Making Our Own Marks

EC1 Job Chart

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 in their experimentation, supported by a robust technology program led by Matt and CEE Technology and Innovation Specialist Melissa Hoang. For example, Melissa’s fourth grade classes dive into physical computing with Makey-Makey, building and coding with everyday materials that control a screen-based experience.

The maker ethos overlaps with much of the Center student experience. “Now, the IC and the tools we have there have become part of the wider tool kit we have as a school,” Matt explains. This past spring, third grade relied heavily on the IC, building “learning artifacts” representing the Native American housing styles they were studying in social studies. Using electric hand saws and other professional tools added a level of difficulty to these projects. “The making process is exciting for the students,” Matt describes, “because they build their capacity to solve problems that may have seemed previously out of reach. The students can then say to themselves things such as, ‘I know how to use a motor to get an arm to move’, which can be very empowering when they turn to their next project.”

C6 Carnival Games

During the 2018-19 school year, three faculty members began two-year Maker Fellowships during which they are studying maker theory, conducting maker projects with their classes, mentoring other teachers, and taking on personal skill building projects.

As a fellow, EC1 teacher Shannon Sarnowski invited her students to create a classroom job chart (shown left) using woodworking, a skill she had studied independently for the fellowship. Throughout the building process, Shannon gradually introduced real tools, including saws and hammers, to her preschoolers, starting with safety rules and practicing in small groups. As children became more comfortable with their skills, they tended to “scaffold” off one another, picking up skills by observation or sharing tips and tricks.

What started as a simple woodworking exercise to create the job role chart, however, evolved into a more significant learning experience when the students brainstormed together on which roles they needed in their classroom. Much of the organic discussion focused on how they could support each other best as a classroom community, and the children came up with the “Friend Captain” role, defined as someone who looks out for others. The Captain greeted each student as they entered the classroom with a high five or hug, helping everyone feel welcomed and comfortable at school. In fact, feeling cared for and loved was part of the class charter, a set of norms that the students adopted at the beginning of the school year. Moments like these, when a skill-building exercise leads to expanding students’ awareness of how to be a supportive classmate, can make a lasting impact on the children as they grow to understand the power of their imaginations to make tangible change in the world.

Second grade teacher and Maker Fellow Karen Weng found inspiration in working with her class to create “Bar Model Puppet Shows,” reenacting a math story problem using three-digit numbers. The groups came up with a problem, created character puppets that had moving parts, and made backdrop displays using various materials. Karen found that this type of maker-driven learning experience gives students the chance to problem solve across disciplines, using math, technology, and language arts. Throughout the building process, students happily engaged in self-driven exploration as they worked their way through the complex project. Once completed, the students reflected on how they overcame challenges and considered what they would do differently next time.

Meanwhile, Maker Fellow Carol Brasfield led sixth grade students through an original carnival game project. Students completed research on game types, narrowing to three choices. Then, using trial-and-error, the students made a prototype game using cardboard, which helped determine what materials were needed for the final game. The assignment also required that they create a unique game brand, which they did using the Innovation Center’s vinyl cutter to make logos and designs. The sixth graders had the chance to share their carnival games with the members of their CEE “families” and at the STEAM Festival in April.

The maker philosophy allows students to have control over how they express what they know. As Matt describes, “Traditionally, a student might complete a written assignment or a visual presentation to show their knowledge. Making not only gives students another way to pick up skills, but also provides new ways to demonstrate knowledge and can be an important avenue for students who thrive with hands-on or technology-based learning. Providing open time for kids to tinker with different materials, play with their thoughts and experiment with working out a solution can help them develop a ‘can-do’ mindset they can rely on throughout their lives.”

As the years go on, CEE students and teachers find that the maker philosophy, and its focus on looking carefully, facing problems with an open mind, and engaging in unstructured experimentation can be applied anywhere across the curriculum and in life. Teachers continue to discover the myriad ways a lesson can be adapted to encourage more open-ended thinking, empathy and collaboration, valuable skills which Center students can take with them throughout school and into adulthood. From figuring out how to build a mechanism, to finding ways to solve problems or foster community and inclusion, learning through the maker lens helps students build confidence, character, and understanding— in the lab and beyond.

"The maker ethos overlaps with much of the Center student experience. Now, the IC and the tools we have there have become part of the wider tool kit we have as a school."