Wednesday, April 22, 2015

MakerSpace - Looking Back On Term 1

With Term 1 complete, I can confidently say that there is much to celebrate in our MakerSpace classroom. With incredible levels of student engagement, this classroom has been an exciting adventure to be a part of. Excitement and enthusiasm aside, I am using this post to reflect on some of the challenges from the past term.

TIME - Where did it go?
I had four Teams working on four different projects, all of which had terrific learning opportunities for our students.  That said, only one of these projects was truly completed within the timeframe of the term and this concerned me.  I definitely need to carefully consider a more realistic timeline when planning future learning challenges for our students.  I suspect that if I plan to have things completed within 75 - 80% of the term that this will allow for greater levels of completion, even when unforeseen events come into play within the school.  If we do mange to complete things within this new timeline, it would be easy to further extend detailing as time permits.

STORAGE - Now where did we put that?
400 students (approx) with 400 projects...hmmmm!  Is is any wonder that storage has been a challenge.  Lost projects are never a good thing and while there were only a few, the fact that it happened has challenged me to sort out additional, improved storage options.  Initially, we were working with only the shelves under our 8 work benches but have now added an additional 14m of shelving.  This has helped immensely, but it not enough!  If we are able to add another 28m of storage shelving I think we will be able to effectively organise and provide easy access for both students and teachers.  Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is a MakerSpace classroom, but I think we are well on our way.



Please enjoy a few of the projects that we were exploring this term.

Team 1 built a house as they explored the various shapes that they might need. The roofing tiles were used to explore patterns.

Team 2 was exploring shapes and angles with special attention to developing an understanding of a pentagon with a very "special" angle (90/Right) that formed the roof of our beautiful bird feeders.

Team 3 took on the challenge of building their own wakas as a means of further celebrating Hokule'a and Hikianalia and their visit to Pt England Beach on March 25, 2015.

Team 4 had the task of deconstructing a wooden crate and then using that material to build something that they could be proud of.