Tag Archives: Pietro Ennis

September 25, 2017 · 12:35 pm

Yes, I actually spent time gathering my tweets from @MakerFaire NYC weekend. #MFNY17 #MakerEd

Since I can’t get Storify to embed properly into a WordPress.com site, and I still do not self-host a WordPress.org site, I am gathering below my tweets from the last few days at Maker Faire NYC and some Maker Faire meetups.

Thursday, September 21

I went to the Maker Faire NY “Real World 3D Printing” Panel at Fat Cat Fab Lab hosted by Matterhackers and Ultimaker. It was great to reunite with other independent school technologists and fellow Ultimaker Pioneers, Ian Klapper (@ian32one), Rurik Nackerud (@okay2fail), and Sarah Rolle (@artdabbler13). I’m ever grateful to Liz Arum (@lizarum), the fabulous Education Community Strategist at Ultimaker North America), for suggesting I join the Pioneers, sending me updates about awesome meetups and conferences, and encouraging me to submit a 3D project for the inaugural Design Challenge Starter Pack. I love that my 3D Mandarin Seals project is immortalized in print among other inspiring projects from educators and artists! Here are some of  my posts from the evening:

#NYCIST friends at this @MatterHackers @Ultimaker Pre-@MakerFaire 3D-Mixer. #MakerEd

A post shared by Karen (@karenblumberg) on

Friday, September 22

I attended the 3rd (and my 3rd) annual Make: Education Forum at the NY Hall of Science where I reunited with teacher friends from the NYC Department of Education, technologists from other independent schools in New York and around the country, and exhibitors I met previously at previous Maker Faires or conferences. At the forum, Dale Dougherty, CEO and Founder of Make, exuded inspiration, genuine excitement, and kindness as he launched the day, introduced each speaker, and moderated the Q&As. Here is the schedule of speakers from the day. As per previous years, Dale offered attendees a backstage tour of the Maker Faire after the forum. Below is the description from the website — it’s a great event to attend if you can swing it!

Co-hosted with our partner, New York Hall of Science (NYSCI), the event is Friday, September 22, at the New York Hall of Science, home of World Maker Faire New York, from 10am to 4pm. This year, our focus will be on computational making, rethinking professional development for maker education and how making is not just about creating a makerspace but creating a maker culture.

Hear from educators, makerspace organizers, librarians, local and federal state department representatives, and youth organizations who have developed models and platforms to serve this agenda. If you are an individual who is either formally or informally supporting and/or creating project-based learning programs for kids that support general STEM areas, as educational policy makers, superintendents and principals, or youth programing coordinators, please join us.

Here are the tweets I shared during the day:

After the Make: Education Forum, I made it to a Maker Educator Meetup  hosted/sponsored by Maker Promise, Autodesk, and MackinMaker at NYU Tandon School of Engineering’s Makerspace. Here a tweet with photographic evidence via Mara Hitner (@3DPrintGirl):

Sunday, September 24

I made it to another Maker Faire NYC! Every year, I try to organize a block of tickets (through the Technology Department budget) for colleagues to visit the Maker Faire on Sunday, as there is a reduced Sunday group rate of 4 tickets for a total of $100. I also recommended people use their personal Professional Development monies if they want to get their own ticket to attend on Saturday. Additionally, I suggest they volunteer and attend for free (!) via the Make Faire Traveler Program. Here are my tweets from Sunday’s Maker Faire:

PS. I want to keep track of these tweets from others as well:

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March 16, 2017 · 10:37 am

Fun with sewable circuits, Class 5, and @PietroEnnis at @BrearleyNYC #STEAM #MakerEd #elemaker


@PietroEnnis and I are wrapping up a Class 5 project on sewable circuits. These Brearley girls are so fun to work with! They are creative, funny, inquisitive, and passionate about whatever they set their mind to. For this project (which correlated with a study of electricity in Science class), students were tasked with creating a circuit using conductive thread, as many as 5 LEDs, a coin cell battery, and some sort of means of powering their circuit (a battery pocket or a LilyPad battery holder with switch). Projects included dog collars, wrist cuffs, neck ties, donuts, animals, ice cream cones, and a skateboarding taco.

Before anyone began threading needles or cutting felt, everyone was asked to draw a template of their project (to scale) on paper. This sketch included the location of the battery pack, location of any lights, and distinct paths for the conductive thread in order to connect the negative “legs” of the lights and the positive “legs” of the lights.

While I’ve used YouTube videos and various resources in the past to help students review how to sew a parallel circuit, this time I brought Jaymes Dec and Ji Sun Lee’s book to class. Make: Tech DIY has great project ideas, lovely photos, and clear instructions. I love supporting my friends!

Make: Tech DIY

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November 2, 2016 · 3:53 pm

Class 5 #FunKeyFunKey cardboard @Scratch instruments! @BrearleyNYC #MakerEd #STEAM #musedchat

I feel so lucky and blessed to have joined the community of teachers and learners at The Brearley School this year. It is a K-12 girls school established in 1884 (a year before my beloved Bryn Mawr College), and as per their mission statement, Brearley “challenges girls of adventurous intellect and diverse backgrounds to think critically and creatively.” They embrace #SplendidNerdiness, and everyone is kind and brilliant. I’m surrounded by Doctors, as many of my colleagues hold doctorates in their fields, and I joke it’s like working in a hospital!

My colleague, Pietro Ennis, and I both teach Class V (aka, Grade 5). We have been brainstorming ways to infuse the curriculum with more STEAM, hands-on, and MakerEd opportunities. Our first project of the year is a variation of something I launched previously with  Emily Sticco and her 8th graders at The School at Columbia University. Students craft original creations in cardboard, design circuits, add conductive elements, program music in Scratch, and connect their cardboard “instrument” to their Scratch project with a FunKeyFunKey board.

(I’m running a similar project at the next Scratch Day on December 10th which will be hosted at The Computer School. It’s a great, free, family-friendly event for any ability level from beginner to advanced.)

My friend, Steven Lewis (@inventionlab), created the FunkeyFunkey as part of his Make!Sense line of reasonably-priced and accessible micro-controllers and sensors. It’s a pleasure to be able to purchase great tools from Stephen, as he also provides assistance, resources, information, and local delivery! The FunkeyFunkey Simple is only $9.95 and the FunkeyFunkey Sensor starts at $29.95 plus whichever sensors you purchase. We invested in class sets of FunkeyFunkey Sensor boards, Infrared (IR) breakbeams, hearbeat sensors,tilt sensors, three different kinds of touch sensors, and a bunch of his well-designed alligator clips.

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