Let's Connect!
Our team has been busy testing, tinkering, and trying new things this summer. We want to share a little bit about what we’ve been up to, and invite you to join us at a couple of virtual events coming up this summer- we’d love to connect with you!
Earlier this spring, the CU Boulder team facilitated a new version of the Family Creative Learning workshop series that builds on the focus on family collaboration and storytelling and introduces a new set of materials inspired by the Tinkering Studio’s Light Play explorations. We were excited to see stories about family camping trips, theme park visits, and more creatively brought to life with lights and motors. You can read about our reflections on the workshops and our approach to documenting the series in our recent blog posts here: https://www.creativecommunities.group/blog
What do you think about this new activity and approach to documentation? Does this sound like something you’d be interested in trying? Let us know in the comments.
A participant creates their family storybox during the new Family Creative Learning implementation
Remember #MarkMakingMay? Last week we brought mark-making to the makerspace for a workshop designed in collaboration with our partners at the Denver Public Library Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales ideaLAB. We can’t wait to share what we’ve learned about bringing together motors, markers, and microcontrollers to create art bots that respond to their environments in unique ways!
We’re excited to present at the Scratch Conference this Thursday (July 21)! The CU Boulder team will share more about facilitating Family Creative Learning during the “Create & Connect 3” session.
The Connected Learning Summit takes place online July 27-29. Here’s what we’re looking forward to:
CU Boulder team members will share a new version of the Facilitator’s Guide to Family Creative Learning that is designed for families with young children. They will also share a paper that emerged from interviews conducted for this project titled “Challenges in Facilitating Computational Experiences in Informal Learning Environments”
Members of the Tinkering Studio and CU Boulder team are collaborating to host a “Making Faces with Scratch” workshop on July 29th from 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. PDT. Participants will make self-portraits by arranging every day and meaningful objects into faces, and then bringing them to life with code. Check out our previous newsletters for more about “Making Faces” workshops.
We hope to see you in one of these fantastic virtual spaces!
p.s. Our team at CU Boulder is seeking a postdoctoral researcher to join this project. You can learn more here: www.creativecommunities.group/blog/postdoctoral-position-lyt2a '
Tinkering Together is a monthly newsletter crafted by a community of educators and researchers sharing explorations in designing and facilitating computational tinkering experiences that strive towards equity and joy. This newsletter was edited by: Celeste Moreno (Creative Communities Group, CU Boulder).