Marble Machine

The marble run pieces are finished and I hope to get them tested with the students this week, but for now here is a very big and noisy marble machine, would drive the teachers and neighbors mad if we had one of these.

Marble Run

The main parts of the marble run have been put up along the fence, much to the surprise of the students and parents who were wondering what was going on. How it all works will still be a bit of mystery until the marble run parts are finished and the Art Group test out the marble run to make sure it all works and how we mange its use by students and stop the staff spending all their time playing on it.
I am going to get the Art Group to think of some ideas for developing the marble run and we might think about having a marble run construction day later in the year, we will keep you posted on ideas they come up with.
So thanks to the Art Group both this years and last years students for all the ideas and Wellington Makerspace for the fabrication and installation of the marble run.

Sounds of Otari School

As soon as I finished the students soundscape and worked out how to include a sound file in blogger, you can the listen to the sounds they recorded. We might have a go later in the year with a more detailed sound map and try out making a composition from the recorded sounds.

Vertical Pallet Gardens

There's loads of information on the web showing different styles of vertical gardens using old wooden pallets as the base for growing plants. I have included some images but just search and you can find numerous ways to grow your plants vertically.

Image Via Snapguide

Image Via Upcycle That

Living Fence

The Living Fence students have been working out their ideas for the fence and the plan is to build some test vertical gardens to try out various options and see what works best for the fence. This will help them plan how to grow the plants but also look at watering, weeding and other maintenance issues needed to keep the plants thriving and panels looking good. The test gardens will be made using old wood pallets and weed mat material, there are lots of variations people have tried using old pallets and I will post some details soon.
Being in Wellington and growing plants on a fence will be a challenge but it will be fun trying and we will keep you updated on progress so you can see how we get on.
The images below show different recycled material that we plan to try when growing the plants, we also plan to try out a gutter garden, by using old gutters attached to the fence.

Examples of Tile Designs and Styles

"Ornery Lover" By Heidi Preuss Grew

"The Deafening Sounds of Reality (side 2) By Scott Ziegler

The First One Hundred Years... By Vince Palacios 

"Droplets" By Francisco Jimenez 

Image via Ecole Bayside Middle School

Image via Sponge Tree

Image via Floatingwoo 

Via Gary Jackson

Image via NC Clay Club

Image via This Inspiration

Tile Ideas

These tile designs are based on some of last years art group's work.