iPads, MakerEd and More in Education

This year we introduced Mobile MakerSpaces at our school. A team of Greenwood teachers and I collaborated on the concept over the past year, and I earmarked some funding in our budget that we invested into the Mobile MakerSpace fleet and supplies. Our goal was to create an ethos of innovation and design-thinking. We wanted students to have the opportunity to create, build, tinker, fail, and think critically from any classroom or hallway in our school. At our summer teacher workshops we embedded the “welcome back” content into a MakerSpace approach to demonstrate how learning and sharing through creative construction was possible. Fast-forward to today…

From websites to games, contests to summer camps, we've got a ton of sites to explore in science, technology, engineering and math for kids age 5 to 18.

"Every era demands--and rewards--different skills.

In different times and different places, we have taught our children to grow vegetables, build a house, forge a sword or blow a delicate glass, bake bread, create a soufflé, write a story or shoot hoops.

Now we are teaching them to code.

We are teaching them to code, however, not so much as an end in itself but because our world has morphed: so many of the things we once did with elements such as fire and iron, or tools such as pencil and paper, are now wrought in code. We are teaching coding to help our kids craft their future."

School may be winding down, but that doesn’t mean learning has to. In fact, it is vital that it doesn’t!

When students let their brains take a break over the summer, they can lose the equivalent of two months of their grade-level math and reading skills. To combat summer learning loss and keep those STEM skills fresh over the summer, Project Lead The Way put together a list of super simple (and fun) STEM activities you can do with your children over summer break.

In April, we held our second annual Stewart MakerFair during our final parent conference night of the year.  Last year’s Mini Makerfaire was focused more on introducing our parents and community to what we had started with our Makerspace program.  This year, our program was already well-established, so we created a fun event focused on STEAM exploration in a variety of no, low and high tech stations.
 

A FREE summer camp from Make: for building, tinkering and exploring. Participate online from home or find a camp host in your neighborhood! (2015 Camp Hosts coming soon!)
July 6th–August 14th, 2015

It’s a way to make equations meaningful, which is, of course, what they are in the programs when you write them,” said Fruchter, a computer science teacher at NYC Nest+m, a public K-12 school in New York City for gifted and talented students. “They are much more than a sheet of homework exercises because they make the program go.”

Using literature in this way has allowed Fruchter to make his computer science math classes entirely project-based, which in turn draws the interest of kids who might not have otherwise liked computer programming. “They’re very happy to be in a math or computer science class where they’re not having tests or doing quizzes or being asked to do sheets and sheets of problems,” Fruchter said.

Any room in the school can be transformed into a legitimate spot for an innovative makerspace and the implications of student-made projects foster great power, complexity and creative play in each of them. Like all STEM-focused areas of education, the Maker Movement is an extremely useful method for advancing child education due to some of the skills it promotes and develops. The inclusive environment that makerspaces provide results in a sense of community for participating students and functions as a safe place for gathering feedback.

We have, however, recently expanded upon our Makerspace offerings thanks to being inspired by several of my librarian friends in our amazing #TLChat PLN! Kids can come in during lunch or when they've finished their work to explore, craft, and create in the Library Media Center.

I re-purposed 4 empty study carrels for this Makerspace center at the top corner of our library.  The grouping includes a Lego Creation Station, a Duct Tape Craft Cubby, and a Makey Makey Coding Corner."