Week 9: Makerspace!

When I first started my search for my article, I already knew the type of article I wanted to research. I know what makerspaces are and how fun they are, but I really wanted to know what students get out of them and ways to incorporate more than just “here’s the station, have fun!” type makerspace. The article entitled Problem Scoping: Design Thinking & Close Reading Makerspaces in the School Library by Megan Blakemore really helped me understand the benefits. Here are the three takeaways and which AASL Common Beliefs they fall under.

1. “In the makerspace, before building students might write proposals. Students can also write reflections on the process or write their own instructional pieces” (Blakemore, 2018, p. 67). I always thought of makerspaces as being just a “hands on” learning tool, but I never thought of incorporating writing proposals BEFORE the activity. That is a great idea! This fits under AASL Common Belief #3: Learners should be prepared for college, career, and life (AASL, 2017). This fits here because in life, students may have a job where they have to write this type of writing, and it is extremely important to teach students to reflect on their work. This reflection step is the only way they can grow, and not enough students take the time to do this crucial life skill.
2. “Connecting making and literacy has the potential for inviting students to engage with the text in new and deeper ways. Effective problem scoping from a literary work asks students to dig more deeply into the text to find relevant details” (Blakemore, 2018, p. 68). I also never thought of using a makerspace activity to relate to a book students are reading. Blakemore goes into detail in this article about how she reads the elementary school students a book such as The Young Man and The Sea, and their challenge is to make a boat for the main character (2018, p. 68). This way, they are connecting the book to the activity: it gives them a purpose and makes it fun and relatable. This relates to AASL Common Belief #4: Reading is the core of personal and academic competency. Under the description of this common belief, it it says: “School librarians curate current digital and print materials and technology to provide access to high-quality reading materials that encourage learners, educators, and families to become lifelong learners and readers” (AASL, 2017). I feel like this speaks for itself: the students are reading to encourage learning.
3. “Rather than simply recreating something they have seen, when students complete the full design process they come up with novel ideas. Moreover, they can articulate how their invention solves the problem, thus demonstrating their problem-solving skills” (Blakemore, 2018, p. 69). I love the problem-solving part of this quote. Students need to know how to problem solve. This is an important life skill and this relates to AASL Common Belief #5: “Intellectual freedom is every learner’s right” (AASL, 2017). By allowing them to problem-solve on their own and figure out the solution to the character’s problem, they have the freedom to learn how they want.

I have learned through this article that makerspace is more than just building at random; it’s using multiple steps such as brainstorming, designing, building, testing and showcasing, aka problem scoping (Blakemore, 2018, p.67) to learn. I love the idea of incorporating literature into the makerspace activity; it’s like killing two birds with one stone!

References:

Blakemore, M. (2018). Problem scoping: design thinking & close reading makerspaces in the school library. Knowledge Quest,46(4), 66-69. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.odu.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=9&sid=ce704a0e-9502-430e-9f83-fb6af3f6c067@pdc-v-sessmgr02&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=llf&AN=128199635

Common beliefs. (2017). Retrieved from https://standards.aasl.org/beliefs/