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Related: Student-Owned Learning • MakerspaceActivate Instruction Playlists for Middle School Humanities, Social Studies, and History Here are just some of the many quality playlists available from high performing schools. Check out playlists created by:Da Vinci Science | High Tech High MS | Mr. Del Mundo FAQs about Makerspaces What is needed to start a Makerspace in a classroom or school? Passion - You need to have passion and a belief in the educational value of maker-style projects. Space - This can be a whole room or only part of a room. Do Personalized Learning Programs Offer Authentic Choices? Excerpted from Building School 2.0: How to Create the Schools We Need by Chris Lehmann and Zac Chase. Make Personalization Authentic There is a lot of talk in ed-tech and ed-reform about personalization right now. There are a lot of folks on the vendor floor at national conferences who will sell you products that supposedly personalize learning, and much of the buzz around something like Khan Academy is that it personalizes the learning for kids.
5 Engineering Challenges with Clothespins, Binder Clips, and Craft Sticks Five engineering challenges for kids – with wooden clothespins, binder clips, and craft sticks! It’s a simple STEM activity that kids of all ages will love. Move over, expensive building sets! These simple materials were a huge hit with my boys. The first time we got them out, Owen (almost 7) spent well over an hour busily creating all kinds of designs. Teach Me: Student-Led Instruction Strategies Teaching tools, tricks, and ideas are an essential component of a teacher’s ‘arsenal’ when it comes to having engaged students and strong teachable moments. The one tool that I rely heavily upon is a concept I termed as ‘Teach Me,’ though you may heard it called by other terms. Simply, the idea behind Teach Me is when the teacher lets the student teach a concept to them. The student goes through the whole concept, or study, giving it to you in extreme detail. What it basically means is that your student becomes the teacher; teaching it to you.
27 Makerspace Materials & Supplies - Makerspaces.com Free Supply List (PDF) – 100+ Makerspace Materials and Supplies What makerspace materials and supplies should you buy or stock for your hands-on learning lab? There are a lot of options out there to choose from and it can be confusing when you’re first starting out as a maker educator. What’s the Best Way to Practice Project Based Learning? By Peter Skillen Project Based Learning can mean different things to different people, and can be practiced in a variety of ways. For educators who want to dive in, the good news is that a rich trove of resources are available. In order to create your own definition and practice, here are some parameters to consider.
Why the 'Maker Movement' is Popular in Schools The maker movement is a global, DIY movement of people who take charge of their lives, solve their own problems and share how they solved them. And it's growing in schools that are searching for more authentic learning experiences for their students. Since the beginning of time, people have made things to solve problems and otherwise improve their quality of life. But previously, the amount of exposure individual projects received was limited.
Triptiks Can Rev Up Student-Driven Learning By Mike Fisher My overriding message is still focused on high levels of student engagement. We also want to be sure we include discovery level learning opportunities that are authentic and timely. One idea I like to propose for discovery learning is what I call “The Triptik.” I use it as a metaphor for co-creating a learning experience with students where the students are largely responsible for getting to a destination once the destination (or learning objective or project deliverable) has been established. Those reading this who remember the American Automobile Association’s Triptik® will probably recall that a member would set a destination and then AAA would design a packet of information to help get you there in myriad ways, allowing you to know about construction, alternative routes, direct and indirect paths, places of interest to enhance the journey, etc.