It’s time to get ready for summer camp. Afterschool camp ended only weeks ago but summer camp is different. We have a stretch of time to explore without boundaries and borders.
For that preparation takes longer. Many hours later materials and tools and supplies are sorted and a long list is up on the Camp Ed Tech Green Facebook site. That list stuck to building and hands-on challenges – Lincoln Logs, check…Duplos, check…Marble maze, check…Kapla blocks, check…Indoor croquet, check…Legos, check… It only began to scratch the surface of what’s available for kids to explore.
Another list needed to include Making supplies, recycled found items of cardboard, wood, plastic, metal, paper, cloth and tapes and glues and paint and tool kits to construct with, check…MaKey MaKey micro-processors to experiment with, check…BirdBrain Tech Finch Robot to program, check!
And of course Mobile devices to talk to the robot and the micro-processors and capture the incredible creativity and invention of the campers in video. And have a chance to learn an hour of code and then try out web-based and app-based code for fun! So MacBooks, iPads, Samsung Galaxy, Kindle Fire, Nook, Dell Venue…check! (cross-platform because it is never about the device it about the work that one imagines)
This past week the White House hosted the first Maker Faire and declared June 18th the first National Day of Making. President Obama said, We invited you here because today is “D.I.Y.” Today’s D.I.Y. is tomorrow’s “Made in America.” Your projects are examples of a revolution that’s taking place in American manufacturing — a revolution that can help us create new jobs and industries for decades to come. …But what’s happening is, is that the young people now are able to learn by doing. So math, science all gets incorporated into the task of actually making something, which the students tell me makes the subject matter that much more interesting.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/18/remarks-president-white-house-maker-faire
Summer and afterschool camps cannot be the only opportunities kids have to explore without boundaries and borders. We must give all students the best of education beginning immediately with this revolution. Merge mobile and makers, allow student imagination, interest and excitement to drive learning. Join the Mobile Making revolution!