MAKERSPACE 2019/2020

Welcome to 2019/2020 school year!

I am very excited to be teaching your child for another year during Science Enrichment. All students, from Young 5’s through 5th grades, will spend 45 minutes every week in the eScience Enrichment. During this time students will experience Makerspace, STEAM Lessons and Research development.

Makerspace is designed to be an opportunity for students to learn, collaborate, imagine, create and problem-solve in an entirely hands-on environment. Students are encouraged to pursue their individual interests and passions while receiving the opportunity to be exposed to different types of technology and phsyical materials that will allow them to be creative and innovative as they explore the answers to different meaningful questions and projects.

STEAM lessons are mostly taught in a whole-group setting where all students are learning about the same topic in conjunction with a hands-on activity. Makerspace time is when students can gravitate toward the topics and/or skills that interest them individually. It is also a place where students can invent, explore, and find information and solutions through their own process. Makerspace time is mainly self-guided, with student-generated goals and purposes in mind.

Research (and common sense!) shows that students learn at a deeper level and retain more information when they are engaged in the topic. These hands-on opportunities allow for greater understanding while cultivating enthusiasm and curiosity. Self-guided projects that are generated by the students’ own interests keep them invested and lead to their own processes of problem-solving, thinking critically, and how to learn and revise after making mistakes. At the end of projects, students should have a complex understanding of the topic, be able to fully explain it and take ownership of the end result.

“All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind.”

-Martin H. Fischer