Description

The Maker’s Movement is a way to help students become learners through experience, making, tinkering and engineering using all kinds of information, tools, materials and electronics.  Students reporting on projects promote courage, creativity and experimentation. The class is comprised of acquiring information from a textbook, and websites with articles and videos.

"In this practical guide, Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager provide K-12 educators with the how, why, and cool stuff that supports making in the classroom, library, makerspace, or anywhere learners learn.

Join the maker movement and transform education!
There’s a technological and creative revolution underway. Amazing new tools, materials and skills turn us all into makers. Using technology to make, repair or customize the things we need brings engineering, design and computer science to the masses. Fortunately for educators, this maker movement overlaps with the natural inclinations of children and the power of learning by doing. The active learner is at the center of the learning process, amplifying the best traditions of progressive education. This book helps educators bring the exciting opportunities of the maker movement to every classroom.

Their seminal learning experiences come through direct experience with materials. Digital fabrication, such as 3D printing and physical computing, including Arduino, Makey Makey and Raspberry Pi, expands a child’s toy and toolboxes with new ways to make things and new things to make. For the first time ever, childhood inventions may be printed, programmed or imbued with interactivity. Recycled materials can be brought back to life. While school traditionally separates art and science, theory and practice, such divisions are artificial. The real world just doesn’t work that way! Architects are artists. Craftsmen deal in aesthetics, tradition and mathematical precision. Video game developers rely on computer science. Engineering and industrial design are inseparable. The finest scientists are often accomplished musicians. The maker community brings children, hobbyists and professionals together in a glorious celebration of personal expression with a modern flare. When 3D printing, laser cutting, microcomputer control, robotics and computer programming become integral to the art studio, auto shop or physics lab, every student needs access to tools, knowledge and problem solving skills. The maker movement not only blurs the artificial boundaries between subject areas, it erases distinctions between art and science while most importantly obliterating the crippling practice of tracking students in academic pursuits or vocational training. There are now multiple pathways to learning what we have always taught and things to do that were unimaginable just a few years ago."

Syllabus, Objectives, and Outcomes

Objectives:

By the end of this course, the student will:

• understand the concept and importance of the maker movement.
• know how to equip maker centers with materials and tools for making creating and inventing.
• aid their students through promoting courage, independence, experimentation and honest good work.
• be able to help others create, invent, and make something in relationship to the maker movement concept.

Text:

Martinez, S & Stager, G. (2013). Invent to Learn:  Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom. CA: Constructing Modern Knowledge Press  

The following assignments and projects are required for this course = 30 hrs. This course is self-paced however feel free to email the instructor anytime during the course if you have any questions or concerns.

• Read text including prologue (236 pages)   
• Watch videos and read articles on web
• Write reflections (5) (1 page)  
• Research articles reviews of the Internet (2) - (write a half page each)
• Essay - (overall what you have interacted with) (1 – 2 pages)

Class assignments and activities are designed to enhance students’ education and develop their skills in research, critical analysis, and academic writing.  An essay is required at the closing of the class.

Online registration URL closes @ 5:00 p.m. June 9, 2023.