Over the last several weeks, our digital leaders and I have been working together to plan for and create a makerspace in school.  We have already selected a room that will be the makerspace – the current Reading Room.

We just need to move the books out of this room and into our Staff Development Office, then finally, move the necessary materials and resources in!  Before getting started with this endeavour, I’m sharing my notes here about what a makerspace is, why they exist and how to create them:

What is a Makerspace?

A makerspace is a unique, multipurpose learning environment that encourages tinkering, play and open-ended exploration.  Such activities demand an enquiry-based approach, and they epitomise what progressive education is all about.  The central idea to a makerspace is that children learn by doing.

The only thing that is required of a makerspace is a room with appropriate materials and resources, to encourage learners to make.  From the outset, it is important not to limit students to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Maths) projects alone.  The idea that a Makerspace is just for STEAM classes is a common misconception.  Making can be anything to anyone.  I particularly like, for example, the slogan from littleBits: “Make something that does something.”

Why use a Makerspace?

Pedagogically speaking, the whole maker movement is underpinned by the idea of “constructionism”, which has been coined by Seymour Papert, and it’s a similar-sounding term to constructivism.  Where constructivism is a well-established theory of learning indicating that people actively construct new knowledge by combining their experiences with what they already know, constructionism takes things a step further.  Although the learning happens inside the learner’s head, Papert’s constructionism states that this happens most reliably when the learner is engaged in a personally meaningful activity outside of their head that makes the learning real and shareable.

According to Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager (2013), authors of Invent to Learn:

‘This shareable activity may take the form of a robot, musical composition, poem, conversation, or new hypothesis… This is much more than “hands-on” learning.  The meaningful part of constructionism is not just touchy-feely new age language.  It acknowledges that the power of making something comes from a question or an impulse that the learner has, and is not imposed from the outside… We seek to liberate learners from their dependency on being taught.’    

By creating a makerspace, students are given the opportunity to take ownership of their own learning as they explore their own passions.  Nevertheless, it is still possible to teach basic skills, then flip your makerspace, so that students can innovate and build on what they have learnt.  In this way, makerspaces are a fantastic way to bring creativity into learning and support deeper learning.  Makerspaces are also the perfect environments in which to challenge students, to try to solve problems in new ways.  These challenges can be created by either teachers or students.  What is particularly exciting about makerspaces, is how they can impact lessons, as teachers can become more innovative owing to the new tools available.

How do we Plan for a Makerspace?

Simon Sinek’s book, Start With Why, talks about the importance of knowing your why: the purpose, cause or belief that inspires you to do what you do.  This is as important to keep in mind when designing a makerspace as just about any other venture.  According to Laura Fleming, author of The Kickstart Guide to Making Great Makerspaces, great makerspaces begin with a vision for driving their space.  Providing our digital leaders with post-its, I asked them to first begin writing down what core values our makerspace should have:

After much discussion, we settled on:

– Learning, Resilience & Teamwork

To keep things simple and child-friendly, these makerspace core values also form our overarching vision statement.  Watch this space – more to come in Part 2!

In the meantime, Laura Fleming notes the following free apps, which are great to use for BYOD as a portable digital toolbox for students:

– iHandy Level

– Ruler App + Photo Ruler

– Protractor

– PadCAD Lite

STEAM is both an acronym and an educational approach.  As an acronym, STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths.  As an educational approach, STEAM is about facilitating learning experiences across these five subject areas, which promote collaboration, enquiry-based learning and fun!

Since the late 1990s there has been an increasing global focus on the need to better prepare students for the 21st century workforce by equipping them with the skills and knowledge in STEAM subjects.  After all, the most in-demand jobs globally fall into one or more of these five subject areas.

According to the Rhode Island School of Design, which adds the arts to the original STEM framework, “The goal (of STEAM) is to foster the true innovation that comes with combining the mind of a scientist or technologist with that of an artist or designer.”  All technology begins and ends with some form of art.  In fact, the arts and sciences are a natural match when students have sufficient time for project development, reflection and revision.  For example, arts are used in website and user interface design, advertising and the design of literally any product imaginable.

Many schools around the world, my own included, have made inroads in teaching STEAM through various initiatives, including (but not limited to):

• using Computing & ICT to permeate across the whole school curriculum, thereby linking these five disciplines
• after-school makerspace clubs or programs
• holistic, thematic curricula such as the IPC or PYP, where projects using STEAM practices are embedded
• BYOD initiatives (bring your own device)
• staff training to encourage hands-on exploration within each of these disciplines
• robotics programs

The STEAM approach is intended to be holistic, bringing these five disciplines together.  The key to STEAM’s success though, is to ensure that an enquiry-based learning model is followed:

“Studies comparing learning outcomes for students taught via project-based learning versus traditional instruction show that when implemented well, problem-based learning (PBL) increases long-term retention of content, helps students perform as well or as better than traditional learners in high-stakes tests, improves problem-solving and collaboration skills, and improves students’ attitudes towards learning.” (Vega, 2012)

Introducing littleBits…

For this reason, I’ve been happy to get my hands on the littleBits STEAM set below:

littleBits are small, simple, intuitive blocks that make working with electronics a matter of snapping small magnets together with no experience required. The littleBits STEAM Student set is the easiest and fastest way to create imaginative electronic devices and solutions to everyday challenges.  Thanks to this colour coding system, no prior knowledge of electronics or circuitry is required, making the kit open to learners of all ages.

I had a go at creating an art machine using the STEAM Student Set, and I was pleased with the results:

Activities like this are a great example of what STEAM learning is all about.  It’s clear that children need to be engaged in learning, and learn in ways that can hold their attention, much the same way that social media, and internet sites like Youtube do.  Making learning fun and meaningful is the necessary challenge all educators must take on.

In order to further facilitate teaching and learning of STEAM, we are currently building a website, Classroom Flipped, to bring together an online suite of web apps, videos and sites, which have been mapped to our school curriculum. The name, Classroom Flipped, comes from the educational approach known as flipped learning, whereby students interact with educational content outside the classroom to better support their learning inside the classroom.  The website includes a section specifically for STEAM, with links to the best resources on the Web, including relevant high quality, age-appropriate educational videos, games, articles and interactive quizzes.

STEAM is not just about using digital technologies though; STEAM activities can be as simple as just using a piece of paper.  For example, below is one of the activities we gave our staff was to do when introducing what STEAM is all about:

STEAM Challenge

• Build the highest possible tower you can that holds a book at least 16 cm above the ground for a minimum of  3 seconds (the book must rest on top of the tower)
• The tower must  be free-standing, which means no taping or holding to the floor.

Time: 20 minutes (including testing)

Materials: 10 sheets of newspaper and
50 cm of tape,

Group Size: Maximum of 4 people

Success Criteria – The tallest tower wins as long as….

• Tower is free-standing
• Tower is able to hold the weight of a book for a minimum of 3 seconds
• Book must be resting a minimum of 16cm above the ground
• Tower is constructed solely of newspaper and masking tape

Concluding thoughts…

By engaging students around the subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths (STEAM) through practical projects, we can spark an interest and lifelong love of the arts and sciences in children from an early age.  The littleBits STEAM set is a great place to start, but activities can just be as simple as using paper!  The important point is that it is only by teaching relevant, in-demand skills, that we will better prepare our students to become innovators in an changing world.