Makerspace
The Makerspace is a specialized area of the school which will be visited by each grade level on a daily scheduled rotational basis to provide an opportunity for students to explore technology, engineering, robotics, electronics, and construction projects while working in small groups in their own areas of interest.
The Makerspace instructor will introduce “maker-stations” that engage students in hands-on learning with a variety of resources, for example: K’NEX, 3D Printing, Sphero tablet-controlled Robots, Lego Mindstorms Kits, Electronic Kits, Little Bits, Graphic Arts projects, Duino Kits, Structure Building, Pitsco Engineering Kits, Coding, and more!
Laura Flemming in “Worlds of Making” describes the purpose of a Makerspace as follows:
"To define a school makerspace by its purpose and simplest of terms, it is a place where young people have an opportunity to
explore their own interests; learn to use tools and materials, both physical and virtual; and develop creative projects"
Targeted Challenges and Goals
Each set of age-appropriate challenges can be completed during the nine-week academic “quarter.” Many of the challenges have a “take-home” element that can be shared with families as a token of success.
Skill and Confidence Building Activities
The Makerspace curricular enhancement allows students to build, create, engineer and code under the guidance of a Maker Space “coach” who helps them select a quarterly challenge then work steadily to successfully complete the challenge.
Fostering Teamwork
Each quarterly set of Makerspace challenges has varying degrees of difficulty that can be adjusted to fit the students’ abilities and the allotted time. Students are encouraged to work in small groups rather
than independently helping to foster positive team interaction and cooperation.
Interdisciplinary Learning
Certain Makerspace activities will reinforce the academic core, such as Social Studies (siege machines of the Middle-Ages), Science (reflection and refraction of light), and Mathematics (coding workshops and robot programming).
