Humboldt County Office of Education: Family Maker Night | March 18, 2021

Virtual Family Maker Night Page Header Logo

Thursday, March 18, 2021 • 5:30 – 7:15 p.m.

Hosted by Blue Lake Elementry School District, Northern United Humboldt Charter School, Rio Dell ASES Program and Pathmakers

This month:

  • Paper Plate Marble Maze
  • Color Blend Wheel
  • Take a Spin with Pi and Engineering
  • Native STEAM: Water is Life

What’s A Virtual Family Maker Night?

For the 2020-2021 school year, all Family Maker Nights will be held via Zoom. Each one will feature one or more hosts and a variety of activities designed so that you can follow along and do them at home. Videos of the activities will also be archived so you can watch them and do the activities later if you want.

Orientation Videos

Maker Night Welcome

About Pathmakers

How to Use Zoom

Presentation Schedule

Scroll down on the page to view presentation details.

5:15 – 5:30 | Welcome to Family Maker Night

5:30 – 6:00 | Native STEAM: Water is Life

6:00 – 6:25 | Take a Spin with Pi and Engineering
(an activity “double feature”)

6:25 – 6:50 | Color Blend Wheel

6:50 – 7:15 | Paper Plate Marble Maze

Share Your Creations!

We would love to be able to share your creations with others. Please submit your photos and we’ll post them here!

How was it?

Please let us know who attended the event and how we did, and how we might be able to make it better next go-around.

Presentations

Welcome/Orientation

5:15 – 5:30 p.m.

Presented by:

Tanya Trump, HCOE Family Maker Night Coordinator

Video Orientation

Please watch the three videos at the top of this page independently before we begin at 5:30 p.m.

  • Overview of 2020-21 Virtual Family Maker Night
  • Overview of the Pathmakers program
  • Brief Zoom Overview (for those new to Zoom)

Native STEAM:
Water is Life

5:30 – 6:00 p.m.

Presented by:

Merry Kate Lowry, HCOE Pathmakers

Overview of the Presentation Content

We will hear testimony from Indigenous singers, scientists, youth, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge teachers about the sacred nature of water, and explore the intersection of Nature, science, art, song, and sustainability through discussion and directed art. The UNESCO Heirs to Our Oceans Youth Summit “Water is Life” science experiment will be shared.

Hands-on Activity

Guided Art Activity

Supplemental Activity

Collective Molecular Photography Experiment (Download PDF)

Supplies Needed
  • Art Supplies and Paper

Take a Spin with Pi and Engineering

6:00 – 6:25 p.m.

Presented by:

Laurie Lynch, Blue Lake Union Elementary School

Overview of the Presentation Content:

Two fun activities will be included in this presentation.  There will be an exploration of Pi ( 3.14159265358979323846…) using yarn and circular objects.  Followed by engineering a whirly twirly copter using the template found in your supply sack (or download here).

Hands-on Activities:

Use yarn to measure the diameter across the middle of various circular objects around the home (for example: jar lid, mouth of a cup, plate, roll of tape, CD, etc.). This activity will help kids better understand the concept of Pi.

Create a whirly-bird copter using a template. Test it out as is and change the engineering of the copter and see what happens.

Supplies Needed

Pi Activity: yarn*, scissors, tape*, circular objects (reasonable size, not too big or too small) to wrap yarn around

Whirly Twirly Copter: cut-n-fold template*, scissors, scotch tape* and/or paper clips* (optional)

* = found in the supply sack

Color Blend Wheel

6:25 – 6:50 p.m.

Presented by:

Rebecca Zuspan, Northern United Humboldt Charter

Overview of the Presentation Content:

Make a color wheel to spin and create the color white.

Hands-on Activity:

Participants will make a color wheel using card stock and a circular object with the colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Then string the color wheel with string and twirl so that the string is spun tight.  Hold each end of the string with each hand.  Pull and loosen string to make the color wheel spin quickly.  See the colors turn to white.

Supplies Needed
  • White card stock* 
  • Scissors 
  • String* 
  • Wooden skewer* (to make hole) 
  • Glue stick or any type of glue 
  • Thin cardboard (cereal or cracker box for an example)
  • Colored pencils, markers, or crayons

* = found in the supply sack

Paper Plate Maze

6:50 – 7:15 p.m.

Presented by:

Tanya Trump, HCOE and Liz Houchin, Rio Dell School District

Overview of the Presentation Content:

This maze is easy to put together and customize. Only a few supplies are needed. If you want, decorate or paint your paper plate in advance.

Hands-on Activity

Create a marble maze from a paper plate and paper straws.

Supplies Needed
  • White paper plate* 
  • 5 paper straws*
  • Elmers glue or tacky craft glue
  • Marbles* or round beads
  • Scissors 
  • Felt tip pen (any type of writing utensil will do)

* = found in the supply sack.

Fun illustrations of robots

Contacts

Logo - Making STEAM