Michele Sarrides @ferrbrook
Makerspace- lot of philosophy, people make things, as broad or general as that. Electronic with robots, goal is use to do it yourself concept. It is designated space such as a library, or unused locker room they can refurbish. It is so broad and unspecific. In middle school or high school, have tutorials available and have stuff there for them. In elementary school, a little more guided. There is curriculum, they are their own teachers, they teach each others. Guide on the side rather than sage on the stage. Can be low tech teaching kids how to knit or wood and soldering irons, kids have gotten away from making things. Want something buy it? Breaks, throw it out. This is a philosophy getting back to why and how things are made and how you can be a part of it. Coding to learning about circuits using rasberry pi or the makey makey. Using hummingbird kit which they had at edcamp in Philly. Using scratch and teaches kids coding. From MIT. When can teachers use this and fit it into their schedule? This is absolutely a question. This year it will be a club. Want to get it off the ground. Next year we will break up our tech schedule and their will be cycles and it will be part of that cycle. Laura Hollis suggests- Ikea has kitchen carts that are movable, making them movable shared resources in kids space, feels like more organic idea. Suggests refurbished baby cam to check up on location where you put 3D printer and send kids to it. She recommends this only for older kids (I doubt K-5 would be able to be unsupervised).
Piscataway Public Library has 3D printer. They have makerspace. Digital Harbor Foundation. 200 or less a makerspace. We got to play with sticky styrofoam, battery, and LED light. They made a badge that lights up. http://www.digitalharbor.org/ You tube is a tremendous resource for what a makerspace is and how to implement it. You can do an artbox for your makerspace. They use makey makey kits that start around $50.
Laura Hollis mentions: There is a girl named "superawesomesylvia" She was at white house for makerspace and she has a kit she sells that you can tell the paintbrush to dip in different colors. I love the idea of kids teaching kids. They are creating their own videos to teach. Asking them, what are the things you always wanted to learn, create a tutorial and teach someone else while you learn. The keeping track of how they learn it, what they find, and teaching someone else.
