Inventors University

#InventorsUniversity Year 3, Class 7 at Concord Library. With our final class next week, it was time to start design projects. This is where the students get to select their own project. Unfortunately, the students have been hit by the flu bug over the last couple of weeks, so we've been missing a few of the girls each of the last two sessions. Still, the girls who attend are incredibly excited about what they get to work on now. But before we started, Robyn awarded the prize... to last week's design challenge for the best house. Her reward was...a printed version of the house. It's special when your award is your own design. The Python class gave the option to build a multilingual dictionary or a draw command to select different scenes. The girls had a fun time creating unique scenes, including one girl's quest to draw a heart--which takes more math than you might think. The 3D Modeling project focused famous buildings. Robyn provided a list for everything from the Pyramids to the Taj Mahal and let the girls decide which one to create as a 3D printed object. I was partial to the girl who chose the Arc De Triomphe in France. With our last class and graduation next week, every year seems to go faster than the one before it. Stay tuned for pictures of our students' final projects and our graduation ceremonies next weekend!

#InventorsUniversity Year 3, Class 6 at Concord Library. After a long layoff (three weeks) due to the district STEM Fair and the Country Spelling Bee, we were finally back in action. After a quick refresher to get everyone back up to speed, we were off and running. Today’s Python class went to the next level with the Turtle graphics package, where the girls starting messing around with unique color patterns. The girls went from being programmers to being artists by playing ar...ound with parameter values. And even though Iris was teaching the material for the third time, she still managed to learn a new trick and then got excited to share it with the class. Meanwhile, the 3D Modeling class focused on houses. Robyn issued a Design Challenge on creating either a house or a room of a house. She then started by showing us her model of her own house, which helped trigger some really creative ideas. Our TA Braelynn even started coming up with ideas. As we go into the last month of the year, the girls will be preparing for their final projects before a late-April graduation. Can't wait to see what they come up with.

No class this week as the district held its annual STEM Fair and one of our instructors was featured for her Science Fair project where she created a system to convert dog activity into energy. Not only did students show up for the STEM Fair, but some even wore their Inventors University shirts.

#InventorsUniversity Year 3, Class 5 at Concord Library. Unfortunately, I had to travel for this one, but heard we had some pretty impressive creativity. Today’s Python class covered the Turtle graphics package, which let's the girls drawing capabilities come to life. They were able to make basic shapes and start expanding into more complex images. This usually leads to their final project as everybody loves drawing pictures with Python. Meanwhile, the 3D Modeling class focus...ed on animals. The girls made everything from a giraffe to a pig, but surprisingly no turtles. That would have made for the best crossover between classes ever. And with each new design, the girls are rewarded with a "printout" the next week--which gives them yet another reason to get excited for Saturday mornings.

#InventorsUniversity Year 3, Class 4 at Concord Library. We created a new setup of the classroom with the projector screen as a class divider to make it feel like two rooms. Today’s Python class covered arrays and dictionaries, while 3D Modeling started the design challenge where the girls were asked to come up with a 3D design of food. The Python class became an impromptu Spanish lesson as the girls created the Spanish-to-English dictionary. Meanwhile, the girls designed 3D models of Donuts, Pop Tarts, Sushi, Cake, and Burger & Fries. Yum! It was so much fun to see all the smiling faces from the girls as they were coming up with their own ideas in both classes.