Education
Students Create in the Makerspace and Design Lab at New Canaan Country School
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“Today’s goal is to make a mini bot which can draw on its own,” explained New Canaan Country School Technology Teacher Bruce Lemoine to his sixth grade Maker Class. “The materials at your disposal include a red plastic cup, magic markers, hot glue guns, the electrical circuitry from the propeller cars you made last week, an on-off switch and all of the materials you can find around this room. I definitely encourage you to visit the drawer of googly eyes.”
— an announcement from New Canaan Country School
The Amicus Makerspace and Design Lab, located on the ground floor of the school’s Upper School building, is the place for creation, collaboration, innovation and entrepreneurship. Sixth graders meet here on a seven-day cycle to explore gadgetry, simple electronics, basic programming and 3-D printing and today’s specialty: mini-bots. “The goal of this lesson is to teach the kids how a basic electrical circuit works – motor, battery, switch — and then use that knowledge to build first a propeller car, and then an artbot,” Lemoine said.
