Imagine a Toddler through eighth grade school where theory and practice truly collide. Not only are students expected to learn algorithms and equations and grammar and sentence structure, they are also expected to take their knowledge and innovatively design and create a real, functional three-dimensional product demonstrating their knowledge and understanding. And while ideas and creative thinking are valuable, this school takes it one step further and requires students to bring those ideas to fruition. This school provides the opportunity for students to use their heads, their hands, and their heart each and every day. Fortunately, this school does exist.
Welcome to Coast Episcopal School and their new Makerspace.What exactly is a “makerspace?” Laura Fleming (“Worlds of Making”) defines a makerspace in this way: “To define a school makerspace by its purpose and simplest of terms, it is a place where young people have an opportunity to explore their own interests; learn to use tools and materials, both physical and virtual; and develop creative projects.”
The maker movement at Coast Episcopal School is and will be about teaching and learning that is focused on student-centered inquiry. Students will still need to use the information abundantly available to them on the internet but now must do something with it. They must create. A clear differentiator here from other learning, however, is that this is not a ‘project’ done at the end of a unit of learning, but the actual vehicle and purpose of the learning. Students use prior knowledge to solve a presented problem or complete a task using a variety of resources provided and gain new knowledge from that experience. This educational approach is called a ‘constructivist’ approach.
Coast Episcopal School Makerspace will serve as a hub for learning and creation not only for Coast Episcopal School students but also for the greater community. Visiting artisans, craftsmen and women, engineers, carpenters, hobbyists and more will have the opportunity to teach, learn, build and work with our students and our community.
