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"I've gotten several emails after my last post and they all ended with the same line, "Where do I start?"  It can be overwhelming to start by Googling "makerspace."  What do you most often see?  That stark modern space with expensive 3d printers. But that? It's not the reality of what making in the classroom can be. I know the constraints faced by many of us in education, and I've lived them before.  You make do with what you have, get creative, and repurpose existing materials to MAKE making happen in your classroom.  You gotta start somewhere, right?"

"Bronwyn Bevan (former Director of Research and Learning at the Exploratorium) just published an expanded literature review of the research on Making for the National Academies of Science committee on Out-of-School Time STEM. Though practice is still way ahead of research in Making and Tinkering, this new paper references 66 different studies, many of them are new ones published in the last 18 months. Recent publications document how STEM-Rich Making supports the development of STEM learning identities, deepens engagement with STEM concepts and practices, and leverages learners' cultural resources. The paper was published in the journal Studies in Science Education, and it might be of interest to anyone interested in the connections between research and practice in our making and tinkering programs. You can download it by clicking here."

"I've spent much of the summer working with teachers who are eager to integrate making and writing but uncertain where to begin. This is what I tell them:  I tell them that making must elevate writing, otherwise it will merely replace it. And writing matters. I tell them that we need frameworks that help us see how making and writing can connect inside of our classrooms and workshops. Making writing looks like play, but it's purposeful. Intentional. I tell them that we need tools and strategies and protocols that inspire complex, creative, and high quality work. I tell them that for all of these reasons, planning matters. Planning really matters. So, this is where my return to blogging will begin."

"Great teachers strive to make learning engaging, interactive, and fun for students. Certain subjects like the visual arts and hands-on sciences may lend themselves well to this. Language learning, on the other hand, has rarely been grouped with "the cool subjects." As technology advances, more and more tools have become available that when used correctly can make language learning anything but boring. As a teacher, you've already established a curriculum and methods for teaching your language, so instead of re-writing all of your work, pull from the myriad supplemental opportunities that can be found online to make lessons more engaging and therefore memorable. Here are five great websites that supplement your lessons, making language learning more interactive and fun."

"Many have noticed that iOS 7′s overall appearance is largely dependent on the devices wallpaper, and a good or bad wallpaper can make or break the look of things along with general usability, particularly for the home screen. It turns out that some of the best looking wallpapers on iOS 7 are very abstract, multicolored, blurry images, and that's what we're going to focus on making here. I've sort of perfected a quick formula for creating nice wallpapers in iOS 7 directly on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, using an excellent free photo editing app called Snapseed. Snapseed is really great at making very nice professional looking photo adjustments on the go, but we're going to use it to go the other direction; make a bad photo look even worse, thus creating an abstract blurred image that actually makes an excellent wallpaper."

"Learning by making has been around since long before edtech-just think about what the adventurous explorers or intrepid settlers of yore would have thought of "Do-It-Yourself." But with thousands of kid-friendly tech tools and a whole World Wide Web of resources out there, creative, interesting opportunities for learning-by-making abound for everyone. Okay, so with all those resources, where should you start to build a makerspace? Here at EdSurge, we've rolled up our sleeves, put on our protective goggles, and built a Maker Guide from scratch, just for you.  Read on for ideas from the educators and entrepreneurs who think making 24/7, including what is involved with project-based learning and making in the classroom and tried-and-true lessons from the field on starting your makerspace. Making on a budget? We surely do. We've got ideas for stocking your space with resources from your arts and crafts closet, plus inspiration from educators working to bring makerspaces to low-income and all-girls classrooms."

"Learning by making has been around since long before edtech-just think about what the adventurous explorers or intrepid settlers of yore would have thought of "Do-It-Yourself." But with thousands of kid-friendly tech tools and a whole World Wide Web of resources out there, creative, interesting opportunities for learning-by-making abound for everyone. Okay, so with all those resources, where should you start to build a makerspace? Here at EdSurge, we've rolled up our sleeves, put on our protective goggles, and built a Maker Guide from scratch, just for you.  Read on for ideas from the educators and entrepreneurs who think making 24/7, including what is involved with project-based learning and making in the classroom and tried-and-true lessons from the field on starting your makerspace. Making on a budget? We surely do. We've got ideas for stocking your space with resources from your arts and crafts closet, plus inspiration from educators working to bring makerspaces to low-income and all-girls classrooms."

"Fun fact: here at the Creativity Lab, Making isn't just about making things. Making is also about learning to see the world with new eyes, and developing deeper knowledge and understanding of the world around us. One of the ways we incorporate this idea is through using Agency by Design's thinking routines. Educators can easily integrate these routines into any subject - even those not typically associated with making, like the Humanities. The first routine, called Parts, Purposes, and Complexities, (PPC) is a great one to start with, and is applicable to physical objects as well as abstract ideas and constructs."

"Learning by making has been around since long before edtech-just think about what the adventurous explorers or intrepid settlers of yore would have thought of "Do-It-Yourself." But with thousands of kid-friendly tech tools and a whole World Wide Web of resources out there, creative, interesting opportunities for learning-by-making abound for everyone. Okay, so with all those resources, where should you start to build a makerspace? Here at EdSurge, we've rolled up our sleeves, put on our protective goggles, and built a Maker Guide from scratch, just for you.  Read on for ideas from the educators and entrepreneurs who think making 24/7, including what is involved with project-based learning and making in the classroom and tried-and-true lessons from the field on starting your makerspace. Making on a budget? We surely do. We've got ideas for stocking your space with resources from your arts and crafts closet, plus inspiration from educators working to bring makerspaces to low-income and all-girls classrooms."

"I've gotten several emails after my last post and they all ended with the same line, "Where do I start?"  It can be overwhelming to start by Googling "makerspace."  What do you most often see?  That stark modern space with expensive 3d printers. But that? It's not the reality of what making in the classroom can be. I know the constraints faced by many of us in education, and I've lived them before.  You make do with what you have, get creative, and repurpose existing materials to MAKE making happen in your classroom.  You gotta start somewhere, right?"

"Learning by making has been around since long before edtech-just think about what the adventurous explorers or intrepid settlers of yore would have thought of "Do-It-Yourself." But with thousands of kid-friendly tech tools and a whole World Wide Web of resources out there, creative, interesting opportunities for learning-by-making abound for everyone. Okay, so with all those resources, where should you start to build a makerspace? Here at EdSurge, we've rolled up our sleeves, put on our protective goggles, and built a Maker Guide from scratch, just for you.  Read on for ideas from the educators and entrepreneurs who think making 24/7, including what is involved with project-based learning and making in the classroom and tried-and-true lessons from the field on starting your makerspace. Making on a budget? We surely do. We've got ideas for stocking your space with resources from your arts and crafts closet, plus inspiration from educators working to bring makerspaces to low-income and all-girls classrooms."

"In some instances I think it's hard for some library staff to articulate the gains that teens make as a result of the making programs we provide. And, as a result it ends up that we talk about the actual printing activity and the printer and not the skills learned and/or improved on. It certainly can be difficult to speak to the learning instead of the "coolness" of the making. But it can be done. For example, think about:"

"As the Maker Movement has gained steams schools and educators alike have begun to incorporate makerspaces as exploratory centers for students to invent, tinker, create, and make to learn.  A makerspace can best be defined as a physical place where students can create real-world products/projects using real-world tools.  In 2013 I was fortunate enough to hire media specialist/teacher librarian Laura Fleming, who took the initiative to create a makerspace in our school.  Through her work I discovered some guiding principles that might just help you begin to create a makerspace in your school or integrate the process of making across the curriculum.  It is first important to understand three underlying qualities that essential in ensuring that students make to learn:"

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"Making can take a number of fascinating and educationally valuable forms. From arts and crafts to coding and design, just about any interest can be used to spark a passion in creation and making. One form of making that has become increasingly simple, cheap and more and more popular in schools is that of 3D modelling. SketchUp is the most popular 3D modelling tool available, and with a featureful and free version (SketchUp Make) available to educators, it's most certainly a great place for any class to start reimagining the world in 3D."

"3D printing has been around for a long time, but only recently has it become available to the general public. My friends and family still think of a 3D printer as some sort of miracle device that can make whatever you want at the push of a button. Of course, we as creators know that it takes a lot of work to go from an initial idea to a final 3D printed product. There was a period of time where everyone was telling me I HAD to make prosthetic hands because I own this futuristic 3D printer and I had a social responsibility to use it for the forces of good.  I think of 3d printers like any other tool such as a table saw or lathe. Sure you can make just about anything, but what do you want to make? I've always loved the aesthetic of boy's action toys so I couldn't resist the opportunity to make my own action figures."

""I recently learned, for the first time, about Aristotle's belief that there were three basic activities of humans: theoria (thinking), poiesis (making), and praxis (doing). Corresponding to these activities were three types of knowledge: theoretical, the end goal being truth; poietical, the end goal being production; and practical, the end goal being action (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praxis_(process)).... All of this led me to think about how this would translate into a full spectrum of making in the context of maker educator. Having such a framework would help insure that learning from the making experience is more robust, not left up to chance. I believe a fuller spectrum or framework would including the following elements:"

"It has been one of my goals this year to make math authentic, when and where possible. To make it a hands-on, active, and practical. To not just be numbers on a page filled with hypothetical situations, but to have the problems come to life. It's not the only way we practice math but it is part of our repertoire. My hope is that by making math real, when students do encounter the hypothetical, they will have a context for their understanding. They will see the relevance because they've experienced it. One of the ways we have begun to do this is through sewing. As we go, the process of creating through sewing has brought many grade four curriculum expectations to life and provided many opportunities for prompting students' thinking."

"You know you have "arrived" when the White House honors a week just for you. This June 17-23 President Obama and his staff will host the National Week of Makers. With the support of the President, it's safe to say that making is not just a trend, rather it is a movement rapidly spreading across the educational landscape. It has become commonplace to hear of urban makers quarters, events such as Maker Faires, and schools building maker spaces in community areas. As is with most frenzies, while it can be invigorating and inspiring, it can also feel intimidating and overwhelming. If the later descriptors speak to you, never fear because there are baby steps you can take to integrate making into your curriculum."