The last few days at South Fayette, I spent in their elementary Makerspace Classroom. I was honestly not sure about this particular session. I have been researching "makerspaces" in libraries, classrooms, public libraries, museums....etc., now for over a year. I have seen elaborate Makerspace areas with sewing machines, saws, drills, and more. I have seen classroom spaces that have a few basic items like Legos and K'Nex and your usual supply of craft items; I have public libraries with "Make Areas" for buttons, weaving stations and "Makey Makey" centers. Overall, I was left with very little excitement as to the educational value of any "Make" area. These Makerspaces just looked like an area in my house that I had when my children were growing up. I thought of it as my children's "craft" or "play" area....not really thinking it had much educational value. So I entered into these two days with little expectations. What I left with, was a fabulous toolbox of how to convert a "Makerspace" into a "STEAM Station".
As I have mentioned before, the South Fayette approach in these areas revolves around the Engineering & Design Process, the "Habits of Mind" and Visual Thinking Strategies. These are the influences on a Makerspace that create an invaluable learning area for their students. Being exposed to many of their Project Based Learning lessons started me thinking about a wide variety of ways students could utilize Makerspace materials in ways that created more actual STEAM experiences.
