Challenge-Based Makerspaces
Course
Connecting Your Makers [6:51]
- Learn ways for students to create local connections with people who run makerspaces in your area.
- Learn how making digital connections strengthens student voice and empowers students.
- Learn to take connections to the next level with a joint design challenge or hosting a maker fest
Let's start by looking at creating local connections. It's a good idea to expose your students to the fact that the maker movement is larger than just their own school. Find out where your local maker spaces are and talk with the people who run them. Makerspaces are often run by wonderful people who love to share what they're doing and help out schools. If possible, organize a field trip where your students can get to see how other makerspaces are set up and run. If that isn't a possibility, consider a virtual field trip, video conference, or having someone from the makerspace come and visit your school.
Another good idea is to take students to visit local maker events in your area. Maybe your town hosts is a maker fair or a mini maker fair, if not there's likely robotics competitions, art fairs, or other events that connect to the maker movement. Events like these are excellent opportunities to expose your students to other makers.
Creating digital connections is another way to connect your students. There are so many ways to connect your students using digital tools. These can be a fantastic method for allowing student voice, empowering students to teach and getting authentic feedback for students' projects. Video conferencing can be a powerful method to connect your students beyond your school. Any video conferencing tool will do. You could schedule a video conference with another school and have students share projects with one another; this could be a great opportunity to interview and be interviewed by students in other schools and makerspaces.
Video conferencing can also work as a tool to connect your makers to experts. If the current design challenge connects with oceanography, why not have a video chat with an oceanographer to learn more about the problems they face in their field? If you're designing furniture, schedule a video conference with the furniture manufacturer to get authentic feedback for your students' designs.
Beyond just being a great way to connect, video conferencing can also empower student voice. I have seen many students who are shy, socially awkward, and who hate presenting embrace video conferencing. These students are often the first ones to volunteer to come up to the webcam, and they're excited to talk about their ideas and ask questions.
A joint design challenge with another school is another great way to take connecting your makers to the next level. This is how Colleen Graves and I first started collaborating. Colleen and I first met through Twitter where we were both sharing ideas about Hour of Code. The two of us began to share more ideas and stories about our makerspace and became friends.
Eventually, we wrote a book together along with her husband Aaron. As an aside here, this is a great reminder that you should find your maker buddies and build your personal learning network. There are so many educators out there who are passionate about making and that would love to connect with you.
Back to the joint design challenge...as Colleen and I talked, we realized that her makers group in Texas and mine in Florida met during the same time, despite being in different time zones. We decided to take up a joint design challenge and had each of our groups work on creating catapults. As we worked on our projects, we shared them with each other on social media using the #CatapultChallenge. At the end of our design challenge, our groups met in a video conference and shared their final projects with one another. It was a valuable learning experience for our students and it was a great way for them to see how others tackle the same challenge.
While making can be fun and silly and whimsical, there can also be a serious side to making. For another way to connect your makers do something greater than themselves, consider a makers service project. There are many different organizations and people out there that makers can help. For example, the Banding Together project organized schools to create and donate rainbow loom bracelets to children. Project ENABLE is another great organization that helps provide 3D-printed prosthetics to children in need.
Beyond larger global programs, consider local ones as well. Your students could sew blankets for a local animal shelter, knit hats for the homeless, or design a video game controller for a student with cerebral palsy. Makerspaces can definitely help to serve the greater good.
One of my favorite ways for students to share and connect in makerspaces, are maker fairs or maker fests. These are schoolwide events that help to celebrate making, grow your maker culture, and give your makers an opportunity to share their work. I always held our maker fest towards the end of the school year, but they can be held at whatever time of the year works best for your program. When planning a maker fest consider whether you want to hold it during school, after school, or both. Again, it's about what works best for your school. We always held ours during conference night, but if your school holds a regular STEM fair or literacy night, these might be good options.
A during school fair, could have classes and teachers coming down to visit. Find the best solution for your school. At a maker fest, include opportunities for your students to teach your guests about the different maker tools and activities you have available in your space. Nothing helps a student to really understand a skill better than to teach it to someone else. At maker fests I've organized before, students were teaching parents, school board members, and their peers about littleBits, 3D-printing, button makers and perler bead designs.
Try to give as much control over to the students as possible, let them decide what they want to teach, how they want the event set up. Think of yourself as the coordinator; working to make sure everything runs smoothly. In addition to teaching your guests about makerspaces, maker fests are an excellent opportunity to showcase your students' projects and passions. In the months leading up to our maker fest each year, students would work on larger scale interactive projects that they could share with guests. There were obstacle courses and mazes for robots. One year we had a cardboard cave constructed between the library stacks. There was a crossbow made out of K'NEX that guests could test fire and a replica of Godzilla that blew fire, or rather, blew streamers that made it look like fire.
Students love having the chance to share and talk about their work and this is an excellent chance for them to pursue their passions. Think about a project you have planned. How could you use one of the strategies we discussed here to connect your makers? Write out some action steps you could take to make this happen.
Connecting your makers with other makers empowers them. It allows students to use their voice in sharing what they've created and gives the opportunity for authentic feedback. In this lesson, several connections were discussed and how to go about making these happen within your library or makerspace. Choose 2-3 connections discussed in this lesson and use the worksheet on page 5 of the handout found in the resources below to create some action steps to start making these connections for your makers.
In this lesson, Diana Rendina talks about the joint design challenge created with Colleen Graves about the Hour of Code. What are some other lessons in your school year that would work well with another group? Creating a design challenge around a common school or library theme is a great starting point. Reflect on some of your upcoming lessons and how they would lend themselves to a joint design challenge. See page 10 of the handout in the resources above to jot down your notes.
MLA Citation
"Challenge-Based Makerspaces: Creating Connections for Your Makers." School Library Connection, April 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2263246?learningModuleId=2263194&topicCenterId=2247902.
Entry ID: 2263437
Additional Resources
About the Author
MLA Citation
Rendina, Diana L. "Challenge-Based Makerspaces. Connecting Your Makers [6:51]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, April 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2263246?learningModuleId=2263194&topicCenterId=2247902.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2263246?learningModuleId=2263194&topicCenterId=2247902
Entry ID: 2263246