Get Messy! STEM Programs for all at CLA

This year at CLA there was a Get Messy station that focused on easy to do STEM programs for children, tweens, and teens.  These ideas were from various librarians but mostly from Brenda.  For our part we took the Discovery Dig and people loved the blue Bubber and manipulatives.  Someone loved it so much they kept asking me if they could take a ball the size of my head (that's a lot of Bubber!).  I kept stating "no, so sorry that is city property"...that is another story.  Needless to say we were a hit as always.

The person coordinating the Get Messy area was Brenda McIlroy, Program Librarian at Santa Cruz Public.  Brenda is awesome!  She presented last year at CLA on low budget STEM boxes that are circulated with recycled and found objects that can be used for building bridges and catapults.  I used her stomp rocket idea for our IDEO outreach workshops and they were a hit.  Below are some of the things Brenda is doing in her neck of the woods.

Crane: straw, cardboard, string, Dixie cup, scissors

 A new version of the Kazoo/Harmonica (it works great!)

Boxcar Zipline

 Hey, we have this book!
*Brenda said she uses a lot of ideas here

 I helped at this station (fitting since I had just presented on electricity)

• You make your own play dough or buy it at the store...
• Make 3 balls of dough...
• Mix sugar into 1 ball...
• Mix salt into the other 2 balls...
• Sandwich the sugar dough between the salt dough...
• Then use a 9 volt batter, LEDs and foil to connect everything...
• The LEDs will light up (you have to connect Cathode (-) side of LED to the (-) side of the battery.

It's a great, easy way to show how electricity travels, talk about positive/negative, electrons, etc.

LOVE IT!!!

This is more for my notes but this is an Arduino kit.

A fun Teen craft, this is gravity art!

Take a tripod, a tube of paint and make designs using good old gravity.


Rubber band boxcar

Rubber band Boxcar (complete with instructions)

OK, low budget version of the ball run...remember the Make It Move! PAL...never forgiven, never forgotten.

• Use hose insulator
• Cut in half
• Tack, tape, staple, clamp to wall
• Use marbles and ta da!

Sorry for the bad photo

Dust in the Wind...Slate on a Table...

Alright party people we have some new toys in town...sorry manipulatives.

To the right is the Kodo wind tunnel.  We picked up this little beauty for a steal and will be featuring it in the children's storytheatres for the time being.  We want to test it out in storytime (controlled environment) before releasing it into the wild that is the children's area of our libraries.

The opening above the table allows children to place scarves and other items such as snow cone cups and other air catching things into it so children can watch it fly high in the air...

One thing they demonstrated was using a scarf and attaching a snow cone paper cup to it with paperclips to make a parachute...a milky way was used to experiment with weight vs. air resistance.

Another exciting item it he slate table which Margaret won in the ELF pre-conference raffle.  This might be a good outreach tool for RC2Go (or a Eureka/IDEO art box).  There are cups to hold tools and children get plenty of tactile stimulation from the slate surface, wooden paint brushes and chalk.

GO Margaret!!!

These items will be rotated between both libraries and possibly the RC2Go.

Summer Reading Program 2015: Read to the Rhythm

Gloria Estefan says...

The Rhythm is Going to Get You!

The SRP pre-conference meeting this year was as usual.  A short synopsis of:

• Scholarshare
• Early Literacy (infant) SRP Ideas
• Children & Tweens ideas
• Teen ideas
• Adult ideas
• Message from iRead Reps
• Decorating Ideas

There is a plethora of information and here are the links to them:

iRead Resource Page: http://www.ireadprogram.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3&Itemid=106

iRead SRP Pinterest page: https://www.pinterest.com/ireadprogram/

The committee from Illinois and our California reps do a very good job of organizing the information into a binder/CD and then creating the Pinterest page with hundreds of ideas for decorating, crafts, and passive programs all for babies-adults. Some things that might interest you are: 

 www.rasterbator.net

• Rasterisation (or rasterization) is the task of taking an image described in a vector graphics format (shapes) and converting it into a raster image (pixels or dots)...
• Turn your low res pictures into dots that form a poster as large as you want it!
• Great for displays

The SRP...horn craft?  take some hose and a funnel from the frat house next door and use it as a children's craft...? (I am still confused)

CRAFT: Paper, noise making thingy: the low end version of the  Chinese hand rattle drum

• Take a paper plate...
• Add some beads to a ribbon...
• Tie the ribbon together and tape to middle of plate...
• Tape stick to middle of plate nest to ribbon...
• Add another paper plate on top to cover taped ribbon area and staple...
• 
  

•  Now do the twist!

For TEENS: Sheet music origami
-NOTE: the FOL are already saving sheet music and records for us




















Why do ADULT SRP?

I wanted to add this slide for 2 reasons (if you are reading this then just know Blogger is not the greatest for formatting):1) It is the adult SRP ideas2) This slide represents how 90% all the ideas were conveyed...it was a bit maddening that is was a line of text and then someone trying to paiont a picture in your head of what that craft might look like,  Not the best way to show off a cool craft.  Half the time Margaret and I didn;t knwo  what they were talking about. 

 More TEEN crafts

Guitar pick art: You can pick up a pick punch from urban outfitters for around $20 now OR perhaps and Ellison die cut

Some SRP Ideas:  

CRAFT

CD Balloons w/ stick figure guy: create a stick figure guy holding a string from card stock, have children cut out guy and tape to CD (like he is holding a balloon, decorate CD and guy

Teens can make typographical pieces of art using lyrics or poetry:

DECORATING

Have teens create SRP decorations in April and May and then use decorations to hang in library (adds sense of purpose, accomplishment and ownership)

PARTNERSHIP

• Partner with Fender guitars (based in Corona?) for a teen OR adult program
• Instrument Petting Zoo: partner with Academy of Music or Alta Loma Music and have them bring instruments out for show and tell OR use staff owned instruments

OUTREACH

Sign people up for SRP at the summer concerts in the park

PROGRAMMING (children/tween/teen/some adult)

• Sing that Tune-altogether now "the wheels on the bus"
• Use recording devices (12 for $6-Rachele from Ontario has info) to use in storytime or for passive program.  Sounds can be pre-recorded with animal, car, different sounds and kids can try and guess sound or copy -Volume can be adjusted and set by staff (children will not be able to change)
• Dance Time storytime segment (from Yo Gabba Gabba)
• International Music Match-up: play music and have children try and match style of music with picture of country/cultural images/etc
• Musical Balloons: play music and don;t let balloons touch the floor, add balloons when tempo of music changes or when you pause/freeze
• Drawing to the Beat: have children/teens draw art to the music they hear.  Play various types of music for each session and have them make predictions as to what types of drawing/art will appear based on the style of music
• Outdoor music station: made with pots, pans, wooden sppons/utensils
• Make 8 bit music: using old nintendo sound files, digital devices have children make 8 bit music...Scott Pilgrim vs the Library
• Sing along movies: Show a movie and have sing alongs...Frozen? played out but popular...I am more of a Jungle Book man myself
• "Walk Like and Egyptian": play music and wrap people up like a mummy OR "I Want Candy"-wrap people up like candy OR "Wrecking Ball"-have participant wear pantyhose stuffed with socks on head and try to knock down boxes or giant legos... ...maybe just the forehead!

What do you think about the ideas?  Are they crazy like the frat/children horn craft?  Do pantyhose not belong on children's heads?  Sound off on the comments below!

Dont just Play the Game: Minecraft Coding Camp

Presented by: 

Rebecca Forth, 

Asstistant Director,

Sonoma County

The purpose of this program is to take children from Consumer to Creator & the program has become popular in the Sonoma area. For those of you who do not know what Minecraft is (I have never played it myself) it is game where you create your own world and the only thing you have to do is survive! You mine for things (yes like a miner in a cave- dig, pick, collect) materials and then place those materials in a sequence to create things like a hammer, a knife, a saw and eventually a wall, a house, a fireplace, a city. It is definitely not for everyone but it has taken the gaming world by storm and if you see a child playing a game on an iPad, DS or computer chances are they are playing Minecraft or some variant of.

I think it is interesting to note that this project was born out of Staff Innovation Fund training and what I loved about the workshop is how easy Rebecca made it seem to create a program like this.  I like to think that I am somewhat tech savvy (no where close to Adam, Don, Andrew or Jordan) but I can do things like unplug and plug back in a device, reset a router, and take software that someone else has developed and teach kids how to use that software. But underneath what we see on a computer screen there is what is called source code and this is much different then teaching graphical user interfaces (symbols and pictures you use to manipulate things on your screen). So to me this program seemed intimidating. Before we dive into why this program is a great idea I also want to note that it may not be for every library and there are limitations (stated below).

Rebecca told me it was her first time presenting at conference and from the presentation that would not have been apparent to anyone. She gave the audience everything you need to create this program in your own library and here is what she had to say:

The benefits of providing a program like this are:

• This program incorporates executive level thinking: memory, structure, design, planning,
• Interactive, player driven, encourages creativity and risk taking
• Utilizes the scientific method; one change at a time, make observation, etc.
• It fools children into learning a type of CAD program (computer aided design) ex. Minecraft is used to help rebuild urban areas in real life by having youth render a vision of their city in Minecraft and working with developers and city planners to incorporate those designs elements (http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/05/block-by-block/)
• Minecraft can be used to teach math, science, geography and more (http://services.minecraftedu.com/wiki/Teaching_with_MinecraftEdu#Your_first_lessons)
• Focuses on grammer and syntax: ex. “lets eat grandma”  & "Let’s eat, grandma”

One way to start teaching children how to look at code is to start with what they do know. By taking things in the code like the date of xmas and decrypting what that looks like as source code children can then find other tidbits of information that are familiar to them and figure out the basics of how code works. Here is an example of what source code looks like:

Using quick key commands like "ctrl F" children can search for keywords in the code to determine how the code is sequenced: ex. FIND: “happy birthday Notch” [use ctrl F]

• -NOTE: Notch is the creator of the game and he sends messages to the players (coded in the game-not actual person)

Learning how code works enables children to change elements of the game like the splash screen and other things that you build.

splash screen

Other usefull quick key commands for children to learn: ctrl X, ctrl C, ctrl V, ctrl r


Eventually you can build a home of your own:

or be the ruler of your universe:

Here are the details of what you will need to get started:

Resources from Sonoma County Library: http://sonomalibrary.org/node/21140

*Minecraft licenses

*Minecraft.edu

What Sonoma did:

• Used library laptops (6 total)
• 8 children per session
• Not online during game play
• Had last day speeches by kids in course

-children had to be coached in public speaking skills

-had children practice with small groups first

-Did a run through (program loaded, ready to go, troubleshoot what might occur)

-Stand in back and have kids speak up!

In summation, I think this was a great program and perhaps it is something we can try in the future. 

New Sheriff in Town...

As the in-coming President of the California Library Association, I got to close out the 2014 conference. It was my opportunity to give my vision for what I wanted CLA to look like in the coming year, and a little about my plans for the 2015 CLA conference (which will be in Pasadena!)

Other than the fact that there were only about 25 people in the audience for my speech (this program was at the *very* end of the conference), I thought it went OK. Actually doing a speech (as opposed to a presentation) is something that I am not real comfortable doing but I did it anyway.

A BIG thank you to the Rancho crew who attended the conference. Whether presenting or helping with registrations or just being a presence with your Rancho shirt on, you represented us fantastically well. I was so proud to be the director of the Rancho Cucamonga Public Library and to hear such great things about my people. To quote Kristin" We *are* awesome".

Taboo Topics

I was part of a panel for a program called "Taboo Topics". The premise of the program was that the audience would ask the panel anything they wanted to, and we

the panel would reply. There really wasn't anything prepared in advance, and going in, I had no idea of what might be brought up.

Some topics that came up were dealing with the homeless, outsourcing services, irrational politicians, unsuccessful ballot measures, implementing change for the change-adverse and some other things I have already forgot about. There were people in the audience (the room was *packed*) who also gave their opinions (which in some cases was good and in others, not so much.)

Basically, I thought this program was a bit of a train wreck. No structure. And personally speaking, just offering up opinions without thinking about ahead of time isn't really my style (I'm sure this is a "green" thing.) On paper a very interesting-sounding program but in reality, not so much...

Free hour at exhibits

Here's the picture Kristin mentioned in her post. Her earrings looked much better than mine!
I didn't spend a lot of time in the exhibit hall. I spoke with our AWE repesentative, bought a SRP t-shirt and perused the silent auction which our friend Alice was running.

I went to the Kodo booth (the slate table that I won at the ELF pre-conference was made by them) http://kodokids.com/libraries and we saw the cool air contraption that we bought at a pretty good discount. It's at VG right now and we'll be bringing it out for storytimes and special events.

Brandon even donated some of his popsies for the auction. Not sure how much they sold for but hopefully made some money for CLA.