MakerSpace, part 2

Hello,

This week I am going back to the MakerSpace information. I had asked you to send me what you are doing in your school for this. Many of you (and me) are not doing anything in the library, but I did find an article that talks about this throughout the curriculum. If you are interested in reading it, here is the URL. https://thejournal.com/articles/2018/09/04/integrating-makerspaces-throughout-the-curriculum.aspx?s=the_in_070918

I did get one response and I thought that her experience would be beneficial to us all. Here is what she is doing in her library at her school.

She has a ‘station day’ about once a month where the students choose a creative or STEM activity to do either on their own or in small groups. Station ideas include Legos, build a marble run, snap circuits, laser maze game, brain teasers, puzzles, string art, origami, geometry blocks, Knex, and more. Many of the games she has are either from garage sales or from her personal stash.

This year she will be adding Madedos (cardboard construction) and is looking for some coding-based games or activities that aren’t too expensive. The school is adding tablets and Kindles this year. Some of the activities she wants to implement are coding, green screen production, and stop-motion animation.

She is starting STEM maker boxes this year and plans to use them in this manner. When students come in to the room, they will sit in small groups. Each group will have a box. In the box will be some items such as cotton balls, straws, string, tape, popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, etc. There will be a suggested activity such as “Use the materials to design and build a marble maze”, or “Design and build a parachute” to complete with the materials in the box. Since this idea is new this year she is planning to experiment and find which grade levels this will work best for.

The article above suggests using MakerSpace ideas in the classroom curriculum such as science, history, and more. That actually seems like a great place to do this and probably many of you are already doing this. I know that our junior high science teachers has students build a marble maze and completes other activities that correspond with the curriculum. We also often have classes team together to work on something like Ozobots together.

Have fun with this kind of activity this year.

Audrey