Kids’ STEM Workshop: Computer Coding with Scratch!

 

I had heard about computer coding being done at libraries for several months before attending the 2016 Wisconsin Library Association session: ”A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Coding Go Down” session lead by Tessa Michaelson Schmidt, Ryan Claringbolde, and Jen Fait. I did not really understand what tools may be out there to offer coding at our library, or how we could begin offering coding in my rural community with a library budget that is already limited. However, this session opened up my imagination to what could be possible in my community. Why not have kids coding computers at their public library? These same children that I talk with during my school visits, see playing games on the library computers, watch play sports at community games, and create music on their instruments or through their voice the school band or choir will be the future adult consumers. Why not teach them to be a producer, and not just a consumer of media? And, could I find a creative way to do it that would also be FREE of offer (no laptop or computer purchasing required)? Could there also be a hidden partnership opportunity with my schools linked in this somewhere? I think so!

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Passive Program: Gingerbread Imaginative Play Station

gingerbread-station

In December, we wanted to offer something different. Enter “Gingerbread Imaginative Play Station”!

I purchased a play dough mixer from Amazon for $25. Then, I went to the dollar store and bought two cookie trays, two spatulas, a bag of googly eyes, and Christmas colored pom-poms. I then went to Walmart and bought two Gingerbread Men cookie cutters. One of my fellow librarians offered to help trace out the cookie cutters on brown paper, and cut them out. We cut out 100 gingerbread men to start with, and I placed a bowl of glue sticks on the table. The kids loved this station, and I even had high school students come in and make one because they said, “It was so cute!”

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