Challenge-Based Makerspaces
Course
Maker Workshops [6:10]
- Learn how maker workshops help students to become more creative in future projects.
- Learn the different types of maker workshops and how to choose which one is right for your students.
- Learn what elements need to be planned ahead of time to have a smooth maker workshop.
These workshops generally don't involve a lot of creativity initially, but by building and developing their skill sets, maker workshops help students to be more creative in future projects. A maker workshop might be focused on a particular tool, material, or project, or it might look at skill sets that can be applied to a variety of activities. A maker workshop can happen as part of a class, before or after school, during lunch, during club time, or at any other time that will work for you.
Some workshops can be shorter, as more of an introduction to a tool or skill. But, in general, I found that most workshops need to be at least an hour to be effective as there tends to be a lot of instruction at the beginning before students can actually dive in and apply what they've learned. Depending on how complex the topic of your workshop is, you may have to meet for multiple sessions. The reason maker workshops are important in a makerspace, is that they can help to lay the foundation for future design challenges.
Think about it this way: say you want to hold a design challenge that involves students creating sewn sculptures that light up with circuits. It's true that you could just hand the students the needle, thread, material and other supplies and challenge them to figure it out for themselves. But if you offer a workshop beforehand, teaching your students the basic skills of sewing, they'll be able to be far more creative in their projects because they won't be so caught up in the frustration of learning how to sew for the first time.
There can be many different types of maker workshops. Choosing which kind you want to have will vary depending on what your goals for the workshops are and where you want your students to go once they're over. A beginning workshop is a workshop that helps students to learn a new skill. This could be something that is brand new to them, or something they have some familiarity with but aren't super comfortable with yet. An example of a beginning workshop could be teaching students the basics of hand sewing: how to thread a needle, how to sew on a button, and how to create a running stitch.
An advanced workshop builds up and further develops an existing skill. In general, this is something where students already know the basics. You might have to limit these workshops to students who can meet a set of prerequisites. At the very least, make sure that you make it clear in your advertising that some experience is required. To build on the previous example, an advanced sewing workshop might teach students how to use a sewing machine, or how to create complex embroidery stitches.
If you have students sign up for an advanced workshop who have little or no experience, you'll have to decide what to do. For some maker workshop topics such as using power tools or soldering irons, you might have to turn away these students away for safety reasons. However, if the topic of your workshop is something like advanced coding with Scratch, you might let the students stay and see what they can absorb.
A tool, or a product-specific workshop is geared towards teaching students the basics of how to use a specific tool in your makerspace. Maybe you just got a new set of littleBits, or the science department got a 3D printer. These are similar to a beginning workshop except that they focus on a specific item. Running a maker workshop in your library doesn't have to be super stressful and complicated. With some logistical planning ahead of time, things can run relatively smooth and make for a great experience for you and your students.
You'll want to start by picking a location and time. In general, your workshops will probably be in your makerspace, but there might be other occasions where another location would be appropriate. The day and time you pick, and the length of time will of course vary depending on what the workshop is on and what group it's aimed at. If a workshop is more complicated, make sure you plan to have additional follow-up sessions. If you think there will be a lot of demand for a certain topic, you might want to schedule more than one offering of the workshop.
Once you have a time and place set for your workshops, you'll want to advertise it and encourage students to sign up. Share about your workshop on social media. Create some signage in your library. If you have student email or a classroom management system, let students know about it on there as well. Depending on your workshop topic, you may want to limit the number of students participating and have a sign-p form. You'll want to decide ahead of time whether or not you'll be using materials that are consumable or reusable in your workshop.
If you have the supplies and the budget, it can be nice to allow your students to take their finished projects home. That is what I did when I held a sewn circuit bracelet workshop. We were able to source our supplies through donations, which allowed every student who participated to take her bracelet home. On the other hand, if you held a BrushBot workshop at your school, you could have students take apart their creations at the end of the workshop so that the next group could use the same parts. As always, figure out what will work best for you.
Maker workshops tend to involve a lot of one-on-one instruction. It can be difficult to manage this by yourself. To relieve some of the burden, recruit maker mentors to help you lead the workshop. This could mean selecting a few students who are already knowledgeable about the topic and who feel comfortable explaining it to others. It could be a fellow teacher or a faculty member.
For my sewing workshop, I had a parent who taught sewing classes professionally come in to help. You should also look at places like your local public library and local makerspaces. There are often people who are happy to come and help you with programs like this.
Now take a minute to brainstorm some maker skills that you think would be valuable for your students to learn. Write out some ideas for how you could organize a maker workshop to help your students learn them.
Your next design challenge requires your students to have some basic skills in order to complete the challenge. Creating a maker workshop to teach them the skill or tool required for the design challenge is a simple solution. Maker workshops are an excellent way to build student skills and prepare them for design challenges. Using the worksheet on page 4 of the handout found in the resources below, create a maker workshop to teach your students a basic skill or tool for your next design challenge.
Maker workshops do not have to be complicated events and with planning ahead of time, they should be a great experience for your students. One of the elements of a workshop is having the supplies. If you needed to get supplies for a consumable workshop, what are some resources you could use to request donations? How would you describe your workshop to the potential donor? Would you need more than one? See page 10 of the handout in the resources above to jot down your notes.
MLA Citation
"Challenge-Based Makerspaces: Planning Your Maker Workshop." School Library Connection, April 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2263244?learningModuleId=2263194&topicCenterId=2247903.
Entry ID: 2263436
Additional Resources
About the Author
MLA Citation
Rendina, Diana L. "Challenge-Based Makerspaces. Maker Workshops [6:10]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, April 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2263244?learningModuleId=2263194&topicCenterId=2247903.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2263244?learningModuleId=2263194&topicCenterId=2247903
Entry ID: 2263244