Common elements of successful Makerspaces include:
They promote learning through play and experimentation.
They’re cross-disciplinary, with elements of art, science and craftsmanship.
They offer tools and materials that encourage students to create rather than consume.
The Bancroft-Rosalie School Makerspace Plan involves three steps.
Step 1: Secure some space. Currently the Makerspace will have to utlize existing classrooms, the computer lab and the distance learning room. The school has identified a room in the school that could serve as the Makerspace room in the future once the second classroom at the downtown building is finished.
Step 2: Put stuff in it. The Grow Rural Education Grant Funds will be used to purchase equipment and materials for the Makerspace. The school district provides laptops and I-Pads for students that will be utilized in the Makerspace as well as personnel to supervise students and manage the space. Step 3: Invite kids to play. Vision- To create more opportunities for all elementary and Middle School students to develop confidence, creativity, and interest in science, technology, engineering, math through making.
There will be six Makerspace activity areas- 3D Design and Printing, Computer Programming, Electronics, Building, Robotics, and Crafts. Each area will have materials available for all different learning levels from preschool-kindergarten through 8th grade.
The Makerspace will be part of the 21st Century Learning Center afterschool program that runs from 3:40-6:00 pm every night and has an average of 60 students in attendance. In the future, the Makerspace could be available for teachers and their students during the school day and as an alternative at recess.
School Makerspace Student Goals
1. Use a wide range of idea creation techniques – such as brainstorming
2. Create new and worthwhile ideas – both incremental and radical concepts
3. Elaborate, refine, analyze and evaluate their own ideas in order to improve and maximize creative efforts
4. Develop, implement, and communicate new ideas to others effectively
5. Be open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives; incorporate group input and feedback into the work
6. Demonstrate originality and inventiveness in work and understand the real-world limits to adopting new ideas
7. View failure as an opportunity to learn; understand that creativity and innovation are a long-term, cyclical process of small successes and frequent mistakes
8. Implement innovations
9. Act on creative ideas to make a tangible and useful contribution to the field in which the innovation will occur MakerSpaces allow students to take control of their own learning by designing projects and creating them using tools and materials.
Through making, students gain confidence in their own abilities and become engaged at deeper levels than if there were no hands-on component. In a MakerSpace, children are learning and honing problem-solving skills. Some projects are designed to teach a specific skill, such as using a robot or a Lego kit. Other projects allow students to design their own outcomes, which is an incredibly powerful learning experience.
I expect that the afterschool program will play an integral role in generating contexts for problem-solving, while also allowing students to use their skills in technology and mathematics to engineer solutions and develop additional skills such as computer coding. The MakerSpace will play an integral role in cultivating a growth mindset, as students learn the importance of effort and perseverance in achieving success, while collaborating through experimentation.
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| Students building with Legos |
