Earth Day at Minnetonka Schools Family Makerspace Event

On Saturday, April 13, Minnewashta Elementary hosted a makerspace event to celebrate Earth Day. Families could select from two 75 minute time slots for an open-house style event with opportunities using makerspace materials to create, code, and play. A year and a half ago Minnetonka officially launched our “Hub” Makerspace program at all K-8 schools, providing supplies and instruction to integrate maker activities for students into the curriculum.
I attended the Earth Day event with my fourth grade daughter who had a great time. There were five stations which we rotated through. At the first station, she cut up an old t-shirt to make an “upcycled” bag. Then she was on to the next stop, coloring an animal mask and using DoInk Green Screen to place a photo of herself on an Earth Day themed background (pictured).
There were also multiple stations set up for coding and robotics. Attendees could use Ozobots and program paths and patterns for the robots to follow. At the Makey Makey stations, students could use both circuits and coding with Scratch to play a piano made out of fruits and vegetables, play drums made from potatoes, and play and reprogram the code in an “operation” type game. My daughter enjoyed playing “Ode to Joy” on the food (watch video).
At the another station, students could make light up insect critters using LED lights and circuits along with craft supplies. There were also Rig-a-ma-jig, Keva planks, and straw building areas where many families spent time creating, designing, and constructing things. The event was sponsored by the Minnetonka Public Schools Foundation, Executive Director Melissa Streit, and led by Minnewashta High Potential teacher, Joy Curran and Minnewashta Information and Digital Learning Coordinator, Shelly Traver, as well as Andrea Hoffmann, Middle School East Tech Coach and Tonka Coders & Makers Project Lead and Julie Baeb, one of our Innovation consultants.

The event was a great way to build community awareness and support of our makerspace program and the Minnetonka Foundation which provides the funding for so many opportunities for our students such as this. It gave parents a firsthand experience using the great materials that their children get to use at school. It also was a great way for parents to spend some quality time with their children in fun activities!
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