You might know what the start of your school year has in store for you, your students, and your district. Or, like some educators, you might still be preparing for multiple scenarios while awaiting word on the first day of school and, more importantly, where it'll be taking place. Finding engaging and academically stimulating solutions for students regardless of where they’re learning has become a major priority for some and that’s certainly something we can support. In this week’s Tips & Tricks blog, we’re taking a look at two Tech Will Save Us kits that you can leverage for hybrid learning—the Electro Dough Kit and the Gamer Kit. What makes them great is their flexibility for the classroom, at home, and in transporting them back and forth.
Let’s start with the Electro Dough Kit. It comes with a lot of different components that children could use in engineering, making, experimenting, and DIY creations. It’s perfect for children in Grades K-4 and provides a nice opportunity for social-emotional experiences as well, allowing them to connect with all the projects they build on a more personal level. They can even make their own conductive dough if they want!
Inside an Electro Dough 15 Pack (available as a single unit as well), there are LED lights, dough units, piezo buzzers, jumper wires, crocodile clips, AA batteries, a USB stick, and a storage bin. If you’re going to be in your classroom this school year, the 15 Pack makes an excellent option for MakerEd. And, in any school in which remote or hybrid learning is part of the plan, educators can benefit. They can separate out the kit's components and then distribute them to students for use at home.
Children can complete the activities that come with instructions included in the kit over time or tackle them right away. If choosing to complete them over time, the kit works across all K-4 grades, giving teachers the option to introduce students to it in first grade, for example, and pick back up with it in second grade. That Edu 15 Pack comes with instructions for eight lessons and they'll progress in complexity as students move through them. In order, the lesson topics are Electricity, First Circuit, Parallel Circuit, Circuit Makers, Circuit Breakers, Dough Buttons, Buzzers, and Salt.
Students can follow the many project examples or get creative and design their own models at home or at school. Wherever it is they are making, the Electro Dough kits allow them to explore the conductivity found in everyday objects, create sounds using electricity, and construct circuits in a safe way and in their own personal space. Some learning outcomes associated with this kit include complex circuit creation, naming basic electronic components, demonstrating opening or closing a circuit, recognizing common conductors, and exploring why metal is a good conductor. As such, it helps allow for a really hands-on, maker-centered approach to remote or hybrid learning.
Then, there’s the Gamer Kit, which is more involved but is still a perfect option for home or hybrid learning. Ideal for students who also love gaming, the Gamer Kit's easy to build and offers the chance to try coding! With that said, the Gamer Kit is more for kids who are somewhat older (Grade 5+) since it's more complex. Through these activities and experiences, however, children can learn some computer science and design skills as they create programs for use in their own games on the online Tech Will Save Us platform.
Kids begin by exploring classic games and learning about the code needed to create them. After that, they can create their own code and use that to power over 15 different classic video games. The kit comes with a very detailed manual and students can build the controller in as little as 15 minutes. The only thing they’ll need to supply is the required 9-volt battery. Also, the online Tech Will Save Us platform houses dozens of additional projects. Students can then find more ways to explore after completing the initial challenges.
Most of the components in this kit are what kids need to build the controller: the Gamer Board, the screen, the BRAIN Board, two chips, and nuts and bolts. It also includes a USB cable, an acrylic case, a strap, and instructions for accessing the Club Make platform. Once they build their game boards, students can create code to control the LED lights and recreate animations they've made.
To program with the Gamer Kit, students use the Arduino software platform and type their programs. This is part of the reason why the Gamer Kit is more for older students with previous text coding experience. In creating code, students have a ton of room for creativity and incorporating their own unique approaches to problem solving. Using the USB cable can replace the need for the 9-volt battery if children don’t have one or are unable to keep it plugged into the port throughout use. And, finally, the manual for the Gamer Kit can be found within the Club Make platform as well.
We know school reopening plans (or schools-remaining-physically-closed plans) will take final shape over the next few weeks. So, we wanted to make sure everyone was aware of some of the greatest tools for in-person and remote learning. For more on the Tech Will Save Us kits and other options for affordable maker education, visit our store! If you have any particular questions, feel free to get in touch with us. And, make sure you’re following us on Twitter and Instagram for all of the latest information!