iPads, MakerEd and More in Education

In recent years, libraries have broadened their scope of offerings to the local community to involve more making activities like 3-D printing and sewing. Some libraries even have a facilitator for maker projects.

At Millvale Community Library in Pennsylvania, maker program coordinator Nora Peters saw an opportunity to better connect the activities of the maker space with the library's mission to promote literacy. So, she set out to build a bridge between making and reading by creating maker activities for children's books.

Recently a friend of mine said, “When I think of makerspaces, I don’t think of history classes. I picture areas where kids are playing with toys and stuff.”

This comment resonated with my own experience. The first time I heard about makerspaces, I thought, “That’s awesome and I’d love to have something like that, but I teach social studies.” I had a mental block that kept me from seeing the bigger picture around makerspaces.

So, I started with the most natural tie-in. We did an economics unit where students used design thinking to build a product. After redesigning the space, I realized something:

A makerspace isn’t just about engineering.