Читать книгу The Kickstart Guide to Making GREAT Makerspaces - Laura Fleming - Страница 12

Be sure to provide opportunities for your students to take their learning deeper.

Makerspaces in and of themselves do not necessarily promote deeper learning. Does your makerspace have depth? GREAT makerspaces provide opportunities for students to take their learning deeper. For example, many makerspaces have Legos. Legos are all about themes such as engineering, design, and architecture. For those students who enjoy designing with Legos, it is critical to find additional ways to support the themes behind Legos. Students who enjoy Legos should have other opportunities to experience engineering, architecture, and design, and not just be limited to one activity. This affords them rich experiences and innovative ways to take their learning deeper than if their experience began and ended with Legos.

Samantha Edwards, library media specialist at Fogelsville Elementary School, has created many opportunities for her students to take their learning deeper. Using Schoology, she created a competency-based learning model in her Media Center for her fifth graders. Students master the curriculum while also obtaining open-ended exploration and increased time in their library makerspace. As students master concepts, they are awarded online badges. After three to four units are mastered each quarter, students receive open-ended exploration time at the Innovation Station of their choice in their makerspace. Samantha also has tried to create a print-rich environment conducive to researching robotics, engineering, circuitry, design, and bookmaking, among many other topics, and has supported her students’ interests in the Innovation Stations she developed. Providing students with the innovative tools to explore, integrating the curricular topics from their classroom experiences, and making books and digital resources available to them is the best way she has found to ensure her students are more invested in the learning opportunities she provides in her Media Center.

Photo by Dorie Glynn at Kirk Elementary School in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD

Samantha tries to foster a mastery of the four Cs—creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking—in all the activities she has in her makerspace. These include the following:

Photo courtesy of Kellyanne Burbage

 Research Lego design project: Students researched famous buildings as a curriculum integration project in their Media Center. After they completed their research using the print-rich environment and digital resources, they taught the class all about their famous building. Students then used the green screen, as well as movie-making software from the makerspace, to complete their presentation to the class. They also had a choice to use either the Legos in the makerspace to build their famous architectural building/landmark or the 3-D printer to design and create a replica. Having the innovative makerspace tools, as well as the print-rich and digital resources, has allowed for her students to extend their learning beyond the surface to a deeper level.

 Lego storytelling: Students created designs using the Legos in the makerspace and were tasked with locating a book from their library to help tell their “story.” For example, if they created a Lego design that had a horse in it, they needed to locate a book about horses to gather some facts to include in their story. They also were able to use digital resources when looking for supporting information.

 Collaborative experience with fourth-grade space exploration project using the green screen and movie-making software: After teaching a unit on the research process, fourth-grade students were assigned the task of choosing a planet and researching it. Their challenge was to create an alien from that planet. Students captured pictures of their alien in front of the green screen. Then students used an app to manipulate their alien’s mouth so it looked like it was talking. The alien shared five key points about its planet via video recording. Since the original photo of the alien was captured in front of a green screen, a space scene could be added by the students during editing. To support the students beyond the tools for this project, Samantha displayed space exploration and alien books, and encouraged students to use their digital resources for further exploration.

 Wonder Foxes ~ robotics team and K’NEX team: With several after-school clubs that meet and compete, students are able to extend their makerspace skills beyond the classroom walls. These competitions provide an in-depth exploration of robotics, engineering, mathematics, and much more.

Photo courtesy of Medfield Public Schools, Massachusetts