Math Chick

Hands-On, Discovery Learning & Tech integration for Math, Science and STEM

STEM Wonder Wall of Discovery! Perfect for Makerspace!

I am finally on the makerspace bandwagon and I cannot wait to implement makerspace within my enrichment time at school. I have been researching and researching and I realized it can be quite expensive to start a makerspace, which is why I have been busy writing grants and Donors Choose projects. One of the grants I wrote is for a mobile makerspace cart that my school can all share and check out when needed. I won this grant and will be putting together the mobile cart very soon. I cannot wait to share it with you! So stay tuned!

How did I come up with the STEM: Wonder Wall of Discovery? 

I knew the mobile makerspace cart would be shared with the whole school and I wanted to create something that would stay in my room, for my kids. I saw an amazing makerspace station on instagram from Teach Oustide the Box. This “one stop makers shop” is absolutely amazing! Here is the link to see it for yourself. This awesome makerspace was the inspiration for my smaller version.  I started researching and trying to figure out how to make a smaller version and found this wonderful smaller version. I am sorry I do not know her name or if she is a teacher but here is the link to another version that helped me with my inspiration.   She used three peg boards to create her version. I loved the magnetic white board on the “one stop makers shop” so I thought about exchanging one of the peg boards for a white board. This is how I came up with my STEM: Wonder Wall of Discovery!

            

Let’s Get Down To It! What Materials Did You Use? 

Now that I knew that I was creating a wonder wall with three sides, I started to compile a list of materials needed. The actual wonder wall isn’t very expensive but the items used on the wall such as tees or pegs, rubber bands and the marble runs were somewhat expensive when you are buying it all at once. So I turned to an amazing website that helps to make teacher’s dreams come true, Donors Choose! Have you ever used Donors Choose? This is a free website that allows teachers to post projects, field trips or professional development for funding. Think of it like a Go Fund Me for teachers. This is how a bulk of the materials were purchased. I bought the rest of the materials myself. Here is a complete list of the materials and links to the materials on Amazon. I do not have an affiliate program with Amazon so these are not affiliated links. 

How Did You Put the Wonder Wall Together?

The first thing I did was get all the materials together, see the link above for the complete material list. Next I painted the peg board black with spray paint. I applied two coats. I let it dry for a day and then began building. 
The white board measured 24 x 36 inches and the peg boards are 24 x 48 inches. We used a table saw (thanks dad) to cut the peg board to match the white board at 24 x 36 inches.  
Then we started putting the screws into the peg board to make the giant geoboard. That looked to be a tedious and timely process, but luckily we had a hand drill. My advice is to get a drill because it cut down the time immensely! While I was drilling in the screws my mom and husband were putting the nuts on the screws. They did this by hand and it went pretty fast. 
We then used a pipe cutter to cut the PVC pipe. I bought a 10 ft long 1 inch PVC pipe and we cut each piece of PVC pipe into 38 inch long pieces. So out of the 10 ft pipe we created 3 pipes that are each 38 inches long. 
We used zip ties to attach the two peg boards to the PVC pipe. We made sure the zip ties were good and tight. If you look closely at this picture you can see how we threaded the zip ties in and out of the peg board. 
Next we attached the white board. The white board we purchased came with a silver frame around the white board. The silver frame had 4 holes that were perfect for zip ties. 
It felt pretty sturdy with just the 4 zip ties in the corners but I wanted to make sure since kids would be using this and you know kids 🙂 So we drilled a hole in the middle of each side and put one more zip tie into the board. 
Finally we put caps on the PVC pipes so that it has a clean look as well as protects the wall from getting items shoved down the pipe. (It is being used by kids 🙂 
** I did not add this to the materials list because I did not purchase these, but I added wheels to the Wonder Wall. I had wheels from a plastic three drawer tower that I use in my classroom for supplies. I never put the wheels on the three drawer tower so I grabbed those wheels and my husband drilled a hole into the cap on the bottom of the PVC pipe. He made sure to drill a hole small enough so that the wheel would be held tightly into the cap. Now my wonder wall has wheels for easy transportation! **

How are You Going to Store It All? 

If you look at the pictures at the top, you can see pencil boxes used for storage. I made little labels to put on the pencil boxes so that all the materials are organized by color and type (labels were made after the pictures were taken). I will store these pencil boxes and materials on a shelf in my room. 

What are You Going to Do With This Wall?  

I plan on using the geoboard in our unit about shapes. I could hold small group around the big geoboard and students could help me make shapes using the giant geoboard. I can also use the white board during whole group on the carpet or in small group. The white board is magnetic and would be awesome to display fraction pieces while instructing. Science is huge in 5th grade here in Texas and one of the biggest standards is forces and motion, so I love that students can investigate force and motion with the marble run. Mainly the wonder wall will be used for exploration and discovery. I hope that the students will use this wonder wall during indoor recess and also during enrichment time. I have magnetic tangrams and pattern blocks so I am looking into printing out tangram puzzles and pattern block puzzles that students can work through on the magnetic board. 
I would love to see your creations if you chose to make your own version of the wonder wall. Please email me at [email protected] or tag me at @themathchick5 on Instagram! 
If you have any questions, please feel free to post a comment or question below or you can email me directly [email protected] or I can also be messaged on Instagram. 
Until Next Time: 
Peace, Love and Math
Jennifer
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