Start-to-finish, fun projects for makers of all types, ages, and skill levels! This easy-to-follow guide features dozens of DIY, low-cost projects that will arm you with the skills necessary to dream up and build your own creations. The Big Book of Makerspace Projects: Inspiring Makers to Experiment, Create, and Learn offers practical tips for beginners and open-ended challenges for advanced makers. Each project features non-technical, step-by-step instructions with photos and illustrations to ensure success and expand your imagination. You will learn recyclables hacks, smartphone tweaks, paper circuits, e-textiles, musical instruments, coding and programming, 3-D printing, and much, much more! Discover how to create: • Brushbot warriors, scribble machines, and balloon hovercrafts • Smartphone illusions, holograms, and projections • Paper circuits, origami, greeting cards, and pop-ups • Dodgeball, mazes, and other interesting Scratch games • Organs, guitars, and percussion instruments • Sewed LED bracelets, art cuffs, and Arduino stuffie • Makey Makey and littleBits gadgets • Programs for plug-and-play and Bluetooth-enabled robots • 3D design and printing projects and enhancements

Librarians Graves et al. discuss challenge-based learning in school library makerspaces. They describe how to create a maker community in a school; expand learning with the local and global maker community through Maker Fests, digital media, local events, and other means; craft interactive spaces; use the workshop model to teach students a new skill; use design thinking, design challenges, and crowdsourced research methods to help students think like designers; create design challenges for elementary and secondary students; and use crowdsourced research and maker journals. --Publisher.

This open access book contains observations, outlines, and analyses of educational robotics methodologies and activities, and developments in the field of educational robotics emerging from the findings presented at FabLearn Italy 2019, the international conference that brought together researchers, teachers, educators and practitioners to discuss the principles of Making and educational robotics in formal, non-formal and informal education. The editors’ analysis of these extended versions of papers presented at FabLearn Italy 2019 highlight the latest findings on learning models based on Making and educational robotics. The authors investigate how innovative educational tools and methodologies can support a novel, more effective and more inclusive learner-centered approach to education. The following key topics are the focus of discussion: Makerspaces and Fab Labs in schools, a maker approach to teaching and learning; laboratory teaching and the maker approach, models, methods and instruments; curricular and non-curricular robotics in formal, non-formal and informal education; social and assistive robotics in education; the effect of innovative spaces and learning environments on the innovation of teaching, good practices and pilot projects.

A new and expanded edition of one of the decade's most influential education books. 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.

Creating powerful learning environments Anyone can create a makerspace. This is the guide to creating a GREAT makerspace. Written by makerspace pioneer Laura Fleming, The Kickstart Guide to Making GREAT Makerspaces is filled with step-by-step, practical ideas that demystify the process of planning and creating a makerspace. Its workbook style ensures that by the time educators are done reading, they have a ready-to-implement plan, personalized for their classroom, school, or district. Readers will find A wealth of examples of great makerspaces in action Activities and strategies for inspiring making across the curriculum Plenty of room and guidance for brainstorming and developing a personalized plan

Makerspaces is a first-to-market resource for early childhood professionals that focuses on how to cultivate the maker mind-set in the youngest learners, how to engage young children in maker-centered learning, design and introduce makerspaces, and how to select/use open-ended tools and materials. Field tested in real classrooms, home settings, libraries, and museums, the authors have practical suggestions, student samples, implementers’ suggestions, photographs, anchor charts, and many other forms of documentation. Each chapter focuses on a different type of makerspace, details ways to successfully set up that makerspaces, offers provocation ideas for how to extend learning, and shows how educators can document evidence of how a child can develop a stronger growth mind-set by interacting with the makerspace. Full-color demonstrative photos give readers additional visual guidance.

Schools around the country are designing maker spaces to spark creativity. Students learn best when they are able to create and tinker and make. But how do you even begin when there are so many terms floating around? This book provides a fun, practical, and approachable framework for any teacher curious about getting started with maker spaces. I've never had so much fun reading a professional book, ever. Somehow each chapter is equal parts hilarious, gleeful, inspiring and practical. I would recommend to this every educator I know and even parents and students. This is a book you can come back to again and again to laugh learn and make each time in a new way. - Jennie Magiera, Educator and Author of Courageous Edventures Your Starter Guide To Makerspaces makes any Hufflepuff feel like they can tackle the maker movement with the brains of a Ravenclaw, confidence of a Gryffindor, and cleverness of a Slytherin. Emily Gover - Edtech Nerd & Librarian

Bridges, furniture, musical instruments, games, vehicles—all of these things were invented and improved upon by people who love to put stuff together, take stuff apart, and figure out how things work! In Explore Makerspace! With 25 Great Projects, readers ages 7 through 10 explore what it means to be an engineer. They discover how inventors use science, art, and math to create new and exciting structures, games, and more. Readers also learn how to set up their own makerspaces at home, using inexpensive and easy-to-find supplies for their tinkering projects. Humans have been inventors throughout history. From the wheel to the rocket, scientists and other engineers have designed new technologies that have made daily life easier and stretched our horizons far beyond our own atmosphere. But inventions don’t have to be full of computer chips or other sophisticated parts. Designing the fastest toy car made from recycled materials can be just as thrilling! Makerspaces can be found in schools, libraries, community centers, and homes all around the country. These are places where both children and adults can work with materials and use the engineer design process to come up with new ideas. Here, imagination, art, and logic combine to produce lasting lessons in science, math, and physics. In Explore Makerspace! With 25 Great Projects, readers learn how to think proactively when faced with a challenge and discover the trial-and-error processes that lead to new discoveries. They find out about the motivation behind some of the world’s most amazing inventions. Through STEAM projects ranging from designing a bridge to creating board games and musical instruments, children discover how to be an engineer.

The untold story of the root cause of America's education crisis--and the seemingly endless cycle of multigenerational poverty. It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge. In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars, Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system--one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware. But The Knowledge Gap isn't just a story of what schools have gotten so wrong--it also follows innovative educators who are in the process of shedding their deeply ingrained habits, and describes the rewards that have come along: students who are not only excited to learn but are also acquiring the knowledge and vocabulary that will enable them to succeed. If we truly want to fix our education system and unlock the potential of our neediest children, we have no choice but to pay attention.

Safer hands-on STEM is essential for every instructor and student. Read the latest information about how to design and maintain safer makerspaces, Fab Labs and STEM labs in both formal and informal educational settings. This book is easy to read and provides practical information with examples for instructors and administrators. If your community or school system is looking to design or modify a facility to engage students in safer hands-on STEM activities then this book is a must read!This book covers important information, such as: Defining makerspaces, Fab Labs and STEM labs and describing their benefits for student learning.· Explaining federal safety standards, negligence, tort law, and duty of care in terms instructors can understand.· Methods for safer professional practices and teaching strategies.· Examples of successful STEM education programs and collaborative approaches for teaching STEM more safely.· Safety Controls (engineering controls, administrative controls, personal protective equipment, maintenance of controls).· Addressing general safety, biological and biotechnology, chemical, and physical hazards.· How to deal with various emergency situations.· Planning and design considerations for a safer makerspace, Fab Lab and STEM lab.· Recommended room sizes and equipment for makerspaces, Fab Labs and STEM labs.· Example makerspace, Fab Lab and STEM lab floor plans.· Descriptions and pictures of exemplar makerspaces, Fab Labs and STEM labs.· Special section answering frequently asked safety questions!