In the spring of 2021, the 6th grade science teacher and I began forming a plan. She had seen the engagement of 6th graders in our afterschool Maker Days program and wanted to find a way to bring that into her classroom so that ALL of our 6th graders could have this opportunity. We … Read more
Over the summer of 2021, I collaborated with our 6th grade science teacher as part of a grant to find ways to incorporate makerspace activities into the curriculum. (Look for posts coming soon about some of the projects we did). Part of our work was reading the book, Making Science: Reimagining STEM Education in … Read more
How to Run a Tech Take Apart Workshop in Your Makerspace Tech Take Apart is a fun, low-budget activity that gets students excited about seeing how the inner workings of electronics function. That being said, my first time attempting this activity with middle school students was a disaster (so much so that I only … Read more
While I’ve never worked in an elementary school before, I’m always on the lookout for awesome maker picture books. Picture books are a great way to introduce a lesson or activity in makerspaces. We even have a whole chart on maker picture book connections in Challenge Based Learning (check out the resources page to see … Read more
How to Make Awesome Plans for a New Makerspace For the first time in four years, I am without a makerspace. My new school’s library is beautiful and huge and has a school culture that is just ripe for making. Even though it was tempting, I decided not to change it up and create a … Read more
ALA’s Teen Tech Week will be upon us before we know it (March 5-11). To help get ready for this event, I’ve written a post for Demco Ideas with 5 makerspace project ideas to tie in with this year’s theme, “Be the Source of Change”. It was hard to limit it to just five ideas, … Read more
The Big Book of Makerspace Projects is definitely the next book you should add to both your school and personal library. Colleen Graves and Aaron Graves offer up 51 awesome makerspace projects in this book that are fun and doable no matter what level you’re at. Why The Big Book of Makerspace Projects should be … Read more
The Awesome Cardboard Maker Cave Last spring, I gave my after-school Makers Club a challenge – create a unique, interactive project that guests can interact with at our 2016 Maker Fair. We had held the Cardboard Challenge earlier in the school year, giving my students lots of ideas on how to use cardboard as a medium. … Read more
The Story of the STEMgirls Club My school is a STEM magnet school and unfortunately, that leads to a disproportionate number of male students. This year the ratio was 65% male, 35% female, which led to many of my female students feeling disenfranchised. I wanted to do something to help create a safe environment for … Read more
The 2016 Stewart MakerFair Every year since we started our makerspace in January 2014, we’ve held a Maker Fair during the last conference night of the year (See our 2014 MakerFair and our 2015 MakerFair). This year’s was even bigger and more awesome. We had more interactive student projects and I had more student volunteers … Read more