Group items tagged

"What can you do with The Maker Space at the Cincinnati Library? The Maker Space is an incredibly useful resource for local makers and creatives of all kinds in the Cincinnati area. It is located at the main branch of the Cincinnati Library in downtown Cincinnati. In this podcast episode, we ask Ella Mulford (Maker Space Queen) about all the equipment available for use, what kind of preparations we need to make before using it and, what kind of cool stuff we can make there."

"As the director of a maker lab at Castilleja School, an independent all-girls school for grades 6-12, I, along with my team, have witnessed dramatic changes in skills and confidence that can occur when we give young women not only the opportunity but also a safe space to make, build, tinker, and create. In line with multiple articles calling for empowering a more diverse and inclusive community of makers, we strongly believe that maker programs and inclusive maker spaces are particularly important in girls' education."

"What are the real benefits of a maker-centered approach to learning? It's often described as a way to incubate STEM skills or drive technical innovation - and it is probably both of these. But as a new report from Project Zero's Agency by Design concludes, the real value of maker education has more to do with building character than with building the next industrial revolution.  "

"We are excited to share the great work of educators in the North Bay in this case study, The Growth and Development of the Maker Movement in Sonoma County Schools: Cultivating a Maker Educator Network across K-12. This document grew out of the work of local maker educators in Sonoma County and highlights the unique collaboration of educators and organizations supporting and implementing maker education throughout the local area. We hope that our experiences and documentation of our maker educator processes can be an inspiration to our counterparts across the state and the nation. In making we trust!"

"Join a network of fellow maker educators on our Google+ Community. We welcome your ideas, successes, stories, and challenges as you engage in making experiences with the youth in your community. Anyone interested in topics surrounding making and education are encouraged to participate. Please spread the word! If you're interested in contributing to Maker Ed's Resource Library, don't hesitate to submit your favorite resources directly to the Google+ Community by posting a link and short description to the "Resources" category. This Resource Library is an ever-changing, evolving collection, and using its guidelines, Maker Ed is excited to regularly review incoming resource submissions from the greater community of educators and makers. We will let you know if/when we add it to the library!"

"The Maker movement is spreading through schools. You'll see many tools becoming part of unique maker ecosystems in schools based upon teacher expertise and student interests. (For more about the Maker movement read How the Maker Movement is Moving into Classrooms.) Let's look at the most common tools being used in makerspaces."

"Maker Faire has been a hot topic at ISTE 2014, with education leaders from across the world discussing how the maker movement has embraced education and how we can gain so much from it as educators. The democratization of learning via the Maker Ed movement has made it an extremely exciting time to be an educator. Maker Spaces in education nurture innovation, experimentation and independence. Learners are no longer consumers, but active participants and producers of content in their own right."

"I've discussed the need to be a learner and lead learner in this era of education which includes maker education. What I find absolutely exciting about being a maker educator is that they need to be learners; dedicated and invested in attitudes and behaviors related to being lifelong learners as the maker movement is ever evolving with seemingly daily advances. I believe that being a lead learner involves documenting and reflecting on the iteration process that is common for maker education. I provided an example of this in my post, Educator as Lead Learner: Learning littleBits. As a learner and maker educator who wants to keep developing my making skills, I decided to hack out an ugly Christmas vest. What follows is what I did and my reflections about the process of creating this vest:"

"In the last few years, the "maker movement" has become a marvel in American schools through Maker Faires featuring homemade robots to after-school programs that teach kids to code - to entire schools geared around the art of tinkering. Maker-centered education, so the narrative often goes, could have profound benefits for students hoping to find work in a STEM-related job. Even President Obama has touted the economic benefits the maker movement could have on efforts to reinvigorate American manufacturing. But for teachers who use making in their classrooms, the movement is about something much bigger - something that enhances educational experiences for all kids. They argue this learning-by-doing approach is an effective way to teach students how to develop character and purpose."

"Reflection could also be described as the 'opposite' of activating prior knowledge. Reflection is functional neurologically (reinforcing learning as a 'memory), but also useful as a practice, helping students understand the scale and value of what they just experienced. Maker Education is no different-in fact, Maker Learning may benefit even more from reflection than more traditional academic experiences due to the fail-forward/try-again persistence required by this approach. (Check out our Maker Education resources for more reading.) Jackie Gerstein is one of our favorites here at TeachThought, and her usergeneratededucation site is a must-bookmark for all teachers. So, on to the questions for reflection in Maker Learning. Below, Jackie has written 23 possible reflection questions to get you started. Share any others you'd recommend in the comments."

"n Texas, a 13-year-old boy built a robot that could rescue victims of natural disasters. In Georgia, a 15-year-old girl developed a device that alerts parents who have have left their child in the car. And in California, a 13-year-old boy created a Braille printer that would be almost six times cheaper than the currently available model. Young people aren't just the future. They're the present, innovating and creatively solving problems in a range of fields. Students across the country, from every background, have the ability to build new products that could change lives around the world. That's what educators at the forefront of the "Maker movement" believe. Leaders of this initiative are changing the American educational landscape by engaging kids in discovery-based learning from a young age, encouraging them to learn not just by watching, but by doing - to not only consume, but also create. Photos: National Maker Faire Takes Washington EXPAND GALLERY Maker spaces - studios and labs designed for students to pursue projects of their choosing - are popping up around the country in schools, universities and informal learning environments such as community centers and libraries. In these labs, students are challenged to develop solutions to real-world problems, from designing and prototyping to refining and marketing."

"At its simplest, making is the act of creating. Making can spur creativity, curiosity, collaboration, and confidence. Consider what can happen when making becomes an integral part of learning. Maker education harnesses the power of making to create an engaging and motivating learning experience. It is an interactive, open-ended approach that is learner-driven and allows for the time and space needed to develop diverse skills, knowledge, and ways of thinking. At Maker Ed, we believe that the design of any learning opportunity must recognize and celebrate every learner's ability to experience and influence their world. Maker education can achieve this ideal because it embodies these core values and goals."

"The Maker Movement is a technological and creative revolution underway around the world. Fortunately for educators, the Maker Movement overlaps with the natural inclinations of children and the power of learning by doing. Embracing the lessons of the Maker Movement holds the keys to reanimating the best, but oft-forgotten learner-centered teaching practices."

"My journey into exploring the power of making continues for a 3rd year with two added goals. First,I plan to expand the depth of learning that goes with "making" by creating Maker Connection Logs where students write, take photos, and record short videos to show their thinking while making connections between curriculum areas and their creations. The goal of the "Maker Logs" is for students to be able to give me insight into their creative process, thinking and provide a way for reflecting with the hopes of improving the future process of "making." IMG_3496.JPG My second goal, which I recently accomplished, is to create an "Un-Maker Space." Simply put, a space where kids can take things apart. So many of the creative geniuses I met at the Bay Area Maker Faire two years ago spoke of taking things apart when they were kids. Watching my 3 year old son recently take apart his toy vacuum really solidified this idea for me. We all have this inner drive to create an understanding of the world around us. This is founded in the desire to answer all the "why" and "how" questions in our thoughts. Why did that little wheel spin when I pushed the play button on that cassette player? How did the electricity get from the cord into the monitor and then create a picture? How can I take this apart? So my students will have a space to dissect all the discarded and unwanted items and to ask those questions. In this un-maker space they'll have the chance to explore the possible answers."

"Maker education (often referred to as "Maker Ed") is a new school of educational thought that focuses on delivering constructivist, project-based learning curriculum and instructional units to students. Maker education spaces can be as large as full high school workshops with high-tech tools, or as small and low-tech as one corner of an elementary classroom. A makerspace isn't just about the tools and equipment, but the sort of learning experience the space provides to students who are making projects. "

"So what is making? I've proposed that the heart of making is creating new and unique things. I also realize that in order for this type of making to occur, there needs to be some scaffolding so that maker learners can develop a foundation of knowledge and skills. The end result, though should be maker learners creating new things by and for themselves. The ideas in this post have been sparked by the SAMR model. I see a similar pattern or progression with maker education:"

"The rise of the Maker has been one of the most exciting educational trends of the past few years. A Maker is an individual who communicates, collaborates, tinkers, fixes, breaks, rebuilds, and constructs projects for the world around him or her. A Maker, re-cast into a classroom, has a name that we all love: a learner. A Maker, just like a true learner, values the process of making as much as the product. In the classroom, the act of Making is an avenue for a teacher to unlock the learning potential of her or his students in a way that represents many of the best practices of educational pedagogy. A Makerspace classroom has the potential to create life-long learners through exciting, real-world projects. Making holds a number of opportunities and challenges for a teacher. Making, especially to educators and administrators unfamiliar with it, can seem to lack the academic rigor needed for a full-fledged place in an educational ecosystem. However, project-based learning has already created a framework for Making in the classroom. Let's see how Making could work when placed inside a PBL curriculum unit."

"In my previous article on this subject, I wrote about the Maker Movement and its importance to the educational realm. The Maker Movement is also nicknamed the Do-It-Yourself (D.I.Y.) Movement, because it empowers individuals to design, manufacture, and create their own objects, ultimately improving creativity in many fields. In a way, the tools used in this movement are taking us back to a time when every person was a craftsperson - except now, we have much cooler gadgets than a wood chisel. And while many of us do not realize it yet, this hands-on approach is something that is missing from our very digital, holographic world. The 3D printer is one of the biggest revolutionary tools in the Maker world and has inspired a push toward the do-it-yourself sensibility. Still, though the cost of 3D printers is coming down, they are still prohibitively expensive for many schools and what's more, when turning a classroom into a makerspace, it would be silly to limit ourselves to one technology. In this article, we discuss five tools that are not 3D printers that schools can use to help students embrace this movement inside the classroom."

"In many schools, the STEAM and maker education are colliding. Hybrid models are being created that embrace the integration of STEAM components and the creative spirit of the Maker Movement. At the intersection between STEAM and making, powerful learning occurs. I would argue that a new movement is emerging-STEAM Makers."

"I like and have always used games in my classrooms. One of my current educational interests is maker education. As such, I have begun creating games for maker education - see my first one, a board game, at Reflecting on the Making Process. The game I am presenting here is a card game that ends with the makers making something based on selected cards. Each participant picks a card from each of the three categories: The Thing or Process The Product The Population."