Dec. 16, 2015 -- Picture in your mind a group of young scientists collaborating on a high-tech design challenge: they huddle around computer screens, discussing, debating and designing scientific tools that will be printed out on 3D printers and then tested for accuracy and reliability.
Sounds like something going on in a prestigious high school lab. Or maybe at an engineering college, right?
Wrong. This is the Maker Space at Gearity Professional Development School, where children as young as five are mastering technology and manipulating equipment that many of us have never seen.
Makerspaces, sometimes referred to as HackerSpaces or FabLabs, are part of a growing movement to support innovation, creation and invention. According to EduCause, “A makerspace is a physical location where people gather to share resources and knowledge, work on projects, network, and build.”
And that is exactly how it’s being used at Gearity, a STEM school that infuses science, technology, engineering and math into all of their instruction. According to the Gearity webpage, “Teachers use the Common Core state standards and District pacing guides to create units of instruction for students that are both engaging and informative. Students are asked to design solutions to real-world problems that are relevant to them. This form of instruction is both engaging and exciting for students. They are learning by doing.”
The Gearity Maker Space, which opened this fall, features eight 3D printers, a laser cutter, a vinyl cutter, a t-shirt press, and numerous computers as well as low-tech design materials like art supplies, recyclables and Legos.
The equipment was purchased using a portion of the funds earned from an Ohio Department of Education Straight A grant, which was awarded to Gearity last fall. Straight A grants use Ohio Lottery dollars “to support innovative and sustainable education projects,” with a focus on STEM education. Gearity was one of just 37 grant recipients across the state.
Gearity students visit the Maker Space with their classroom teachers and are supported by the building’s STEM coordinator Jackie Taylor, who has received special training in how to use the equipment as an instructional tool. They work alone or in teams on monthly “Design Challenges” established by their grade level teachers. Challenges include everything from first graders designing and creating their own sundials for use in the school garden to fifth graders designing and creating a scaled model of the solar system to hang in the library.
Each grade level Design Challenge aligns to the Common Core State Standards and reinforces lessons being taught in the regular classroom. According to Taylor, Gearity has been doing Design Challenges for the past four years. “But now, instead of students making a windmill out of a cereal box, they can print one on the 3D printer and know that it will actually work.”
The work students do in their Maker Space isn't limited to science education. Art teacher Brian Stern introduced his 4th grade students to the sculptor Alexander Calder, the American artist famous for inventing the mobile as a work of art. Students then used special software to design their own collection of shapes, which were made out of donated corrugated cardboard using the laser cutter, and strung into hanging mobiles which now spin from the Maker Space ceiling.
Fourth grade students also used the laser cutter to create Plexiglass multiplication arrays for use in their math class. Instead of the throw-away paper version, these arrays can be used for years to come as dry-erase tools.
A social studies class created a 3D map showing the topography of the United States. “You should have seen the kids when they touched the steep Rocky Mountains after running their hands over the Great Plains,” said Taylor. “This taught them so much more than a two-dimensional map ever could.”
Students also use the space for fun projects like creating cookie cutters on the 3D printers to give to their families as holiday gifts or designing and printing their own t-shirts using the vinyl cutter and t-shirt press, which the 3rd through 5th grade autistic students did to wear on their community field trips.
Sue Pardee, Coordinator of Special Improvement/Federal Programs for the CHUH schools, hopes that this space will become available to other students in the district as well, perhaps through building-to-building field trips or special community Maker Space nights.
While the equipment and initial set-up were all covered by the Straight A grant, some of the materials and upkeep can be expensive. Taylor reports that the Maker Team of Gearity teachers is hoping to hold a Maker Faire later in the year, where community members can visit the space and purchase items created by students and staff. These high quality pieces of art and jewelry will go well beyond the typical student-created popsicle stick picture frame or tree ornament.
Though the CHUH schools are moving more in the direction of International Baccalaureate schools as opposed to STEM schools, the idea of a makerspace still holds value. According to EduCause, “The makerspace is being embraced by the arts as well as the sciences, and a new energy is building around multidisciplinary collaborative efforts.“ Indeed, IB schools in our own neighborhood, such as the Montessori High School located in University Circle, are raising funds for their own makerspaces right now.
A presentation at the IB Conference of the Americas, 2014, explained that makerspaces have a relevant place in what they call transliteracy. “Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks.” All of today’s students will grow up in a digital world and having firsthand experience using technology to create their own materials is invaluable.
According to EduCause, “Makerspaces allow students to take control of their own learning as they take ownership of projects they have not just designed but defined.”
Gearity first grade teacher Sherri Malek agrees. “This space allows our students to take what was previously only in their imaginations and make it real.”