The design process encompasses about five key steps that students need to explore in order for meaningful learning to take place. It starts with first identifying a problems so that a road is paved towards solving it after which comes brainstorming on paper either individually or in a dynamic group. Third comes the actual designing, which focuses on planning how to build your best solution with appropriate collaboration and cooperation. To then build, test, evaluate and redesign as necessary for successful outcomes as well as sharing solutions in a constructive manner so that the conclusion of the project can be related to a broader context/picture. This shows that the design process takes on the inquiry education approach because it allows students to participate in hands-on interactive activities that might pique their curiosity to further explore topics in science, social studies, history, etc.

 

I believe the design process is a great way to get students to learn to think creatively and critical-thinking skills especially when they are trying to solve a problem. The way I would incorporate both making and design process in my class for learning is through engineering activities, more specifically STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics/ social studies). For junior grades, students could easily explore history and nature of science while experimenting with diverse materials, tools and machines. This could be integrated with the inquiry process for students to really be motivated in their digital learning, which would help them build skills and confidence.

 

After watching Adam Savage talk about the importance of how using a hands-on teaching approach can help tap into students’ ability to instinctively create/ build, one connection I made to the video was how if students or young children do not get a chance to try new things and fail, not getting it right the first time; often individual can become risk-averse to trying new possibilities and exploring. This then minimizes the students' learning opportunities, which can be connected to last week’s theme with the fact that teachers need to become professionally educated and comfortable with student-centric pedagogies (different digital tools) that embrace the online tinkering/ hands-on exploration of technological environments so that students can learn, grow and become better prepared for the future workforce. They cannot stick to the traditional ways of teaching and not step out of their comfort zone. This includes being knowledgeable or attending professional development to truly understand the diverse amounts of active learning spaces, how to redesign them, deliver content using a wide range of digital tools, diverse learner support and implementing assessments.

When I saw the Design Process, the first idea that came into my head was that the process is very similar to the inquiry approach which is student led as well as student centred. Throughout one’s own interest, the student is able to design one’s own project in which there is a defined problem which needs to be solved. When students solve their own inquires, they are able to use the 21^st century skills, such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration as well as creativity and innovation. 

Therefore, by presenting students with case scenarios that they need to solve, in various curricular strands, they are able to implement the design process as well as enhance valuable skills like thinking divergently, being a problem solver, making connections, taking risks and being ready for creativity.

What is one observation you had about the video in terms of how a maker/constructionist approach to education can make the learning process more meaningful or better prepare students for the real world (think 21st Century skills & competencies)?

Through the maker approach, students are able to get an hands-on approach that they may not be able to get through the traditional classroom. This is beneficial for many students, especially those who cannot sit for a longer period of time. 

 When following the maker approach I believe that we are able to try and if we fail then try try again. We are able to test out our hypotheses without any direction and right or wrong answers, allowing our interests to guide the path we choose to take. The beauty of it is that you may have twenty students exploring the same question but all coming to a different answer as they are able to follow their interests to make. 

Savage mentioned that if we allow students to follow their own interests, they are able to learn what they are interested in as well as everything around it. I have not tested or researched it yet, but I believe that their may be a huge benefit to makerspaces allowing it to be reflected through the student’s marks. 

Lastly, when thinking about the 21^st century skills, when following one’s interests through makerspace, they are active critical thinking as they are solving some type of problem that has been defined. If working in groups, students are able to practice and enhance their collaborative skills as well as communication when communicating with others. Last but not least, all who participate in makerspaces are creative. 

Therefore, there are various benefits to makerspace within the classroom making it important to provide students with the opportunity to make within the classroom setting. 

 

The maker approach to education allows students the opportunity to learn by creating and problem solving.  It is a great way of engaging students with interactive, hands-on learning experiences that allow them to collaborate and show their creativity.  Maker spaces foster each of the 21^st century skills and competencies that will be important for students to have throughout their lives.  The design process helps to structure maker space activities within the classroom and teaches students the importance of planning (the define, collect, brainstorm, and analyze phases of the design process), creating (the develop phase), and improving (the feedback & improve phases).  As a future primary/junior teacher, I will have many subject areas to teach and I think that the maker approach and the design process can be incorporated effectively into most of them.  The clear subject area that the maker space is fantastic for is science – presenting students with design challenges is a great way of incorporating the phases of design and the teamwork and problem solving that comes along with maker activities.  I also think that the design process could be implemented in an art activity where students plan out their projects, design them, and then improve them based on feedback.  Maker space can even be used in subjects such as social studies where students show their knowledge in other creative ways (e.g. coding a robot to travel through a map, developing a news report using a green screen).  

 

 In Adam Savage’s video, he mentions that when making, ‘you are going to fail and that’s absolutely critical’.  He expands on this by talking about kids in antiseptic environments developing allergies, and compares this to a lack of making or failing – if kids don’t know how to fail and learn from it, they will not develop the problem solving skills necessary in the 21^st century.  Savage mentions that maker spaces really mark the return of making and the building of a community in which to make.  Savage’s thoughts on the importance of making remind me of the case study that we read last week about Catherine’s high school experience in 2028.  What stood out to me the most in that case study were the abundance of technology that she had available to her and the interdisciplinary classes that she was taking and their focus on problem-based learning.  The activities that she was taking part in in her classes involved making and collaborating with others.  In order for this to be realistic, education will need to change (as I believe it is already) to incorporate more making and to encourage students to use their creativity to work together and design new things.

 

How could the maker approach to education (inquiry, student-centered, emphasis on 21st century skills/global competencies) and the design process be incorporated into your subject area?

The makerspace approach is so fascinating to me because as a student growing up in the early 90's we were introduced to this type of learning without actually putting a name to it (ie Makerspace). We called it "design and technology" at the time and for one period of everyday we were able to do just as the video by Dale Dougherty explained it; tinkered and played. The teacher would pose a theme or a problem and we were given time to brainstorm our ideas and use the materials available in order to create. As a kinesthetic learner, this is how I learned the most. I enjoyed changing the physical world presented in for of me to create and experiment with something I didn't know would even work in the end. 

As a future PJ educator, I believe making can be a part of every subject. Makerspaces fit in anywhere in the curriculum in so many different ways as does inquiry and 21st century competencies. For instance, in social studies a group of students can work on a news report of a social justice issue using green screen technology; they can pose their problem, collect relevant data to support the issue, create their report, and then improve on their design after some one peer reviews their work. During science, students can talk about teh Earth and Space Systems unit and use chibitronics to represent constellations they see in the night sky from a diorama they created. The possibilities are endless with making!

What is one observation you had about the video in terms of how a maker/constructionist approach to education can make the learning process more meaningful or better prepare students for the real world (think 21st Century skills & competencies)?

In Adam Savage's video he not only talks about the importance of making but the important of students failing. He says the best way to learn is through failure, or you're not learning at all. The fixed mindset makes students believe that they are born with a certain intelligence and this is the mindset that Carol Dweck says makes students "not want to try", whereas the growth mindset and the idea that Adam Savage was getting at was that kids ned to experience failure in order for their minds to grow. They must persevere and abstain from environments where they build an allergic reaction to trying because something is too dangerous. Problem solving with tools and allowing for creativity to flow within students creations in projects allows for critical thinking and is a competency that must be achieved in order for students to take these skills into the real world.

 

 

The maker approach and the design process go hand in hand. The maker approach allows students to learn by doing. They are engaged in hands-on, collaborative learning experiences that foster 21^st century skills. In doing so, students have the opportunity to construct their own learning. The design process is a great way to structure the maker learning experience. It emphasizes the importance of creating a plan when solving a problem. Students will learn how to define a problem; collect information; brainstorm and analyze ideas; develop solutions/ build and test a model; present ideas to generate feedback and use the tests and feedback to improve the design. Combining the two is effective for a classroom setting. As a future primary/junior teacher, I believe that both can be incorporated into numerous subjects. STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) is a great place to start. 

 

 

The maker approach to education can make the learning process more meaningful and better prepare students for the real world. Through this approach students will understand that failure is crucial to the learning process. Unlike education today, students won’t develop an allergy for trying new things. This is important as it won’t limit opportunities for students. Additionally, the maker approach, like Adam said, is the engine behind improving math and science performance. It is preparing students for the future, because it is the future. The maker approach fosters 21^st Century skills such as, critical thinking and problem solving, innovation and creativity, and collaboration. As a result students will be more prepared for the real world. 

Within the TED talk, Dale Dougherty mentions that making is against the norm and against the grain. Makers are a little wild and, on the edge, and this type of education is not necessarily “normal”. I think that he has a great point here. As someone who grew up in an education system that was based primarily on information being given and regurgitated, this type of educational system intrigues me. I think that students need to develop the skills of being innovative, making mistakes, being creative, and solving problems. If we create classrooms like this, our future will be in good hands!

Making goes hand in hand with the design process and can allow the students to develop a solution based on a problem that they are interested in. Within my future elementary classroom, I want to make the curriculum come alive for the students. I think that the design process is a great tool and structure to making and can really help the students to develop something innovative and creative. I want my future students to come up with wonderings and problems that they are interested in and use these ideas/problems in conjunction with making so that they can find solutions. I love how the design process allows for feedback on the solution or design created and a chance to improve the design. It is a wonderful thing for students to learn that it is okay to make mistakes, get feedback and improve. 

 

 

In this video by Adam Savage, he explains and demonstrates how making is important to the learning process of students and how it makes learning much more meaningful. One observation that I had in this video is how he emphasizes that failing is essential to growing and learning. Making is something that is risky in terms of being out of your comfort zone and failing, but he explains that students need to fail. He says that if you don’t give them that chance to try things and learn from them, then students will eventually not want to try new things, which is the worst thing for them. When I heard this, I automatically thought about growth mindset and how in this mindset, failing is seen as something positive because a student will learn more from their failing then from their successes. If we can harness the growth mindset in our students and translate that to making, we can help develop innovative and creative students who will be ready for the real world. 

My teachables come under the broad category of sciences. Science is one subject area in which maker and inquiry based learning approaches can very easily be integrated. In recent years, there has been a great emphasis for these learning strategies in the Ontario Curriculum. Every strand in every Science course has a component of STSE. The purpose of that is to encourage students to apply the theoretical concepts that they learn in the class to work and make connections between science, technology, society and the environment. This facilitates problem and project based learning and makes students think outside the box. It also fosters their creative thinking, imagination and problem-solving.

In STSE, students can research pressing issues in the society, and potentially come up with ideas and solutions for them. For example, the students in the Grade 12 Biology class in my last placement analyzed the effects of human population growth, personal consumption and the development of technology on our ecological footprint. They also researched and interviewed organizations that were already running projects to combat this issue. They then came up with solutions to reduce the ecological footprint and shared their findings and research with other students through posters that they designed. Even though the students did not make anything tangible, they came up with unique and creative ideas that could be put into practice. 

Another way to integrate inquiry and design process within science teaching can be done by running Scientific Investigative Procedures with students. These are open-ended and student-centred learning activities, in which students can be allowed to investigate their areas of interest. Our Biology professor used to run these procedures in the school he taught and I have seen some great work and mind-blowing innovations by his students on their school website. For examples, students have come up with solutions for cancer prevention and improved sources of biofuel production.

The maker-approach could also be incorporated through STEM and STEAM projects. For example, in my first placement, as a cross- curricular math and science activity, grade 8 students designed and created new toblerone boxes. It was a great way for students to expand on their knowledge on geometrical shapes and create something new using their imagination and creativity. In another activity, students created robotic and hydraulic arms. These activities encourage students to embrace design thinking and develop a growth mindset.

Adam Savage in his video “Permission to make” talks about the benefits of maker-approach in Education and some barriers to that in the publicly funded education system. One quote from the video that stood out to me the most was, 

“Making is inherently risky. You are going to cut yourself, bruise yourself, you are going to mess things up and fail while making and that is critical”.

The reason this quote resonates with me is because we need to understand ourselves as teachers and teach kids that it is okay for things to not work out in the first go and to fail. They need to learn to become resilient and develop grit and a growth mindset as Carol Dweck and Angela Duckworth mentioned in the videos. This is because in real job world, things will not be handed to them in a silver platter. They will have to navigate their own path and find their own solutions to the problems. They will fall in that process but the essence is to not give up and continue to persevere until you reach the end. For example, my husband is a computer programmer and his work entails designing new softwares. In that process, he creates something new, makes mistakes, finds bugs in his work, troubleshoots, gets feedback, and improves his work. This is a constant, ongoing process and had he not embraced the design process and the growth mindset, he would have probably quit his job by now. 

One particular notion that struck a chord with me from the TED talk was how people were ‘playing’ with technology. They had/have no inherent goal in mind, they are simply exploring and experimenting with what they have. I feel like, for me, these concepts can translate very well into an English or History classroom. These are two spaces where inquiry learning can be at its most effective state, and the idea of ‘playing’ with information and technology allows us to further the student learning. 

There are varying ways to research, and varying sources to scour through. Allowing students to play with search functions, key words, or even their topics of choice, allow them the flexibility to research and discover information that interests them. Through the idea of a makerspace and creating in general, students can explore their pre-existing information and build upon it, expand upon it, and refine their knowledge through inquiry and student-centered learning. 

What is one connection you made with what was in this video by Adam Savage, especially in light of last week’s theme “Focus on the Future” (ie. how education has, is and will need to change)?

The main connection between this week and last week that I took from the video is the inherent desire of learning and exploring that is within students and children, specifically when looking at the “What Do You Want Kids to Do With Technology” chart we saw last week. This chart highlights everything that education today is having students do with technology: creating presentations and writing essays for the most part. Technology is our future as educators and as people in general, it is not something that is going away and therefore should be treated with the respect to explore, imagine, and learn from. Making is something that should not be stomped out of children, it is something to foster for them. The classroom is a wonderful place to fail and try, and fail and try again. From failure comes some of the best learning a student can experience, and it lends itself so well to a student-centered environment when thinking about maker spaces. 

 

            The maker approach to education and the design process can be in incorporated into several subject areas! As educators, when we provide our students with opportunities to explore and discover things they are interested they will learn everything around them that much faster. The maker approach and the design process gives students flexibility and choice in their learning progress, allowing students to learn at their own pace and feel comfortable to take risks. The maker approach and design process does not have to be limited to just mathematics and STEM subjects’ area; art and drama incorporate inquiry and student-centered learning just as much. Both approaches of teaching allow students to not only make things by hand, but also build a community with their peers. Therefore, the maker approach and the design process can be implemented into any subject area where students work together to creatively build together, collaborate and form teamwork skills. Once students accomplish building an idea they have created, this allows them to become more confident in the next thing they want to create. 

 

 

            One observation I had about the video in terms of how a maker/constructionist approach to education can make the learning process more meaningful is allowing students to have the hands-on experience of creating and discovering how something is built. While building or “making”, students are learning and understanding mathematical and scientific concepts by actively and independently teaching themselves. Using a maker/constructionist approach in a classroom teaches students to think critically, prove hypothesises and take risks in learning. All these skills can be transferred into the real world. Allowing students to take risks, fail and start over again is a critical part of the learning process. Adam Savage emphasizes that if students are not given the opportunity to fail and then overcome that failure, that student is more likely to take future risks in their learning. The maker culture encourages students to be motivated and inspired to try new things. 

I find that the maker approach is quite a universal strategy and one that can be used in most fields of study and courses. My subject area is science and biology and because makerspaces and strategies are geared towards STEM/STEAM related courses, mines is perfectly designed for this approach. One of the major things that I have learned at the faculty is that you have to KNOW YOUR STUDENTS and that STUDENTS COME FIRST! With that in mind the maker approach is one that fulfills this criteria in multiple ways. Firstly, the maker approach puts the student first as they are in charge of learning and developing their knowledge using a wide variety of tools and skills that teachers provide them with. This idea goes hand-in-hand with another maker approach; inquiry-based learning. In science, inquiry-based learning is critical as the epitome of science is research and finding out new things, new ways and new possibilities. I find that that the design process and inquiry-based learning is quite similar to each other because students get to design their own projects and use problem solving skills to complete them. With all that in mind, the maker approach is also a great way to ensure students are learning and developing 21^st century skills. When students are put first and they lead their learning through collaboration then they are preparing themselves very well for the fast-paced, tech-based society.

What is one observation you had about the video in terms of how a maker/constructionist approach to education can make the learning process more meaningful or better prepare students for the real world (think 21st Century skills & competencies)?

One think that was really an “AH HA!” moment was when Adam Savage used the analogy of an someone with an under-developed immune system because their bodies have not been immune to diseases or infections and connected it to someone who can “mentally” go through this under-development. I totally agree with his point and it really has resonated with me as a teacher who aspires to be a maker/constructivist. I believe that the first thing we need to do with our students is set them up and prepare them for failure. Although, people might find this weird or a tactic that will have negative impacts, I think that we always tell our students to aim so high that when they don’t reach that level or standard they lose self-esteem and confidence in themselves. This in turn makes our students less risk-takers and the whole idea behind a maker approach is to take a problem or a question you might have, use inquiry models, take risks and try to find a solution. The end goal is not to find the perfect solution it’s about the skills and personality students develop along the way. It is during this design process that students define themselves, their learning becomes more meaningful because it is personal and they develop or refine critical skills that are needed in today’s society (21^st century competencies). Using this approach in education we will be able to provide our students with confidence, leadership skills to take on new challenges in society and basically a recipe for success not failure. 

How could the maker approach to education (inquiry, student-centered, emphasis on 21st century skills/global competencies) and the design process be incorporated into your subject area? 

 

The maker approach to education can be incorporated into all subject areas but in my own teachables, History and English, I think this approach is highly underutilized. In both these subjects Inquiry that is student-centred would not only be highly effective but also very engaging. In either subject students could come with their own inquiry based questions that they would then use the design process to explore (define the problem, collect information, brainstorm and analyse ideas, develop solutions, present ideas for others feedback, improve on your design). In English or History students could create a website, an infographic, a game, a comic, a multimedia presentation, or any other number of possibilities in order to share their research and ideas with others using 21^st century skills. Being proficient in technological skills is essential today and it is also something that students enjoy, so incorporating it into the makerspace is incredibly useful. I also think technology is something that people do not associate with History and English subjects however I know it is essential for both. There is an incredible wealth of research, virtual tours, museums, primary documents, and so on available online to everyone and having access to them in our own homes and classrooms is amazing. 

 

What is one observation you had about the video in terms of how a maker/constructionist approach to education can make the learning process more meaningful or better prepare students for the real world (think 21st Century skills & competencies)? 

 

The one thing I took from the video that I saw as really important is the idea that Making is about getting your hands dirty and making mistakes, because that is okay. I think too often people are afraid to create because they are afraid of making a mistake and I believe we need to teach children that it is always okay to make a mistake and try something new because that is how we all learn. I think the maker process and this idea of creating and making mistakes will better prepare students for the future because we all make mistakes however it is how we learn from them and grow that matters. 

 

 

Everyone is a maker. A maker basically is to make things that cannot be afford or purchased from anywhere else. Become a maker can help promote the creativity and critical thinking skills of students. The design process of a maker, including define a problem, collect information, brainstorm and analyze ideas, develop solutions and tests, evaluate on feedback and improve your design, can help in any aspects of research and learning process. As teachers of 21^st century, we need to prepare our students for jobs that have not yet been created and solve real-world problems which are critical for the living conditions in our environment. Students can work collaboratively to lead their class through inquiry-based learning. This process requires good critical thinking skills, creativity, collaboration and communications. It also helps to promote respect to different cultures and become accountable for their own behaviors, which are the 21^st century competencies. 

 

 

One observation I had about the video was that the maker is not about the funding school receive which can afford the technologies for students but a spirit and a passion to be able to fix or improve something that have problems. It requires critical thinking, innovation, knowledge base, and a believe in yourself. Without the maker spirit, the world would not become the one like today. We are in the information technology age, and it was like the industrial revolution in the 18^th century. We have to teach our students to inherited this maker spirit to help improving the future of human beings or the mother earth. 

My first reaction when confronted with concepts and pedagogies such as inquiry, deep wonder, and a maker approach, is as follows: “I’m a new teacher, I need to figure out how to best-teach all the subjects I’m required to have my students learn by the time they’re done with me. How am I supposed to also use these new, cutting-edge methods? When will I have the time?”

I also think: “Sure, this will work for teaching kids about coding, and maybe I could use a make approach in science and art class. But kids still need to learn to spell, read, write, and do long division. Some subjects are just BORING and need to be taught, there is no way to get students passionate about everything.”

After last week’s and this week’s material, I realize that those thoughts are misguided. While there are some real issues when it comes to integrating inquiry and a maker approach in to all aspects of our classroom teaching (financial, planning and organizational, risk management and approval of administration, judgement from other teachers), it is evident from the videos and the research that kids DO have a natural proclivity to curiosity and passionate engagement, and that tapping into that seam of motivation is a powerful way to encourage learning.

As a teacher (and more broadly, as humans in all aspects of our lives), our tendency is often to fall back on what we know, and to “do things the way we’ve always done them”. Those thoughts are antithetical to teaching best-practices, and come from a place that still thinks of teaching as being teacher-centred, rather than student-centred. Makerspace pedagogies line up perfectly with the 21st C skills and competencies, and applying them to our teaching practice will result in students who are motivated, have high self-esteem (“I built THAT!” or “I can make ANYTHING!”), and have quite frankly learned more, and learned it more deeply.

Savage mentions that America currently lags behind the rest of the world (presumably by OECD metrics) in science and math. He brings up ‘making’ as a way to re-invest in students’ STEM abilities, and this adds an interesting perspective to the ongoing debate in education (as well as politically in our province) surrounding best practices for education in Math. While the new Premier of Ontario is attacking “Discovery Math” and threatening to “scrap” that curriculum, Savage is proposing an even more radical approach to teaching math and associated concepts.

Savage also talks about the sense of risk and avoidance of failure that is prevalent in schools today - his reference to kids being “allergic to trying new things”. While he is referring to America, this applies to Canada as well (Canada may be less litigious, but that’s another story). This connects with much of what we have learned so far in this program around the ideas of Risky play, Nature Defecit Disorder, and the concepts explored in Richard Louv’s book “Last Child in the Woods” - topics explored both in Sheila Rhodes’ PJ STEM Science classes, as well as Outdoor Education with Mike Whitmarsh.

Savage’s ethos of “permission to make” is similar to the ethos that we saw last week with Sugata Mirta and Logan LaPlante, where rather than forcing students to learn Math, English, Science, Drama, etc…, students are given permission to inquire and explore that with which they are interested. Savage states his belief that students are better served by being allowed to come at education from a single point of interest, and then learning all of the associated topics via their association with that one focus point, rather than having them learn MathEnglishScienceMusic etc… one after the other, separately, all at once. 

As others have discussed, the maker approach and the design process are very similar. The maker approach is about practical application of ideas, trying approaches and refining ideas. The design process is about beginning with a problem (practical learning), forming research, making attempts and then getting feedback to improve. The design process is more focused in its problem-based learning, both promote learning by doing, having a growth mindset and learning through practical application. Both have elements of inquiry, are student-directed and incorporate core competencies like critical thinking and collaboration. 

My subject areas are biology and general science. The maker and design approach fit well into the sciences. Much of science is about discovery, inquiry and its significance comes from the ability of science to solve real-world problems. Students can be given a problem that exists and guided through the design process to research a solution. We did something similar in our teachable classes here at the faculty when we did SIPs (student investigative projects). We picked a topic, did research, received feedback on our methods and then presented our findings. We could do something similar with our students, and introduce an element of choice by letting students choose what to investigate. 

When students are able to investigate what they are interested in and based on practical need, they become more invested in their learning. An example was that when Adam couldn’t buy or find an item he wanted, he would have to make it. He talks about how if students are motivated to learn because they’re invested, it helps them learn and succeed more compared to if they are removed from the material they are investigating or if they are not interested. 

Another point I liked from the video was that it’s important to begin making where you are. With all the complex examples of programming or building, I think it could be easy to lose sight of the fact that making doesn’t have to be complex or only available to some. The other video about making was talking about how people can make their own satellites for eight thousand dollars. This is very cheap compared to the amount NASA originally spent, but that’s not accessible to everyone or even most people, I would think. Still, that doesn’t mean that making itself can’t be done with all students. Making and maker spaces should meet students where they are in accessibility and ability so everyone has the opportunity to explore and build.  

 

 

 

 

 

What is one observation you had about the video in terms of how a maker/constructionist approach to education can make the learning process more meaningful or better prepare students for the real world (think 21st Century skills & competencies)?

 

 

One observation about the video in terms of how a maker/constructionist approach to education can make the learning process more meaningful or better prepare students for the real world is just the overall importance of exposing children to this type of environment. Knowing all the positive ways making can have on a student’s learning process, schools need to prioritize and invest in these types of programs instead of getting rid of it by prioritizing other academic subjects. Essentially, this approach should be exposed in all subjects. By getting students to learn this type of way, not only will it make learning more meaningful and prepare them for the real world but it will also develop their 21^st century skills and global competencies such as critical thinking, innovation, creativity, collaboration and global citizenship. Another observation I made about the video is the close comparison between the hygiene hypothesis and the exposure of a maker approach. The hygiene hypothesis states that if children lack exposure to infectious agents, they will not develop as strong as an immune system as a child that is exposed. This hypothesis relates closely to the maker approach in the sense that they both have negative consequences on a child if they lack exposure to something. If students are not exposed to failure and trying things until they get it right (characteristics of a maker approach), they will grow up to have a fixed mindset and be afraid of failure. Both ideas have negative consequences on a child in which we should strive to change. 

 

The maker approach to education allows students to explore their capabilities and develop skills throughout the process. I believe it is essential to provide students with hands-on learning opportunities, in order for them to explore, collaborative with one another and problem solve. The idea that I took away from the video emphasized on “makers are in control”. This statement is powerful to me and I believe it should be practiced in classrooms to meet the 21st century standards. By teaching to this approach, students are able to figure out how things work, become more engaged, as their interests will be met, and have the ability to direct their learning. It is important to be mindful that all students learn differently and at different paces. I would incorporate these approaches to my teaching practices to encourage students in all subject areas. For example, inquiry based learning promotes creatively, problem solving and divergent thinking. This learning should not solely be implemented into the science and math curriculum, it should branch into the language and social studies as well.

 

My definition of ‘Making’ expanded as I explored through the resources provided in the PowerPoint. After learning that Makerspace, allows a student to find their passions and promotes them to try something new, excites me as a teacher. I believe this approach is very beneficial to students in the 21st century. It makes them active and independent learners. In my elementary school experience, I believe I could have benefited from this to not give up so easily on myself. I never considered myself to be good at visual arts after going through a negative experience. If I was exposed to a Makerspace for visual arts, I may have enjoyed it more and taken on a passion for painting.

 

 

One connection I made from the video is the topic on budget costs. Adam spoke about schools cutting down on programs that operated within the school. It is heartbreaking to hear that programs, such as the theatre, visual arts and shop, are cancelled or not available to students due to the limited staff that are qualified in the subject. As technology enhances I believe this will change over time and give students the opportunity to learn these subjects on an online platform and potentially in virtual classrooms. As Adam mentioned, “if you get your students interested in something that interests them, they will learn all the other areas of the curriculum must faster than if you give them everything all at once.” I agree with this statement and believe students learn best through hands-on experiences. Through my teaching practices, I have learned it is best to minimize my lessons and ensure that students have the chance to explore and opportunities that support critical thinking. To better prepare our students and support their education it is best to provide maker spaces that include technology, loose parts and using recyclable materials that they can use for creating.

The maker approach to education and the design process can be incorporated into my subject areas in a variety of ways. Being a physical education teacher there are many new inquiry based games and activities, equipment use and settings which can be introduced in a maker environment. One example that I remember from my experience working with youth in a Recreation setting, the task we asked the kids to come up with a game with use of any equipment in the room (balls, hockey sticks, hoops, etc) and with rules. The children came up with a real world version of “Angry Bird”. The students went into the recycling bin and re-boxed some broken down boxes and used their sweaters to slingshot a football into the boxes. I thought this was an awesome game, it turned out really fun and it demonstrates inquiry based learning through a maker approach.

I think for my second teachable biology, there can be a large emphasis on 21st century skills and global competencies. This can be demonstrated throughout many of the units and applied through the maker approach. There are many tools which allow users to explore a wide range of research (eg. edutopia). For kinesiology they have many anatomy exploration activities which allow you to look right into the body manipulate different organs, muscles, tissues, etc. In my placement this helped the students create their Joint project, as they had to create their own movable joint.

One observation I have after watching the video in relation to the maker approach to education and making the learning process more meaningful is the idea that it’s ok to fail, that is part of the process. I think this is very important for students to get this learning experience and it can very much so prepare them for the real world. The idea of trial and error is very important for students to understand. I also really love the concept of discovery and just making something to spark that critical thinking.