Education makerspaces offer schools the opportunity to go deeper than books and lectures and allow students to dive into hands-on learning while building 21st-century skills. However, not all education makerspaces are equipped the same way or are designed with the same goals in mind.
Some makerspaces may be outfitted to specifically explore STEAM interests like computers, machining, science concepts or digital fabrication. Others may be suited to accommodate a wider range of activities including paper-based construction, prototyping, sewing, electronics, robotics, metal working and crafting.
No matter how they’re equipped, at their core makerspaces in class encourage hands-on solutions that allow students to design, experiment and invent. Here are some other traits that today’s education makerspaces should have in common:
Community Engagement
Considering the needs and interests of the community that the makerspace serves is a great place to start when planning, especially if you have a makerspace in the library. Having a clear idea of what the spaces’ makers want to achieve can help with planning equipment and materials for the space.
For instance, do you want to expose patrons to a variety of easy-to-use digital fabrication technologies? Do you want to offer local small businesses a place to experiment and collaborate on new ideas? Do you plan to create a learning space for children of all ages and adults?
When the space is established, be sure to engage community members through workshops and events. Seminars and workshops can spread the word and show off the capabilities of the tools in your makerspace in a fun, exciting learning environment for both students and the public. Keep in mind patrons may be intimidated by the technologies in your makerspace, so make these events as approachable as possible.
Find more tips on how to manage your makerspace on our blog.
Collaborative Environment
Rather than being lost in theory or concept in isolation, makerspaces foster innovation through hands-on experimentation and collaboration with others. In school-based makerspaces, it is important for students to share their interests and ideas, learn from each other and create new things.
In a space that encourages knowledge and idea sharing, makerspaces naturally foster a sense of community and can bring people of different backgrounds and expertise together. A collaborative environment such as this can encourage a maker mindset and development of other important skills, including:
- Resilience: Makers learn that failure is only the middle of the story, where they learn can learn from their mistakes, iterate on their designs, and develop a deeper understanding by trying multiple times.
- Confidence: Makers learn how to collaborate with others. This means that one maker knows when how to actively listen to others and when they can take command with their own strengths. In addition, a makerspace can give students opportunities to pursue subjects they might not feel confident about exploring in class, like girls with STEM activities for example.
- Self-Reflection: Makers learn their strengths and weaknesses. Even better, they learn that weaknesses aren’t inflexible or set in stone. Students learn how to work with their strengths, when to lean on their classmates’ strengths, and how a collaborative team works together.
- Problem Solving: A maker mindset fosters creative problem solving. There are no problems that cannot be solved with a little tinkering and a whole lot of creativity.
Collaborative learning in makerspaces can be stimulated through both intentional projects and activities, and through the seating and flow of the space. We cover these makerspace considerations more in depth in this blog post.
Curriculum Integration
While open project exploration can encourage creativity, some makerspaces may want to integrate curriculum concepts to help reinforce learning objectives. We have a post on the blog breaking down how to sync your makerspace with your curriculum. Here are some steps to take for successful curriculum integration.
- Identify Learning Objectives and Choose Makerspace Activities That Align: Review your curriculum and identify the learning objectives that can be enhanced or reinforced through makerspace activities. For example, if you’re teaching a unit on geometry, you might want to incorporate a 3D printing project that requires students to design and print a geometric shape.
- Plan Makerspace Projects: Create a plan for each makerspace project that includes the learning objectives, materials needed, instructions, and assessment criteria. Make sure your students understand the project expectations and how it relates to the curriculum.
- Schedule Makerspace Time: Incorporate makerspace time into your classroom schedule. You can designate a specific time each week or integrate makerspace activities into your lesson plans.
- Provide Guidance and Support: Are your users beginners, intermediate, advanced, or a combination? This will be important to consider as you provide guidance and support to your students during makerspace projects. Encourage them to experiment and explore, but also provide them with guidance and feedback as needed.
- Assess Student Learning: Assessment is key to keeping administration on board with your makerspace. You can use a variety of assessment methods, such as rubrics, portfolios, or presentations.
As a bonus to helping teach curriculum concepts, makerspaces also help in developing a wide range of 21st century skills. In addition to collaboration and problem solving, students can learn critical thinking, adaptability, oral and written communication, information literacy, technology literacy, productivity, social skills, leadership, initiative and more. These in-demand skill sets help to develop young minds for future success.
Creativity Hub
Makerspaces provide an environment that encourages individuals to think creatively, explore new ideas, and push the boundaries of innovation. By providing access to tools and resources, makerspaces empower individuals to prototype and experiment, turning abstract concepts into practical solutions.
A makerspace is not solely a science lab, woodshop, computer lab or art room, but it may contain elements found in all these familiar spaces. Diversity and cross-pollination of activities are critical to the design, making and exploration process, and they are what set makerspaces and STEAM labs apart. A possible range of activities might include:
- Cardboard construction
- Prototyping
- Woodworking
- Electronics
- Robotics
- Digital fabrication
- Kinetics
- Textiles and sewing
If you’re in need of some creativity inspiration, we have many resources on our blog for makerspace projects and planning from woodworking project ideas to tutorials on laser cutting, 3D printing and more. The idea is to create a space where makers’ ideas can come to life.
While education makerspaces can look differently based on location, budget, and student or community needs, having these traits will hopefully ensure the space is a place that students and community members will use again and again.
