When Buses Fly – Brain Brigade

I arrive home to a school bus parked in my driveway. The tow truck that brought it is just pulling out. Mrs. Brainiac is here again to share a little more about Jerry Brainiac’s deep rooted craziness. I know the presence of this bus means we are getting involved in another STEM type project. Something … Read more

Confessions of a Maker Space Volunteer: Day 1 – Brain Brigade

I started volunteering in the Maker Space at my son’s elementary school a few weeks into the school year. The students had already begun their projects. Their challenge? To design a toy. They had researched and designed their projects on paper and had begun the building phase using engineering design principles. My first morning, the Maker … Read more

Breaking Out: When Schools Stifle Creative Teachers – Brain Brigade

Compliance: the act or process of complying to a desire, demand, proposal, or regimen or to coercion (Webster). I met with a fellow award-winning educator on Monday who was a wonderful teacher with a creative mind in the classroom. She developed lessons on financial literacy for children in grades k-8. She received awards for her work and was … Read more

Hydroponics 101.2: The Kratky Method – Brain Brigade

Hydroponics gives your students an opportunity for hands on, authentic learning that is novel, STEM related and gives them a chance to tinker. We’re currently exploring Hydroponics and Aquaponics in a blog series (read Hydroponics 101.1). Choosing the container that you wish to use for your hydroponic system is crucial. There are two ways that … Read more

A Curious Encounter – Brain Brigade

Last week our local paper featured an article about a man in our area named Ben. Ben has converted a bicycle to an electric bike by mounting batteries and a motor on to the front wheel. For his next project, he converted a motorcycle to all electric. Finally, he converted a small car to all … Read more

Friday Follies: Lego Love – Brain Brigade

Legos®. Those colorful, creative little bricks that kids love to tinker with. It takes grit and persistence to build a project out of these little guys. It’s all the stuff kids enjoy. Problem solving, trial and error, risk taking. They use their own special engineering design process, they make mistakes, have failures that set them … Read more