Education

Maker Education is such a valuable role. These stories will bring you the latest information and tales of maker educators who area spreading the maker mindset. Help others learn how to make things or how to think like a maker at makerspaces, schools, universities, and local communities. The importance of maker education can not be understated. We appreciate our educators.

Why Educators Love Maker Faire 2013

Teachers love Maker Faire because they see how much it means to engage their students as makers. For Teacher Appreciation Week, we want to salute educators who bring the Maker movement to kids in schools and in after-school programs. We believe making has the power to transform education and develop the potential of every child to create and innovate. Getting making into schools can be difficult so we’re particularly happy to applaud the efforts of pioneering educators who are leading the way. It’s important that these pioneers realize that they’re not alone.

Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom

Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom

Recently, my wife, Carla Sinclair (founding editor-in-chief of CRAFT magazine) copyedited a book called Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom. As she was editing it, she kept teling me, “this book is great.” So I started reading it. She’s right. Written by Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary S. Stager, Invent to Learn (which was published this week) describes the benefits and opportunities of maker-based learning. Almost every page of the book has an insightful gem.

Maker Faire as Learning Lab

Maker Faire as Learning Lab

We’re delighted to announce a new addition to this year’s Maker Faire educational offerings: a Class Pack filled with behind-the-scenes information and activity sheets designed just for you: teachers and parents who look forward to Maker Faire as your favorite learning-packed weekend of the year! Whether or not you are coming to our sold out Education Day on Thursday, May 16, take a peek for materials that you might want to use in your classroom. We’d like to share some of the special treats you’ll find in this 38-page bookl

Knock Knock Calculator

Knock Knock Calculator

Knock Knock is a clever Arduino-controlled calculator toy, designed for small children. The user knocks out a calculation on the surface — addition, multiplication, subtraction, or division — and Knock Knock will spit back the solution, in the form of knocks, of course. It’s a fun idea for a toy, but good luck trying to use this in secret during a “no calculators” test at school!

Things from Rings

Things from Rings

From the Museum of Mathematics The Math Mondays Experimental Making Labs recently received numerous binder rings in its Incoming Raw Materials box. You know — the little circles that clip closed, used to hold a sheaf of hole-punched paper together.  According to the donor: “Here’s an office supply item that you’ve never used on Math […]

Maker Scouts: Tell Stories

Maker Scouts: Tell Stories

For young makers, making is more than learning how to use a particular tool or a technique. It’s experiencing the power of a material, technology, or tool as a language of self expression. It’s PLAYING with different languages and experiencing the magic of connections that is made when what you have made makes someone laugh, cry, or wonder.