Jan Toth-Chernin is the head of media and technology at Greenhills School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and author of E-Textiles, part of the Cherry Lake Publishing Makers as Innovators series (full disclosure: I was the series editor as well as co-author of two books in the series). You can preview Jan’s book here.
During her portion of October 8’s Booklist webinar Creating a Makerspace Culture (click here to view the archive), she spoke about the long tradition of creation in libraries and about how she cultivated maker mindset and maker activities in her library, and I invited her to share her thinking with you.
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Makerspaces in Libraries: You Probably Already Have One
Jan Toth-Chernin
Chances are good that even if your school supports a traditional library model, there is a space where Spanish students cut up old magazines to display their knowledge of past tense verbs. A lab where cameras, editing software and English students come together to create visual stories and where research collected about local water quality can be displayed. Libraries have often welcomed Project-Based Learning and opportunities to connect to community. As Joyce Valenza once commented, “research no longer fits into a notebook.” The Makerspace idea reinforces the library’s role in the learning process; reading, research, production and sharing. I can’t imagine a better or more authentic opportunity to have conversations about Creative Commons then when students are getting ready to publish their animated comics or graphic novels.
If Makerspaces can be defined as production spaces, then school libraries have been in the biz for a while. Makerspaces or Fab Labs are not just four walls filled with manufacturing equipment. While laser cutters or 3D printers are amazing, they aren’t essential in order to claim or establish a Makerspace. What might be right for some libraries might not work in others. After all, librarians are collection specialists, trained to select materials which support and enhance the curriculum. Consider the current issues and interests which exist at your school and build from there. That’s what I did when starting a Maker Space at Greenhills School. Our first purchases for the small space were sewing needles and fabric.
Our 8th grade students study circuits and electricity in Science and, in English, work on memoirs. After reading about e-textiles (electronic fabrics), a subset of digital wearables (think Google Glass), I saw a possibility for combining these units into a single project which would allow students to explore this rapidly growing field. Middle school teachers were already concerned about student work load, so pitching this idea as a way to extend and consolidate learning won them over. We took the traditional memoir book created by students each year and created our own version of an “e” book. One with an electronic cover. Along with traditional sewing gear we offered a selection of conductive thread, conductive ink, LED lights, watch batteries and El wire. Students designed and created both simple and parallel circuits to light up their books. I invested in a few an Arduino microcontrollers called Lilypads for students who wanted to add a bit of programing to their circuits. When students finished, we had a room filled with books that blinked, pulsed and twinkled. In addition, teachers were able to explore some potential solutions to a few critical issues they were struggling with such as how to add more programming opportunities in an already jam-packed curriculum, meaningful assessment and opportunities for student innovation.
Since then, I have created a music production lab in a storage closet and am working with students to create a small electronics lab where they can build robots after school. Neither of these spaces is actually in the library or has a 3D printer. Hopefully, just like our sewing project did, these spaces will combine both high tech and low tech skills in a cost effective way, inspiring students to hack, craft and dream on their own. Isn’t that what a Makerspace is supposed to do?
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