At Northwood College for Girls, we have many beautiful spaces for our students and staff, as well as many enabling spaces which provide our students with enriched learning experiences. One of these such spaces is our Makerspace, which since its opening has been used for STEM lessons. After a year, it felt like students and staff could gain more from this dynamic space. Because this was a space I felt particularly passionate about, I wanted to ensure that all staff and students became empowered to use it. As teachers, we often talk a lot about the importance of a learning space, when referencing study skills and habits. For example, UCAS says “Several factors can affect learning ability, including seating, light, noise, and even colour. Students who study in a positive learning environment have been shown to be more motivated, engaged, and have a higher overall learning ability.” Thus, having an inspiring learning environment, such as a makerspace, should also inspire creativity and engagement. So this year we have really considered how we can ensure that this incredible space does inspire learning.
What is a Makerspace?
According to the Government Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport; “A makerspace is a physical location where people gather to co-create, share resources and knowledge, work on projects, network, and build. They help intermediate and advanced users develop their skills and creativity, particularly inspiring younger generations to engage with the STEM agenda – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (or STEAM as it is now sometimes becoming referred to, by also including the Arts). Their activity promotes development of high-end technology skills needed for prosperity and social mobility.” Ultimately, a makerspace is a collaborative work space for making, learning, exploring, sharing and my new favourite word ‘tinkering’, that uses high tech to no tech tools.
Why a Makerspace?
The fact that this features strongly in the UK Digital Strategy in 2019 (pre-pandemic) also highlights their value and potential impact. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) says that making meets numerous ISTE Standards, including Empowered Learner, Innovative Designer, Computational Thinker, and Creative Communicator. Thus having a makerspace, where students can make and tinker, cultivates these skills. Furthermore, it can provide students with the following learning opportunities:
- Provide hands-on learning opportunities.
Students are able to learn vast amounts of concepts through books, lectures, and videos, etc. Yet, in a makerspace they have an opportunity to take an abstract concept and put it into practice. For instance, in a classroom students can learn about volume, but in a makerspace students can make a 3D printed chocolate mould with a specific volume. They can learn about electricity, but in a makerspace students can make a paper circuit and create a celebration card that lights up.
- Teach students resilience.
Makerspaces give students an opportunity to use various tools and materials. As they ‘tinker’ they will naturally analyse what’s working and what’s not, and they have to try different strategies to solve problems. Through this process, students learn to experiment, accept failures, make improvements, and develop the resilience they need to try and try again.
- Help students build communication, creativity, and collaboration skills.
Any classroom teacher knows the pitfalls of project based learning. There are of course many benefits, but often project based learning isn’t executed or completed to the standard that we would like. Yet, in a makerspace, projects authentically create collaboration and communication. Students naturally communicate, contribute ideas, and take on tasks, which is wonderful to see and helps students to build the necessary ‘soft skills’ of the 21st-century, such as collaboration, creativity, and communication.
- Encourage educational equity.
Makerspaces help introduce students to engineering, computer science, robotics, and other sciences that have traditionally been the ambit of white males. In a makerspace, girls, students of colour, neurodiverse students, EAL students, and students of any socioeconomic background can access the same tools and technology that once may have been available only to students in gifted programs or in robotics clubs. Although our context is a girls’ school, allowing our students to have a safe space and exposure to these technologies, the chance to build resilience, before industry, will reduce any fears of imposter syndrome that they may otherwise fear when entering and learning in what is still a male dominated field.
- Can help students do better in school.
Finally, there is some small research which shows that students who are engaged learners are more likely to attend school and graduate. Thus, having a makerspace which engages a variety of learners, will improve attendance and attainment.
What have we done?
To empower our teachers and support them in embedding the use of the Makerspace into their curriculum, Adam Giblin and I delivered a whole school CPD on Design Thinking. Design thinking is a process used to understand needs, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test. It is most useful to tackle ill-defined or unknown problems and involves five phases: Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test. Design Thinking is not STEM, it is a process that can be used by all subjects and Key Stages, which is why we wanted all staff to have this CPD as part of the launch of the Makerspace. Adam then continued to offer CPD on Design Thinking as part of our Teaching and Learning Pathways in the senior school.
In this first year we received training from the companies who provided the equipment and saw use of the Makerspace by STEM and by Textiles, but we wanted to grow the space further. We also noticed that the companies who provided the equipment shared banks of ‘templates’ for printing, and although these were impressive, templates were counter intuitive to the ethos of why the makerspace would be meaningful. This year, I have been working with the Cambridge Makerspace to further develop how we train staff. From this, we have developed tutorials on how to use software which allows students to build their own designs for printing and cutting. It also established some important principles to keep this space running and safe. Firstly, the machinery and equipment has become RAG rated. Red is equipment that is only to be used by staff after training and passing a risk assessment quiz, this is the laser cutter. Amber is equipment that is only to be used by staff and students after training and passing a risk assessment quiz, this is for the 3D printers. Green is for equipment that can be used by anyone, such as card, paint, glue and crafts etc. To ensure that this information, training on the equipment and training on the correct programmes to use the equipment was accessible, a Google Site was created. This will remain as a hub for all things Makerspace related: https://sites.google.com/nwc.gdst.net/nwcmakerspace/home
Once this was created, I invited ESLT to be ‘friendly critics’ and receive training which follows the instructions on the Google Site. This allowed for any issues or missed instruction to be spotted. It also means our ESLT are fully able to support staff in using this space too, as they know the full use and benefits. After this, some changes were made and our first group of teaching staff from Senior School and Junior School received training.
Conclusions
Investing in a Makerspace will provide our students with a unique opportunity which will serve them as they enter into a workforce and world which is still a little unknown. They will have the skills of resilience, collaboration, creativity, reflection and teamwork, to name a few, to ensure that they thrive. This space will need to be looked after and will need to be embraced by teachers who are resilient too, something which we have in abundance. There are still learning opportunities for this space, and I know it is not completely self-sufficient, but for our students, this space can be transformative. Finally, as this will be my last blog at Northwood College for Girls, it is only fitting that I am writing about the importance of remarkable spaces. Northwood is an inspiring and remarkable place to work. The students, the staff, the whole school community is truly something special, and a place I will always hold dear in my heart. When we say, ‘first, we teach fascination’ we really do mean it and the Makerspace is simply one of the many ways in which we do this.
References
How your surroundings affect the way you study | Undergraduate | UCAS.
Libraries and makerspaces – GOV.UK
The Benefits of a Makerspace Learning Environment | Walden University.
Why Your Students Need a Makerspace – The STEM Maker Lab
This Teacher Blogs 