Category: Ypsi (Page 2 of 2)

Exciting New Happenings at Michigan Makers

Wow it’s been a while since we’ve been at Willow Run because of all the horrible weather but today we were finally back in action with some exciting new changes! We had five super fun stations that each lasted about 15 minutes and then everyone rotated stations so they got do do a little bit of everything. One of our lovely mentor’s Alyssa coined it “speed-making”. We also introduced a punch card, each time you went to a different station and completed an activity you got a punch on your card.
So what exciting new activities did we have this week? Here’s what the menu looked like for today (February 3rd):

Station 1: Origami, Legos, and Drawing with Amelia
Station 2: LittleBits and KORG for digital music making with James and Mollie
Station 3: Badge-O-Matic with Alyssa
Station 4: 3D Printing with Mari and Kristen
Station 5: Sewing Bean Bags with Amana and Meg 

Picture

At the origami station we made a rainbow wheel as pictured to the left. The rainbow wheel makes a great decoration on top of a box or card. We also had a ton of fun designing lego cars like the one below made by a very creative maker. At the origami station there were tons of “How to Draw” books so a few makers started designing their buttons at this station using the drawing books for a little inspiration. 

Picture

I think it’s safe to say the runaway hit of the day was the awesome Badge-O-Matic. No one could resist getting to make personalized buttons! Every Michigan Maker Mentor got a button as well with their name on it so we can all work on getting to know each other better. Check out some of the button designs below! A big thanks to the School of Information for letting us borrow the Badge-O-Matic.


And lastly, we can’t forget we bid a sad farewell to long time Michigan Makers Mentor Meg Morrissey, but for a great reason: she got a new job! Congratulations Meg, we wish you all the best of luck in your new endeavors!

UMSI Monthly Profiles MM Mentor

http://monthly.si.umich.edu/msi-profile-alexandra-quay/

MSI profile: Alexandra Quay | UMSI Monthly via kwout

Hey, YCS Michigan Makers! Guess who got profiled in UMSI Monthly? It’s former  YCS MM mentor Alex Quay! Go check out her spectacular profile on UMSI Monthly! Click the interactive photo above to take you there! 

What do Mentors Do When School Is Out? (What we did Nov. 13)

Ever wonder what your mentors do when we don’t see you at Willow Run? Stephen took his Mac apart!

Stephen fixes his computer IMG_5789

Week 5: Lots of new faces! Flickr site updated

MM@YCS Snap Circuits 30oct2013

Last week, so many kids were sick! It was really fun to see everybody back this week, including a bunch of new faces!

There are lots of photos in our Flickr feed. You can find ones for YCS in the sets that start with “MM@YCS” and take a look at the “MM@Mitchell” ones to see our other Michigan Makers site and get ideas.

By the way … is your face hidden in a photo? That means we need your permission slip! Ask Mr. R.J. for a copy.

Activity menu:

– SunPrints (yes! There is just enough sunlight possible!) Kudos to Stephen and Jimmy for figuring out how to turn a sewing machine case into a developing tub!

– Origami – Last day! We had lots of takers working with Amelia.

– Snap Circuits – check out Alyssa and Alana having a great time in the photos.

– Crochet – Last day! Mollie was hard at work on her big afghan project.

– Scratch Programming – We are learning that there are big Doctor Who fans in MM. Will they make a Who-like animation?

Hmmm … what were Jessica and Ellen working on? Look below for a hint of what might be coming soon …

– Kristin

MM@YCS Jessica tests sewing machines 30oct2013 IMG_5703

Week 4: Crochet, Scratch, Snap Circuits, Squishy Circuits, Origami

MM@YCS K's pig Squishy Circuits IMG_5639

Today was our last day for Squishy Circuits. Congratulations to K for achieving the Squishy Circuits challenge (see above)!

We’re now retiring Squishy Circuits for a while, but if you miss it, take a look at the cool video below, where a clay sculptor makes a Squishy Circuits portrait of SC co-creator AnneMarie Thomas!

Menu items today:
– Crochet
– Scratch
– Snap Circuits
– Squishy Circuits (last day!)
– Origami (can we make an animated origami bird??)

We had many students absent today. We hope you feel better soon!

– Kristin

Week 3: Post Coming Soon!

We’ll get back to you about this week’s activities!

Week 2 Game Design, Squishy Circuits, Snap Circuits, & Crochet!

MM@YCS Board Game Design

With a little refresher of the menu we continued our work from last week. This time game designers got to pull out some cool supplies from the Scrap Box to start building their prototypes. Snap Circuits was taken up a notch this week with orange juice and an antique lamp to experiment with. More people joined in for their last chance on Squishy Circuits … which we ultimately extended into a third session so we could complete the Pig Challenge.

– Amelia and Kristin

Welcome to Michigan Makers!

Picture

Our first day at Willow Run was definitely a fun one! We started out Michigan Makers with an icebreaker so we could all get to know everyone’s name. We formed a giant circle and tossed around a cute crotched animal while calling out the person’s name you we’re about to throw it to.

Our agenda for the first week was introducing Snap Circuits, Squishy Circuits, crochet, and game design. Everyone was excited to try out the new activities, and crocheting drew quite a large crowd. At the end of our session many of the crocheters had completed or were well on their way to completing an awesome zipper pull. Our game designers brainstormed so they could begin building their prototypes next session, and the Snap & Squishy Circuits groups got through a lot of cool projects. At the end of our first session we wrote in our journals about what we like to make, what we don’t like to make, and most importantly what we want to know how to   make. Everyone was looking forward to what they were going to create next week!

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Images © 2015 Regents of the University of Michigan. Text available under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license unless otherwise stated. This project was made possible in part by the Institute of​ ​Museum and Library Services RE-05-15-0021-15.