The Value of Guided Projects in Makerspaces | Renovated Learning - 0 views
-
Working through guided projects can help students to develop the skills that they need to further explore creatively. It’s true that some students can just figure it out, but most need that gentle push to get them started.
-
Following patterns to the letter when I first got started helped me to learn the skills that I needed to be creative in my knitting.
-
The problem comes when all we ever do are guided projects. Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager warn against the “20 identical birdhouses” style class projects, where there is zero creativity involved. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of focusing too much on standards, rubrics and guided projects and zapping all the fun and creativity out, turning a makerspace into nothing more than another classroom. It’s tempting for many educators to just print out a list of instructions, sit students down in front of a “maker kit” and check their e-mail while students work through the steps one by one. This is obviously not what we want in our makerspaces.
- ...3 more annotations...