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http://www.milderoffice.com

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At my current school we are learning that lots of things need charging all the time. Ideally we can combine charging with storage - e.g. lockable cabinets for expensive gear with built in charger cables.

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Develop a culture of engineering and safety.....

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Great article worth reading

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Over the past year I had the privilege of leading a team to create makerspaces in 15 high schools around the Bay Area. Our goal was to learn how to help educators create makerspaces in schools and use making in the classroom. DARPA, which funded our program, eventually wanted to take what we learned and create makerspaces in 1,000 schools. While our DARPA funding ended in December, we believed so strongly in the benefits of these spaces that we continued to support our pilot schools until the end of the year. This was particularly rewarding work.

Most of us have enjoyed watching someone's eyes light up at Maker Faire, but listening to a high schooler describe his or her first open-ended project was very powerful. What students get from making things in the classroom is an entire post by itself, but our teachers said students left these classrooms more confident and more engaged in their own learning. To help teachers understand how to teach making, we created professional development sessions on electricity and Arduino, sewing, woodworking, and cardboard automata. We created a library of Google hangouts on introductory projects, how to assess projects, fundraising, open-ended projects, how to design a makerspace, the role of competitions, how to structure the year and many other topics. We even took students to a lumberyard so they could get the materials to build workbenches.

Every space in our program was different. Some had amazing tools including laser cutters, 3D printers and milling machines and some had only hand tools. But we observed that they all seem to have a unique blend of process, people, and place to be successful.
Process
Making requires two sets of skills and the confidence to try something new. The first is simply tool skills - knowing which tool to use and how to use it safely. For a soldering iron, this is knowing which end is hot and how to apply the tip of the iron to the material. For a drill, it's knowing how to hold the drill and understanding not to place a finger over the point where the drill bit emerges (sometimes this is experiential learning). These skills can be easily demonstrated and taught.

The second set of skills can be thought of as diagnostic and problem-solving skills. These are the skills required to figure out why something won't work, come up with a creative solution and to manage one's emotions through the process. These skills probably can be taught, but they are typically learned through practice and coaching (a key skill for a teacher in a makerspace). But before kids even start a project, they need the confidence to even try. Some of the kids in our classrooms had never picked up a screwdriver before. Asking them to build an electric motor or design an object to be 3D printed is a recipe for failure - they don't have the confidence to believe that they can do it. A project that is too difficult can even damage emerging confidence. We found that the need to thoughtfully build skills and confidence led to a process involving three types of projects.

The first is what we call a level I project or a skill builder. This is a project with a defined process and a defined outcome solely to teach one or more skills. A good skill builder is the blinking light badge from the Maker Shed. The project simply teaches how to solder and to complete a circuit. A level II project has a defined outcome and uses skills learned from skill builders in an undefined process. It's in these level II projects that makers start to develop the diagnostic and problem solving skills. At Lighthouse Community Charter School, Aaron Vanderworth has his students create a chair. The dimensions of the chair (the outcome) are fixed in advance, but the students can use any process to create the chair. The beauty of this project is that it's very clear whether the chair works or not. At Piner High School in Santa Rosa, the students built every table and stool in their makerspace. The picture above is of an advanced level II project. Students were asked to create an electric motor from scratch. Finally, a level III project is an open-process, open-outcome project-essentially creating whatever the students want to create. At our most advanced schools, these are the capstone projects that come toward the end of the year after students have the skills and the confidence to embark on their own learning endeavors. The level III projects we saw included a Ranger pickup converted to run on electricity, a vest that changed color in time with music around it and a scratch-built guitar with a fret board with LEDs that changed according to the chord played. There were some amazing projects.
People
There is nothing more important in a makerspace then a dedicated teacher. I know that there's lots of conversation about flipped classrooms, blended learning and other ways of reducing the role of a teacher, but that will never happen in a makerspace. The teachers in our spaces had credentials in Spanish, math, physics, and science. Apart from the ability to tie making to classroom subjects, we found that being able to coach in two specific ways was far more important than any credential. First, a successful maker space teacher needs to be able to help students diagnose a problem so that they can create a solution. There is no way that any one teacher can be a subject matter expert in EV power systems, LED lighting, joinery, and every other topic that's going to be covered in a makerspace. The teaching process has to shift from transmitting knowledge to enabling a student to create his own solution. This is not always an easy shift for a teacher, but it is critical. Second, a makerspace teacher needs to be able to help students through the inevitable highs and lows of making something. Frequently, all that's needed for a teacher to understand how to coach is simply making something themselves. Teachers need to experience the thrill of getting that little LED to blink and the agony of feeling your own chair collapse underneath you. At our first professional development session, we asked every teacher in our program make a rolling tool cart. We estimated that it would take six hours and we were still at it 10 hours later. But every teacher left with an appreciation of the process.
Place
Finally, the space really matters. Note that I said the space matters, not a space filled with laser cutters, 3-D printers and the latest, and greatest equipment. Those tools are wonderful when students have the skills and confidence to appreciate them. But the magic can start with PVC pipe, glue guns, string, soda bottles, soldering irons, and other household supplies. The most important quality of a makerspace is that it encourages creativity. This can be done with a space full of hand tools, materials, and finished projects. The culture in a space should support the idea that anything is possible.

When kids enter a makerspace in a school, their frame of reference should shift from finding the right answer to asking the right question. One of the most amazing projects we saw was a group of three students who converted a Ranger pickup to run on electricity. They obviously learned a great deal about electric vehicles, but when I asked them to name the single biggest thing they learned, they all offered the same answer: "I didn't know that I could do that."

I often get asked why schools should include making and I can't come up with a better answer than theirs. The biggest lesson that this team learned was that they have the skills and now, the confidence, to take on a huge project and succeed. They know that they can figure it out. That's not just a skill for success in school. That's a skill for success in life. That's what making teaches.
Parker was the project director for the DARPA-funded MENTOR Makerspace program. He's built a Van's Aircraft RV-8, an RV-6 and is now focusing on treehouses, play structures and other things for two small Makers.

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3 Key Qualities for a School Makerspace | Make:

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Over the past year I had the privilege of leading a team to create makerspaces in 15 high schools around the Bay Area. Our goal was to learn how to help educators create makerspaces in schools and use making in the classroom.

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I'm yet to meet a student who wasn't keen to fly or build a drone

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https://arsandbox.ucdavis.edu

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UW Geological Museum Augmented Reality Sandbox

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Augmented Reality Sandbox Black Rock Retreat

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Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra Jaume Almera

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Augmented Reality Sandbox at the Lawrence Hall of Science (Video 1)

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Video produced by students at the Knight Digital Media Center at UC Berkeley.

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This post is part of an occasional Makerspace Logisitics series, where I answer reader questions about the logistics of running our makerspace. Here, I address what happens to my makerspace when I'm out
In an ideal world...

I would have a secretary and a second librarian and I would always get substitutes when I'm out. Unfortunately, it's just me in my library.

My district provides substitutes for sick and personal leave, but doesn't for professional duty (i.e. conferences). When I do get substitutes, they're often pulled to cover other classes. To help account for this, I usually try to schedule a reliable teacher to have their classes in the library when I'm out. Usually, there's a lot of demand for our computer lab, so I'm able to find a teacher who's willing to keep an eye on the library. Because the teacher copy machines and restrooms are located in the library, our administration rarely locks the room when I'm out. So knowing that there's a teacher in there gives me a lot of peace of mind.

I have student helpers who handle check in/out and shelving as one of their electives, so they take care of circulation for me. I have two to three student assistants each period.

Makerspace Logistics: What happens when I'm out

So that covers what happens to the library as a whole when I'm out. In general, someone is watching the space and it is able to stay open. Now we get to the next part - how much access do my students have to our makerspace when I'm not here?

Way back in the first couple of months of starting our makerspace, I was thinking about open vs. closed makerspaces. As I was meeting with my student makerspace planning committee, we talked a lot about how we wanted to make our space work. There were two things that came up during these conversations:

My students wanted to have access to the makerspace all the time...

During out first couple of months, the makerspace was several bins of supplies set out on library tables. Any time something else was going on (book fair, classes at the tables, picture day, etc), students couldn't get to use the makerspace. This was why we decided to create our Maker Corner where our LEGO Wall, LEGOs, K'nex and whiteboard wall would be available. This area is always open and available to my students as long as the library is open. Like I talk about in my scheduling post, students can use this area anytime they come to the library with a pass for the makerspace. The Maker Corner is what I consider to be our OPEN MAKERSPACE, and it's always available to my students whether or not I'm there. My student helpers usually help to keep it tidy when I'm not around.

It was important to my students to have access to our #makerspace no matter what was going on Click To Tweet

...But there were some things that they didn't think should be left out

With all of our makerspace supplies out in the open the first year, we started to notice some problems. The intuitive activities (i.e. things that students already know how to use or can figure out without help) did fine. But things that were less intuitive (Snap Circuits, MaKeyMaKey, etc) were frequently being damaged, and small parts were getting lost. My student planning committee decided that we should keep these somewhere else where students could still access them, but where they weren't out in the open. There's a small AV Materials storage room located right in the Maker Corner, so soon we decided to create...

The Maker Room

The Maker Room was originally the AV Materials storage room when I started. It was stuffed with VHS tapes, DVDs, laser discs and even a handful of vinyl records. After I weeded out all the items we weren't using anymore (like the VHS tapes on the Soviet Union), I was able to relocate the remaining DVDs and VHS tapes to a shelving unit near the teacher restroom in the media center (meaning that the teachers would actually see them and check some out). This freed up the space to create our Maker Room.

The Maker Room holds all our technology (littleBits, LEGO Mindstorms, Sphero, Dash & Dot, MaKeyMaKey, etc). It also holds our arts & crafts supplies, and one wall is dedicated to storage of in-progress project storage. The Maker Room is what I consider to be our CLOSED MAKERSPACE. When I'm at school, the door to this room remains unlocked and open, and any student who wants to can access the tools and supplies in here. We have a couple of iPads kept in a locked case, and my student assistants have the key to open it for them. On days when I am absent for one reason or another, the door to this room is LOCKED. Students don't have access to these items when I'm not there since most of them are more likely to get damaged or stolen without at least a little supervision.

To recap, when I'm not there, students can access our Maker Corner as long as there is a teacher covering the library, but they cannot access supplies in the Maker Room. I'd prefer to keep everything 100% accessible all the time, but unfortunately, that led to damage to materials, so I found a compromise. It's not perfect, but it works.

What happens to your library and/or makerspace when you have to be out? Do you get substitute coverage for conferences? Let me know in the comments.

Diana Rendina, MLIS, is the media specialist at Tampa Preparatory School, an independent 6-12 in Tampa, FL. Previously, she was the media specialist at Stewart Middle Magnet School for seven years, where she founded their library makerspace. She is the creator of the blog RenovatedLearning.com & is also a monthly contributor to AASL Knowledge Quest. Diana is the winner of the 2016 ISTE Outstanding Young Educator Award, the 2015 ISTE Librarians Network Secondary Award, the 2015 AASL Frances Henne Award & the 2015 SLJ Build Something Bold Award. She is an international speaker on the Maker Movement and has presented at conferences including AASL, FETC & ISTE. Diana co-authored Challenge-Based Learning in the School Library Makerspace with Colleen and Aaron Graves and is also the author Reimagining Library Spaces: Transform Your Space on Any Budget.

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Makerspace Logistics: What Happens When I'm Not There

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This post is part of an occasional Makerspace Logisitics series, where I answer reader questions about the logistics of running our makerspace. Here, I address what happens to my makerspace when I'm out In an ideal world... I would have a secretary and a second librarian and I would always get substitutes when I'm out.

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Makerspace wish list

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Pro Library and storage o
http://littlebits.cc

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Tables, windows, walls
http://rubble.heppell.net/write_on/

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Could be a good collaborative project with Middle School
https://codecadets.blog/how-to-build-an-epic-brik-wall-c2aa42af0ad#.d7xsqj9pj

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http://www.interiorconcepts.com/10-popular-stem-lab-furniture-designs/

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http://www.interiorconcepts.com/products/school-furniture/stem-technology-furniture/