Designing a School Makerspace Makerspaces, STEAM labs and fab labs are popping up in schools across the country. Makerspaces provide hands-on, creative ways to encourage students to design, experiment, build and invent as they deeply engage in science, engineering and tinkering. A makerspace is not solely a science lab, woodshop, computer lab or art room, but it may contain elements found in all of these familiar spaces. Therefore, it must be designed to accommodate a wide range of activities, tools and materials. Diversity and cross-pollination of activities are critical to the design, making and exploration process, and they are what set makerspaces and STEAM labs apart from single-use spaces. Cardboard construction Prototyping Woodworking Electronics Robotics Digital fabrication Building bicycles and kinetic machines Textiles and sewing Designing a space to accommodate such a wide range of activities is a challenging process. Some schools have chosen to incorporate makerspaces within multiple classroom spaces.
Makerspace Resources and Programming ideas | Create, Collaborate, Innovate (Updated post from my Podbean Site) Summer 2014 I was asked to present a webinar to Ohio School Librarians for InfOhio. The recording is available here. I also created a resource list (adapted from a collaborative presentation with LISD librarian, Leah Mann) and year long programming ideas that I will continue to update on this page. WEBINAR RECORDING: Invent to Learn by Sylvia Martinez and Gary StagerScript Changers: Digital Storytelling with Scratch by Kylie PepplerSoft Circuits by Kylie PepplerShort Circuits by Kylie PepplerArt of Tinkering by Karen Wilkinson and Mike PetrichMakerspace Playbook by Maker MediaWorlds of Making by Laura Fleming Diana Rendina has a great post and pinterest board on this topic! Good for Upper ES- HS Good for Lower ES Makedo Kit: Build anything with cardboard (smash this with Hummingbird robotics to build cool stuff!) from kodokids.comlibrary mobile mag wall and play podium9Colleen GravesSXSWedu *What if I can’t get it all? Maze Game Challenge:
Resources for Creating a Makerspace Are you ready to create your own Makerspace? Would you like some help? The Makerspace Lab website is designed to provide teachers, technology directors, librarians, hacker space designer and community leaders with information on how to make a Makerspace. The Makerspace community is very generous, and provides a lot of free information about how to build a space, lessons learned and tips for running a Maker Space. The following list of links should get you started. Links to Makerspace Websites MAKE- Make Magazine's website includes project instructions, the Maker Shed maker supplies store, project plans, videos, event listings and more. Maker Eduction Initiative - Make Magazine's Education specific site. Links to Makerspaces and Hackerspaces MakerSpaces for Kids, at Schools, Libraries and Community Spaces Creating Self-Sustaining Recess/Lunch-Time Makerspace Visits - Ravenswood School District started creating their Makerspace in 2013. The Imagination Club with Mr. MakerEd Resources
The Makings of a Makerspace: Three Examples In late October, 2013, I visited several makerspaces in the bay area crammed into one day, and blogged about my discoveries here. Then, in summer 2014, I visited two more makerspaces and blogged about those here. Most recently, the fabulous Jaymes Dec hosted me at Marymount in NYC, Kat Sauter hosted me at Ann Richards STARS in Austin (whom I also visited back in 2013 before their makerspace!), and Ross Monroe hosted me at Edmonds Community College here in Seattle. (This great post by the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education at the University of Vermont also has some great ideas and examples for flexible physical learning environments.) Overall Organization Marymount’s “makerspace” was actually significantly distributed throughout the school, with elements in the high school, middle school, and primary spaces. Pegboards and clear bins were particularly prevalent, as I’ve often found. Marymount’s bin and pegboard Ann Richards’ pegboards ECC’s pegboard specifically for cardboard cutters.
hsmakerspacetoolsmaterials-201204.pdf From Coding to Coding: As we saw from the many sessions about coding during ISTE 2015, the topic of programming computers is back in fashion. Way back when, computers had been tools used only by scientists and hobbyists, but personal computers changed everything. PCs took commands from anyone who knew how to communicate with them. We could type on the keyboard and watch the monitor for the results (and hope for the best). No more punch cards, greybar printouts (with or without fatal errors), or time-sharing. We communicated with these machines by programming or coding—writing the line-by-line instructions that told the computer what to do. In schools, we debated what computers were good for, and at first the answer was programming. I wrote a grant proposal for a classroom full of TRS-80s. The very first issue of Classroom Computer News (CCN) in 1980 celebrated programming. He designed Gramaze, a game to help students identify direct objects in sentences. The Web was the next new thing.
Making Failure Harder Work Than Passing Chemistry seems to inspire a "D" mentality. A significant number of students just want to pass the class, meet their graduation requirement, and do it with as little effort as possible. Take Evelyn, for example, a junior in my chemistry class last term. Evelyn is a bright young lady, but she didn't see chemistry as relevant to her present or future, so she kept her head low, didn't engage in the material, missed about 20 percent of the class, and seemed to target a grade of 60 percent. By the end of the term, Evelyn was sitting in the front row, volunteering to demonstrate how to solve problems, and getting frustrated with herself when her final grade in the class was a "B." Evelyn's grade had gone from a 60 percent to an 85 percent, but the real changes that I saw in her were much more rewarding than an improved grade point average. Many students will avoid working hard in a class that they see as challenging because of the risk involved. Turning "I Can't" Into "I Can"
Tiers-lieu et autres fablab, hackerspace, medialab, living lab, ... vous n'y comprenez plus rien ? - Les Cahiers de l'innovation Quand on travaille comme moi depuis des années pour le développement économique, il est parfois difficile de faire la différence entre une mode passagère et une véritable révolution. Les fablabs, hackerspaces, livinglabs, biohacklabs et même museumlabs fleurissent sur tous les territoires et semblent remettre en cause profondément la façon dont les projets émergent et dont les gens travaillent ensemble. De façon apparemment contradictoire, l’autonomie et le travail collaboratif sont mis en avant dans chacune de ces initiatives. De plus, les considérations politiques sont souvent présentes et reprises par les collectivités locales (citoyenneté, stratégies de densification, de rétablissement de la proximité, du lien social, de la cohésion sociale, du développement économique et de la qualité d’un territoire). Si la pauvreté commence bien, selon le diagnostic de K. Mais qu’en est-il vraiment de cette « révolution » ? Le Tiers-Lieu Le FabLab Le Living Lab Les hackerspaces
6 Strategies for Funding a Makerspace The Maker movement continues to gain momentum. At this year's White House Science Fair, President Obama invited Super-Awesome Sylvia from Auburn, California to exhibit her water color robot as a representative of the Maker community. At the same event, the Corporation for National Service announced its commitment to place Americorps VISTAs in Maker movement organizations across the country. Maker Ed is placing those Maker VISTAs in makerspaces to help build their capacity for engaging low-income students as makers. 1. Finding a room is easier than you think. Likewise, high school math teacher Casey Shea walked his maker class off campus in Sebastopol, California. Rick Shertle, middle school teacher and founder of the Washington Maker Workshop in San Jose, California recently opened his doors to the community by securing a space from a local church for free. 2. Start a maker club to raise money for the project, engaging the campus and local community. 3. 4. 5. 6.