Makerspaces, libraries and education

Making Program

The Lighthouse Creativity Lab is integrating making into the Lighthouse Community Charter School program. We approach this work with a growth-mindset, so it is constantly evolving. We have seen that design, making, and inquiry build student ownership of learning, and lead to higher engagement, deeper understanding, stronger character development.

Classroom Integration

Integrating making into the classroom is the core focus of our program. We have built the transcontinental railroad when studying westward expansion, used circuit blocks to investigate electricity, and written programs to learn about Cartesian coordinates. We integrate making when it supports student understanding at a deeper level. This year we are integrating programming and elements of design throughout our K–12 program.

The program director serves as a curricular coach, collaborating with teachers to integrate design, making, and an inquiry stance into practice.

Artisan’s Asylum is...
a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization furnishing education, tools, workspace, and community to empower dedicated fabricators, including hobbyists, artists, and early stage entrepreneurs, to create on large or small scale. We serve the Somerville and global creative makerspace community, the arts, and the innovation economy with the goal of making the world a place where sincere, creative individuals are able give form to their ideas.

What is STEAM?

In this climate of economic uncertainty, America is once again turning to innovation as the way to ensure a prosperous future.

Yet innovation remains tightly coupled with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math – the STEM subjects. Art + Design are poised to transform our economy in the 21st century just as science and technology did in the last century.

We need to add Art + Design to the equation — to transform STEM into STEAM.

STEM + Art = STEAM

The English expression “To be in HOT WATER” means to be in trouble. Currently, climate change, environmental decline, rights violations, volatile politics and conflict all suggest “HOT WATER”. Water is a fundamental element for all beings on Earth.A symbol of life and a “common good” which should beavailable to all, water is quickly becoming a commodityto some, and often taken as hostage in conflicts to besiege and displace populations. Corporates, governments, and industries such as mining and tourism use it for their own short-term benefits, depriving people – especially Indigenous people and farmers – of their rights, causing pollution, threatening health and the environment, and compromising long-term water management. How can art, science, design, and activism reinstate the social, cultural and environmental value of water? How can we share the responsibility of water in a positive way? How can we all preserve the right of access to water? How can intergenerational knowledge-sharing get us out of “HOT WATER”, end conflict and find peace?

What else is U.Va. engineering doing in 3-D printing?

Sheffler: U.Va. has created a rapid prototyping center with funding from Rolls-Royce that includes seven 3-D printers, among other capabilities. We are incorporating this technology into the curricula through courses like “Mechatronics” and “Jet Engine Manufacturing.” We offer use of the center to students and also as a fee-based cost center for anyone throughout the world to submit a model on a dedicated Web page and we print the product and ship it to them.

For educators ready to try the idea of design thinking, you'll be glad to know it does not require extensive transformation of your classroom. That said, it can be a transformative experience for all involved. Here, we try to answer your questions about the different integrating components of a design learning experience into familiar, pre-existing scenarios that play out in every school.

Former Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard has been appointed as the Patron of Curtin University’s John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library (JCPML).

Ms Gillard follows in the footsteps of Paul Keating (2009 – 2014) and Foundation Patron Gough Whitlam (1998 – 2008).

NSF's mission is to advance the progress of science, a mission accomplished by funding proposals for research and education made by scientists, engineers, and educators from across the country.

Columbus Idea Foundry, Columbus, Ohio; Central Ohio's premier makerspace, learning center and creative place.

The past decade has seen the sudden, dramatic appearance of community spaces offering public, shared access to high-end manufacturing equipment. These spaces are interchangeably referred to as hackerspaces, makerspaces, TechShops, and FabLabs. This can lead the intended audience to become incredibly confused as to why there might be so many names for a single concept. I’d like to take some time to untangle the mess, explain the concepts behind each title, and talk about why I now make significant distinctions between all of these types of spaces.

Let’s start with the hardest to untangle – what’s the difference between a Hackerspace and a Makerspace?

When a new school opens its doors, where does the culture come from? What makes a school feel special to those who spend time there? How do you transform a physical space into a community of learners?

 

Answers to those challenging questions are emerging from Science Leadership Academy at Beeber, a public high school that opened in Philadelphia at the start of the 2013-14 school year. SLA@Beeber shares the inquiry-driven, project-based model that has distinguished the widely acclaimed SLA-Center City since it launched in 2006. The new campus is organized around the same core values -- inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation, and reflection -- that have enabled SLA students and staff to thrive.

As an experiential educator who has fully embraced technology as a means for allowing and facilitating learner voice, creativity, innovation, inventiveness, the Maker Education movement fits into m...

The desk space next to PCs first welcomed paper printers and later made room for 3D printers that could conjure any shape from spools of plastic.

Now new devices, including laser cutters and computer-controlled milling machines, are coming out of industrial workshops and planting themselves on desktops. The wave of new machines is bringing a new level of precision to people who make physical objects — from leather wallets to lamps to circuit boards — as a career or hobby.

There is no technological reason why everyday people don't have access to manufacturing tools.
Danielle Applestone, Other Machine CEO