{"id":1401,"date":"2014-04-27T08:16:57","date_gmt":"2014-04-27T15:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/?p=1401"},"modified":"2014-04-27T08:16:57","modified_gmt":"2014-04-27T15:16:57","slug":"innovative-learning-designs-makerspaces-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/?p=1401","title":{"rendered":"Innovative Learning Designs: MakerSpaces Project"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo Credit: fotologic<\/a> via Compfight<\/a>cc<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/blockquote>\n

\nChanges in educational possibility arise as new media\u00a0<\/span>alter the ways of knowing and the opportunities for participating in the creation of knowledge.<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Robbie McClintock<\/address>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Invitation to Maker Space<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Robotic<\/a>One key to transformation in education is helping students reimagine what is possible. Students who imagine printing structures they designed are participating in the same learning as Boeing engineers who design and print commercial airline parts. Hugh Herr, who lost both of his legs in an accident, has worked with MIT to design and produce bionic legs that can run, climb and dance. \u00a0We live in a time where almost anything is possible.<\/p>\n

The MakerSpace movement recaptures the concept of \u201cexperimental play.\u201d\u00a0 The central thesis is that students should engage in tinkering and \u2018Making\u2019 because these are powerful ways to participate, share and learn. MakerSpaces are not limited to physical space but share the ideals of making, tinkering, collaborating and inventing. In our district we seeded the opportunity (via a grant process) for students and educators to grow \u2018Maker\u2019 mindsets and integrate those mindsets into learning, both within and outside the school environment.<\/p>\n

We invited teachers on a journey to make, invent, create, imagine, share, collaborate, investigate, explore, wonder, inquire, iterate, inspire and learn. These new literacies set the context for our challenge. How do we move forward to equip our students with \u2018Maker\u2019 mindsets; to support their development of the skills, fluencies and understandings that will influence their futures?<\/p>\n

Bringing Maker Spaces to the\u00a0School Community<\/b><\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo Credit: Marco Buonvino<\/a> via Compfight<\/a> cc<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Using an inquiry<\/b> approach, we asked school teams (triads) to design an instructional plan that is built upon foundational elements that best support student learning.\u00a0 The team\u2019s inquiry would falls under the umbrella of \u201cHow does \u2018Making\u2019 impact student learning of specific learning intentions?\u201d or \u201cHow does \u2018Making\u2019 impact students as learners?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adopting new ways to explore and learn takes time\u00a0so\u00a0we invited educators to envision \u2018Making\u2019 as part of ongoing learning. \u00a0To reduce the impact of the \u201cone-more-project syndrome,\u201d these\u00a0teams were asked\u00a0to consider three questions:
\n\u2022 What can we do differently to meet the current learning outcomes?
\n\u2022 What are we doing that we can drop or stop<\/em> doing to explore the potential to meet other learning outcomes?
\n\u2022 How does making \/ tinkering impact students overall learning experiences?<\/p>\n

Important Note:<\/b>\u00a0 The process of \u2018Making\u2019 and the celebration of the resulting end products are exciting in themselves; however, the core mindset of the \u2018Maker\u2019 movement is ongoing<\/em> investigation and discovery. Gary Stager recommends a pedagogical strategy of \u201c\u2026and then?\u201d to view \u2018finished projects\u2019 as part of a continuum of interesting ideas, and as iterations, not discrete end products.<\/p>\n

What is included in our\u00a0Maker Spaces Grant? <\/b><\/p>\n

School teams applied\u00a0for one<\/b> of the three age appropriate kits provided by our department, Education Services. \u00a0Each kit provided has been researched and developed by the IML team with recommendations from the field. We advised schools that they may wish to supplement their learning journey with additional, school-based resources.<\/p>\n

Our sample kits look as follows:
\n\"2426457410_d7e06498a0\"<\/a><\/b>Kit 1 (Recommended K-3):<\/b> Squishy Circuits (Basic Electronics), Resource Books, Construction \/ Building Kits, Basic Tools
\nKit 2 (Recommended grades 3-5):<\/b> Little Bits (Electronics), Resource Books, Construction \/ Building Kits, Makey Makey (interactive software \/ electronics), Hand Tools
\nKit 3 (Recommended grades 5 \u2013 8<\/b>): Little Bits (Electronics), Resource Books, Construction \/ Building Kits, Makey Makey (interactive software \/ electronics), Hand Tools, \u00a0Arduino (Intermediate programming computer components)
\nKit 4 (Recommended grades 8 \u2013 10):<\/b> Resource Books, Construction \/ Building Kits, Makey Makey (interactive software \/ electronics), Hand Tools, Arduino (Intermediate programming computer components), Raspberry Pi (Micro computer programming)<\/p>\n

Teams were invited to discuss their students\u2019 needs, and to identify the preferred kit on their application.<\/p>\n

What else at schools can be used to support \u2018Making\u2019?<\/b><\/p>\n

Making activities can be done virtually as well as in the physical.\u00a0 While our\u00a0grant includes specific devices, tools, and resources, there are many existing devices, tools and resources within schools which support additional \u2018Maker\u2019 activities:
\n\u2022 3D creation \u2013 TinkerCAD, Google SketchUp, 123D Sculp
\n\u2022 Movie Making \u2013 iMovie, Explain Everything
\n\u2022 Construction \u2013 Lego, Blocks
\n\u2022 Programming \u2013 Scratch, Dreamweaver, Wikispaces<\/p>\n

Instructional Design: <\/b><\/p>\n

What did we ask the school team to commit to?
\n<\/i>\u2022 Plan and implement a variety of differentiated, student-centered, learning activities which integrate \u201cMaking\u201d;
\n\u2022 Use ongoing formative assessment of student needs to drive inquiry;
\n\u2022 Demonstrate that Maker projects \u2013 process, product, reflection \u2013 directly connect to the Core Competencies (thinking, communicating, personal and social responsibility).\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

In addition to our Innovative Learning Designs Makerspace grant opportunity, we are also\u00a0providing Mini-Maker kits to all interested Teacher-Librarians and Information Media Contacts in each of our schools. We want to ensure that we had champions that were willing and interested in exploring the Makerspaces concept. \u00a0We also recognized that teachers need time to play and investigate concepts with their colleagues alongside their students. We see these teacher-leaders as facilitating that process in their school community.<\/p>\n

In our district, we have called the month of May #makermay<\/em> as we look at ways of learning more about inventing, tinkering, playing, designing, creating and more. \u00a0As we learn, so do our students.<\/p>\n

Post Notes:<\/b> This project was conceived and this post written by a team of\u00a0Helping Teachers, including: @amboe_k, @shelagh09, @kowalyshyn, @librarymall, @ipadtestkitchen and Sarah Guilmant-Smith. Thanks to @chris_gauvin for providing field-based advice as well. These people are worth following. Thanks to Sylvia Libow Martinez (guest presenter at our Igniting the Passion<\/em> dinner series) for inspiring our learning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Changes in educational possibility arise as new media\u00a0alter the ways of knowing and the opportunities for participating in the creation of knowledge. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Robbie McClintock   The Invitation to Maker Space One key to transformation in education is helping students reimagine what is possible. Students who imagine printing structures they designed are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,192,233,6,191,8,230,1],"tags":[234,235,128,236,290],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1401"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1401"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1430,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1401\/revisions\/1430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}