The Park Portrait

underscores the importance of a number of essential competencies: we create opportunities for our students to grow as joyful learners, mindful leaders, skillful communicators, compassionate collaborators, creative problem solvers, and practiced advocates. While some of these skills and areas of confidence and competence show up quite regularly, some are a bit harder to capture, at least in terms of traditional academic assessments. That’s part of why we love the learning that takes place on Park’s Maker Wing so much—the opportunities for hands-on learning offered in our Woodshop and Makerspace challenge students to apply different sets of tools—literally and metaphorically— that help develop and strengthen exciting aspects of experiential learning.

For instructor Dean Laabs, one of the great benefits the Woodshop provides is the opportunity to experience the essential truth that “Anything worth doing is worth doing well.” In the Woodshop, he says, he always challenges students to embrace higher standards. “By the end of the term,” he says, “their idea of what constitutes ‘excellence’ has been reset.” For example, sanding wood provides an opportunity for students to elevate their sense of what constitutes “good.” They recognize that if you spend a bit more time, apply a bit more attention, you bring out the beauty of the wood. They see the transformation. Dean notes, “I can point out why the sanding job they’d done before was ‘rough around the edges,’ and they come to understand how they can make it special.” Knowing they have the capacity to reach for excellence…that’s exciting.

This excellence is revealed in a tangible, visible form. Dean observes, “Often, the projects we do are durable. Years later, the project—a box, a cabinet, a bench—they created is still part of their life. “It’s a lasting testament to what they were able to accomplish at a young age. Hopefully, they hold onto the sense of pride of what they made. The project is still there years later, showing them what they can accomplish.”

This year, the Woodshop has settled into its new home next door to the Makerspace, and the new Maker Wing buzzes with the energy of experimentation and discovery. “Kids know it’s their Makerspace day,” reports Makerspace educator Elaine Hamilton, “and they are clamoring to get in here. They’re on fire about it.” Their Makerspace projects build on the knowledge they have acquired in their classes and electives, and they are incredibly energized and self-motivated to make use of it. Elaine observes, “Often, students need to use complex measurements, for example, to accomplish their project. It’s an authentic way to apply math skills, and they’re not even thinking about it as ‘math’—they just see it as essential knowledge that helps them make this project.” It’s symbiotic—their academic work strengthens their project work, and their projects strengthen and affirm their academic skill set.

On a recent afternoon, for example, Grade 7 students were in the Makerspace working to build earthquake-resistant towers as an extension of their science class. “One of the students already had an arsenal of skills gained in an elective class related to what it takes to build a strong and durable platform,” Elaine says. “The student kept iterating and iterating, applying the knowledge she had to experiment for best results. Not only was she able to create the most stable tower, but she was able to guide other students with her knowledge. She was so proud of herself and how much she knew!”

Projects like this give students a new understanding of why knowledge matters. It’s not just about getting through a test. Knowledge has a purpose, a reason, and it’s transferable to real life challenges, it’s no longer just a selection of (possibly forgettable) facts. Elaine points out, also, that this work provides opportunities to make learning more equitable, particularly for students who learn best by doing. Further, she observes, in today’s world, aptitude in digesting and regurgitating facts is less important than it was previously. “It’s more important to know what you can do with information, how you can use it. We hope the understanding they gain

challenges them to think, ‘What else is possible?’”

Particularly with the availability of information online, and with the rise of tools like ChatGPT, this kind of learning provides educators an important opportunity to see what students are thinking and what they understand—and to see them driven to bring to life a vision that is their own idea, using the skills they’ve gained and in collaboration with others. “They are very determined, very focused,” Elaine observes. Further, as Dean explains, “Online, everything is slick, tidy. Here in our classrooms, there are real, physical constraints that students need to negotiate.” Sometimes, that depends on using the most basic of tools, and on doing what you can with what you have and where you are. “The lesson here is ‘How can we make this refined piece of furniture, given our basic tools and relative inexperience,’” Dean says, “digging into the problem solving and collaborating with others, with just the tools at hand?”

Dean particularly appreciates the opportunities this reveals for independent thinking and empowerment. He describes a recent project in which students built sculptures that explore the intersection of mechanical movement and art. He provided the students with videos and slides to support what they were building—independently. “Often, in the classroom, students will say ‘Mr. Laabs! What do I do next??’ But if I tell them what to do next, the only skill they build is the ability to ‘Go ask Mr. Laabs.’” By guiding students to return to the materials provided, he encouraged them to build their own capacity for resourcefulness. “And then the kids are lucky,” he laughs. “In the classroom, everyone’s working on the same steps. Someone here probably has the answer!”

Elaine most appreciates how this kind of learning expands the way students can show what they know. With the Grade 4 maze project, for example, students sought to retell The Odyssey chapter by chapter, working with a partner. Touring the classroom to see the other projects underway, students had the chance to consider “How can my awesome idea improve the work of others, and how can their work inspire me?” They want to do their best work, and they want to learn from all those around them. No two projects ever look the same—the results are based on how each student sees the world, and what challenges they set for themselves.

An essential part of this learning, however, is the foundation of trust the teachers work to build. Dean notes, “All the successes in our classrooms are rooted in the relationship we establish. If they feel unsure about how to do something, they will be more likely to take a risk because they know we are there to back them up.” Missteps are expected and taking risks is encouraged because their teachers are there as a safety net. Students can come into the Woodshop, start a new project on their own initiative, talk about materials, and ask for advice. “That wouldn’t happen if we didn’t already have that trust.”

Elaine observes that sometimes it can be hard for students to hear “You haven’t met the standard YET.” She says, “It’s so great that in the Makerspace, we have a structure for building habits of receiving feedback and continuing to iterate. If you can work on something with the partnership of others, it will get so much better, so much faster. The outcomes for everyone are always better.” In many ways, these classrooms provide the ideal space in which to practice how to treat each other, offer and receive feedback, and advocate for ourselves and for others.

When we think about what we most hope students will take forward from their Park journey, it looks a lot like this: students who are confident in taking initiative, who work across disciplines, work well in partnership, and follow their own curiosity. Students motivated by a strong sense of what they can accomplish, who are excited to challenge themselves to learn new ideas, and who ask themselves, “What can I do to make the world better?” They know that by problem solving, incorporating feedback and iterating, they are strengthening their skills and preparing themselves for any future challenge.