Students Tinker, Make and Innovate in New Maker Space

Picture a place where students’ curiosities and imaginations run wild and all their inventive dreams can come true. That place exists on Crossroads’ 21st Street Campus and it’s called the Edison Maker Space.

 

The brainchild of Middle School Technology and STEAM Lab Coordinator Dori Friedman, the space started in a large cabinet inside Warren and is now a full-fledged Maker Space where students explore an assortment of digital tools, including Legotronics (combining Legos with electronics), 3-D printing, 2-D cutting, laser cutting, robotics, soldering, prototyping, sewing and green screen. Dori had been planning the space for three years, and in a matter of weeks, she brought her vision to life using a newly vacant classroom adjoining the existing STEAM Lab.

 

“I repurposed a classroom, reused furniture and reinvented the space,” said Dori. “I love how it turned out. It is very Crossroads because it feels very organic.”

 

Since the start of the school year, several Options classes have used the space, including Invention, Game Design, Alley Games and Tinkering. There is an Open Make option one day a week for students to work on their own projects or to participate in guided workshops. Many teachers are also busy integrating making into their curriculum and Dori helps support the projects as she collaborates with the classroom teachers and students.

 

More spaces of this kind are emerging in schools across the country, and Dori has been ahead of the curve, starting several years ago by bringing in her own 3-D printer to share with the students and teachers. She immersed herself in learning how to use various tools and technologies that support a maker mindset and introduced them one by one to the students, eventually integrating them into the curriculum. The new room is designed to be a flexible learning space and will continue to evolve.

 

Dori sees infinite possibilities with this form of project-based learning. Last year, for example, sixth-graders recreated large Viking ships using 3-D printer pens as part of their medieval unit in Core. This year, the sixth-grade Core classes will make shields for the ships using 3-D printer pens, adding another dimension to the project.

 

Additionally, Dori said she hopes that students take away from the Maker Space an “innovative spirit, an ‘I can do it’ attitude, self-confidence, perseverance, life skills, problem-solving, critical thinking and an important skill set of tools that can be applied in various areas of their life.”