Minding the Makerspace
Considering the value of a school makerspace
This week, I wrote about makerspaces (on my MakeThings newsletter) and here I’ll focus on school makerspaces.
I was heartened by the story this week of students at Milford High School in Ohio launching a petition drive to keep their makerspace open after the school board announced it would be closed due to budget cuts. In a Fox19 news report, a student identified as Cramer said of the makerspace: “It’s the safe spot I have in the school. I know every day when I walk in there that I will be completely fine. Everything’s going to be great, and there’s always someone who will greet me at the door.” Cramer added: “I was devastated to hear the Makerspace was being cut despite so much effort from all our community to keep the place.”
Seeing students stand up to fight against the closure of their makerspace is a sign of two things: one that students truly value the makerspace for a variety of reasons and the other is that some adults — teachers and administrators — don’t understand the value of a makerspace.
I also wrote about the $20 3D Printed Mobility Walker produced by students at Nekoosa High School in Wisconsin. Benjamin Peters and Marcus Wilcox co-run the Tech Ed Department at the school. Originally students put together a mobility walker from project in Make: Magazine (“Walk This Way”(Vol 88, page 100) and then Peters challenged them to design their own mobility walker that could be fully 3D printed.
Elsewhere, at Denver South High School, a group of students has been working on a solar-powered bike that they call the Solar Quest Lancer. The project is part of the school’s makerspace, which is managed by Zach Marchetti. Students are planning to take the solar bike on an ambitious 180-mile trip to the Kansas border. (link)
These are all projects that students can do because their schools have a makerspace and they have access to tools and materials. They also have educators who think about what students can do because there’s a makerspace; they encourage and support students doing projects while minding the makerspace. They also help to create a community where students feel they belong, where a student like Cramer feels “peace of mind.”
I’d like to hear about your school makerspace. The more stories we have for the many creative and beneficial uses of makerspaces, the more we can help other teachers and administrators see the value of having a makerspace. What are the reasons why you makerspace is valued?
Makerspace.com
At Make:, we’ve relaunched our makerspace directory at makerspace.com. It was a directory that we started in 2013 but we recently cleaned up the data and freshened the interface. I’ve always been interested in knowing how many makerspaces there are and I wish we had better data on the number of makerspaces in schools, colleges and universities as well as libraries and science centers. There have been several other efforts over the years but they didn’t produce results.
If you run a makerspace, please check to see if it is listed in the directory and then edit the information about your space so it is accurate. If it’s not in the directory, please create an entry for your makerspace.
We have 43 K-12 makerspaces and 79 library makerspaces listed. I know that there must be more makerspaces than that in schools.