Hands-on and project-based learning is making waves in the traditional education system for students and educators alike. Consider yourself a lifelong learner? Explore below for new ideas and information to discover!
Brooklyn Robot Foundry is doing some amazingly whimsical things with robotics and young makers. Stop by and check out some of the wonderful robotic creations conjured up by Brooklyn Robot Factory’s fledgling engineers at the Young Makers tent in Zone C!
As my Eagle Project, I’m using the Raspberry Pi platform to build computers for students at a girls’ school in Afghanistan. We’re raising the money online at Indiegogo, and will be building a special, pre-loaded Linux distribution with educational software. Trust in Education, a non-profit aid group, will be setting up a computer lab with the Pi-based computers.
Your Makerspace may not need much of a budget to operate, if you have a space you can use for free, tools to borrow, and materials found or donated. For some Makerspaces, the ones with lots of parental involvement, many of the projects are self-funded. But if your Makerspace takes place at a school without as much family support, or if you simply do not have this all in place, you may need to research community or family foundation grants to fill in the gap.
As part of our Back-to-School series, we are sharing chapters and excerpts from the Makerspace Playbook: School Edition. Today, Chapter 4, Safety. No matter how you equip your school Makerspace, it’s likely that if you are doing anything interesting with your students or members there are some risks involved. Be sure to emphasize safety to […]
Here is a video of my 2013 Distinguished Speaker talk at SXSW EDU in Austin, TX. In this talk, I wanted to contrast formal and informal learning, and point out that informal learning is a kind of magic.
Today, we offer you a new way of learning: Maker Training Camps. Training Camps are collaborative online courses specifically designed to make it easier to learn a new skill or build a specific project. Camps use Google hangouts and communities to make it easy to work with other students and teachers. Camps are generally between one and five weeks in length with a lecture, a project and optional office hours each week.
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.
