OTT 23: 5 Reasons Every Classroom Needs a Makerspace

Makerspace

Mar 11

Makerspace is a rapidly growing trend in schools across the country. Most makerspaces can exist in Media Centers or Libraries. However, teachers can utilize the power of makerspace in their classrooms, as well. So why not have a makerspace in your classroom?

Today, on One Tired Teacher I share my adventures creating a makerspace in a media center that needed a 911 makeover. While finding so much value in creating a makerspace in the media center, I realized that all classrooms should have a makerspace, as well.

What is a Makerspace?

A makerspace is a place where students can gather to create, invent, tinker, explore, and discover using a variety of tools and materials. This can be an astonishing place to think and to learn!

Highlights From the Show

Makerspaces come in all shapes and sizes, but they all serve as a gathering point for tools, projects, mentors, and expertise. A collection of tools does not define a Makerspace. Rather, we define it by what it enables: Making
~The Makerspace Playbook

I feel like this happens by accident. I love moments when kids are learning, and they don’t even realize it! Yes, metacognitive thinking is vital, but sometimes you have to hook them. Makerspaces do that. They draw kids in. Kids want to think critically, and problem solve. They love being challenged when it feels like play.

Makerspaces haven’t integrated into the classroom, as much as I think they should. Makerspace can be anything. And that is the beauty of it. There are no limits. It is a wonder of discovery. THAT should be happening in all classrooms.
Makerspace mixes all aspects of STEM- Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math and sprinkles it with hands-on experiences, imagination, and discovery. It truly can be engaging to the senses.
Motivating children who don't love to learn is one of my favorite reasons for why classrooms deserve to have a Makerspace. Children have become reluctant learners. Their natural curiosity makes them a lover of learning. Yet, sometimes this love is stifled in the way in which learning is presented and assessed.
The beauty in a Makerspace is we move away from competition and move more to collaboration. Societies thrive on collaboration. We are constantly putting kids in situations where they are competing. Why not take a closer look at how kids think, learn, and live? Makerspace is a powerful catalyst for synergy.
~Trina Deboree

What do you do in a Makerspace? The simple answer is you make things. Things in which you are curious. Things that spring from your imagination that inspire you. The informal, playful atmosphere allows learning to unfold, rather than conform to a rigid agenda. Making, rather than consuming is the focus. It is the craft, engineering, technology, and wonder-driven.
~Thinkers and Tinkerers

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