Maker Mindset

Everywhere you turn, people are talking about makerspaces and asking lots of questions. Where should the makerspace be placed? What materials and resources are needed? How much is it going to cost? Is it in our budget? Who is going to maintain the makerspace? How will students utilize this space? These are certainly good questions, but the most important question that begs to be asked is WHY? Why do you need a makerspace? In reality, a makerspace isn’t a space at all, it’s a mindset. It’s about exploring, discovering new ideas, and creating. It’s about being innovative and creating things that are new and better. It’s about tinkering, inventing, building, problem solving, critical thinking, and taking risks. It’s about collaborating and learning from others. It’s about failing, learning from mistakes and trying again. It’s about finding your passions and sharing them with others. It’s about making!

At Cooper Upper Elementary, we transformed a dreary storage room into a vibrant makerspace that is utilized by fifth and sixth graders. Two of these students, Evan and Robby, were especially energized by this new learning space last year. The doors were not officially opened, but the boys immediately felt safe to share some of the innovative projects that they had been creating at home because they didn’t feel that their passion for innovating had any place at school. Ouch! Talk about a punch to the gut. Up until that moment, our words spoke of innovation, but in the eyes of the students, our actions did not. As your school contemplates the why for a makerspace, there is no better testimonial then that of these two young men. 

Genius Hour

Last fall, I set a goal to incorporate Genius Hour into one or more of my classes. Working alongside Mrs. Erickson and her 6th grade class and Mrs. Bubar and her 5th grade class, we set forth on a Genius Hour journey. In fact, our passion project became Genius Hour.

Our mission was to give our students an opportunity to think creatively. We wanted to give them time to explore their own passions, wonders and curiosities. We wanted them to take risks, to learn from their mistakes, and then take some more risks. We wanted them to work on new ideas and to develop new skills. We wanted to give them the gift of time each week to find and follow their passions. We wanted to create a very student centered learning opportunity where all learning was celebrated. We wanted to cultivate wonder!

We were ambitious and anxious to get started with the kids! We had energy!  We were on fire! We had visions of our students asking prolific questions and pursuing their passions with grit and rigor! We shared all of this with our students and we let them go! We then waited for the enthusiasm of pursuing a passion project of their choice to pulsate within their veins and very existence. We waited. We waited some more….

We met twice a week to give students time to pursue their passions, during this time, we worked to build a culture of innovation where the students felt safe to take risks and to have autonomy in their learning. As excited as we were to see the learning sparks flying between our students, the reality is that Genius Hour got off to a slow start. It was almost as if the students weren't sure what to make with the time they were being given and many struggled to identify anything they were passionate about and wanted to learn more.

The first thing we learned was that our students needed a lot of guidance brainstorming ideas and narrowing these ideas down into “good” questions.  Much more than we had anticipated. When asked what they were passionate about, many gave a one word statement or no answer at all. With further conversation, it was evident that many of our students had many life experiences from which to pull ideas from and others did not. Their initial questions were Googleable and we wanted them to be Siri proof. As a result, we learned that we needed to take a few steps back in order to keep moving forward.

After a lot of conversations with the students, we decided to create a Wonder Wall where they could share their passions and post things that they wondered about. We then worked with students to build some essential questions based off of these ideas. This seemed to help those students who struggled to come up with an idea for their passion project. On the other hand, we had some students who has so many questions and ideas that they struggled to narrow it down to one. The dynamics were quite interesting. It verified to us that Genius Hour was what our students needed more than ever to ignite their passions, to inspire their learning, and to provide them the avenue for creativity.

As the year progressed, the ideas blossomed and the students slowly, but surely, pursued their passions with enthusiasm and motivation to learn. They researched their topics and made their learning visible. They learned from each other and collaborated. They set goals and met them. We as teachers learned so much about Genius Hour from our students and will continually work to make improvements to the process and to build a culture of innovation. There were countless benefits to partaking in Genius Hour this year, but the absolute best was building relationships the students and getting to know them better!

How Do You Bake Cupcakes?	How Do Plants Grow in Space?
Why Do Camels Have a Hump?	How Does the Eye Work?

The Doors to Creativity Are Open

Our Makerspace journey began last year when I started learning about makerspaces at conferences I attended, from books I read, people I talked with and schools that I visited. To be honest, my first thought was that it was a lot of talk about arts and crafts and seemed like the shop classes that I attended back in middle school. But the more I learned, the more I realized that it was much more than that. Makerspace is a mindset. It’s about encouraging our students to create, to tinker, to design, to invent, and to innovate. It’s about not being afraid to fail and to take risks. It’s using what you have to make something new and different. Today’s students may be growing up in a world of technology, but too often they are passive consumers of information. They are not active participants who are producing or creating new content. They live in a world that is very scheduled and prescribed both at home and at school. For various reasons, many don’t have opportunities to build, create, and make things at home. Even the rigidity and rigor of the school curriculum has been prohibitive in the free exploration of creation.

This couldn’t have been more evident than when the doors of our makerspace were opened to students this week. Prior to entering the makerspace, I had a discussion with students about creativity and innovation. We also discussed WHY we have a makerspace and that although we have a makerspace room, the makerspace mindset should trickle back into their classrooms. There were multiple stations set up throughout the room and the students excitedly made decisions as to where they wanted to go first.

It was so interesting to watch. There was so much enthusiasm throughout the room that it was electric. They were excited. They were like hungry little puppies that couldn’t get enough to eat as they each immersed themselves into a station of their choice. In some cases, it was as if the students had never been given an opportunity to simply create something with no boundaries. They were hungry and eager for more. As I walked around the room observing and listening to the students, I was as energized as they were. Some things I overheard:

• This is paradise!
• This is the best library day ever!
• I’ve never colored on a table before. This is awesome!
• I love the makerspace because nobody judges what you make.
• It’s a judge free zone!
• Creativity is like your mind spilling over onto paper!

This week’s orientation into the makerspace is only the beginning. It will continue to grow and evolve. It will house static stations like Legos, KNEX and Ozobot Robots, but it will also have dynamic stations that will propose challenges to the students and change on a regular basis. You know you’ve got a good thing going for kids when the biggest problem of the week was getting the students to leave the makerspace when their class was done!

Our Maker Journey

The creation of our makerspace has really been a journey in and of itself. What started with a few ideas has grown into dozens. With every paint project completed, a new one is created. One of the most exciting, yet unexpected things that keeps happening while making this space, is the unsolicited help from our community. People have shared ideas, they’ve helped create displays, they’ve helped paint, they’ve donated supplies, they’ve built storage boxes, and so much more. Synergy helped build our makerspace and it is still a work in progress. The other exciting thing to happen throughout this whole process has been watching and listening to the mounting enthusiasm that is growing amongst the students. Although they have not been in the room yet because of the ladders and paint supplies, they can catch a glimpse of what is going on from the doorway.

“When do we get to use that room?”

“I can’t wait to go into the LEGO Room!”

“That room doesn’t even look like school!”

This enthusiastic response from the students has been energizing and motivating to get the room done, so that they can start using it to create, tinker and invent! Once the students start utilizing the makerspace, we will create a student led Makerspace Leadership Team to help generate ideas for how we can continually make improvements on it's use. 

The Maker Movement

The Maker Movement is about moving from consumption to creation and turning knowledge into action. ~ Laura Fleming

Our students are inquisitive learners, but they need creative time and space to dream, create and invent. This is the year for a makerspace!

The library used to be a place that students visited to get a book, to get an answer, and to get information. Today’s students come to the library to use information, literature and technology to create new ideas, to become critical thinkers, to work collaboratively, and to communicate their thoughts. The library is no longer a place to GET knowledge; it is a place to MAKE knowledge.

With this in mind, we have been working to add a makerspace as an extension of our library media program. We are transforming a cluttered storage area that is adjacent to the library into a learning space where students will be encouraged to explore their interests, to take risks, to play, and to tinker with a wide variety of materials. We want them to have the opportunity to design, create, invent and discover! We want them collaborating, interacting with others, thinking and questioning. We’d like to build a makerspace that engages our kids and makes learning fun. We believe that if we build it, they will come! Our student leaders will have the opportunity to partake in STEM projects that strengthen and enhance their learning experiences. They’ll be exposed to things they didn’t know they would love, which will unleash their imagination and individual genius!

We have a vision to transform this space into a makerspace!