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Make-A-Thon

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MAKE-A-THON

Invent with Learned Skills


Beginner

1 - 2 hours

Grades 3 - 8
INTRODUCTION

After exploring Piper Make or breaking down the Piper Computer Kit, students take a moment to reflect on the valuable skills they've just learned. Then, using their everyday experiences, they team up in small groups to dream up exciting new technology solutions for real-world problems they encounter. Innovation starts here!

  Print Project Guide   Student Worksheet
PROJECT MATERIALS
PROJECT RESOURCES Learning Goals Career Connections Standards
PROJECT STEPS Identify common problems Forming groups Inventing Solutions Detailing the creation Tell us about your brilliant creations!
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PROJECT MATERIALS

Paper / poster board, writing and drawing utensils
OR
Use a slide presentation software if students have access to computers
PROJECT RESOURCES

Learning Goals

  1. The goal of this activity is to get students thinking about how they can apply what they have learned about engineering, coding, and design to their own lives and communities.

Career Connections

Mechanical Engineer: Salary $99,510/yr
Chief Executive Officer: Salary $206,680/yr
Database Architect: Salary $134,700/yr
Computer User Support Specialist: Salary $71,530/yr

Standards

  • 6-8.AP.13 Decompose problems and subproblems into parts to facilitate the design, implementation, and review of programs. (P3.2)
  • 6-8.CS.2 Design a project that combines hardware and software components to collect and exchange data. (P5.1)
PROJECT STEPS

Step 1 Identify common problems

As a class, brainstorm some problems that your students/community experience. Put some of these ideas on a whiteboard during this open brainstorming session.

Good questions to ask to guide this process include:
  • Can someone tell me the most frustrating part of your morning?
  • Do you live in a special climate? Do you get fined if you use your sprinklers at any point?
  • When you were walking or driving to school, did you notice anything that was a problem, challenge or just plain annoying?
Once you have several challenges on the white board, select the top options that get the students excited (depending on how many students you have, try to have enough options for groups of 4-5 students)

Step 2 Forming groups

Ask students to select the problem that they want to tackle and ask them to split into groups. Rearrange groups as necessary to facilitate diverse perspectives in each group.

Step 3 Inventing solutions

Ask students to break down the problem first, into the steps that make it a problem. See the following example from a real student on a common problem she was facing! Ask students to identify where an invention could intervene.

Break down how the problem happened:
  1. "I went to the fridge this morning to get a snack and I opened it"
  2. "I got distracted and stood there staring and ice started melting and the fridge warmed"
  3. "I got yelled at by my mom because food got ruined"

Think about what happened between Step 1 and Step 2. In this example the class discusses measuring:

  • Temperature going up
  • The amount of time the door was open
The group decided they wanted to measure the time the door is open and set an alarm when the door was open for too long.

Step 4 Detailing the creation

Ask students to draw out what the invention would look like. What pieces of technology would it use? What elements of coding would be helpful?

Ask the group questions to support inventing a detailed solution
  • How would you measure the fridge door being open?
  • What piece of technology did we use before to measure distance?
  • What would you like the CONDITIONS to be to trigger the alarm?

Step 5 Tell us about your brilliant creations!


Send us your best creation at hi@playpiper.com to be featured in our next newsletter!

Post-activity Discussion Ask the following questions to guide a post activity discussion:

  • What was the most difficult part of decomposing the problem that your group chose?
  • What was the subproblem that you were able to design your solution for? (6-8.AP.13)
  • Do you feel confident about the hardware and software components you designed? Do you think they can gather the data and respond to the challenge? (6-8.CS.2)
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