Essential Question: Why does “YOUR SCHOOL NAME HERE” need a makerspace?"Traditional direct instruction focuses on content knowledge, while maker-centered learning orients around the learner's context. It's a framework for learning that can be applied to any content. It allows the learner to actualize his or her own ideas" (Chang & Ratliff, 2016). This means that students are learning things, and they see how their learning fits into the world. This is a skill that traditional learning does not afford students. "We, as teachers, have the opportunity and responsibility to design engaging learning experiences that address the needs of our youth, and maker education is easily accessible, widely applicable, and highly adaptable to educators and learning environments of all kinds. At its best, a maker curriculum is interactive, hands-on, youth-driven, and open-ended" (Chang & Ratliff, 2016). There is not much direct research on the maker movement, but much can be derived from previous research. Here are a few key points I found in my research on the topic:
"The deepest and most closely held beliefs about learning come not from research reports, but personal experience." (Martinez & Stager, 2013) This makes it hard to give proof for a makerspace, in the sense that proof has been given in the past (data). It is hard to put grades on thoughts, ideas, and experiences. It is even harder to assess 20 different projects or experiences in the same way. Making is about creating things that are of meaning to the learner, and it is hard to assess this with a value or score. So how do we prove learning in a makerspace. The best evidence is anecdotal. This means we need to ask the makers and observers. "At Albemarle County Public Schools, making fosters student autonomy, ignites student interest, and empowers students to embrace their own learning. 'One of the things that we've discovered is that maker education with kids gets them engaged, gets them passionate about the work, gives them opportunities to pursue things that they're interested in,' says Superintendent Pam Moran. 'And as a result, it really raises the level of work that kids are doing, and it starts to make sense. School makes sense'" (Terada, 2016). Here is a short video about Albermarle County Public Schools and a maker education. Some additional anecdotal evidence comes from looking at famous scientists. Take for example Walter, Alvarez ad doctor and physiologist. He sent his son Luis to an arts and crafts school instead of an elite academic school. At this school Luis took industrial drawing and woodworking instead of more "academic" subjects like calculus. Luis Alvarez won the Nobel prize in physics in 1968. "He attributed his success to an uncanny ability to visualize and build almost any kind of experimental apparatus he could imagine" (Root-Bernstein, R., & Root-Bernstein, M., 2013). Is Luis the only one who had an experience like this? The answer is no. Einstein and Swedish biochemist Hans von Euler-Chelpin also experienced success by learning through arts and crafts, which can be a part of making. "Arts and crafts develop such skills as observation, visual thinking, the ability to recognize and form patterns, and manipulative ability. They develop habits of thought and action that include practicing, persevering, and trial-and-error problem solving. They pose new challenges, such as those that intrigued Rood, Ostwald, and von Euler-Chelpin. And they provide novel structures, methods, and analogies that can stimulate scientific innovation" (Root-Bernstein, R., & Root-Bernstein, M., 2013). Even though this only talks about arts and crafts it is still part of the maker movement because a maker movement is really about doing something that makes sense to the learner and this could include arts and crafts. Sources
Chang, S., & Ratliff, C. (2016, July 11). Assessment in Making. Retrieved July 21, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/assessment-in-making-stephanie-chang-chad-ratliff Martinez, S. L., & Stager, G. (2013). Invent to learn: Making, tinkering, and engineering in the classroom [Kindle]. Root-Bernstein, R., & Root-Bernstein, M. (2013, February). The Art and Craft of Science. Retrieved July 21, 2016, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb13/vol70/num05/The-Art-and-Craft-of-Science.aspx Terada, Y. (2016, July 18). Why Making Is Essential to Learning. Retrieved July 21, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/making-is-essential-to-learning-youki-terada Vega, V. (2015, December 1). Project-Based Learning Research Review. Retrieved July 21, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/pbl-research-learning-outcomes
6 Comments
Josie Leach
7/22/2016 09:16:26 am
Sara,
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Sara Lucas
7/23/2016 01:34:36 pm
I definitely think the real world connection is the biggest benefit. Right not it is hard to take what you learn in school and apply it. This part tends to happen more in college with internships rather than actually in the walls of a school.
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7/22/2016 12:39:08 pm
You've made some really good points that support having a makerspace and you are right about it being very different to traditional learning. I like how you gathered and listed research-based evidence that connects to making such as PBL. I know we need further research into making and I'm sure it will come. Brain imaging is interesting. I just read an article that reported on 97 new brain regions recently discovered. This is big, and perhaps with this information and the new imaging technology we will have further research that supports making. Here's an article about it: http://thescienceexplorer.com/brain-and-body/97-new-brain-regions-were-identified-most-detailed-map-brain-ever-created. It includes a video.
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Sara Lucas
7/23/2016 01:44:54 pm
I literally know practically nothing about the brain let alone the research on it. The article and video blew my mind. How many areas are in something as small as a brain is crazy and the fact that they have found 97 new areas blew my mind even more. I definitely agree that these types of studies could be used to help promote the making philosophy. Thanks for sharing.
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Kate
7/24/2016 11:02:46 am
I enjoyed your entire post, but what really hit home was the anecdotal examples of famous scientists. Some of the greatest scientific minds didn't receive strictly "academic" education, yet might have been better off due to this. I think of my grandfather, born in 1899 to newly immigrated parents, who received a traditional education but also was required by his parents to learn a "trade" at the same time. He was an apprenticed machinist by the time he was 14. He went on to graduate from UC Davis with a degree in mechanical engineering, but used his machining knowledge and skills acquired from the flight club he belonged to in college to become a bush pilot in Alaska in the 1930s. His ability to think outside the box allowed him to survive several crashes in remote Alaska, to build a home in Anchorage from a large bulldozer shipping container, and to fix any broken object that crossed his path. Yes, he was a very intelligent man, but it was his constant curiosity and investigative nature which allowed him to visualize the solutions to his problems.
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Jeff Clay
7/24/2016 08:25:38 pm
Thanks for sharing all these resources for defending a makerspace. I particularly liked the Edutopia video because it shows people what a makerspace looks like, how engaged the kids are, and the possibilities for deep and meaningful learning that can occur. It would be very powerful for parents to see the reaction of the parent to this learning environment, that sometimes you have to do things in a different way.
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