Tacoma FabLab and Tinkertopia

     To give our study of inventions a jump start, we visited some local invention hotspots: The FabLab and Tinkertopia, both located next to the University of Washington Tacoma downtown (one above, one below).
      At the FabLab, we checked out a 3D printer and learned about some of the innovations happening with these -- prosthetic hands that cost $45 instead of thousands, a wrench that was printed out IN SPACE for use on the international space station (!), and a building in China that was 3D printed using cement. One of the dads on the trip with us, a doctor, told us that he has read about 3D printers being used with human tissue to make replacement hearts! Amazing stuff!
      Tinkertopia is a "creative reuse center" full of all kinds of interesting recycled materials sure to get our creative juices flowing. Just a few ideas that have bubbled up since this trip: lighter scuba breathing apparatus, forcefields that can protect our country from bomb threats, and special superhero-power jumpsuits (with flashing lights, of course). I can't wait to see what results from the "tinkering" we'll be doing in the coming weeks!

 A statuette 3D printed out of plastic.

 Z models a 3D printed butterfly barette.

 This cool frog was made from 33 layers of laser-cut cardboard.

 Parts of this cool guitar were 3D printed at the FabLab.

 We wish the FabLab, like the Tardis, was bigger on the inside.

 Watching a 3D printer in action. This one is in the process of making one of the butterfly barrettes shown above.

 Thank you, FabLab!

 Start here - take a bag, and fill it with any items labeled "bulk."

Lots of cool things to explore.

 Please DO touch.

 A rainbow of do-dads.

 Decisions, decisions ...

 "Hmmm . what could I use this for?"

"Do you need one of these?"

 So much neat stuff, so little time ...

"Now THIS is interesting!"

 "Hey, look at this! We can use it for ..."

We're headed back to the bus, with bags (and heads) full of invention ideas. Mission accomplished. 

Galimoto and inventing with wire

When we talk about inventions, we definitely want to talk about toys! On Friday, Mrs. Towne showed us a fun video of a show called Reading Rainbow, where host Lavar Burton introduced us to the book "Galimoto," a story of an innovative African boy who creates a toy truck out of wire, (check it out yourself here: http://vimeo.com/6277730) and also an artist who works with bent wire to create all kinds of 3D sculptures, from faces to aardvarks! Then we got busy with some pipe cleaners to see what we could come up with ourselves:

 He went on to add "ribs" and make this ship 3D

 Starting with some wheels...

Prepare to be astounded!

 A man carrying a bike. Actually, a boy holding a man carrying a bike.

 It's a unicorn! No, it's a cornicorn!

 Something big is coming...

 Hey, how are you doing that?

 A rose is a rose is a rose.

 Look at that grin under her hat.

Future Magritte.

Like fish IN the water ...

We're into our second week of swimming lessons at the Norpoint Center. The kids are having a blast - as you can see for yourself here...

Books, Books, and more Books!

     Parents often ask for reading recommendations for their children, and I realized that there are some excellent resources I could share here on the classroom blog, especially as we continue our monthly "Genre Challenge" this year. Having trouble finding a good book? Check out some of these sites and blogs:

Hoagie's Gifted is an excellent resource for ALL things gifted, but one of my favorite features of this site is their recommended reading page. You and your child can browse by topic:
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/hot_topics.htm

Kids need to relate to the characters in the books they read, and here's a blog post on books featuring gifted characters:
http://www.planetsmarty.com/2014/07/6-book-series-about-gifted-children.html?utm_source=September+2014+Newsletter&utm_campaign=September+2014+Newsletter&utm_medium=email

The University of Connecticut has an awesome webpage with links to all the different award winners and several other great reading lists, including one "Student's Choice" list of books recommended and reviewed by children.
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/semr/booklist%20index2.html

And last but NOT least, our own librarian, Ms. Becky, is an awesome resource for book ideas, and the library now has some excellent resource links right from the Seabury website:
Seabury Library

You can also find this link at the bottom of the Seabury.org webpage at the end of the lists of links to Seabury classroom blogs.

Getting into the swim of things!

We started swimming this week -- what a bunch of fish we've got! More pictures to come next week.

Printing, Gutenberg style

As we transition from studying the Middle Ages to studying the Renaissance, one of the important inventions we learned about was Gutenberg's printing press and the proliferation of books. Here, we experimented with some of Gutenberg's methods to print our names -- the hard part, we found, was putting the letters of your name backward - being a typesetter is not always so easy! We then drew some of our own printing plates, and printed those, with, (as always with this creative group of artists), rather lovely and sometimes unexpected results.