Through our partnership with DOE, we collaborate with thousands of students at their schools to build hands-on projects based on what they are learning in class. This year we are collaborating with 30+ schools, and our Project Designers have fabricated many amazing projects — here are just a few examples. Read below to see what they have designed and what fun projects students are making while they learn. Follow us on social media for updates on the final products!

Dream Spaces

Dream Spaces: Our Project Designer, Anthony Ramos is collaborating with multi-lingual learners" at PS 96 to build their dream spaces. As they work on building their dream space, students are asked what things would make a place their dream space by identifying specific things they like and have deep meaning in their lives. Using cardboard and many other craft materials, they are building physical dioramas (playhouses almost) representing their dream spaces — which will also incorporate simple circuitry LEDs & Motors. Majority of the youth Anthony is working with speaks Spanish, and the content for the project was taken from our Connected Worlds Curriculum; and also is being led in Spanish in order to meet the students where they are!

Mermaid Parade

Students from International High School at Lafayette will construct a pedal-powered parade float in the form of a giant Mantis Shrimp for the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island. They will use a wide variety of techniques and materials over the course of the 11 week project, including welding modified bikes, building a wooden frame, designing costumes and sewing textiles.

AR Sandbox

A small group of High school students at Bronx Arena take on the role of fabricators to design and build a sandbox that incorporates Augmented Reality (AR) to generate environmental terrains/features. It will be an interactive structure that will update its features in real-time by playing with the sand. The build will require two distinct components: a software and building component.

Plate Tectonics

As part of their unit on plate motion, 7th grade students at South Bronx International M.S will research the different types of plate boundaries and the geological phenomena that they produce. They will use this research knowledge to then construct interactive plate boundary models and simulate their behavior using simple mechanics and some circuitry. They will also engage in casting to make their own rocks/fossils that would accompany their models.

Pioneer Wagons

Second graders at PS 938 celebrated their 100 day of school by dressing up as 100 year olds and also racing pioneer wagons that they built while learning about Native Americans and early methods of westward colonization. The pioneer wagons were constructed using net drawings, and wheel shaped pasta to make the axles; and students learned how to turn 2D drawings into the 3D shapes to make their wagon body. The wagons are able to move on their own using a specially designed balloon and straw attachment.

Bee-Inventive

In an after-school program at MS442 dubbed "Bee-Inventive", students will engage in hands-on STEM related projects on topics related to Physical Computing, Circuity & Robotics. Students will learn about various techniques such as electronics, cardboard construction, basic woodworking, & digital design (laser-cutting).

Carnival

Chris Medina, one of our Project Designer is leading after school programming for 2nd to 5th grade students at Van Siclen Middle school. During the program students are learning coding and cardboard construction, which they will later use to build games and make a cardboard carnival for the school.