As lead teacher in planning and creating our Maker space here has been my journey.
Our school is a inner city school that serves a wide range of learners. Our school population consists of 75% First Nations ancestry, we have 4 Syrian refugee families consisting of 7 children. Many of our families live at or below the poverty line and have varied levels of turmoil in their young lives.
I started this journey because my students needed something different. Our school is very involved with Dr. Stuart Shanker and helping our kids to learn to self regulate. In my classroom the Maker journey started with my self regulation teaching. Every morning we start with my students picking bins that help them get ready for their day. They consist of a take apart bin, an imagination station type bin with lots of materials, nuts and bolts and wood, hammering etc the list goes on and on. What I found was this worked brilliantly and students from all over the school started to show up at my door wanting to be part of what was going on. I started to research and learn. Explore and become more entrenched in the Maker movement. My students and I started to add this in to more parts of our day and more subjects. Many students wanted in and other teachers liked the idea as well. Soooo…..
We have emptied an outdated and non functional computer lab to become our space. We are currently waiting for district to do removal and building set up of certain aspects that we, because of union issues, can not do.
Our main plan is as follows.
Learn, learn, learn more about the “Design Process” part of the maker movement which allows for the students to really record their learning.
We have named our space the KID space which stands for Khowhemun Innovative Design space instead of the Makerspace name.
Second I talk to the students during pre, during and post making about thinking like an engineer. An engineer does not just go out and build a apartment building etc. Without going through a process of
Define a problem
Do your research
Develop a possible solution
Design your solution
Build a prototype
Test it
Evaluate your solution
Rebuild, retest etc.
The students are learning that in the world engineers design and build things to solve problems.
Our plan for our space is to have
A Lego wall
A computer for film design and editing
A green screen
Two permanent vices and a wide range of hand tools for both building and taking apart
Two sewing machines
And lots lots lots of consumables for their imaginations to soar. Things that can be created and brought home to show off.
We will also have flexible stations that are theme related and can be changed as funding and resources become available.
My role is the facilitator for both staff and students. I can teach certain skills but then to let go and let these skills be used. Failing and messing up is all part of the process. We just try again.
This has been my journey so far. I am excited to be able to help my students use our new setbc equipment. To record their journey. As many struggle to read and write, this equipment will allow them to use to do this in a different format.
I have just finished a online “maker course” and received some clicker training soooo let the journey begin.
Amie Uzzell