#makered | Margaret A. Powers

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Creating an I.D.E.A. Studio in our Lower School

Posted on November 22, 2015 | Leave a comment

Now: Our I.D.E.A. Studio

After exploring more of SketchUp this week, I took time to create a model of the redesign that happened to our Lower School storage closet this past summer. There was a lot of work that had to happen to transform it from a closet to the I.D.E.A. (the Imagination Destination at Episcopal Academy) Studio that it is today!

Before: The Storage Closet

To create my initial designs, I pulled on a variety of resources, including books like Invent to Learn and Make Space, online web searches for furniture and room design, my background in the Reggio Emilia approach, and visits to numerous other innovation/makerspaces. I also thought about what worked well and what challenges I had experienced with my previous space (a traditional computer lab) and facilitating an after-school Maker Club (cardboard everywhere!).

This background research and experience helped me to create the key tenets (Fleming, 2015) I knew I wanted for the space:

Agility and flexibility – furniture that could be moved and changed quickly and often (Barrett, Zhang, Moffat & Kobbacy, 2013; Martinez & Stager, 2013)
Accessibility – materials visible and openly accessible to students (Martinez & Stager, 2013)
Inviting – a warm, welcoming space people want to spend time in
Imaginative – a space that inspires you to be creative and playful (OWP/P Architects et al., 2010)
Engaging – interactive walls and tools that invite visitors to be create and be hands-on (OWP/P Architects et al., 2010, Martinez & Stager, 2013)
Resource-rich – full of tools and materials for digital and low-res creation (Martinez & Stager, 2013)

One of the challenges of our new space was that it was underground and windowless, so lights were a very important variable. Below, you can see one of my sketches, outlining interactive wall surfaces and creative, fun lighting (various forms of clouds):

The hope was that our walls would allow for students to have ample spaces to prototype ideas, whether they be in Lego, with magnets, with dry-erase sketches, or on pegboard and also to provide students with varied spaces for them to express themselves (OWP/P Architects et al., 2010).

After recreating this design (constructed this summer) in SketchUp, I began to plan out “Phase 2” of the space (take a tour of it below). These are additional changes to the space that we hope to make in the future but were not possible in the first year given time and budget constraints.

Phase 2 changes include adding a green wall of living plants as you walk into the space, to further increase the inviting, welcoming feel of the room and literally bring some of the outdoors in (OWP/P Architects et al., 2010). I also created a loft space to store cardboard and materials. Currently, that corner of the room has a custom-built storage container for different size cardboard. There is also access to water in that corner and I want to take advantage of it by putting sinks there. Having sinks will make it much easier for students to clean up messy projects (and hands) and also for us to use water to test prototypes (e.g., floating vessels). I designed a loft so that I could still use the corner for storage but underneath, there would be access to sinks.

The next change I want to make is an upgrade to the shelving we have lining one wall. Currently, there are variety of metal bookcases but I want to replace them with some more modern, colorful storage. In SketchUp, I added a creatively shaped unit that represents my hope to have a mix of shelves with one or two nooks for students to sit and do work. There is also a shelf for our 3D printer, laser cutter, and other high-tech machines.

These changes would involve custom-building the loft and new shelving, purchasing sinks and adding the necessary plumbing, and buying the right indoor plants and the lights needed for them to survive. It is definitely something that would require a large allotment of funding from the school and the support of our administrative and facilities teams. I think that making these changes as part of a staged progression (i.e, Phase 2) makes it more manageable than if we had tried to do everything at once. These updated designs continue to support our goals of making the space inviting, imaginative, accessible, and resource-rich.

Check out this video tour of the space created in SketchUp:

References

Barrett, P., Zhang, Y., Moffat, J., & Kobbacy, K. (2013). A holistic, multi-level analysis identifying the impact of classroom design on on pupils’ learning. Building and Environment, 59, 678-689. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2012.09.016

Fleming, L. (2015). Worlds of making: Best practices for establishing a makerspace for your school. California: Corwin.

Martinez, S. L., & Stager, G. (2013). Invent to learn: Making, tinkering, and engineering in the classroom. Torrance, Calif: Constructing Modern Knowledge Press.

OWP/P Architects., VS Furniture., & Bruce Mau Design. (2010). The third teacher: 79 ways you can use design to transform teaching & learning. New York: Abrams.

Designing a 1st Grade Unit with Making in Mind

Posted on November 15, 2015 | 1 comment

Students Sketch Plans for their Lunchrooms

Now that we have the I.D.E.A. Studio (Imagination Destination at Episcopal Academy), a new space at my school for interdisciplinary work, I have been excited to collaborate with teachers to imagine new student projects. Our first grade social studies work is centered around an exploration of places, starting with students’ bedrooms and expanding out all the way to the Earth. This exploration begins by reading students the book Me on the Map. From there, students begin following a similar examination of places and maps that the girl in the book explores. Over the past few years, I have developed a variety of projects that integrate technology into this work in meaningful ways, such as the intersections between mapping, coding, and the distance between home and school. This year, I wanted to see if we could bring more hands-on making into the curriculum.

I began to design a new unit (check out this Google Doc to see it) that would bring together students’ expertise and knowledge of current spaces they frequent (e.g., their bedrooms, the classroom, or the lunchroom) and allow them to consider the design elements involved in creating one of those spaces together as a class. This type of project would integrate ISTE standards, Next Generation Science Standards, reading and writing standards, and connect directly to students’ expanding exploration of places from Me on the Map.

It was important that the technology aspects of the unit be integrated with the curriculum because that is the model for all technology work at the school. We strive to have technology learning happen authentically, providing lessons on new skills as they are needed and often directly in the classroom. For this unit, I thought students could also learn some new maker skills: building 3D models with recycled materials and creating working circuits to light up LEDs. Plus, students would continue to use technology as a tool to document learning and communicate ideas with external audiences by creating an ebook.

After brushing up on my knowledge of Understanding by Design (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005), I decided to specifically use that framework when designing the unit, starting with the standards and then examining what assessments would best help show evidence of learning, before planning the actual project work. I also wanted students to have voice and choice in the project, so I found ways to incorporate their wants through voting and integrating their personal ideas and designs, as well as their contributions to a how-to ebook (Culatta, 2013). Part of this process also involves students giving one another feedback, striving to empathize with the needs and desires voiced by their peers. Later in the unit, students have a chance to work as a team to remix each other’s work to create a shared product, a skillset that is growing more and more valuable (Lessig, 2008). Since the unit follows the entire engineering design process (with some design thinking empathy work added in), I knew I would need a lot of scaffolding to support students (O’Donnell, 2012) so the unit was designed with resources like checklists and a chance to revisit ideas multiple times throughout the project.

We are just starting to try out this unit with the students now and so far, they seem to be very excited to engage with their designs. Last week, we had a discussion that brought some of their learning and empathy work to the forefront, as a class that was designing a “lunchroom where everyone would feel comfortable and happy” took time to reconsider the addition of TVs. At first, many students suggested adding them as a way to increase enjoyment at lunch but then some students said that this might cause students not to talk to one another any more or fight over the choice of shows. We spent some time problem solving the issue (e.g., we could have a TV and no-TV section, etc) and ultimately decided that to make everyone happy and comfortable, we could find other ways to bring enjoyment (like bubble blowers and music!) instead of TVs.

Although most of the unit is hands-on and active, I cannot wait to get to the circuitry lesson and showing students how they can actually bring lights to their 3D models. I hope to write up a reflection post after the unit is finished to share out things I learned and want to remix myself after doing it with students.

References

Culatta, R. (2013). Reimagining learning: Richard Culatta at TEDxBeaconStreet [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/Z0uAuonMXrg

Lessig, L. (2008). Remix: Making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy. New York: Penguin Press.

O’Donnell, A. (2012). Constructivism. In APA Educational Psychology Handbook: Vol. 1. Theories, Constructs, and Critical Issues. K. R. Harris, S. Graham, and T. Urdan (Editors-in-Chief). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. DOI: 10.1037/13273-003.

Wiggins, G. and McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design, Expanded 2nd Edition. Prentice Hall.