MAKING OUR OWN MARKS
How the Maker Movement inspires students and teachers to build practical skills while expressing their creativity and exploring new ways of seeing and doing
The 3D printer hums as it fabricates a piece of a student-designed robot. A sixth grader plugs in a hot glue gun to finish up a roller coaster project. A class of third graders participates in a design challenge using LittleBits electronic components. It’s 2 p.m. on a Thursday, and the CEE Innovation Center buzzes with activity. In the more than 6 years since it opened, the Innovation Center (IC), on the fourth floor of Building C, has evolved into a campus hub. Students and teachers continue to find new ways to merge explorations in technology, design, and hands-on learning into the broader academic curriculum. Innovation classes began as a forum to promote making and tinkering, teaching approaches that encourage problemsolving and creativity through open-ended experimentation. Matt Argüello, CEE’s Director of Innovation, explains that “the maker movement grew because skills that students would traditionally learn in ‘shop’ had been phased out of education over the years. Educators lamented students losing those opportunities and brought back teaching skills like using hand tools and woodworking.” Today, teachers and students incorporate a wide spectrum of hand, power, and tech tools 18
EC1 Job Chart
