Creating Makerspaces in Schools

Two weekends ago, I attended EdCamp NYC at The School at Columbia, an independent school on Manhattan's Upper West Side. One of the things I love about attending edcamps is that the day is always unpredictable because you don't know what will be discussed or who will be leading conversations until that morning. What ensued was an inspiring day focused on tinkering, exploration and innovation. A Day of Play and Exploration The day began with a discussion led by Don Buckley, The School's Director of Technology and Innovation, focused on design thinking in schools. Buckley used projects completed at The School to illustrate the various stages of design thinking, which include defining a problem, researching and creating a solution and a prototype, and implementing the solution. The day ended with a session on 3D printing run by Don Buckley and Jaymes Dec. Design thinking, tinkering and exploring, designing and creating . . . Why Makerspaces? Bringing Makerspaces into Schools More on Makerspaces

preddy-creating-school-library-e2809cmakerspacee2809d.pdf Educational Makerspaces Part 3 of Making an Educational Makerspace Laura Fleming, R. Steven Kurti, and Debby L. To download a PDF version of this article, click here. A culture of innovation in an educational makerspace arises from student ownership rather than from the presence of high-tech tools. Even though the map to educational makerspace success remains vague, pioneers in the field are pushing forward and reporting their findings. By most standards, New Milford High School (NMHS) in Bergen County, New Jersey, is a normal high school. Figure 1. The renaissance of learning and creativity in the library at NMHS had humble beginnings: a simple makerspace where students could learn from one another and from unscripted tinkering. The new librarian took the challenge to transform the library into a vibrant learning environment, and the principal extended immense professional freedom to adjust the space in any manner necessary to inspire students at NMHS to learn, create, and innovate. Figure 2. Figure 3. R.