Kids Can Make Their Own Merge Cubes To Put Learning & Creating Into Their Hands This Year!

We have been using Merge EDU at Van Meter for the last several years at Van Meter.  Our students and teachers love what this amazing mixed reality, standard-aligned STEM platform for learning and creation, has brought to our classrooms, library and homes. 

And this year, we are very excited for all of the amazing new additions we will bring to our students and school community with the Merge EDU platform including...

 ...hands-on digital teaching aids, simulations, projects and lesson plans focused around...

...science, STEM and empowering our students to develop technology fluency using mixed reality and future ready skills. 

Merge EDU inspires our students in wonderful ways as they explore skills and knowledge in new and interesting ways.  It is just what we need in education as we work to hook every one of our students. 

With the Merge Cube, students can explore hundreds of objects they hold within their hands. 

In fact, our friends at Merge have been hard at work to create hundreds of objects within fantastic Collections that will tie into Science, STEM and other aspects of our standards, curriculum and interests of our kids. 

Check out a few of the Collections...

 Within each Collection, there are lots of different Objects like this one...

...for Cells.

And I love how we can create our own objects to view in Object Viewer using Tinkercad, just like the one I am creating for Dot Day today, a project we are doing with our 5th graders next year. 

As we kick off using them with our learners at school and at home, we are creating a paper Merge Cube with each student.  Even though we have dozens of the Cubes at our school, we want to give them a safe way to hold and use their very own Cube throughout the year. 

At MergeCube.com/paper-pdf, 

you can download the Merge Paper Cube template.  It prints in color. 

I took the colored copy and printed more in black and white on heavy white cardstock paper. 

The first classroom I visit was Megan Algreen's 5th graders.  They have used the Merge Cubes and Tinkercad before, so I told them about the little project we are doing for Dot Day.

More on this idea and project coming by next week to my blog.

First, they cut out the Cube carefully.

Second, they folded on the lines around the Cube. 

 

Third, they took a glue stick and tiny pieces of tape to bring their Cube together.  

They all turned out great. 

The kids put them into baggies with their name they wrote in permanent marker and...

...Megan found a place for the Cubes to be stored on a shelf.  We want to make sure they can get to these easily at school and also be ready to take home to use too. 

Next week, I am heading back to their classroom to explore on the Merge Cubes and see what sparks interest and excitement.  And to celebrate Dot Day by creating 3D dots they will view on their Cubes! 

You can watch this video with your students as you set up your Merge Cubes.  It will set the stage of the excitement that is to come! 

This Wakelet from Merge is super helpful too as it contains the link to download the Cube, instructions, next steps and more.