From Tinkering to Designing: Moving Beyond Exploration

Can playing around turn into something a bit more intentional? How can our students apply their tinkering to something more substantial and useful? These are but a few of the questions that our staff team began to consider in January.

Staring off the year with a casual approach to makerspace was a great way to dip our toes in the water of invention. We didn't really know what to expect and we wanted to experiment with an open mind. As the year progressed, we felt there was something missing: a purposefulness that drives innovation. We, like our students, have a desire to do something or make something that will have an impact. That little voice that kept encouraging us to go a little farther was the impetus for our playground design project.

Makerspace 2.0 - Design a Playground Prototype

With the support of our two amazing consultants, Mrs. Nelson and Mr. Thomas, our staff team came up with a design challenge for our students in Grades 4 - 6. We wanted a challenge that would be relevant to our students, that would incorporate empathy, and that would be open-ended enough to support many possibilities. With a replacement school currently being constructed right beside us, inspiration struck! What if students had to design a playground for our new school?

We gave our students the following design challenge: How can you design a piece of playground equipment that is fun, inclusive for a variety of people, and safe? 

We were so excited! We gave them something meaty and purposeful - how would they do? What would they do first? We needed a process to help them along the way.

Phase 1: Planning & Research

Using the book Launch, by John Spencer and A.J. Juliani as inspiration, we developed a time-line and a process for our design project. Phase 1 was focused on developing a plan or a blueprint based upon research. Each group had access to playground equipment catalogs, Alberta playground safety guidelines and websites with interesting existing playgrounds. 

Students had to show their plans to a staff member, whom we affectionately dubbed "Inspectors", and explain their concept, how it met the criteria of fun, safe and inclusive, as well as a sketch of what it would look like. They also had to indicate which materials they would require to build their prototype and where they would get them. 

Phase 2: Building & Testing

Once they had the green light, students began to build their prototypes. After a few periods of building, one of our consultants had the brilliant idea of inviting in real life playground designers and builders from Canadian Recreation Solutions to meet with our students to give them feedback on their designs. 

Students pitched their designs to our playground designer guests and then used their feedback to make improvements to their designs. 

Phase 3: Presenting at Maker Faire

We are now beginning Phase 3 of our design challenge. During this final phase, students who want to present, have prepared short presentations to explain their designs and how they evolved. Students who are not presenting, will vote for the top 10 designs to be showcased at our event. We cannot wait to see what they will display! 

Tinkering with Learning Outcomes

Full STEAM ahead!

Now that our school is entering into our fifth round of our makerspace initiative our focus is shifting from "What is makerspace?" to "How does makerspace compliment curriculum?"

During the research phase of our project, we read over and over again that makerspaces support the learning of STEM content. For those of you not familiar with the acronym, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. You might even see an extra "A" for Art added to the mix turning it into the handy STEAM acronym.

We definitely want to give our students high quality exposure to STEAM content as many future career paths and personal passions fall under those disciplines. The future Google programmers, air craft designers, architects or chemical engineers are sitting in our classrooms waiting for us to notice their dormant passions! Is makerspace the opportunity they need?

How does makerspace support STEAM learning?

If makerspace supports STEAM learning, how do we know if it is working? Is there some magical formula? Do we need to plan out detailed lessons that will lead our students into STEAM content? 

Surprisingly, the answer appears to be "no". It seems that exposure to time, interesting materials, collaboration and permission to experiment is the perfect foundation for learning. 

During the our last round of makerspace our team was blown away by the explicit connections students made to curriculum outcomes. I watched a Grade Two student who appeared to be making a sphere out of straws and connectors. When I asked him what he was doing he said, "I"m making a ball...you know, a sphere." When I came back to see what he was doing he excitedly showed me a line up of 3D shapes he had made while announcing their names. He had built the aforementioned sphere as well as a cube, a pyramid, and a rectangular prism. When describing his work, he used the correct terminology proudly - and he did so completely on his own! 

You might be thinking, "Okay. You have one example...big deal! It could've been a fluke, right?" We thought so too until we watched a Grade Four student play with straws and wheels. He took the time to explain to one of our staff members that he was experimenting with wheels and axels. He even added in, "This is what we are doing in Science!"

Two examples are better than one, right? What if I told you of yet another example? One of our younger students with Autism has been playing with our magnet building sets every time he attends makerspace. He is fascinated by how he can connect the magnets and then spin them as a top. Last round, this student started experimenting with adding more magnets to his top. To his dismay, it wouldn't spin as quickly if he had more magnets on one side than the other. He continued to add to each side until they were evenly balanced in order for it to spin again. Essentially, he was playing with the design to make a better project and it was clear that he felt rewarded for solving his design flaw. 

What about the girls? Yes, they too seem to be connecting to curricular outcomes. Some of our Grade Six girls spent their time designing chairs out of straws and connectors - a project that is directly linked to the elementary art outcome: designed objects can be evaluated on the basis of function and attractiveness. 

Maintaining Our Momentum

Moving forward, we will begin to consider how we can introduce curriculum related content into our Makerspace more intentionally. We could be more thoughtful in how we design the challenges so that they required students to play with learning outcomes from the Program of Studies. We could have a featured project that we showcase on our student video news announcements to promote connections to curriculum. A teacher suggested that we set up stations that correspond to science and/or math content of a particular grade level such as creating maker stations that provide hands on experimentation with the concepts related to flight or electricity. So many choices!

With so many options available to us, we can't help but share in the excitement of our students. After all, as staff, we too are makers!

Tinker Talk - What do our Makers Talk About?

Observations as a Fly on the Wall

Twice a month, our Learning Commons is overflowing with students eagerly working on projects of their own choosing. On Maker Mondays and Tinker Tuesdays, our Grade 1 - 6 students build with Lego, Makey Makeys, Little Bits, magnets, paper, yarn, Scratch, playing cards and other various materials. 

As educators, our role is to facilitate their learning by providing them with quality tools and materials as well as great questions. Each station is equipped with a set of challenges, both for the individual or for the collaborative group. Students can work alone, in partners or in larger teams. They can select any material of interest and can change stations whenever they choose, provided that they clean up before moving. 

So, what does this look like in practice? Is it chaos? Mayhem? A zoo?

Surprisingly, it is actually quite calm. Our makerspace is a productive and enthusiastic hive of activity that is both exciting and controlled. Our students never cease to amaze us with their ability to rise to our expectations! They are so busy pursuing their interests that they don't have time to make inappropriate choices! They are truly engaged in what they are making. 

Observing students as they dive into areas of interest provides us with opportunities to listen in to what they are talking about. Makerspace activities provide them with time to think about how they want a project to work and what they need to do to improve it. They also talk to each other about joint projects. We overhear comments like: "How can we make it bigger?" or "Why don't you hold this and I'll add this so that it works better..." They negotiate roles and take turns as leader and follower.

On our first ever Maker Monday, I watched a group of Grade 2 students as they were working at the 3D marble maze. The challenge invited them to make a maze that started on the table and ended on the floor. They worked tirelessly to build a fancy maze full of twists and turns. They called me over and invited me to watch them test the maze. They dropped the marble and it immediately fell out of a hole in the first section. For a moment, their faces fell as they realized that their maze didn't work. After a moment of contemplation a student announced "C'mon team! Our maze needs an upgrade!" They all hunkered down to fix the problem and create version 2.0 of their maze. 

Collaboration = Conversation

We have witnessed some of the richest discussions as teams work together to accomplish a shared goal. During the straw building challenge, students were invited to build a shelter that was big enough to fit three students. We watched teams negotiate how to build a structure that was big enough, had a door to enter and that would stand up without human assistance. Students discovered they could build faster with a person inside the structure while the other team members were building on the outside. They ran into a snag when the straws were taller than they could reach. One student suggested turning the structure on its side so that the could build along the ground and then flip it back up when they were finished. 

Conversations also involved the shapes needed to support the weight of the structure. They tried rectangles which quickly collapsed. They moved on to squares but then realized they had no opening to enter the structure. Through trial and error, they learned how to bend the straws so that they had an opening that was still structurally strong. Here they are halfway through the process:

When they had finished, they wanted to keep building. A student suggested that they add on a garage for a car they made with smaller straws. Another student suggested adding a helicopter pad as he had made a flying car out of straws.

By listening and observing students we learned that they have important questions and great ideas on how to answer them. Students working in makerspace taught me that our students are problem-finders and problem-solvers. All we need to do is to get out of their way!

The Making of a Makerspace

What is a Makerspace and Why do we Need One?

When I suggested that we set up a makerspace in our elementary school Learning Commons I was met with a few quizzical looks. At first people asked me, "What is a makerspace?" followed by "Why do we want one?"

On the surface, the concept of a makerspace seems simple: a space in which you make stuff. You might asking yourself, "How is this any different than regular work in a classroom?" Great question!

Yes, we do make stuff in a classroom. In that sense, a classroom is a makerspace. However, I still ask myself: what is being made and why? Who decides what to make and with what to make it? The purpose and person who is doing the making is what drives a makerspace.

There are many definitions of makerspace without one being more correct than the other. Diana Rendina's Renovated Learning blog offers this definition :

A makerspace is a place where students can gather to create, invent, tinker, explore and discover using a variety of tools and materials.

This definition provides a wonderful foundation for thinking about how makerspaces facilitate learning. However, it glosses over a key element that I hope to achieve in our makerspace: student-driven learning.

In their book, Invent to Learn, Martinez and Stager (2013) wrote about the importance of students constructing their own learning:

..the power of making something comes from a question or impulse that the learner has, and is not imposed from the outside. Questions like "How can my car go faster?" or "I like the way this looks, can I make it prettier?" are treated as valid, and in fact, potentially more valid than criteria imposed by anyone else, including a teacher. Learners are empowered to connect with everything they know, feel, and wonder to stretch themselves into learning new things. We seek to liberate learners from their dependency on being taught.

 Empowering students to be in charge of their own learning? Having students highly engaged by their own questions, wonderings, and passions? This is the kind of makerspace I want for our school!

And so begins our journey of making a makerspace!

References

Martinez, S.L., & Stager G. (2013). Invent to learn: Making, tinkering, and engineering in the classroom. CA: Constructing Knowledge Press.

Rendina, D. (2016). Retrieved from http://renovatedlearning.com/2015/04/02/defining-makerspaces-part-1/