10 minute read
American Spaces - Makers Projects at BNCs
ALUMNI IN ACTION 3
American Spaces
Advertisement
Makers Projects at BNCs
4
ALUMNI IN ACTION
Colombo Makerlab:
A space for the creation, innovation and collaborative work through the practice of English
Alejandro del Rio
The Maker Lab Medellin is a place where children, youth, and adult people are encouraged to innovate, create new ideas and projects to foster their learning process. In this order of ideas, the Maker lab at Colombo Americano Medellin has become a space to foster an integral development of knowledge, where people may practice their English skills as well as improve different abilities which are needed in the 21st century. The Maker Lab strengthens collaborative work and creativity; and this is evidenced in the great experiences we have had throughout the last years. The maker lab has held workshops, talks in photography, robotics, drawing, cooking, and many others. Likewise, we have participated in online events like Maker’s week with the Colombo’s network.
The history of the maker lab Medellin has been a path of growth. In 2017, the Colombo Americano BNC Medellin had a transformation in regards to its infrastructure which led to create a dynamic and innovative identity, design and environment based on the principles and concepts of the American Spaces around the world. This renovation permitted the creation of a “MakerLab” which, as mentioned above, is a space to work collaboratively, share knowledge, and academic/ cultural experiences by practicing English in a fun and ludic way. Additionally, the Makerlab has open spaces and complementary services such as the Friend and E-friend program as strategies that provide onsite and online academic support to students of English in the different programs and projects at the Colombo in order to improve the development of their communicative skills. In the same line, learners, families, alumni and the general public may partake in the Learning Spaces sessions which are an opportunity to learn about different topics such as festivities around the world, traveling stories, gastronomy and cultures through the interaction with experts in lectures and workshops.
The Makerlab is a space for science too. In this place, we develop different activities with the STEAM approach, which integrates fields like science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics in the “Do it yourself” (DIY) philosophy. This allows learners to learn by doing through the creation, innovation, collaborative
ALUMNI IN ACTION 5
work and other meaningful learning experiences such as Maker clubs where participants can devise creative projects using reusable materials; something that contributes to raise some environmental consciousness and a “Maker culture” in kids, young, adults, parents, teachers and the educational community in general.
In the last 2 years, the Makerlab has consolidated as a space that permits new ways of learning, the integration of activities in the academic and cultural field; and a great network with the maker spaces at the different Colombo Americano centers around the country. In 2020 and 2021, we participated at the Colombo Makers Experience; a programming that held more than 30 virtual activities with specialists and experts in different areas of STEAM and who motivated participants to work creatively and collaboratively in the use of a varied set of technological tools and platforms with which they explored, experimented and created sustainable life options for society. At BNC Medellin, this agenda has impacted both more than 200 students from the different academic programs and Social projects such as ALUMNI, MLK, CHOP, ACCESS, RIONEGRO BILINGÜE and the general public of the city. Such an impact has been very positive in all the participants since it has led them to integrate different knowledge fields and develop new creative skills. Every educational setting faces big challenges and the Makerlab is not the exception. We want to grow stronger and promote our programs and Maker activities. To do so, we need to consolidate a portfolio that also integrates the design and the 3D modelling in order to reinforce the use of special tools such as our new 3D printer. Likewise, we need an interdisciplinary team of experts (staff of the institution, volunteers, grant holders) who may develop activities for kids, young and adult people in the STEAM and DIY approaches and who ensure the continuation of these spaces; finally, we need to offer workshops with a cost in order to generate income that contributes to self-management.
In essence, the Makerlab is an ideal place for the creation, innovation and collaborative work by means of the exploration and integration of different fields of knowledge -STEAM- and the practice of English. We would like to invite all the alumni community from the different programs and Social projects to be part of this space and share all their experiences with the aim of generating meaningful learnings for all our academic and cultural context.
6
ALUMNI IN ACTION
The BNC Manizales expands its MAKE borders with the endowment of the Palestine Maker Space.
Palestine is a municipality in the South Central region of the department of Caldas, Colombia. Located in the Central Coffee Region, known as the Coffee Region, which has a culture and tradition linked to the colonization of Antioquia and the cultivation of coffee.
The Café Airport is under construction in this locality, with a clear cargo vocation, especially for export, given its proximity to the city of Manizales (an important industrial center), the diversity of agricultural and agro-industrial products in its area of influence, which includes municipalities from the departments of Risaralda, Caldas, Quindío and north of Valle del Cauca (Wikipedia)
The municipality has an approximate population of 18,000 inhabitants, and about two thirds of them live in rural areas, for this reason, the Santágueda Educational Institution, a rural school, was chosen to adapt and provide a Maker Space that impacts the entire surrounding area, both rural and urban.
The BNC Manizales expands its MAKE borders
Alejandro Cardona
Among the activities carried out, Maker workshops were given to students and teachers from all the districts of the municipality and joint work was achieved with the government authorities in matters of education, as well as with the rectors, coordinators and English teachers of the five educational institutions in Palestine (four of them rural). This is a clear example of co-work in favor of a common interest, which is the social development of an area with an important agricultural but also tourism call; because of its warm climate and proximity to
ALUMNI IN ACTION 7
the city of Manizales, it hosts numerous vacation and rest centers and it is a place highly visited by tourists. In addition to this, due to the ongoing construction of the Café International Airport, it is expected that the tourism vocation of Palestine will be enhanced and efforts are being made to strengthen the population in skills that allow the economic development of the area. trying to contribute to this development, the Palestine Maker Space also has a destination as an English teaching room and its endowment, in addition to Make elements, also consists of textbooks for teaching English at all academic levels.
It should be noted that it was arranged with the directives of the school that houses this classroom, so that all the different schools in the municipality have access according to their educational needs.
In this 2022, efforts have already been made to continue a program of Make workshops and the possibility of strengthening the rural region of Palestina with the provision of new Maker Spaces in other schools in the municipality is contemplated.
But the expansion of Make borders does not stop there and these borders are not only physical, because in this 2022, the BNC Centro Colombo Americano Manizales is about to start a process of Make workshops aimed at students of EINED, the School of English for Children with Diverse Educational Needs, a program of the University of Caldas, which benefits children of all ages and their caregivers in the process of teaching English and who will now expand their process in creativity issues related to the STEAM methodology.
8
ALUMNI IN ACTION
Gloria Liliana Betancourt
A long, long time ago, in a town not too far away, there was a small library that wanted to be innovative. One day, in 2013, at the annual meeting of librarians at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, after a talk about the change in libraries and the emerging movements to encourage people to create and invent again, the public bilingual library of the Colombo Americano Pereira organized its first “Science Corner”. Using a filing cabinet and a table, the Colombo Pereira displayed some science books, a world map, and exhibited a toy microscope. And the community responded.
Library users donated test tubes from their personal labs, instruments from their workplaces.
Time passed and, in order to grow the Science Corner and attract new users to the library, the librarians offered basic science and art workshops for the academic community. The workshops became a favorite library activity, and soon the library offered them to public educational institutions and Access students who were beginning their English language learning process. The science corner grew, with activities, with user donations.
And the Embassy responded.
An Embassy representative visited the library and donated their personal microscope – one they used while studying to become a marine biologist.
And the Science Corner grew.
Time passed …
The Colombo Americano Pereira opened its doors to a new library space, thanks to a grant from the US Embassy, which included two 3D printers, Arduinos kits, robotics kits, circuits, laptops and more.
Now, the MAKER Movement has become an integral part of the Colombo Americano Pereira’s programming -- providing the community with workshops in design and 3D printing, robotics, Digital Storytelling, movie making, and other multimodal ways of communication. The different introductory workshops and trainings
ALUMNI IN ACTION 9
with teachers, students, and the community promote innovative thinking, creativity, and collaborative learning, with the goal of sustainability. For instance, the 3D printing workshops were developed hand in hand with a foundation for people with visual limitations to create braille alphabet pieces. Another workshop was developed with an animal shelter, to create tags for the animals.
And the MAKER movement grew. The science corner spilled into all parts of the library, the community.
And Covid-19 came. The physical library closed. But outreach and the science corner workshops continued.
Due to the health contingency caused by the Covid-19 global pandemic, workshops became virtual, including 3D design and robotics, using platforms such as Zoom and Meet. Children and adolescents narrated their neighborhoods, recording their stories and sharing them over WhatsApp to be published on public radio stations. With the support of the U.S. Embassy and the Department of State, different activities related to digital storytelling such as Stop Motion workshops and photography were also promoted.
And the Embassy responded.
With Embassy support, the BNC Pereira began its Podcast Channel – CCA Connections. With the new sound booth, the Colombo Pereira will continue to grow its MAKER programming and generate training spaces on audiovisual production, podcast and audio and video editing.
Thanks to the strengthening of the Colombo Americano network, the MAKER Movement has grown in the region and around the country. MAKER Week will commemorate its third version in 2022, where the best STEM practices of each Colombo and exchange and sharing of MAKER knowledge among all BNCs and their communities.
Oh … and we still have that first real microscope donated by the Embassy rep so many years ago. It only takes a corner to begin a movement!
