Makerspace

Educators are always wondering about the best technology for their classrooms and there isn’t always a definite answer. What’s best for one teacher and group of students depends on learning goals, classroom environment, and previous experiences with EdTech. Watch the video to learn why our Irina Tuule believes EdTech is simply like a pencil.

The MakeDo system is part of a simple cardboard construction kit line that features a bunch of reusable plastic tools. Although it is very simplistic and super low-tech, the ideas and creation possibilities when weaving MakeDo inventions into education are endless. Teachers could even inspire creative play, critical thinking, and problem solving while kids learn by doing.

The recipient of our $500 EdTech grant for the month of June is Jean Daley, a librarian from the Erving Public Library in Erving, MA! Jean is committed to helping the kids in her community learn more about and with technology and will now be able to introduce them to coding and learning in new ways!

For this week’s Eduporium Experiment, we’re playing around with the KEVA Contraptions Set, a pretty big box that’s not high-tech but still offers a high ceiling for STEM learning. KEVA has a few different kits available for students and teachers and the main features of each is the same. Keep reading to learn more about these low-tech STEAM tools.

Covering four specific areas (science, math, technology, and computer science), these kits help ensure students grasp key concepts through scaffolded and engaging activities! Keep reading to learn more about each of these expansion packs and why they’re a good option for any STEAM-loving, littleBits-using teacher.

Recently, we’ve been able to learn more about and sample the Kid Spark STEM kits, which, collectively, do a great job of painting a more robust picture of STEM education. With engineering, technology, and even programming at the heart of these kits, they’re a great way to bring STEM into your learning environment!

It’s become increasingly common for schools to feature these types of spaces, which are designed to promote hands-on tinkering, breaking, collaboration, failure, problem solving, and creative invention using any assortment of MakerEd tools. In fab labs, students are free to create whatever they want in essentially any way that they want.

Though Instructables has been around for quite a while now, it’s still a very valuable resource for STEM teachers or any educator who is looking for some inspirational project ideas. Instructables is home to an online library of various projects completed by students, teachers, hobbyists, and everyone in between.

While library makerspaces are a great way to advance and promote 21st century learning, we’re not exactly advocating for overthrowing the library in your school completely. Just want to make that perfectly clear. In fact, school libraries and library makerspaces have been known to complement each other, making one reason they’re so popular.

As we do every month, we’ve selected a recipient for our $500 EdTech grant award for the month of April. The awardee is Ashley Alden, a teacher at Dayton Heights Elementary in Los Angeles, California. We really loved Ashley’s application and how she got the inspiration for the project she wants to work on with her students.