Please mark your calendar and save the date for the return of the 8th annual Piedmont School Maker Faire to the Piedmont High School campus! Come celebrate K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math (S.T.E.A.M.) education for the Piedmont community & beyond.
Student projects from Beach, Wildwood, Havens, PMS, and PHS will be highlighted along with community projects like Riveropolis, UC Berkeley Seismology Laboratory & more! Lots of hands-on activities too!
Come enjoy the fun on April 24 at 11am-3pm at Piedmont High School. FREE Tickets are available here.
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We are so excited to kickoff the 8th annual Piedmont School Maker Faire on Sunday, April 24 11am-3pm back at the Piedmont High School campus! Come celebrate K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math (S.T.E.A.M.) education for the Piedmont community & beyond. We have many hands-on activities for kids of all ages!
Check out below some of the 50 projects from Beach, Havens, Wildwood, Piedmont Middle School and Piedmont High School students along with community makers. Tickets are FREE and available now!
Hands on Making Exhibits!
Air Rockets
Bath Fizzies
Cardboard City
Face Painting
Giant Bubbles
Marshmallow Gun
Nerdy Derby
Riveropolis
Robotics Zone
FIRST LEGO League Explore
FIRST LEGO League Challenge – Cargo Connect!
FIRST Tech Challenge – Freight Frenzy!
FIRST Robotics Competition
Piedmont High School Makers
Golf Simulator
Piedmont Middle School Makers
Connect Four computer game
Lava Lamp
Magnetic Ball-Bearing Liquid dispenser
Max’s Metal Workshop
Shaker Table
Beach Elementary Makers
Science Craft
Turkey Tail Mushrooms
Havens Elementary Makers
Electric Motor
Forest Landscape
Lego robotic machine that makes sandwiches
Lego work
A model of Mt. Olympus
Wood Marble Mazes + Puzzles + Rubik’s Cubes
Wildwood Elementary Makers
3-D Pirate Ship Puzzle
Bed for American Girl Doll
Knitted/electronics creations
Lego Creation
Lego Display
Model Urban Farm
Ocean scenery in clay and acrylic
Paper flip out with scary creatures
RC Tank
Realistic Fiction Book
Sea/Land/Sky Animals
Sound Garden
Community Makers
Crystal Springs Upland School – Respirus & Social Entrepreneurship Awareness for Youth
Japanese Woodworking
Match Stick Rockets
Popsicle Stick Bird House
Troop 15 Monkey Bridge
UC Berkeley Seismology Lab – Earthquakes on the Hayward Fault
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Registration is now open for the 2022-2023 Robotics Season. All-Girls, Co-Ed, and All-Boys teams available:
More questions? You can also see our Open House presentation on our robotics page. Or email robotics@piedmontmakers.org.
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Showcase your project at the 2022 School Maker Faire on Sunday, April 24 at Piedmont High School!
Complete the Call For Makers! Form to reserve your space. Submissions are due April 10th.
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The Piedmont Maker Faire is back! Join us on Saturday, May 8
Please join the Piedmont Makers and celebrate how Piedmont is Making a Better World! This year’s Maker Faire will be a collection of small events held across Piedmont. There will be a pop-up Nerdy Derby Car event held at Beach, Havens and Wildwood, community art projects, and DIY maker experiments you can do at home. We hope you will join us for any or all of them! Click here to see more!
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Registration is now open for the 2021-2022 Robotics Season. All-Girls, Co-Ed, and All-Boys teams available:
More questions? You can also see our Open House presentation on our robotics page. Or email robotics@piedmontmakers.org.
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Hello Makers!
We’re excited about back to school mode in Piedmont, with lots of STEAM activities coming up. Lots to report, so we’ll jump right in.
Congratulations All! Major Donation for the New Engineering Lab
In early March, The Makers presented a $420k donation to PUSD for the new engineering lab. Thank you to all who made this happen through your dedication and contributions. Pictured: Piedmont Makers Board Members Sally Aldridge, David Ragones, John Lambert, PHS Principal Adam Littlefield, Helen Potter, School Board President Cory Smegal, Jon Schleuning, and Superintendent Booker.
Perspectives
Megan Pillbury reflects on judging at the First Lego League Challenge
Megan Pillsbury. PUSD School Board and Maker liason
I spent the first Saturday in February participating in the First Lego League Challenge as a judge. (One of the benefits of being the school board liaison to The Makers!) Having judged at an FTC tournament a few years ago, I was somewhat skeptical about how this type of event could be carried out remotely. However, after eight hours on my screen, I left the competition energized and blown away by the ability for all involved to participate so well virtually. For those of you who are unfamiliar with FIRST, the actual robotics competition is only one part of the challenge. Teams are also required to follow the six core values while working together–discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork, and fun–to create a unique project, share and document their design process for building their robot, and perform some type of community service. For this challenge, the required theme for their innovative projects was Exercise and all came up with a variety of solutions, from exercise apps, video games, and virtual experiences to revisit trips we are unable to take during the pandemic. As an educator, it was wonderful to see many elements participants put into play that are valuable to the education and development of children: critical thinking, creativity, familiarity and experience with the design process, collaboration with and support of team members, responsibility to contribute to their communities, persistence, resilience, and enthusiasm.
Megan Pillsbury, PUSD School Board
Robotics Registration NOW OPEN & Open House
Registration is now open for the 2021/2022 Robotics Leagues.
This includes FIRST LEGO League Jr. teams for rising K through 3rd graders, FIRST Lego League teams for rising 4th through 8th graders, FIRST Tech Challenge teams for 7th through 12th graders, and a FIRST Robotics Competition team for 9th through 12th graders. All-Girls, Co-Ed, All-Boys teams available. To register click here.
See the Piedmont Pioneers in Action! – Saturday 3/19 1-4pm
For those new to robotics or looking to advance to the next level, the middle school FTC team Piedmont Pioneers will be recording their robots runs for their remote qualifying tournament at their outdoor arena in the driveway of 1720 Oakland Ave. Please stop by! FLL players especially welcome to check out the next level of FIRST Robotics
K-8 Robotics Open House – Tuesday, March 30 7:30pm
Interested in learning more about our robotics programs and 2021-22 season? Elementary and PMS students and parents, please join us for a presentation covering FLL Jr (grades K-3), FLL (grades 4-8), and FTC (grades 7+). You can also see past presentations here. Join us at: Google Meet. +1 413-497-2409. PIN: 678 508 755#
Spring Events
School Maker Faire
Now that school’s are opening, we’re starting to plan this spring’s Maker Faire. More to come in the following weeks.
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Museum Openings
Many museums are slowly starting to reopen. If you plan ahead and reserve tickets, there are great opportunities to visit some of the outstanding resources we have in the Bay Area like SFMOMA and The Bay Area Discovery Museum.
Team Profile: The Brick Factory
The Brick Factory began its first year in First Lego League—and what a year it was. With COVID restrictions, the team met online to design their innovation, “Track-X’, a technology to link a reward-delivery system to meeting fitness goals on an activity tracker. They also had fun “table time” in Coach Tim Lohnes’ garage in pairs to practice FLL missions. The Brick Factory included 5 Oakland and Piedmont 4th graders: William Bridges, Bodie Lohnes, Jack Shim, Simon Stemwedel, and Dylan Wallway. Click here to read more about the Brick Factory’s amazing season.
Join Us on Social Media
We have a variety of social accounts to keep makers of all ages inspired and engaged. Join our Facebook Group for a private and secure place to share Maker projects. You can also find us on Twitter and Instagram at @piedmontmakers and on YouTube. Our Instagram and YouTube channels are fairly new, and we’re always looking for engaging content. If you have images or videos to share either tag us @piedmontmakers or send them to us at jonschleuning@gmail.com.
Makers gonna make!
The Piedmont Makers Board
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The Brick Factory
The Brick Factory
The Brick Factory began its first year in First Lego League—and what a year it was. With COVID restrictions, the team met online to design their innovation, “Track-X’, a technology to link a reward-delivery system to meeting fitness goals on an activity tracker. They also had fun “table time” in Coach Tim Lohnes’ garage in pairs to practice FLL missions. The Brick Factory included 5 Oakland and Piedmont 4th graders: William Bridges, Bodie Lohnes, Jack Shim, Simon Stemwedel, and Dylan Wallway.
William missed being “up close, in-person—not this year!” Yet still, the best part was “working with my friends.” Jack agreed that the highlight was “working together as a team, cobbling it together–and not having to do it alone.” Building the robot was Simon’s highpoint, and Dylan found it most satisfying to see all of their hard work coding transform into the robot actually carrying out their missions. Amazing!
Brick Factory Robot
It was a productive season; the team was unanimous that they learned a lot—particularly coding the Spike Prime robot. Coach Tim guided them with tweaking their coding and iterating maneuvers for the missions. Jack recalled working particularly hard on the bench mission, getting the robot to “go the distance and then turn—the positioning was complicated.”
Brick Factory robot in action
In the off-season, the boys are looking forward to new projects. Simon hopes to learn more about how sensors can be used in programming to make the robot movements more precise. Dylan wants to build some larger robots—perhaps an excavator that can pick stuff up at a job site and coordinates with cranes and forklifts. William is eager to build MOCs (“my own creations”) boats—aircraft carriers, destroyers, and gunboats for pool-based battles. Jack got a Mindstorms robot named “Blast” that he can drive around from his computer. As he pointed out, “It has cannons and it can shoot—what’s not to like?”
The Brick Factory looks forward to another rewarding season in 2021. Dylan’s parting words capture the team’s approach: “Take it seriously AND have as much fun as possible!”
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