Maker Kit: Activity for K-12 Students

During COVID-19 my makerspace struggled with ways to bring our programming to students remotely. To solve this problem I created Maker Kits to send to my students. The largest of these kits was the Soft Circuits Stuffed Animal project. This project integrates learning about technology with a hands-on guided activity. I created the concept for this activity and designed the guides for students to follow along, as well as producing visuals for every step of the process. Online sessions to allow students to ask questions and work as a group were also facilitated.

Open source resources and tutorials were linked with the activity to provide rich media learning resources our budget did not allow us to produce. User interaction was considered, and all links were included as QR code and shortened links for physical copies, and hyperlinks for digital viewing. This activity was designed to be adaptable for use by all students in our K-12 program.

This Maker Kit gave students a distance learning opportunities away from screens and integrated teaching motor skills which fell behind at this time. I began by writing the curriculum and designing the booklet for this module, and then applied for and received grant funding to bring this project to my students.