Maker Revolution

In every discussion about the educational system in America today, there is always a call for reform. Whether the reform is needed to increase math and science skills, bring more emphasis to arts and music, or create a more democratic classroom through critical pedagogy, educators all agree that some change is needed. The fact that so many educators feel a change is warranted is evidence that something about our current system is broken. The question of how to fix the problem remains. I don’t think there is a simple and direct solution, but there are some interesting prospects for solutions gaining traction right now.

One of the promising pathways for reform is the emerging “maker movement”. The maker movement places emphasis on the integration of simple and complex technology to fabricate, create, and code. I believe the maker movement creates a safe, encouraging place for the fertile and creative minds of our students. Traditional curriculum has led to generations of children who were discouraged from pursuing “creative” talents and told to focus on the skills they would need for a job (Robinson, 2017). By devaluing skills needed for creative pursuits, traditional curriculum is effectively stifling the growth of innovation in our students. Maker projects are a great way to breathe life back into this situation. By tapping into a child’s “basic human impulse to create”, teachers can give students more ownership of their individual learning processes (Stager, 2017). Students choose projects that appeal to their interests and therefore, pursue those projects with far more vigor than an arbitrary assignment created with cookie cutter indifference. A successful computer engineer said that he remembers the awe that he felt when he first created something with his own hands and then saw it in the hands of millions of other people (What Most Schools Don’t Teach, 2017). Making can empower our students in ways that no other medium has thus far.

Another aspect of the maker movement makes it ideal as a part of the reform movement for education. The maker movement creates an opportunity for teachers to improvise and bring new topics and skills to the classroom. Making is not a one dimensional approach that can be easily bound by standards and testing. Piaget suggests that a teacher is not supposed to correct a student, but rather create a situation in which the student can correct himself (Stager, 2017). By allowing students room to explore their ideas in a non-judgmental setting, making creates the perfect setting for students to realize their own mistakes as they fabricate designs and tweak their inventions for optimal performance. While a teacher can mentor this situation, they can also co-learn and observe in a way that other teaching methods do not provide. Rather than drilling facts into students with daily worksheets, teachers can let students find these facts through trial and error and research for ongoing projects.

During most of my first semester physics in high school, I would have greatly benefited from a more maker–like approach to the subject. I have little ability to mentally picture the interaction of objects in my mind. Unless I have observed a situation in real life, imagining the likely output is very difficult for me. Had I been given an assignment like the one pictured below with squishy circuits, I would have assimilated the pertinent facts about circuitry at a much faster rate. I also would have had a much better time learning about circuits and a better attitude towards learning more in the future. Additionally, I would have had a chance to give my imagination free reign and come up with my own unique way to demonstrate circuits. How often do we allow students to express their identities through science lessons? I think the maker movement will be an important aspect of future educational paradigms. Whether the maker movement completely changes the face of education or just provides an ingenious way to foster creativity while teaching, I will be using it in my science classes one day.

References

Do schools kill creativity? | Sir Ken Robinson. (2017). YouTube. Retrieved 3 November 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY&feature=youtu.be

squishy circuits - Yahoo Image Search Results. (2017). Images.search.yahoo.com. Retrieved 3 November 2017, from https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=squishy+circuits&fr=mcafee&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theneighborhoodmoms.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F04%2Fsquishycircuits.jpg#id=7&iurl=http%3A%2F%2F1abxf1rh6g01lhm2riyrt55k.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fmake-images%2FKCf2n32ZrdAEqFCl.jpg&actio

What Most Schools Don't Teach. (2017). YouTube. Retrieved 3 November 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKIu9yen5nc&feature=youtu.be

What's the Maker Movement and Why Should I Care? | Scholastic.com. Gary Stager. (2017). Scholastic.com. Retrieved 3 November 2017, from http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3758336