eSchool News | School Makerspaces Archives

5 must-haves for school makerspaces

Laura Ascione — Wed, 21 Jul 2021 10:00:00 +0000

School makerspaces have emerged as centers of creativity, problem solving, collaboration, and more. These skills–often referred to as soft skills, but also known as durable skills for their importance in the workplace–are a focus of 21st-century classrooms.

These days, school libraries often include makerspaces and librarians are becoming well-versed in the coding, robotics, engineering, and tinkering skills necessary to help students bring their ideas to fruition.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, students set up personal makerspaces at home, logging onto school-provided resources and gathering materials from their homes to keep their creativity going when learning moved online.

As schools prepare to welcome back students full-time this fall, many students are likely eager to return to their school makerspaces.

Here are 5 resources (digital and non-digital) for school makerspaces that might be worth a look before the new school year begins–and check out this list for more supplies:

1. Tinkercad is a free, easy-to-use app for 3D design, electronics, and coding. It’s used by teachers, kids, hobbyists, and designers to imagine, design, and make anything. Free lessons plans are ready for use online or in the classroom. Curriculum is developed in partnership with teachers to align with standards including ISTE, Common Core, and NGSS.

9 ways to create better makerspaces

Laura Ascione — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 10:00:40 +0000

Makerspaces and maker culture have quickly become a favorite of STEAM advocates, and new research shows that makerspaces can be highly effective at helping elementary students develop skills such as critical thinking, design thinking, and problem solving. Research from Macquarie University in Australia demonstrates how, with proper training and professional development, teachers can harness makerspaces and improve teaching and learning outcomes. From August 2017 to July 2018, Macquarie University’s Department of Educational Studies partnered with the NSW Department of Education, Carlingford West Public School, Parramatta East Public School, Oatlands Public School and Makers Empire, which produces a 3D platform for K-8 educators, for a research study on maker pedagogy and makerspaces in primary schools. Related content: How to transform a library into a makerspace The study examines how maker activities using 3D design and 3D printing technology could enhance learning and teaching outcomes. Teachers from three schools used Makers Empire’s Learning by Design professional development course and participating students used Makers Empire’s 3D modelling software. Related Content: eSchool News STEM, STEAM, & Makerspaces Guide The eSchool News STEM, STEAM, & Makerspaces Guide is here! It features strategies to help you integrate STEM, STEAM, and makerspace education into classrooms, and it offers a look at how these tools engage students and give them valuable skills. A new eSchool News Guide will launch each month--don't miss a single one! Using the makerspaces led to higher student engagement, confidence, and determination to try new approaches to tough challenges, according to the report. Struggling students in particular seemed to to benefit from maker activities. Many students (94 percent) said they want to pursue 3D design once they left school, either as a career or a hobby. Ninety-seven percent of the students said they want to work with 3D design in the makerspaces again during future lessons. Teachers participating in the study became more comfortable using technology and they increased their collaboration and flexibility with fellow teachers, likely as a result of proper professional development and training. In fact, the report found face-to-face workshops and online support significantly increased teacher confidence. All 24 of the participating classroom teachers said they want to use 3D design-based makerspaces in future classes. The researchers offered a number of recommendations to help schools create and support makerspaces and the teachers who use them: 1. Provide support for schools to ensure makerspaces are effective and integrated as they help students develop STEM skills, digital competencies, and 21st-century skills 2. Encourage teachers using makerspaces to strike a balance between explicit instruction and open-ended inquity, set authentic tasks, consider the design of teaching spaces, and actively guide group work processes

Transforming your library into a makerspace

Eileen Belastock, CETL — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 09:55:44 +0000

In a recent edWebinar, hosted by edWeb.net, Michelle Luhtala, library department chair, and Donna Burns, technology integrator, both from New Canaan High School (NCHS) in Connecticut, showcased the transformation of the NCHS library from a collection of used reference and biography books into a living, breathing makerspace. Using mostly recyclable materials, equipment, and furniture, these educators are providing learning opportunities for students and teachers that have changed the school climate and culture. “Making learning more real for students allows them to learn better in a much more energized school,” said Luhtala.

A multi-year redesign

Through a five-year radical book-weeding process from 2011- 2016, the NCHS library had eliminated all of the library’s free-standing bookshelves. This process created both an opportunity and a challenge for Luhtala and Burns to convert this newly created space into a makerspace. With minimal funding in the early stages of the makerspace, the duo salvaged discarded lab tables and art stools and recycled material from all areas of the school.

Although this space was optimal for student making, organization and storage issues became the prime concern in the second year of the makerspace. Luhtala and Burns rescued much-needed shelving from the elementary school and clamped the refurbished shelves together to create an 80-bin storage system that provided teachers and students easy access to the makerspace materials.

Related Content:

eSchool News STEM, STEAM, & Makerspaces Guide

The eSchool News STEM, STEAM, & Makerspaces Guide is here! It features strategies to help you integrate STEM, STEAM, and makerspace education into classrooms, and it offers a look at how these tools engage students and give them valuable skills. A new eSchool News Guide will launch each month–don’t miss a single one!

8 things to ask about your first makerspace

Diana Fingal — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 10:00:56 +0000

You wouldn’t just randomly choose a tool from your toolbox and feel confident it was the right one to cut a board or attach a hinge. Same goes for a school makerspace.Like everything in ed tech, it’s not enough to have a bunch of shiny gadgets in your makerspace. You need to have the right materials to meet your goals.Vinnie Vrotny, director of technology at The Kinkaid School in Houston, Texas, understands how tempting it is to fill a space with the latest devices. But before you do, here are eight questions you should ask to determine if you’re choosing wisely.1. What is the experience you're trying to create?In other words, what is the purpose of the makerspace? If you're unclear about what you want students to be able to do when they leave the space, you’re starting off on the wrong foot. Maker magic lies in the disposition rather than a specific task or skill. Do you want students to be creative and take risks? The options are many, but they need to be part of the planning.2. What are the learning goals and outcomes you want to achieve in this space?The learning goals must be tied to the makerspace experience, and you want students to apply knowledge and demonstrate understanding of a concept, whether the subject is science, literature, history or something else.For example, Vrotny’s school designed transformed the traditional diorama assignment into an interactive museum display with engaging hooks. Students dreamed up everything from a formative quiz that lights up an area when you push a button to historical signs that show topographically where an event occurred.3. Who will lead the student experience?Someone needs to lead the student experience. Vrotny suggests a STEM teacher, makerspace teacher, classroom teacher or librarian. Regardless of the title, the space needs a leader.4. Will you provide students a set curriculum or more open-ended projects?Will you take a genius hour approach where students are free to pursue passion projects or will you introduce a particular curriculum?The Kinkaid School does both. In a curriculum-based maker project, for example, their first graders did a reading study on leprechauns. In the makerspace, they prototyped leprechaun traps and set them before spring break, then returned excited to see if they had caught one of the magical beings. Middle schoolers, on the other hand, created models of the two atomic bombs and the Enola Gay to reinforce a social studies unit. In other sessions, the students pursued their passion projects.5. What grade levels will your space target?The tools you purchase for an elementary makerspace are different than a space for older students. For elementary, low-cost, low-tech solutions are often sufficient. Add more complexity with laser cutters and 3D printers at the middle school levels. A high school makerspace might evolve to band saws and jigsaws, machines not suited for an elementary room.6. How will students access the space?Will your makerspace be part of a regularly scheduled class, will students attend to work on a particular project or is this an impromptu drop-in space they use during free time? Decide these questions first to make good use of the space.

How I created my school’s makerspace

Todd Burleson — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 09:55:52 +0000

As an elementary educator for most of my career, I’ve had the privilege of working with a variety of learners—from inner-city students in North Carolina to university-level students in Chicago—but I found my true calling as the librarian at Hubbard Woods Elementary in Winnetka, Illinois. I’ve been called the “Willy Wonka of school librarians” because I transformed our traditional library into what I call an IDEA (Innovation, Design, Engineering, and Art) Lab complete with flexible furniture, robotics, engineering tools, iPads, laptops, and sewing machines.

To get started, I used my experience as a classroom educator to create a cross-curricular library curriculum that supports classroom teachers’ lessons, marrying the idea of books and bytes. Daily activities include robot bowling, using robots to paint pictures, and filming and producing music videos staring (you guessed it) robots!

For other districts that want to turn their libraries into IDEA labs, here are some insights into how we made it all happen.

4 steps to turning your space into a 21st-century library

1. Create a dream binder. In 2015, I received a lump sum of funding to help transform our traditional library into a flexible, collaborative makerspace. One of the conditions of the funding was that we needed to spend it in a certain amount of time, so we had four to five months to make some big decisions.

Related Content:

eSchool News STEM, STEAM, & Makerspaces Guide

The eSchool News STEM, STEAM, & Makerspaces Guide is here! It features strategies to help you integrate STEM, STEAM, and makerspace education into classrooms, and it offers a look at how these tools engage students and give them valuable skills. A new eSchool News Guide will launch each month–don’t miss a single one!

11 resources for STEM, STEAM, and makerspaces

Laura Ascione — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 10:00:53 +0000

It's easy enough to decide to focus more on a specific topic or skill, such as STEM, in the classroom, but it's sometimes more difficult to find tools and resources to support that skill. Teachers have limited time, and it's often a challenge to search for and evaluate the tools and resources found in search results or blog posts. Here, we've gathered some resources and tools focusing on STEM, STEAM, and makerspaces. Some may be familiar to you, while others may be new to you--but we hope they all inspire you to explore STEM or STEAM in your classroom. 1. STEM Like a Girl knows that girls can’t become excited about something if they aren’t exposed to it. This resouce-rich site emphasizes the critical role parents and other caregivers, as well as positive female mentors, play in helping girls grow their interest in STEM. Resources include workshops, at-home activities, and links to other top STEM education tools. 2. Makey Makey works through opening and closing circuits, just like any other button. Instead of the circuit being closed underneath your keyboard, the circuit is closed through the conductive objects you connect with alligator clips, like your hand or your lunch or some tinfoil. When the circuit is closed, the Makey Makey sends a command to your computer, just like a button pressed on a keyboard. Educators will find a teacher's guide and sample lesson plans online as well. 3. RobotLAB's offerings include the NAO Robot and tools that focus on coding, engineering, virtual reality, and makerspaces. RobotLAB's Online Learning Platform is an interactive and hands-on learning experience organized by eye-catching themes (such as soccer-playing robots or autonomous cars). Students and teachers can access the browser-based learning ecosystem from any device. RobotLAB's STEM Lab features resources such as courses and lessons, apps, for different products, including an autonomous car, Ozobot, Sphero, 3D printers, and more. Educators also can search for lessons for any subject, age group, or robot--or they can create their own lessons. 4. MakerBot's 3D printers help educators advance STEM education and help students bring ideas and projects to life. The Replicator+ 3D printer comes with an educator's guidebook and a MakerBot certification program for teachers. MakerBot's Thingiverse Education provides over a hundred free lessons that make teaching with a 3D printer easier and more effective for a variety of grade levels and subjects. It also provides a community where educators can exchange best practices or remix projects. 5. Teach Engineering offers NGSS-aligned STEM curriculum for elementary through high schools. Some of the most popular curricular units, lessons, activities, and challenges include "Potato Power," creating an electromagnet, building roller coasters, and designing bridges. 6. Project Noah is a global citizen science platform used to help people connect with the natural world and identify and learn about wildlife. Project Noah enables amateurs and professionals alike to create and share multimedia nature journals. On the site, educators will find project missions to complete with students.

STEM, STEAM, and makerspaces–oh my!

Laura Ascione — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 10:00:37 +0000

By now, we've all heard about STEM, the acronym for science, technology, engineering, and math education. Most people have heard of STEAM, which includes arts education along with STEM and allows students to be more creative in their exploration of more technical subjects. And it's not a far leap to assume a lot of educators are familiar with makerspaces, which offer open-ended creative spaces for students to explore these concepts as they engage in project-based learning or attempt to solve real-world challenges. But how are these three things impacting classrooms and the students in them? STEM and STEAM When students engage in STEM and STEAM learning, they're building skills that will make them more marketable as employees in an economy that increasingly demands STEM proficiency. Many of the jobs today's students will have don't presently exist, but most industry leaders agree that these future jobs will require STEM skills and the ability to work collaboratively in a STEM-focused workforce. Research says the earlier students engage in STEM, the better--a 2019 Brainly study notes that 84 percent of people in a survey say they believe an educational background in STEM makes someone more hireable, and 76 percent say people with STEM backgrounds earn higher salaries than those with traditional educational backgrounds. Sixty-three percent of people in the same survey say they prefer STEAM learning methods over STEM learning methods. The group 100Kin10, which works to address the nation's STEM teacher shortage by training and supporting new STEM teachers, emphasizes supporting students--especially students of color--by recruiting and supporting STEM teachers of color. The nation still struggles to meet the need for teacher diversity, according to a new report from 100Kin10 that looks at 2019 STEM trends and 2020 STEM predictions. People of color represent 50 percent of students in the U.S., but less than 20 percent of teachers--and abundant research shows that students are more likely to pursue STEM education and career paths when they see themselves in their teachers and industry experts. And STEM doesn't just mean science and math, though many tend to focus on those two components. The "T" for technology is equally important. "Technology used to mean getting hardware into schools, but as digital tools have proliferated in classrooms, there is increased understanding that students (and teachers!) need to move beyond being consumers of technology," according to the 100Kin10 report. "As daily activities at work and in personal life are increasingly driven by tech, students need not only hard and soft skills in technology, but also digital literacy and technological competency." Spotlight on a STEAM learning center Last fall, the Groton Central School District (GCSD) in rural New York opened its new STEAM learning center. The $4.8 million center is a renovated 8,000-square-foot STEAM lab and shared-learning space. Ashley McGraw Architects merged the district’s curriculum with the overarching concept using form, light, and materials to create a modern learning environment where both teachers and students feel valued, focused, and inquisitive. According to 2017-2018 New York State Education Department school report card data, less than 30 percent of Groton students in 7th and 8th grade were proficient in English, math, or science. The multi-purpose STEAM space includes a photo, video, and music editing studio and will be used for a variety of educational programs that are industry-aligned, including: Building Trades, Computer Science, Engineering & Electronics, Agriculture Technology, and Communications & Media Arts.

3 keys to cultivating the maker mindset

Megan Haddadi and Kimberly Fogarty — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 10:00:34 +0000

When we dreamed of starting construction on a space where teachers and students alike could cultivate a maker mindset, our goals went beyond creating a dedicated makerspace. We wanted to empower our community, assure students that they were valued as individuals, and offer them opportunities to develop empathy and agency as problem-finders and creative problem-solvers. We knew we could accomplish this with a designated space that celebrated creativity, emphasized process over product, and highlighted the importance of reflection. We set out to design a space where students could not only develop a design thinking philosophy, but integrate this maker mindset into their core studies. Related content: 9 ways schools can create better makerspaces What was formerly a conference room turned into a makerspace with plenty of windows and glass doors so anyone driving through our campus can see our space and, more importantly, our students’ creations. Here’s how we’re helping our entire school community develop a maker mindset. 1) Build the maker mindset before the space. Makerspaces evolve in many ways. We started spreading the maker philosophy before we had an official space by having design thinking, engineering, coding, and robotics areas in many corners of the school. We had robotics in science classrooms, a low-tech makerspace in our library, and maker carts available in classroom hallways. Before construction of our new makerspace, we used the basement below the theater as a space for making. Before we had shiny new 3D printers and a laser cutter, the primary material used in the makerspace was cardboard. Kim collected toilet paper rolls and other recyclables throughout the school and brought in tools from home. Because we already had making happening on our campus, our space was designed with a maker mindset. We married maker skills and curricular content so students could master core topics from different angles. 2) Make the space as flexible as possible. Before we purchased the equipment, chose a color palette, and selected furniture, we formed a committee, wrote our makerspace statement of purpose, and drafted a list of non-negotiables that aligned with our philosophy. We required storage space for not only tools and equipment, robots, and consumable supplies, but also space to store students’ works in progress as well as space to display completed work. We also strongly recommended to the design team that we have a place to document student learning, because reflection is key to our design process. Lastly, it was very important that the furniture be modular to increase the flexibility of the space. Related content: How to transform a library into a makerspace When we got this space, we were funded to buy a laser cutter. So now we have an Epilogue Laser Helix laser cutter, 3D printers, a CNC milling machine, and a vinyl cutter, as well as several soldering irons, a bench power unit, Arduinos, Raspberry Pi, and lots and lots of robotics equipment. The versatility and creativity that students are able to demonstrate is mind-blowing.

8 questions to ask before creating a makerspace

Diana Fingal — Thu, 23 May 2019 10:00:35 +0000

How to transform a library into a makerspace

Eileen Belastock, CETL — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 07:00:07 +0000

A multi-year redesign

The third year was the most significant when the makerspace moved into a new area in the library. Windows and doors were removed to open up the entire space, teacher offices converted into soundproof video booths/virtual reality rooms, and the lower library furnished with flexible caster seating for double classrooms.

Collaboration is key to a better makerspace design

However, the most significant changes happened when the school district began to allocate funding previously earmarked for library books to the NCHS makerspace. Luhtala and Burns collaborated with the NCHS CTE interior design class on a design challenge project that focused on the makerspace overall area, materials, signage, and work stations while keeping spatial planning and traffic flow in mind. The students’ simple design became the inspiration for profound changes in the makerspace including rolling carts, foldable tables, whiteboard walls, and the reorganization of materials and supplies.

During the first year, the makerspace was stocked with basic craft and recycled materials such as butcher-block paper, markers, and Legos. By the second year, when the types of makerspace materials increased to 80, Luhtala and Burns painstakingly organized, labeled, and categorized these materials into alphabetized bins. However, they began to think about not only the organizational part of these materials but how to get students to plan their projects before they come to the makerspace. By creating a worksheet template, students spend less time deciding on materials and more time on making. They also wanted to encourage students to take ownership of the space and put elements back in an organized manner. Larger labels were put on material bins, supply carts got wheels, and installed pegboards were hung with frequently used materials such as pencils, erasers, scissors, and paper. By organizing the materials by workflow, such as coding, circuitry, and electronics; needlecraft; and 2D and 3D elements, Luhtala and Burns discovered that the materials used the least amount of time were the most expensive materials.