Evolution of a Maker Space, From “Monstie Stuffie” Projects to a Giant Catapult littleBits activities at the circulation desk in Colleen Graves’s school library. Two years ago, I was asked to write an article for Knowledge Quest about how I created a maker space at Lamar Middle School in Flower Mound, TX. That first year of programming is so different from what I do now that I thought it pertinent to chart how our maker programming (#Makered) has evolved. During my first year as a librarian in 2012–13 my Teen Advisory Board (TAB) helped me redecorate a small office located behind our circulation desk. My director bought us some reading rockers, chalkboard paint, rain gutters, and 25 licenses for Minecraft. Starting off: “Take and Make” wall and workshops At the time, I wanted to make this room a collaborative room that housed our maker space. How the Lamar Middle School maker space evolved. In late April 2013, my TAB members helped me pick out some maker workshop ideas from the collaborative Google doc started by librarian P.C. Arduino, Magic 8 Balls, and a Theremin
How Fair Is Your Maker Space? All students should be able to benefit from maker spaces and maker education, which emphasize student-driven learning and foster the development of 21st-century skills. However, not all maker spaces and activities are created equal. Some feature high-tech equipment such as 3-D printers and scanners, programmable robots, mini-computers, and high-tech construction toys—equipment carrying a hefty price tag that not all schools can afford. In addition, maker space activities may cater to certain kids’ interests but not others—including dynamics that educators might not even be aware of. Plus, is self-directed learning the best type for all kids? Here are answers and ways to address these issues. A maker space on a shoestring How can schools with limited budgets invest money in fancy tech for a maker space? Last year, the Montour School District in McKees Rocks, PA, set up its first maker space in an elementary school library in one day. The low-tech/no-tech advantage Inclusive maker spaces
How to Start a Makerspace When You're Broke Everyone’s Favorite Excuse I’ve had the honor and privilege of sharing with hundreds of librarians and educators about our makerspace. Unfortunately, I see many educators hold back on starting a makerspace because of funds. I’m always hearing excuses like: “I’d love to do (insert cool Maker activity) at my school, but we don’t have a budget for that.” What many people don’t realize is that the idea that you need a lot of money to start a Makerspace is a myth. Share Your Vision with ALL THE PEOPLE You want to start a makerspace. Recycled materials can make for awesome projects Seek out Donations Never discount the value of donated materials. Consider putting out a bin for donations of recycled materials. We first started our makerspace with bins of K’nex found in a storage room Work with What You’ve Got Since you’ve started sharing your vision, you might have found out that your school already has some maker supplies lying around. Our Epic LEGO Wall was funded through DonorsChoose Like this:
Home - Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog (Rethinking) Makerspaces Kids have always made in my library. We encouraged digital and visual and dramatic and rhetorical creativity before, during, and after school. But for a while, I’ve questioned the value of using already heavily used real estate to randomly carve out space for a 3D printer, electronics stations and sewing machines. I had my doubts about the makerspace movement in school libraries. A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to chat with Amos Blanton, project manager of the Scratch online community, and a member of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT Media Lab. Amos makes the case for makerspaces as powerful, authentic, relevant learning experiences, and for when and why library may be the very right space to create a makerspace. Here’s the video of our chat and a few of key points to consider before adopting a maker culture for libraries Amos’ key points: School pressures make it challenging to make space for interest-driven learning.
I Created A Little Makerspace To-Go.....It Even Includes A Makerspace Mobile Too! On Monday and Tuesday of next week I have the honor of presenting to a variety of educators including administrators, teacher librarians, technology coordinators, and classroom teachers at the TIES Conference in Minneapolis. My presentations focus around makerspaces and the importance of the make movement and these spaces in education. By definition makerspaces are creative, DIY spaces where people can gather to create, invent, and learn. In libraries they often have 3D printers, software, electronics, craft and hardware supplies and tools, and more. I love seeing what my friends and others are doing with makerspaces. It was so much fun to create one in the library at Van Meter. They are everywhere and it is exiting to follow this movement that is creating change within communities, education, and especially the lives of our children. In fact, a makerspace can be any size. even a bag to make it "to-go". I have been gathering materials together for the last several months. PuppetEdu,
Joyce Kasman Valenza | VOYA Launching a Makerspace: Lessons Learned From a Transformed School Library | MindShift | KQED News Excitement about school makerspaces has been in the air, but many educators eager to create hands-on learning spaces in their schools still aren’t sure how to get started or why it’s worth the effort. New Canaan High School librarian Michelle Luhtala recently jumped headfirst into creating a makerspace in her library and documented what she learned, how her space changed and how it affected students along the way. Her experience was very different from elementary school librarian Andy Plemmons, whose makerspace started with a 3-D printer obtained through a grant and blossomed into a core teaching resource at his school. Luhtala is blessed with a big library, but for most of her career it has been dominated by large bookshelves. Over time, Luhtala has pared down her collection as she increased the digital reading material the library offers, but in order to make room for a makerspace she cleared out 7,000 books. A floor plan of shelving in Luhtala’s library in 2011.
Maker & DIY Programs Maker enthusiasts: anyone can edit this page. Please share your resources here! You may also be interested in our STEM Resources page and our Teen Programming Guidelines from YALSA (.pdf) Activities Congressional App Challenge (for teens)Digital Learning DayDo Now (weekly activity for teens to do via social media from KQEDHour of CodeMaker Party (hosted by the Mozilla Foundation)6 Second Science Fair (create a Vine video showing off your science project & use the hashtag #6secondscienceTeen Read WeekWeek of Making, June 17 - 23 (sponsored by the White House) Resources Makerspaces & ongoing maker programming Have a makerspace, pop-up maker space, mobile maker lab or ongoing maker programming at your library, school, museum or youth center? Funding Organizations Research & Reports
Include – NSLS Shared Foundations Challenge | SCHS Media Blog I’ve given myself the challenge of spending a few weeks with each of the Shared Foundations in the new National School Library Standards. Unsure about the new standards? My intro post has some explanation. The standard I’ll be focusing on for the next few weeks will be include. Once I dove into the “include” section of the standards, I realized that I had a misconception of what “include” was. Inclusion is also: Information based. Over the next few weeks, these are my learner goals for “include”: Adopt a discerning stance toward points of view and opinions expressed in information resources and learning products (Think)Represent diverse perspectives during learning activities (Create)Engage in informed conversation, contributing multiple points of view, and active debate (Share)Reflect on their place in the global learning community (Grow) Teacher librarian goals for “include”:
Makerspace in the Library! The Maker Space Difference: Amazing Inquiry, Shared Learning | Tech Tidbits Students work with the new 3-D printer. “Is it true? Do we have a 3-D printer?” When I put our new 3-D printer in the window of the school library, not only were my own maker space students interested, but the rest of the school seemed to take note. Some of you have been curious about how this new maker space project is coming along, so here’s an update. The library unofficially opened our maker space in January after receiving all kinds of goodies from a DonorsChoose fundraiser and other grants. The purchases tumbled out of boxes and students explored each item. Thingiverse nameplate The students and I decided to meet after school every Wednesday to learn all we could together. The students have programmed and raced the two Sphero Robotic Balls, even trying them under water! Collectively, our goal was to learn as much as we could so that students and staff would be ready to explain how each thing worked at our Makerspace Open House during our parent-teacher conferences in February.