Twenty-seven Manchester middle school students are participating in 10 Design Make Code classes at UNH Manchester’s STEM Discovery Lab this fall.
“I participated in this program last year as an experiment,” said Chris, an eighth grader at Hillside Middle School. “Because I liked it, I decided I wanted to come back to learn more.”
A Design Make Code instructor and teacher at Central High School in Manchester, CJ Chretien said the program encourages innovation.
“In our first class the students played with littleBits, snapping together magnetic electronic parts," Chretien said. "This hands-on activity is fun and allows the students to discover how output, input, connections and power can work together to accomplish a specific goal, such as using buttons and dimmers to control lights.”
Maryjean Emerson is also an instructor for Design Make Code and a current student at UNH Manchester. Emerson, who is majoring in Computer Information Systems, said she is impressed with this group of students.
“This is our second class and the students are working in pairs to create their own motorized art machines out of recycled materials, littleBits, and Engino Simple Machine parts," Emerson said. "The students are in charge of both the design and the creation of the machines, so each art machine is unique.”
During the test phase, a dozen art machines were rolling along desktops and spinning in circles on the floor as students studied the movements of their machines and made adjustments.
“I was just experimenting with the littleBits and I discovered all these cool things,” said Cameron, a sixth grader from Southside Middle School.
Cameron and his class partner Tiana, an eighth grader also from Southside, met each other for the first time at the STEM Discovery Lab. They worked together to build an art machine out of a dried fruit container, electrical tape, and littleBits parts.
“Learning to make things helps you decide on a career,” Tiana said.
Cameron added, “Who knew engineering could be so much fun!”
To learn more about the STEM Discovery Lab and its programs for both teachers and students, please click here.
