Hammers, screwdrivers, and nails. Oh my!

Yes, all of those and more are in my high school library. These items are just as important as books and computers in our library for they give us the ability to build and create on a larger scale.

My students are working hard to create an Exploratorium which will be featured at this year’s SLIME: Students of Long Island Maker Expo. (Disclaimer: I am co-director of this event and yes, I encourage my students to help out.) We are creating marble runs and wind tubes. To do this we’ve had to take over quite a bit of real estate in the library. Not to mention re-arranging the furniture (yet again!). It’ all good. It’s  wonderful to see the pride on my students’ faces when I explain that their hard work and creations will be enjoyed by hundreds of children. [#IslipPride #GoBucs ] Some, still children themselves, are excited to play with our creations. Since these items are physics based, I see it as a hands-on learning opportunity. Speaking of learning, we had to tinker quite a bit before each item ‘cooperated’. There was lots of measuring, adding/dividing, and assembly that looked simple on paper….

We discovered early on that hammering is loud. Really loud. Well that’s one way to clear out the library 😉 We’ve since moved on to power tools. Surprisingly, it’s much quieter, though one might say it’s all relative.  Teachers walk over to our makerspace to watch their students in action clearly impressed and amazed by the creativity. Others have ‘hinted’ that the library is loud. What do I think?

My school library – it’s messy, noisy, productive, and happy. I love it!