Girls Week in the Lab

As part of our summer school program at 'Iolani, they offer two weeks of auxiliary classes after our normal 6 week session. Here in the Lab, we make one of those weeks "Girls Only" and the other "Boys Only". We just finished our Girls Week with 7 amazing, creative young ladies.

Meeting for five days, we begin at 8am and end at 2:30 (taking time for breaks and lunch...although, most kids could work straight through and not miss a beat). Because time is short, we take the first two and a half days to introduce the basics: simple circuits, Scratch, MakeyMakeys, Inkscape/laser cutting, 123D Design/3D printing, and vinyl cutting.

During the "teaching" time, students create the basics (copper tape/LED circuits, MakeyMakey controllers, boxes, name plates and stickers). After that, they search the internet for possibilities; looking up topics like "laser cutting projects" or searching sites like "Thingiverse". We also challenge them to go home and find something they can fix or improve around the house. For the last two and a half days, it's their time to create whatever they want.

Next week we'll see what the boys can do.