The Kickstart Guide to Making GREAT Makerspaces. Laura Fleming

is essential in meeting a wide variety of student learning needs and engagement styles. An easy way to differentiate access to content in your makerspace is to build in student choice. Centers or workstations in a makerspace can be used to encourage students to collaborate with their peers and can be a means of supporting differentiation. Consider the idea of alternative seating. In my makerspace, we have a combination of active seating for those students who need to move around, spaces to stand, high-top tables for students to sit or stand, and low stools and a countertop for those who prefer that setup. The unique learning environment of a makerspace invites students of varying abilities to work together. Creating a community of learners will make all students feel welcomed in your space.

      A differentiated makerspace can allow students of all abilities to participate, experience success, and ultimately flourish. Students need to be supported as they develop increasingly sophisticated ideas over time. What this means for each student is different. In our makerspace, our students’ first interactions are often just about discovering. Gradually, through skill building, collaboration, and critical thinking, our students progress to much more complex processes related to engineering and scientific inquiry.

      Many schools have begun using a specific process for making and creating in their makerspaces, such as design thinking, but it is important that the process is differentiated and eventually student-driven. Initially, process can be differentiated in many ways, including by providing varying levels of support for a task in a makerspace. As learners become more comfortable, we can gradually release the responsibility of a structured making process to complete learner independence. This type of flexible, self-directed learning will empower as well as enhance all learners’ unique learning abilities.

      Photo courtesy of Medfield Public Schools, Massachusetts

      To help students uncover and articulate the process they used to make and create, they can reflect on the various iterations involved in their making.

      Ask them questions such as these:

       What did you make/do?

       What did you do first, second, and so on?

       What materials did you use/work with?

       What surprised you during the process?

       What frustrations did you experience, and what did you do about them?

       What steps did you use this time that you might want to use again?

       What steps do you think you want to try next time you make something?

      Students can also interview their peers or maker mentors to refine their own making process. The guiding question during these interviews should be: “Where do I see this maker doing something that I can do in my own making process?” You can support this by teaching students how to ask good questions, having students reflect on their own making, and finding a place in their own making where they can use what they learned from a maker mentor.

      6 Intentional

      Have a vision for your makerspace.

      One of my favorite books is Start With Why, by Simon Sinek. In that book, he talks about the importance of knowing your why: the purpose, cause, or belief that inspires you to do what you do. Ask yourself, why do you want a makerspace and what will the purpose of the space be? It is important to be able to discover your own unique why and to articulate that vision in the form of a mission statement. GREAT makerspaces have a vision that drives their space. Having a clear intention for your makerspace is so important; Part 2 of this book is entirely devoted to helping you craft yours!

      Photo by Dorie Glynn at Kirk Elementary School in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD

      7 Inspiring

      Create the conditions to inspire your students to want to make.

      A question I am frequently asked by schools that have makerspaces is: How can we get more of our students engaged in our makerspaces? Many educators feel that their direct instruction is what is needed to engage students in making experiences. While I do believe that there can be a place for some instruction for skill building in a makerspace, I don’t believe it is the only strategy that should be used for engaging our students; nor is teacher-led instruction the only way we can encourage our students to be creative or innovative. Rather than forcing students to make, GREAT makerspaces create the conditions to inspire our students to want to make.

      In my makerspace, I work hard behind the scenes to create a learning environment that inspires our students to want to make. For example, hanging on the walls of our makerspace, we have copies of real patents for many items that are familiar to our students, such as smartphones, video-game controllers, Legos, and cars. We have issues of Make: Magazine