CHERYL R. CLARKE/Sun-Gazette North Penn-Liberty High School senior Tyler Repard coaches third grade students on team building activities at Blossburg Elementary School during Global Maker Day Oct. 26.
BLOSSBURG — Elementary school students in the Southern Tioga School District were treated to a special celebration of “Global Maker Day” Oct. 25.
Elementary school librarian Sarah Murray and North Penn-Liberty High School librarian Angel Sember collaborated to celebrate over two days that week, Oct. 25 and Oct. 26.
“The day centers around making, creating, designing and building Mrs. Sember and I got together and decided that we wanted to plan some special activities for our students that focused on recognizing this day,” Murray said.
Eight seniors in the video technology class at North-Penn Liberty High School, participated by creating the activities for seven third grade classes during their library time at both Blossburg and Liberty elementary schools.
“We thought that it would be great if we could have older and younger students working together and interacting to complete these activities. The high school students worked during several of their lunch periods to come up with different activities for each grade level in the weeks prior to Global Maker Day,” Murray said.
The senior students, Mackenzi Kowalski, Morgan Weber, Warren Knipe, Tyler Repard, Marissa Harer, Kaitlyn Wetzel, Trevor Jackson and Michaela Schmouder planned challenge-based activities, gathered the materials and then tested the challenges to make sure that they were workable for the elementary students.
CHERYL R. CLARKE/Sun-Gazette Third grade students at Blossburg Elementary School participate in team building activities during Global Maker Day Oct. 26.
“The high school students came up with seven different activities that focused on hands-on learning, building and creating that did not use any type of technology. The activities also required the elementary students to work together in small teams or groups to complete the challenges,” Murray added.
Then, on Oct. 25 the seniors came to Liberty Elementary School and worked with seven classes of students during their library time to complete the activities and challenges. Then, on Wednesday, Oct. 26 the high school students traveled to Blossburg Elementary School to work with six classes of students during their library time.
“Some of the challenges that the students completed over the two days were Barbie Bungee Jump, Gatorade Ping Pong Paint, Acorn Catapult, Lego Towers and Marble Maze,” Murray said.
The following week, the high school students completed a reflective writing prompt that focused on their impressions of Global Maker Day and how to improve it.
“This opportunity allowed all of the students involved to work together to complete challenges, through hands-on creation and innovation,” Murray said.
http://www.sungazette.com/news/education/2016/12/global-maker-day-offers-a-chance-for-hands-on-learning/
