Making Matters! How the Maker Movement Is Transforming Education

By Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary S. Stager The Maker Movement, a technological and creative learning revolution underway around the globe, has exciting and vast implications for the world of education. New tools and technology, such as 3D printing, robotics, microprocessors, wearable computing, e-textiles, “smart” materials, and programming languages are being invented at an unprecedented pace. Fortunately for teachers, the Maker Movement overlaps with the natural inclinations of children and the power of learning by doing. One might try to marginalize robotics or 3D fabrication as having nothing to do with “real” science and dismiss such activities as play or as just super-charged hobbies. Three big game-changers of the Maker Movement should be on every school’s radar: Computer-Controlled Fabrication Devices Over the past few years, devices that fabricate three-dimensional objects have become an affordable reality. “Hard Fun” and the Process of Design Celebrating Young Talent Related: