Book Description

This 6-page (tri-fold) laminated guide is a concise yet comprehensive quick-reference tool that draws on lessons from the Maker Movement to help educators create classrooms and schools that offer engaging hands-on, minds-on learning experiences for students in grades K-12. Making is more than something students do; it’s a stance towards learning that puts the learner in charge, giving students time to brainstorm, invent, design, and build. This is an iterative cycle that includes time to fix mistakes, improve, test, and improve again. Developing a “maker mindset” means students build resilience and determination by working through challenges without being told what to do every step of the way. This guide helps educators get started with making, offering a framework for planning the logistics, student experience, and space design, with an eye toward building inclusive makerspaces. It provides practical guidance on planning a makerspace and makerspace program, with detailed recommendations for • Projects and logistics; • Tools and materials; • Space design. Other features of the guide include: • General considerations for materials to collect and technology to buy for makerspaces. • Specific recommendations for free, low-cost, and “worth spending money on” tools and technology for grades pre-K-4, upper elementary and middle school, and high schools. • Three game-changing technologies. Making offers a path to implementation of STEM and STEAM that does more than prepare students for the next academic challenge or a future career, it enables them to be inventors, engineers, scientists, and mathematicians today. The DIY culture of making helps students develop crucial 21st century skills, such as critical thinking, creativity and problem solving, all while having fun and finding their personal passions and means of self expression. This guide will help you get started with making today!