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Image from Smith, 2019
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In education, trends come and trends go. It seems like as soon as teachers get comfortable, something new comes around the bend, and we have to shift. Before I jump on any bandwagon, I need to know what it is people are talking about, how it can be used in my classroom, and what I would need to do to get started.
A Makerspace is one of these new trends. First appearing in educational worlds around 2010, popularity increased rapidly in the last 10 years. Is this trend worth pursuing? Let’s take a look.
What is a Makerspace?
A Makerspace is a “[place] where practical and artistic creations can be made to gain ... educational and social rewards” (Burke, 2018, p. 1). As STEM gains momentum and education focuses more on creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking, makerspaces are growing in popularity. Individual teachers are creating makerspaces in their classrooms, and administrators are designating specific shared spaces for the entire school. In fact, school libraries and media centers across the country are shifting from archives of information to creation centers (Bull et al., 2017).
At first glance a makerspace seems like a glorified craft room or a STEM laboratory. However, Wendy Goldfien suggests that it is much more than that:
A makerspace is not solely a lab, a craft area, a STEM center, a tech room, or an art station, but it can have components of some or all these places. Makerspaces provide hands-on, creative ways to encourage students to design, experiment, build and invent as they deeply engage in science, engineering and tinkering. They provide a space and time for students to build, explore, fail and retry, and share their ideas with others. The space can be a large elaborate area with 3-D printers, all kinds of technology and interesting tools or as simple as a cart or bins with recycled materials. (2017, para 1).
Makerspaces and Language Arts
Thought most often connected with the STEM subjects, makerspaces prove beneficial in other subject areas as well. Nick Provenza, author of Beyond the Poster Board: Project Based Learning in the English Language Arts Classroom, promotes makerspaces in his blog, The Nerdy Teacher. He demonstrates how makerspaces provide ways for students to use creativity to demonstrate learning. He suggests that if we want to teach students to be thinkers and problem solvers, we need to give them opportunities to create (2015).
Instead of asking students to write a literary analysis, we can give them creative options. For example, they might write a song to represent a theme in a story, or make a comic book that captures the conflicts as they are introduced and resolved. In “Using Makerspaces to Teach English Language Arts Common Core State Standards,” librarian Mollie Hall pointed out, “one of the beauties of making is that there is something tangible beyond a paper or a test that shows that a student has developed a skill and expanded his or her knowledge in the process. It is different from writing an essay, but requires a lot of the same powerful thinking”(2014).
There are a plethora of examples of creative projects that makerspaces would enhance. One teacher suggested having students create a 3-D representation of a symbol presented in a book (Huddleston, 2020). They could build the symbol from materials like clay or Legos; or they could design it and print it on a 3D printer (which would exist in my dream classroom!). In one example, a middle school ELA class used a makerspace to create dioramas of stories they read. Rather than stopping at the traditional shoe-box and paper cut-outs, they animated their dioramas (Bull et al., 2017).
What does a makerspace look like?
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Image from "Making Better Teachers"
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Creating a makerspace in a classroom doesn’t have to be expensive. Wendy Goldfien suggests starting with basic recycled items like boxes, egg cartons, paper towel tubes and plastic containers. A good inventory can also include tape (lots of tape), glue, markers, toothpicks, cups, tools like screwdrivers, pliers and scissors, and craft supplies like feathers and googly eyes. Parents and school supporters are often great resources to provide donations (2017).
Conclusion
As I looked into makerspaces, I realized that this is not just a trend that is going to disappear. Though the name may be new, the idea of implementing creativity in the classroom has been around for decades. For years, I have given creative assignments as a way to allow students to show me what they’ve learned. However, I always assigned these as homework. Adding a makerspace area to my classroom might well go along with a flipped classroom concept. Students can read at home; they can get the lecture notes from a video, and the classroom might become the creation zone where they can work together, brainstorm and learn.
References
Bull, G., Schmidt-Crawford, D. A., McKenna, M. C., & Cohoon, J. (2017). Storymaking: Combining Making and Storytelling in a School Makerspace. Theory Into Practice, 56(4), 271–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2017.1348114
Burke, J. J. (2018). Makerspaces: a practical guide for librarians (Vol. 8). Rowman & Littlefield.
Goldfein, W. (2017, October 11). Makerspace in the classroom: ideas and tips for Stem Success. GetCaughtengineering.com. Retrieved August 5 2020 from https://tinyurl.com/y2g6syn4
Hall, M. (2014). Using Makerspaces to Teach English Language Arts Common Core State Standards. Library Media Connection, 33(3), 32–33.
Huddleston, L. (2019, July 10). Using a Makerspace for English and Humanities Instruction. Edutopia. Retrieved August 4, 2020 from https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-makerspace-english-and-humanities-instruction
“Making better Teachers” retrieved August 5, 2020 from https://makingbetterteachers.com/2018/04/15/the-amazing-classroom-makerspace/
Provenzano, N. (2015, April 8). Making is Not Just for STEM #MakerEd. Retrieved August 4, 2020 from http://www.thenerdyteacher.com/2015/04/making-is-not-just-for-stem-makered.html
Smith, A. (2019, January 25). What is a makerspace? Retrieved August 5, 2020 from https://www.teachstarter.com/us/blog/tips-and-ideas-for-creating-a-makerspace-in-the-classroom-us/
