Book Review: Invent to Learn

Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom is an amazing book.  I’ve read tons of articles on Makerspaces, and several books as well, but this is certainly one of the best when it comes to focusing specifically on how making can be used in the classroom, and on starting up a school Makerspace.  This book is both practical and inspiring, and I can’t wait to meet the authors this summer at ISTE.  Here’s my review on Good Reads:

“Children should engage in tinkering and making because they are powerful ways to learn.” – p 3

If you only have time to read one book on the Maker Education Movement, this should be the book. Martinez and Stager do an amazing job of covering everything from the history of making in the classroom to practical ways to incorporate making in everyday instruction. They help you to critically think about what types of projects kids will make and how to make them more effective and creative – no 24 birdhouses that look exactly the same here. There are ideas for how to help students with project design, prompts to get them thinking, creating a physical space conducive to making, etc. There are fabulous lists of resources to check out and supplies to consider. The section on advocacy and research is an excellent resource for grant-writing.

I ended up underlining or annotating something on every other page, and I’ll probably end up re-reading everything again just to soak up all the information. This book is amazing, and is a must for any Maker’s library.