The TechWizard's Guide to Library Magic
Written by Ms. Cummings
CiTi Library Media Specialist
Can you fit it in a box?
The school year is coming to an end and it is time to start planning for next year. I am lucky to be working summer school again this year. Summer School gives me an opportunity as a librarian to try out things that I am not sure on. This comes from working in a High School environment where there is not enough time to do things that have not been tested. Summer is just as stressful getting ready for Regents exams and credit recovery but for Middle School, you get a chance to breathe.
Every day I start my day out by looking at yahoo.com and newsfeeds on other websites. One day I saw a post about "Museum in a box". I took that chance that it was not click bait and clicked away. I found a treasure trove of opportunities to turn a research paper into something more. A website for a good overview of what these boxes are is at http://www.museuminabox.org/
I'm looking at the website and thinking that we could do this. It would tie in with research, our 3D printers, and digital storytelling. I have a wonderful technology department at school, but I would have to be able to do this with students with a minimal amount of help. I know they would be there if I got stuck so I didn't go into a panic. I just needed to figure this out but not by myself.
As high school students come to the library I start to have discussions about the project idea. The discussions started out with what is a museum in a box and can you really fit that in a box. Then moved on to how does it work and what can we use. We decided to start out with a Raspberry Pi (RPi) device and an NFC reader, the second I have not yet used with the RPi. I do have a backup plan if this doesn't work. I'll clue you in on that later on probably in another blog post.
The library has limited funds for projects and this means I need to look for funding for this project. Students were anxious to get started and we're already looking at other ways to use the RPi. I had to break the news that we had to wait until the next school year. The library needed about $2000 for this project and I decided to apply for NYSCATE grant for up to $2000. I filled out the application with a budget with input by the students. Then I had to wait and keep looking for possible other sources of funds. Students kept asking and I kept telling them to wait for June. I did prepare students by telling them how competitive grants are and that we may not get it. And we waited.............
June 1st came and the students asked and again I said we have to wait some more. The students started to get frustrated at that point. Mid-June came around and they stopped asking. I got an email that the Library received the NYSCATE grant for the full amount we requested. I told one student and the rest knew within an hour.
I am excited about this project and can't wait to get working on it next year. Summer school is quickly approaching and why not start exploring the Raspberry Pi with the summer school students. I have one or two already just sitting in the cabinet. I plan to pull out the devices and see what the summer school students can do with them. I will be doing Maker Space projects for Middle School Summer School students. Let's see what they can create.
Continue to watch my blog for updates on this project and other items of interest to grades k-12 and the library connections.
This post covered the
- project idea
- student connections
- finding funding
The next posts will cover
- Receiving the project supplies and how to manage them
- Plan B if we can't get the technology to work
- Digital Story Telling - Students will do the job of a museum Docent
- 3D printing objects for the boxes
- How it all turns out - and how you can try out of boxes
