Tinkering with Learning Outcomes

Full STEAM ahead!

Now that our school is entering into our fifth round of our makerspace initiative our focus is shifting from "What is makerspace?" to "How does makerspace compliment curriculum?"

During the research phase of our project, we read over and over again that makerspaces support the learning of STEM content. For those of you not familiar with the acronym, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. You might even see an extra "A" for Art added to the mix turning it into the handy STEAM acronym.

We definitely want to give our students high quality exposure to STEAM content as many future career paths and personal passions fall under those disciplines. The future Google programmers, air craft designers, architects or chemical engineers are sitting in our classrooms waiting for us to notice their dormant passions! Is makerspace the opportunity they need?

How does makerspace support STEAM learning?

If makerspace supports STEAM learning, how do we know if it is working? Is there some magical formula? Do we need to plan out detailed lessons that will lead our students into STEAM content? 

Surprisingly, the answer appears to be "no". It seems that exposure to time, interesting materials, collaboration and permission to experiment is the perfect foundation for learning. 

During the our last round of makerspace our team was blown away by the explicit connections students made to curriculum outcomes. I watched a Grade Two student who appeared to be making a sphere out of straws and connectors. When I asked him what he was doing he said, "I"m making a ball...you know, a sphere." When I came back to see what he was doing he excitedly showed me a line up of 3D shapes he had made while announcing their names. He had built the aforementioned sphere as well as a cube, a pyramid, and a rectangular prism. When describing his work, he used the correct terminology proudly - and he did so completely on his own! 

You might be thinking, "Okay. You have one example...big deal! It could've been a fluke, right?" We thought so too until we watched a Grade Four student play with straws and wheels. He took the time to explain to one of our staff members that he was experimenting with wheels and axels. He even added in, "This is what we are doing in Science!"

Two examples are better than one, right? What if I told you of yet another example? One of our younger students with Autism has been playing with our magnet building sets every time he attends makerspace. He is fascinated by how he can connect the magnets and then spin them as a top. Last round, this student started experimenting with adding more magnets to his top. To his dismay, it wouldn't spin as quickly if he had more magnets on one side than the other. He continued to add to each side until they were evenly balanced in order for it to spin again. Essentially, he was playing with the design to make a better project and it was clear that he felt rewarded for solving his design flaw. 

What about the girls? Yes, they too seem to be connecting to curricular outcomes. Some of our Grade Six girls spent their time designing chairs out of straws and connectors - a project that is directly linked to the elementary art outcome: designed objects can be evaluated on the basis of function and attractiveness. 

Maintaining Our Momentum

Moving forward, we will begin to consider how we can introduce curriculum related content into our Makerspace more intentionally. We could be more thoughtful in how we design the challenges so that they required students to play with learning outcomes from the Program of Studies. We could have a featured project that we showcase on our student video news announcements to promote connections to curriculum. A teacher suggested that we set up stations that correspond to science and/or math content of a particular grade level such as creating maker stations that provide hands on experimentation with the concepts related to flight or electricity. So many choices!

With so many options available to us, we can't help but share in the excitement of our students. After all, as staff, we too are makers!