Last year, we began exploring the ‘Maker Movement’ in greater detail, with several staff attending workshops and participating in professional development and students participating in ‘Maker Spaces’ and Coding Clubs. Whilst ‘making’ in the classroom is certainly nothing new, the Maker Movement harnesses creativity to develop solutions to current issues/problems through an authentic use of materials and technology. Stager (2013) stated that using technology to make, repair, or customize the things we need brings engineering, design, and computer science to the masses. Fortunately for educators, the maker movement overlaps with the natural inclinations of children and the power of learning by doing. When making meaning, students start reflecting that “creating allows me to be inventive”,“I can really make my imagination a reality” and “being able to test out solutions to problems is exciting!”.

The philosophy behind the ‘Maker Movement’ is strongly aligned to our constructivist approach (students creating meaning from their learning experiences) to learning and teaching and serves to enhance the PYP at Lindfield. You just need to watch Caine’s Arcade (www.cainesarcade.com) or Richard Turere’s TED talk titled ‘My invention that made peace with the lions’ to see the value behind encouraging students to be creative, curious and purposeful learners who take action and contribute positively to our world. Such making experiences allow boys to see the impact that their problem solving could have and leads students to start realising that “I can make a difference”.

The shift to “making” represents the perfect storm of new technological materials, expanded opportunities, learning through firsthand experience, and the basic human impulse to create. It offers the potential to make classrooms more student-centered: relevant and more sensitive to each child’s remarkable capacity for intensity. Making is predicated on the desire that we all have to exert agency over our lives, to solve our own problems. It recognizes that knowledge is a consequence of experience, and it seeks to democratize access to a vast range of experience and expertise so that each child can engage in authentic problem solving. Taken from http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3758336

The maker movement poses exciting opportunities to transform learning within our school community and it is exciting to see students starting to design and create solutions to real world issues whilst also exploring their inventiveness and creativity.

Our desire to remain innovative and purposeful in our teaching practices led us to apply for and receive a grant to further explore the Maker Movement and the purposeful integration of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) into our learning experiences. With this grant we are investigating the concept of ‘Design Thinking’ and how we can facilitate our students to become meaningful thinkers who are empowered to make a positive contribution to our society.

The five elements of the PYP (see article on the PYP) can be evidenced in the implementation of STEAM and Maker Movement Makerspaces. The Learner Profile, Concepts, Approaches to Learning, Attitudes and Action are at the heart of learning which focuses on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. Curiosity and wonder are natural byproducts of any learning environment that incorporates STEAM Makerspaces generating engagement with authentic, meaningful, and real world issues.

This approach inspires all learners (students and teachers) to build resilience as they think critically and creatively, problem solve and troubleshoot along the way. Scaffolding inquiry becomes seamless when students use hands-on design thinking skills. An atmosphere of rigorous thinking opportunities ensues as growth mindset, differentiation and ICT skills converge to support this self-directed learning opportunity.

We look forward to sharing this journey with you throughout the year!

Pascal Czerwenka