by Leandro Segura – IT Manager Asociacion Escuelas Lincoln – Buenos Aires, Argentina
A year ago, we had an idea. We wanted to develop the Makers Culture for the Lincoln Community, but we were not exactly sure how, Today I would like to tell you more about this idea.
As you already know, at the Lincoln Tech department (our name is changing, stay tuned for that release) we are always trying to get members of our community involved with Technology in a proper way. First, we developed our Maker Spaces, then we created the Makers Club after school activity, and later we launched the Makers Camps…Anything else?
From time to time, I write a Blog in the Lincoln Friday Flash, our communication magazine that comes out every Friday, telling our community what is going on at our school. On that Blog, I asked parents if they would like to have kind of a Makers activity with their kids at our school. Three parents responded and we (The Tech Team) decided to do something new and different, we call it Lincoln Makers Challenge Day (LMCD).
We came up with 8 different stations for this first challenge, those were:
* The Virtual Drawing Station where each one of the members of the team had to draw, using Google Tilt Brush in the HTC Vive VR and the other members helped and guided him through this process.
* The Driving Drone Station in which the participants had to take the drone to different points of the field, landing it in a specific circle guided by their teammates.
* Bristlebot Labyrinth: In this station, a robot made out of a toothbrush, a motor and a battery had to be created, and then it had to find the way out of a labyrinth adding points to the team every time that happened.
* Green Screen Station: where the whole team had to improvise a scene from a well-known movie chosen from Finding Nemo, Lion King and Toy Story.
* Don´t break the egg: At this station competitors had to create an artefact, like a parachute or another type of protection, to soften an egg´s fall and prevent it from breaking.
* At Burj Khalifa station: the challenge was to build the highest tower using a box of recycled materials. Everyone got the same box and came with very different ideas!
* The Sphero Golf challenge: all team members had to drive a Sphero ball directly into the golf hole using a phone connected via Bluetooth.
* Ozobots duel station little robots had to be programmed to complete a track using color markers in a particular way (following US president pictures in chronological order)
We opened registration for families on a Wednesday Afternoon, and all 14 spaces were filled by Thursday morning. Each team/family was about three or four people (max.) and there was at least one adult and one kid. Ages for kids where from K5 to Grade 8 (But we also accepted one family with a High School member!)
Teams rotated every 15 minutes from one station to another. Most of our stations did accommodate two teams at the same time, but two of them (VR and DRONE) only have space for one family at a time.
With this scenario, we play, create, enjoy, celebrate, shout, feel the pressure, collaborate and develop some skills we were not even sure we had before. The feedback from parents and students was amazing. Staff, Parents and Students enjoy a different morning, feeling that is always possible to create something new. We are the only owners of our limits.
Our dream is to create a Makers Competition between international schools once a year, changing the location. Do you think this could happen? Do you want to be part of this dream? We would love to hear from you.
Leandro Segura – IT Manager
Asociacion Escuelas Lincoln – Buenos Aires, Argentina
Email = Leandro.segura@lincoln.edu.ar – Twitter = @chunisegura
Instagram = Leandro.segura.395 – Facebook = Leandro.segura.395
Short BIO: I have been working at Asociacion Escuelas Lincoln for the past 21 years, last 4 as IT Manager. I was born in Montevideo Uruguay and Lived in Argentina for 40 years. Chairman of the Innovate Team for the past 5 years. Member of the School improvment team and Founder of the Eco-School Committee