Literature Review
Before I begin, I find it necessary to give a little background of myself. Since as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by how things work. As a kid, I remember taking apart old electronics in an attempt to understand their innerworkings, I built elaborate tree forts spanning the tops of multiple trees, and was always attempting to “improve” my toys and belongings. Even at this early age I was always trying to learn new skills and gather as much information as I could about whatever held my interest at the time. Most importantly I have always been drawn to the idea of a challenge - the bigger and more over-the-top it was the more I was drawn to it. Ultimately, it was this mindset that drew me to education.
I started teaching six years ago, and it was around this time that I was introduced to a sub-culture collectively known as the maker movement. Although every person I know who would identify themselves as a maker has their own unique definition of what this means, I find adweek’s definition to encapsulate the majority of their sentiments; “The maker movement, as we know, is the umbrella term for independent inventors, designers and tinkerers. A convergence of computer hackers and traditional artisans, the niche is established enough to have its own magazine, Make, as well as hands-on Maker Faires that are catnip for DIYers who used to toil in solitude. Makers tap into an American admiration for self-reliance and combine that with open-source learning, contemporary design and powerful personal technology like 3-D printers. The creations, born in cluttered local workshops and bedroom offices, stir the imaginations of consumers numbed by generic, mass-produced, made-in–China merchandise.”
Since I first set foot into my own classroom, I have been enamoured by the educational implications of making in the classroom, and have developed my pedagogy and curriculum to be an ongoing exploration of what this can look like. I am frequently presenting my experiences along with my student’s work at various makerfairs and educational conferences around the country, which leads us to my work around the development of a shared makerspace at our campus.
According to Steven Kurti, a published educator not unlike myself, “Educational initiatives often encourage exploration of STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) to encourage creativity, but the energy to propel creative journeys remains conspicuously absent in many programs.” In the world of education there exists a desire/need to further the development of student skills in the areas of STEAM Education, and although this is a common sentiment among many schools and districts, truly authentic and practical implementations of this are rare and few between. It is this challenge that I have been drawn to and intend to explore through my continued work.
This project took root almost a year and a half ago, when few teachers and I were introduced to CNC design and laser cutting by a colleague of ours at one of our sister schools. I immediately recognized the potential of this type of engineering and fabrication as a powerful tool in the project-based classroom, and was determined to bring this to our own school. Here was a tool used in the professional world that would allow for rapid prototyping, using industry-standard software, and afford students the ability to create work with incredible precision that would require very little training or prior knowledge.
All of the directors strongly support the idea of leading as a team, and are quick to identify and explore new ways of innovative education. Backed by the overwhelming support of the three directors at our campus, within a 6 month time frame we had placed the order for our own laser cutter and began to identify a location for what would ultimately become our new MakerSpace.
The strength of our leadership is largely stems from an understanding of the importance of listening to the collective voice of our staff. Farson 1997 states, “I am genuinely interested in what matters to the teacher. Through this lens I can help create change, growth, innovation.” This rings true at our school through the actions of our own leadership.
I had proposed the idea of the development of such a space and it was widely accepted by our staff as well as our directors, who would both play key roles in support of this new venture. Evans 2010 highlights the importance of this sentiment in stating, “It begins by confirming for staff that the leader is committed not just to the change, but to them (p. 50). With the support and commitment of our own leadership, I had quite literally been given the keys to implement this change.
Ultimately, we identified a facilities storage space as future location for our new MakerSpace, and my work began. Since its inception, my motivating factor for the development of this new space has always been rooted in providing as rich of a learning space for our students as possible. My true hope is that our MakerSpace will provide our students with access to tools and experiences that most would never see, with the hopes of discovering new skills and talents, which would carry on well into the future. Had I been given these experiences at this young of an age, I almost certainly would have chosen to pursue a career in engineering and design. My hope is to inspire our students and staff, to explore science, technology, math and engineering in new and innovative ways.
The development of such a space starts with the needs that this kind of space can address in an educational setting, along with the intended impact of the development of such a space. I have currently been reading, Making Things Move, by Dustyn Roberts, which is centered around engineering for the layperson. Roberts states, “The most important thing you bring to the table is an idea. Some of the most amazing projects I’ve seen have come from people with no prior experience in hands-on projects, and certainly no engineering degree. If you’re a passionate musician who has an idea for a guitar that plays itself, you are more likely to end up with a great project than if you're an engineer who thinks you know how a guitar works but have never picked on up.” (p. XIV)
This idea that passion is at the heart of truly great design as opposed to engineering know how, is the foundation for the work I have been doing over the past two years. I have yet to meet an adult with anywhere near the creativity, passion and out-of-the-box thinking as a young, imaginative middle school student. Something happens as we grow older - a change in mindset - we consistently push our dreams to the side because of practicality and reality, chalking it up to the fact that something can't be done just because it doesn't exist or we don’t have the resources to bring it to life. Your average middle school student still has the gift of a naive view of the world - anything is possible if you just put your mind to it. It is this gift that provides the foundation for truly unique creations - things that are limited simply by one’s own imagination.
According to Kurti, “A great educational makerspace motivates more questions than answers because asking the right questions leads to deeper understanding.” My goal is and always has been to develop an educational space designed to take advantage of this simple gift. To develop a space where students, are given the tools to bring their imagination to life. Walt Disney once said, “Every child is born blessed with a vivid imagination. But just as a muscle grows flabby with disuse, so the bright imagination of a child pales in later years if he ceases to exercise it.”. Simply put, if we want to perpetuate creativity and push the boundaries of what one is truly capable of, we must allow for it as often as possible.
I would continue in saying that the importance of starting this at a young age can’t be stated enough. As conferred by Anne Marie Thomas,
I think it is essential for anybody to start working with their hands as a kid [so that] it doesn’t become so foreign later on. As adults I think we lose that intuitive way of looking at things. We were playing more [as children]. I think that learning how to make things at a later age makes it a little more difficult. It’s something you have to work twice as hard to do. Whereas if it’s something that is encouraged, or in my case I was allowed to do what I wanted to do without any supervision, I don’t think I would have had the same love for what to do if I had to start in high school, trying to figure out what I wanted to do in life, I just simply followed what I intuitively felt was right. (Making Makers, p.105)
Our current system of education is antiquated to say the least. Your average classroom is based upon the idea that a teacher is a keeper of knowledge. While in part this may be true, your average student holds in his/her pocket a device, which allows access to a realistically limitless amount of information. Our children are growing up in a time, where one can learn to do almost anything by simply opening a browser window. We have come to a point in our society where access to information is no longer limited by a teacher, professor, or instructor, but rather by one’s wifi connection. So then, the question arises, “ What should be the role of a teacher?” Through my experience, I would argue that duty shifts to providing experiences, which teach students how to access and use this information to the best of their abilities. I often tell my students that I am not an expert in the classes I teach, but rather I am an expert in learning. My goal as a teacher is to model this to my students, teach them the power of directing their own learning and the skills necessary to do so. If I can do this, thean the limits of their capabilities are nearly limitendless.
In 1963, in her book Tomorrow is Now Eleanor Roosevelt wrote:
“It is not too much to say that our whole attitude toward education must be changed. The training of the past - too long inadequate even for the purposes of the past - will not serve in preparing the youngsters of today to meet new conditions, above all, conditions which none of us can clearly foresee. It is one thing to provide a simple skill that can be applied to a given situation. It is quite another thing - a new, a revolutionary thing - to prepare young people to meet an unknown world, to solve unforeseeable problems and to adapt their skills, their intelligence and their knowledge to new situations that are developing with lightning speed. (p. 66-67)”
Over half of a century later this sentiment may be more true with regards to education than it has ever been. What school is now and what school could be are two drastically different things. A traditional classroom revolves primarily around absorption and regurgitation of material with little focus or effort being even put to retention. A teacher gives a lecture... a student reads a chapter… a test is given, and then the students move on to the next subset of information, with little to no need of retaining what was previously discussed. The student clears out the previous topics to make room for what will be coming up on the next test. This bears little semblance to the working field, where workers and employees are expected to retain a vast amount of specialized knowledge, and use that understanding in order to identify problems, develop solutions, create projects and develop products, more often than not in a collaborative setting. If the purpose of school is to prepare our children for life, then why are these skills so hard to find in most classroom. In his book Learning Well at Work: Choices for Quality Steven Hamilton proposes that:
“Learning and working are increasingly interdependent throughout life. Rather than learning during childhood and adolescence and working during adulthood, people must continue learning over their entire lifetime. Workplaces are joining schools as significant learning environments for youth as well as for adults. Along with schools, homes, playgrounds, libraries, cyberspace, and other locations, workplaces are part of the educational system of the future.”
If we want to prepare our students for life, we have to put our students in real life situations and teach them to make real life decision using real life skills. While I adaimantely support the integration of the workplace in education through programs such as internships and apprenticeships, I will be the first to admit the challenge of this on a logistical basis. I believe that we should continue to engage students these kind of authentic learning experiences outside of the classroom, but I also believe that we can make more of an effort to bring these experiences into our classrooms and schools. While I won’t argue that a MakerSpace will act as a one stop shop for providing these kinds of educational experiences, or that implementing one in every school will completely fix our current educational system, I will defend that it is definitely one of many outlets in which to do so.
I started teaching six years ago, and it was around this time that I was introduced to a sub-culture collectively known as the maker movement. Although every person I know who would identify themselves as a maker has their own unique definition of what this means, I find adweek’s definition to encapsulate the majority of their sentiments; “The maker movement, as we know, is the umbrella term for independent inventors, designers and tinkerers. A convergence of computer hackers and traditional artisans, the niche is established enough to have its own magazine, Make, as well as hands-on Maker Faires that are catnip for DIYers who used to toil in solitude. Makers tap into an American admiration for self-reliance and combine that with open-source learning, contemporary design and powerful personal technology like 3-D printers. The creations, born in cluttered local workshops and bedroom offices, stir the imaginations of consumers numbed by generic, mass-produced, made-in–China merchandise.”
Since I first set foot into my own classroom, I have been enamoured by the educational implications of making in the classroom, and have developed my pedagogy and curriculum to be an ongoing exploration of what this can look like. I am frequently presenting my experiences along with my student’s work at various makerfairs and educational conferences around the country, which leads us to my work around the development of a shared makerspace at our campus.
According to Steven Kurti, a published educator not unlike myself, “Educational initiatives often encourage exploration of STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) to encourage creativity, but the energy to propel creative journeys remains conspicuously absent in many programs.” In the world of education there exists a desire/need to further the development of student skills in the areas of STEAM Education, and although this is a common sentiment among many schools and districts, truly authentic and practical implementations of this are rare and few between. It is this challenge that I have been drawn to and intend to explore through my continued work.
This project took root almost a year and a half ago, when few teachers and I were introduced to CNC design and laser cutting by a colleague of ours at one of our sister schools. I immediately recognized the potential of this type of engineering and fabrication as a powerful tool in the project-based classroom, and was determined to bring this to our own school. Here was a tool used in the professional world that would allow for rapid prototyping, using industry-standard software, and afford students the ability to create work with incredible precision that would require very little training or prior knowledge.
All of the directors strongly support the idea of leading as a team, and are quick to identify and explore new ways of innovative education. Backed by the overwhelming support of the three directors at our campus, within a 6 month time frame we had placed the order for our own laser cutter and began to identify a location for what would ultimately become our new MakerSpace.
The strength of our leadership is largely stems from an understanding of the importance of listening to the collective voice of our staff. Farson 1997 states, “I am genuinely interested in what matters to the teacher. Through this lens I can help create change, growth, innovation.” This rings true at our school through the actions of our own leadership.
I had proposed the idea of the development of such a space and it was widely accepted by our staff as well as our directors, who would both play key roles in support of this new venture. Evans 2010 highlights the importance of this sentiment in stating, “It begins by confirming for staff that the leader is committed not just to the change, but to them (p. 50). With the support and commitment of our own leadership, I had quite literally been given the keys to implement this change.
Ultimately, we identified a facilities storage space as future location for our new MakerSpace, and my work began. Since its inception, my motivating factor for the development of this new space has always been rooted in providing as rich of a learning space for our students as possible. My true hope is that our MakerSpace will provide our students with access to tools and experiences that most would never see, with the hopes of discovering new skills and talents, which would carry on well into the future. Had I been given these experiences at this young of an age, I almost certainly would have chosen to pursue a career in engineering and design. My hope is to inspire our students and staff, to explore science, technology, math and engineering in new and innovative ways.
The development of such a space starts with the needs that this kind of space can address in an educational setting, along with the intended impact of the development of such a space. I have currently been reading, Making Things Move, by Dustyn Roberts, which is centered around engineering for the layperson. Roberts states, “The most important thing you bring to the table is an idea. Some of the most amazing projects I’ve seen have come from people with no prior experience in hands-on projects, and certainly no engineering degree. If you’re a passionate musician who has an idea for a guitar that plays itself, you are more likely to end up with a great project than if you're an engineer who thinks you know how a guitar works but have never picked on up.” (p. XIV)
This idea that passion is at the heart of truly great design as opposed to engineering know how, is the foundation for the work I have been doing over the past two years. I have yet to meet an adult with anywhere near the creativity, passion and out-of-the-box thinking as a young, imaginative middle school student. Something happens as we grow older - a change in mindset - we consistently push our dreams to the side because of practicality and reality, chalking it up to the fact that something can't be done just because it doesn't exist or we don’t have the resources to bring it to life. Your average middle school student still has the gift of a naive view of the world - anything is possible if you just put your mind to it. It is this gift that provides the foundation for truly unique creations - things that are limited simply by one’s own imagination.
According to Kurti, “A great educational makerspace motivates more questions than answers because asking the right questions leads to deeper understanding.” My goal is and always has been to develop an educational space designed to take advantage of this simple gift. To develop a space where students, are given the tools to bring their imagination to life. Walt Disney once said, “Every child is born blessed with a vivid imagination. But just as a muscle grows flabby with disuse, so the bright imagination of a child pales in later years if he ceases to exercise it.”. Simply put, if we want to perpetuate creativity and push the boundaries of what one is truly capable of, we must allow for it as often as possible.
I would continue in saying that the importance of starting this at a young age can’t be stated enough. As conferred by Anne Marie Thomas,
I think it is essential for anybody to start working with their hands as a kid [so that] it doesn’t become so foreign later on. As adults I think we lose that intuitive way of looking at things. We were playing more [as children]. I think that learning how to make things at a later age makes it a little more difficult. It’s something you have to work twice as hard to do. Whereas if it’s something that is encouraged, or in my case I was allowed to do what I wanted to do without any supervision, I don’t think I would have had the same love for what to do if I had to start in high school, trying to figure out what I wanted to do in life, I just simply followed what I intuitively felt was right. (Making Makers, p.105)
Our current system of education is antiquated to say the least. Your average classroom is based upon the idea that a teacher is a keeper of knowledge. While in part this may be true, your average student holds in his/her pocket a device, which allows access to a realistically limitless amount of information. Our children are growing up in a time, where one can learn to do almost anything by simply opening a browser window. We have come to a point in our society where access to information is no longer limited by a teacher, professor, or instructor, but rather by one’s wifi connection. So then, the question arises, “ What should be the role of a teacher?” Through my experience, I would argue that duty shifts to providing experiences, which teach students how to access and use this information to the best of their abilities. I often tell my students that I am not an expert in the classes I teach, but rather I am an expert in learning. My goal as a teacher is to model this to my students, teach them the power of directing their own learning and the skills necessary to do so. If I can do this, thean the limits of their capabilities are nearly limitendless.
In 1963, in her book Tomorrow is Now Eleanor Roosevelt wrote:
“It is not too much to say that our whole attitude toward education must be changed. The training of the past - too long inadequate even for the purposes of the past - will not serve in preparing the youngsters of today to meet new conditions, above all, conditions which none of us can clearly foresee. It is one thing to provide a simple skill that can be applied to a given situation. It is quite another thing - a new, a revolutionary thing - to prepare young people to meet an unknown world, to solve unforeseeable problems and to adapt their skills, their intelligence and their knowledge to new situations that are developing with lightning speed. (p. 66-67)”
Over half of a century later this sentiment may be more true with regards to education than it has ever been. What school is now and what school could be are two drastically different things. A traditional classroom revolves primarily around absorption and regurgitation of material with little focus or effort being even put to retention. A teacher gives a lecture... a student reads a chapter… a test is given, and then the students move on to the next subset of information, with little to no need of retaining what was previously discussed. The student clears out the previous topics to make room for what will be coming up on the next test. This bears little semblance to the working field, where workers and employees are expected to retain a vast amount of specialized knowledge, and use that understanding in order to identify problems, develop solutions, create projects and develop products, more often than not in a collaborative setting. If the purpose of school is to prepare our children for life, then why are these skills so hard to find in most classroom. In his book Learning Well at Work: Choices for Quality Steven Hamilton proposes that:
“Learning and working are increasingly interdependent throughout life. Rather than learning during childhood and adolescence and working during adulthood, people must continue learning over their entire lifetime. Workplaces are joining schools as significant learning environments for youth as well as for adults. Along with schools, homes, playgrounds, libraries, cyberspace, and other locations, workplaces are part of the educational system of the future.”
If we want to prepare our students for life, we have to put our students in real life situations and teach them to make real life decision using real life skills. While I adaimantely support the integration of the workplace in education through programs such as internships and apprenticeships, I will be the first to admit the challenge of this on a logistical basis. I believe that we should continue to engage students these kind of authentic learning experiences outside of the classroom, but I also believe that we can make more of an effort to bring these experiences into our classrooms and schools. While I won’t argue that a MakerSpace will act as a one stop shop for providing these kinds of educational experiences, or that implementing one in every school will completely fix our current educational system, I will defend that it is definitely one of many outlets in which to do so.