Girls Rock Coding + Making

At Singapore, Nanyang Girls’ High School, I designed, managed, taught, documented, and assessed a 12-week integrated Making and Coding program for the entire Secondary 1 (Grade 7) cohort of 368 students. In partnership with Roboto Coding Academy, students alternated weekly between coding and prototyping, while using Google Classroom and a Flipped Classroom framework that supported learning beyond the classroom.

Working in randomly assigned pairs, students designed either an e-wearable or a kinetic project using the BBC micro:bit. Each student’s creation was individually designed but coded to remotely trigger their partner’s project, encouraging collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving. The program culminated in student presentations and video demonstrations showcasing both technical skills and imaginative design.

Let There Be Light

This fourteen-week Independent Project module explored the physics, engineering, and spiritual impact of light. The student journey began with brainstorming and inspired research (using books!). Makers learned the science of electricity and practical skills of wiring and soldering. They created an online portfolio blog to document their process. The culminating exhibition was installed in a Black Box Theatre, where the only light provided was from student lamps.

Girls Rule Tools

Imagining, creating, learning, and Making are not gender specific. Possibilities continue to expand as we move beyond generations of stereotypical constructs around feminine and masculine creation and design. The soul, the spirit, and the essence of who we are, rather than what we are, are being recognized as the source of how we manifest what inspires us out into the world.

Students Get Cranking
with Automatons

A confluence of self-expression, aesthetics, and Physics, Paper Engineer Rob Ives (robives.com) has created a library of templates for exploring the world of mechanisms. They can be printed on paper and cut with scissors, 3D printed, or laser-cut. I love the projects as analog machines, but yes, you can take them to another level and add a motor too! The simple yet sophisticated crank mechanism below is one of many of Rob Ives’ templates in my repertoire of resources that continue to inspire learners of any age.

Student Thinkering

The NYGH Makerspace was a resource for a variety of academic and after school programs, competitions, and extracurricular groups like Theater/AV. I also believe it is important to give growing minds a space where imagination, learning, and creation can organically unfold in an unprescribed way. Even when creating personal passion projects, sometimes as gifts for others, Student Makers are always integrating STEAM concepts.