Impact report C3DO

In 2016, my teammate and I won Imaginarium Design Challenge. Our research in Ed Tech was funded and we collected some information about hands-on tools in science.

To learn more about our project, please visit this link on the Imaginarium impact report.

Pop up House architecture, art, math and ELA activities.

Spring break is coming... If you are looking for some activities for your kids, you can try this.

Get a piece of drawing paper, a large one. about 17x11. Fold it

in half.  Draw these lines as pictured.

Cut the solid lines and fold the dashed lines. The top side will become a roof and the bottom part will become a wall. Color and decorate both sides as needed.

You can decide that one side is what the house going to look like on different seasons. I like to color them the same. Tips: You can use pasta, sand, foamies or any other materials to create textures.

If this is for younger kids, you can help create the template. If this is for older kids, they can create their own house.

After you cut the blue shaded lines, you can attach both sides together and it will look like this.

You then can add some path or shrubs. If you make more than one house, you can create a neighborhood. Other options are to furnish the inside.  With this project, we can talk about front, top, side view of a house. 

Or talk about facade, texture, the color of a house. Thinking about connecting this with ELA, let's have them make up a story. Thinking about connecting this with Math, you can talk about proportion, ratio, scale. 

What else can you think? Leave us a comment.

Here is the link to the template 

For young kid

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M2TN99TBWT6Gn38XuyYAixICY4dIraYX/view?usp=sharing

For older kid

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kv_1f25dvSwuoObMB-IgjeoXukJijuR0/view?usp=sharing

Mothers Day Coffee and Craft at Paul's Coffee and Tea

Wondering what to give your mom for Mother's day? Do you want to do something special with your mom?

Celebrate Mother's day with your very special person. Enjoy the afternoon together with your mom, grandma, stepmom, god's parents, sisters, your girlfriends or anyone special while making a hand-stamped necklace.


Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mothers-day-coffee-and-craft-tickets-44292786918

Adams 12 GT Super Saturday On Feb 24

This is a great opportunity for Adams 12 GT Kids to get together and explore something new.
Here is the GT parent group website
https://www.adams12.org/parent-groups/gt-parents-group


These are the past Super Saturday videos
https://vimeo.com/111933575

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNez9XKUKrY&feature=youtu.be

Total Talent Portfolio

Sometimes, your situation or condition shape you to a certain direction. For some of you, this is news. I am going back to school,  learning to be an educator, in gifted and talented.
Yup, I go to UNCO, working on certification in Special Ed GT.

This has given me a different perspective of understanding what are most of the teachers facing. I am now even more respectful to teachers. They have a huge responsibilities.

Having say that, I decided to share what I've learned to you, educators, teachers, parents at home.  Before even we start on deciding lesson plan or curriculum, the first thing we need to do is understanding what is our student's interests and needs.  Inspired by Renzulli's Total Talent Portfolio, I put together this google survey that you can use at your school. Thank you to my professor, Jennifer Ritchotte. 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfDw3s_TL3BFryrDNhbKaH6Eis5B0G8tSIC17ZEruBOQZa0Ww/viewform

Our Loaner Program

We are offering a loaner program for schools in Colorado. The tool comes with a customizable curriculum, based on NGSS.

 Email us at info(at) ideaitlab (dot)com or visit our page

Our logo

Yay, we made our logo. Do you see a "C3DO" in our blue logo? The "C" and "D" is created from imaginary electric plug. The "3" is the white space and the "O"is part of the"D".
Blue and yellow, represent the color of the sky and the sun rising in the morning. It's in the beginning of our journey.
Who knows, a simple logo can tell you so much story.  Wouldn't you agree?

Don't forget to visit our landing page, http://c3do.squarespace.com

Little Bird won SWEDU2017

 Startup Weekend EDU 2017 runs this weekend at Roots Elementary. About 100 teachers, entrepreneurs, wantopreneurs, school administrative and others who are interested in improving education participated. About 25 ideas pitched, about 13 team formed to work on the project.

Little bird a team that works on SpEd teachers and parents reminder program, won first place. To learn more about it, you can find us on twitter #swedu2017
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23sweduden&src=typd

Jeweler badge for Girl Scouts Parker Troops Colorado

About 20 Juniors from four different troops got together in Parker to work on their “Junior Jeweler” badge. Ms. C from Troop 1996 hosted the event. 

Conny Karman, a self-taught jewelry artist and past troop leader/volunteer lead the event. Armed with safety goggles, a hammer, and pliers, the girls worked on five projects. 

They stamped metal jewelry, caged and wrapped jewelry, learned about birthstones, and made a sparkling box to keep their new jewelry. The event lasted about 2.5 hours. There were 2-3 parent helpers on each session. 

If you are interested in hosting an event, please contact info@ideaitlab.com.

http://gscoblog.org/2017/04/parker-troops-work-to-earn-junior-jeweler-badge/

C3DO, Connected 3D Objects

Is that a house? Yup. That's a house on the edge of river. We are exploring erosion experiments. But it's not any kind of experiment. We are developing digital stream table for elementary schools, based on NGSS. Teachers, we would like to help you save time.

Please visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Connected3DObjects/

Jewelry for teens activity at Anythink Library

Looking for great gifts for the Holidays or just want to try how to make a jewelry? Join IDEA it Lab, at Anythink Library Perl Mack, Dec 3, 2016.

We'll be exploring metal stamping, caged or wrapped jewelry.

To register, please go to Anythingk Library website https://www.anythinklibraries.org/events/art-kids-and-teens-making-jewelry-idea-it-lab

C3DO, One of The Imaginarium Design Contest Winner 2016

C3DO ( Connected 3D Object) won Imaginarium Design Challenge 2016. C3DO created digital hands-on tools, connected using blue tooth to computer, so students can do experiments and see the result in a computer. Currently, C3DO is focusing on science. If you are a teacher, who would like to have a pilot in your classroom, please contact us, info(at0ideaitlab (dot) com

Best coffee comes in small packages...

Coffee... it has becomes a commodity where everyone can make it. We found a special coffee that it's worth backing. Opal Coffee is running an Indiegogo campaign at https://igg.me/at/opalcoffeeco
Other that it's taste great, you can feel good for supporting a women owned small business. If you are on the fence, this is the only chance to try it. Don't delay or forever hold your peace...:). Please support it now...

Paper geodesic dome activity, an idea for teachers or summer enrichment activity.

Inspired by our last posting on plastic straw geodesic dome, we decided to build a kid size geodesic dome from paper.
In my experience, it's very helpful to build straw model. I keep revering back to the model when building the kids size one. This is a great exercise for kids to learn to make a model before making a real size.
Here what we did.

Tools: Masking tape, paper punch, brads, measuring tape, markers, scissors and really strong hands.
Materials: 130 pieces of really large paper.

1. Roll them to a thin pipes, tape them tight. Make a total of 65 pipes.
2. Measure 35 paper pipes to 71 cm, and 30 paper pipes 63 cm.
3. Cut them to size and group the according to the size. We will call them long and short.
4. Lay down 10 long pipes.

5. Get two long pipes and two short pipes and put them on each connections. Form triangles as pictured and connect the "base" of the triangle using brads and paper punch.
6. Get three short pipes and connect those to the short triangle. I see an imaginary "pentagon" forming. Please see picture.

7. OK.. now it gets a bit challenging. Get 4 longs and 1 shorts and connect those to the top of the top of the "pentagon".  You can refer to the second picture of this blog to help visualize. http://bigibdesigns.blogspot.com/2014/12/winter-break-activity-build-geodesic.html
8. As you connecting the pentagon and the hexabon, the dome will start to form. I use brass brad to connect because it will allow the pipe to rotate. Prop them up with chairs or get more kids to help.
 

9. Connect the top 5 short pipes together. After about total 3 hours ( excluding the paper rolling), we have a pretty sturdy dome that is great for kids or adults (kids at heart) to play.

Teachers, if you have a limited time to work, I'd recommend making a straw model. Then if you have time, then probably it's fun to make a kids size dome.
Reflections:
1. You can relate this with grit.
2. You can relate this with math. ( ratio, geometry, measuring)
3. You can relate this with the strongest shape in geometry ( triangle)
4. You can relate this with creativity, try to think outside the box. You can tell a story that you stranded in an island, can can only find short sticks and you need to make a shelter.
5. For moms, I think this is a fun activity together... Would you agree?

Tekdry saved my day...

I don't usually do this, but this is so magnificent and I need to share it... My daughter, a 9th grader, was going to PRA Sound of Music play today. I wasn't home so she was getting ready to put her stage make up on by herself. She is a novice and she ended up messing her eye make up. She was looking for an eye make up remover, opened the lid and accidentally knocked it over. The eye make up remover was all over her phone, all the way in the phone. She wiped her phone dry but when she swiped the phone to answer a call, it didn't work. She called my cell from our home phone, panic... I am at the other end thinking that "Oh no, I am going to spend some $$ to buy a new phone..." I can swear the higher power is watching over me. Mirela, our neighbor, Tekdry owner, was planning on taking her to PRA. And when my daughter told her that she couldn't answer her call because the phone didn't work, she said she is going to try to help. Later today, I got a text from my daughter's phone. " Hello Conny, her touch screen is working again..:)" It's from Mirela...! She saved my daughter's phone...! She saved the $$ that I think I need to spend to get a new phone... When I picked up my daughter from her play later today, she was really worry. As I handed her phone, she looked at it... not sure what to do...touch screen... and it works..... She had a relieve face and said " Thank you, Mrs. Cookson..." I really truly want to thank Mirela and Adam Cookson for his ingenious tool to "revive" dead cell phones from drowning... I highly recommend their service to save your phone from water. Mirela and Adam, from the bottom of my heart... thank you so much...

Opal Coffee is now available on Amazon...

Just have to say I am glad to find Opal Coffee listed on Amazon. 

What is so special? It's a great coffee + convenience. What you need is just a cup and hot water. No special machine washing needed, no special gadget needed, no cleaning needed. 

This is the youtube link on how to use it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DrQLdCN10k

Easy to brew Sumatra Wahana Estate coffee. They have their own plantation where they grow from seed to coffee product.  A coffee worth trying... Wouldn't you agree?

. 

Boo... Halloween Treats for Coffee Drinkers

This HALOWEEN, when you go out trick or treating with your kids, keep and eye of a 
MEDIEVAL QUEEN in PURPLE, walking up and down Yale, Antora Peak and Wheeler Pt., between 6-7 PM in Anthem, Broomfield.
Ask if her name is Opal...

She has some COFFEE goodies for you... 

BOO....

Disecting Keurig Cups to find what's inside K-Cup

My daughter, who is very curious, saw a Keurig cup in her orthodontist office. Instead of making hot cocoa for herself and I, we decided to take 2 cups home to see the inside.

We brought home a coffee and a tea cup. Here are the tools we use.

• Jeweler saw
• Scissors
• Scale
• Measuring cup
• Paper

I have heard so many news about Keurig cups filling in landfill. I looked closely and it looks like it's made from plastic #15. Not sure what is that mean. 

Using jeweler saw, we cut the cup in half. This is what we found. There is plastic component that is holding a small coffee filter inside. 

Total coffee ground inside the cup is about 10 gram. 

I found no plastic component inside the tea cup

Total tea inside the cup is about 5 gram

I looked on the website to see how Keurig works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctkiIOjoBzQ

It helps me understand why the have to "hang" the filter as the brewed coffee and tea will come out from the bottom part. After people are done brewing the coffee, they throw away the cups and clean the machine. 

My question is about plastic component with hot water. I am not too keen pouring boiling water in a plastic pot because I am worry it will contaminate the drink. It's just my opinion...

Disclaimer: This activity is just to show kids can explore anything they are curious about. I am not endorsed by any coffee company. 

Horse back riding at Rocky Mountain National Park

Sombrero Ranch has been our choice for horse back riding. They have many different stables including one in Rocky Mountain National Park. So when we had a chance to go to RMNP, we had a horse ride in Glacier Creek Stable.

We decided to take a 2 hour ride costs about $55. After we signed our waiver, we waited for a few minutes as they are preparing the horses. My horse name is Virginia and our tour guide is Mary Kay. Each rider is offered a helmet. Every person got a tiny purse for our personal belonging. I was prepared with water, poncho ( I didn't know they prepared rain coat for each rider), cell phone and gum.

It was a perfect weather, not too hot, not too cold, with view of Sprague lake, mountain range and creeks.   At one point we stopped to make sure the sadle are tight. The rider just need to make sure the horse doesn't much on the way.

My horse is very nice. She knows exactly where she is going... Very nice horse that made me think to come back just to visit her...

The guide was nice and I plan to visit Sombrero ranch on a different location...

Outdoor enthusiast coffee drinks

Would like to have a fresh tasting coffee while you are out camping, hiking, skiing or anywhere? Dreaded with the old coffee in your bottle you had it yesterday?

Fear no more... Opal personal drip coffee has come to the rescue... It comes in a personal sized coffee filter bag, filled with Sumatera coffee, vacuum packed and it's ready anytime, anywhere...

No coffee machine needed, no cleaning up needed ( you do need to wash your coffee cup...). Just throw the ground coffee in a composting bean and you are ready for the day. 

Wouldn't you agree?