, and come with a map to show you what you should have for pieces, what the pieces are called, and where they go in the box. I taped the map right into the cover of the box to help her put things back in the right spots.

Third, the booklet that comes in the kit is fabulous. The projects are numbered, with a place to check them off once done. They start out easy and basic and get more complicated as you go. Kids see success instantly as they do the first, quick project, and it fuels their fire, making them want to complete the next project, and the next. Each project has an objective, so the kids see what they’re going to do with that project, and then the directions follow, with a summary at the end which explains why the project did what it did. I was especially thrilled when one of the early projects explained to her how a battery connected to the circuit made a propeller spin, and we could connect that to the new spinbrush toothbrush she’d gotten in her stocking, which runs the same way. She went and got her toothbrush, turned it on and watched it spin as she looked at her Snap Circuits propeller spinning too. It was fantastic.

And finally: budget. This is a very affordable activity kit which provides so many hours of fun and learning. The Snap Circuits, Jr. kit runs in the $25 range, depending where you buy it and I’ve seen it online at Walmart, Target and on Amazon.com, but I know it’s also available in other places. I love it when things are affordable! I also know that there are lots of kinds of Snap Circuits kits, ranging from physics to lights, to much bigger and more complicated (and more expensive) kits. You can get replacement parts and there are learning extensions online at their website as well.

As we progressed along in the book, the projects got more complicated, using more pieces, the results more exciting.

As we progressed along in the book, the projects got more complicated, using more pieces, the results more exciting.

I’d definitely give the Snap Circuits, Jr. kit a thumbs up as a parent, and my daughter gives it her vote from a kid’s point of view as well. I highly recommend you giving it a try! It’s great for those rainy or snowy, cold weather days and provides hours of fun and entertainment, while lots of learning is taking place too.

When I looked on Amazon.com, the age recommended for the kit was 8 and up, and I have to agree. I have a daughter who is 8 also, and she likes it too, but my 11 year-old is definitely more independent with it than my 8 year-old. They’ve done some of the projects together as well, which is nice too. It’s also a  great gift for both boys and girls, which is not often easy to find.

I can’t wait to see what some of the next, more complicated and more exciting  projects will be!

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