Essential Question 6

What stuff will you stock your making space with, what’s the cost, and how will you fund it?

The technology director at my school, Matt Gore, has been slowly creating a makerspace for the past five or so years in our high school.  So naturally I went to him for help with this question and he was not only full of information but also thrilled to have someone else as excited about it as he is. 

We have a very large area that has been dedicated as our makerspace.  It is two classrooms connected by a large office space. The first room is a computer lab and digitally drafting space. Over several years, through the Carl Perkins Grant, we have been able to acquire laser and vinyl cutters, 3D printers, and many of our students learn to use Rhino with these machines. One thing the tech director highlighted was that the computers in the computer lab are now built by the students. We don't purchase premade computers anymore. The students learn to build computers and we keep the lab updated with a higher quality of equipment than the original equipment manufacturer (OME).

In the past we also were lucky enough to have AKTeach as one source for outside funding. Through their grant, we were able to do the whole drone workshop and they left supplies behind so we could continue.  The drones supplies and the Ardiuno collection are currently housed in the middle office space. The dream is to turn this space into a sort of fixing station.  For example, if a student has computer issues or their phone breaks, we'd love for them to be able to go down and make it work again on their own or with the help of other students. 

Every year our school sends at least two teachers and the technology director to ASTE. Here we have had the opportunity to take a wide variety of classes and workshops. Many trainings supply some equipment that we have been adding to the stockpile. A couple years ago we were able to take two students to ASTE as well (using funds from the Perkins grant). They both did a robotics session for two days and their robots live in the makerspace as inspiration for others.

The third room currently is a work in progress. It has a green screen and some photography lights, but not much else. The goal for this space would be to have a photography/video production area, editing stations, recording stations, and whatever else we can dream up. Much of the equipment in this space is the tech director's personal equipment from his photography days. (Matthew Gore, Personal Communication, June 21, 2019).

Nine years ago when I was students teaching, my mentor teacher worked with folks in Juneau to get me to a SeaPerch training. "SeaPerch is an innovative underwater robotics program that equips teachers and students with the resources they need to build an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) in an in-school or out-of-school setting." (SeaPerch, 2019).  I was able to bring back several kits to our school and my mentor teacher purchase a few more with her classroom funds.  These kits are currently living in my classroom store room and need to make their way down to our makerspace. 

Below is a the cost of many of the items found in our current makerspace according to Mr. Gore. (Matthew Gore, Personal Communication,  June 21, 2019).

Cost List: (Not Extensive)

• Wire Shrink Wrap $10 100ft roll
• Wire Protection Wrap $20
• Snippers $15/piece
• 3d Printer $500-$4000
• Laser Cutter: $10,000
• CNC Router (Small) $3500
• CNC Router (Large) $9000 approx
• Complete Screw Kit (Hardened Steel) $100
• Batteries of all sorts $1000
• Electronic Programmable Boards $10-$200/piece (Arduinos, Raspberry Pies, BeagleBones)
• Electronic Paper Circuit $50
• Soldering Iron $150
• Helping Hands for Soldering $50
• Small Piece Organizer $50
• Capacitor Set $50
• Resistor Set $50
• 3d Printing Filament $20-50 a Roll
• Cleaning Supplies
• SLR Cameras $500
• Large Ink Jet Printer $500
• Dash and Dot $200
• Electronic Paper Airplane $75
• Heat Gun $50
• Work lights $100

So this project was supposed to be about why my school needs a makerspace, but I would prefer to focus on what my part can be to help improve our makerspace. I am looking forward to working with the technology department and helping spread the word to our teachers. This space is grossly underutilized and I would like to help change that!


Resources:
Rhino 6 for Windows and Mac. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.rhino3d.com/

SeaPerch Home Page. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.seaperch.org/index

Essential Question 5

What is the relationship between teaching and learning?

Dictionary.com (2019) defines the verb teaching as "to impart knowledge or skill; give instruction" and learning as "the act or process of acquiring knowledge or skill." 

When I was in high school and even while completing my student teaching, my experiences with teaching and learning were just that.  The teacher was there to impart knowledge to the students.  Most of my classes were done through direct instruction and the students were there to absorb the information that the teacher had to give.  While this method works for some students, it often feels like it is more about teaching than learning. 

Since then, there has been a shift in education to create a student-centered classroom.  This allows the student to take a more active role in their learning.  I came across an article by Martha Kennedy (2015) that really helps put it in perspective. She says there is an "essential difference between teaching a skill and teaching content. You can tell people content; people must practice skills. To learn a skill, students must be directly involved. No teacher can stand there and tell the students how to do something and expect the students to leave the classroom able to do it."

So what I am really wondering is why should I make the change in the way I foster the relationship between teaching and learning in my classroom?

Yoram Harpaz, wrote a paper titled Teaching and Learning: Analysis of the Relationships in which he discusses how teaching is derived from learning and since our research about how we learn has changed, we should change how we teach to better suit our students.  "In short, the cognitive science enlightened us about the nature of learning and the conditions for its growth, and all we – the educators – should do from now on is to derive rules for teaching from the nature and conditions of learning – to 'built education from the bottom up.'"

Our ultimate goal as teachers is to give students the skills they need to be successful in life and "the main virtue of the student centered classroom is that it removes mastery from the sole province of the teacher and allows students to be masters, too." (Kennedy, 2015).  So to me, it only makes sense to change the classroom dynamics so that students are taking a more active part in their learning.


Resources:
Dictionary.com. (2019). Retrieved June 20, 2019, from https://www.dictionary.com/

Harpaz, Y. (n.d.). Teaching and Learning: Analysis of the Relationships. Retrieved June 20, 2019, from https://yoramharpaz.com/pubs/en_learning/teaching-and-learning-analysis.pdf

Kennedy, M. (2015, March 06). Student Centered vs. Teacher Centered Learning. Retrieved June 20, 2019, from https://medium.com/synapse/student-centered-vs-teacher-centered-learning-2184a7521720

Essential Question 4

What project could help me integrate my content with making?

This year I will be teaching a physical science course.  As I began reflecting on the lessons I would like to keep and the ones I would like to modify or ditch for next year, I decided that I really need to add a unit about magnets and electricity.  This is one area that students learn very little about in our schools and I would like to change that.

The best part of this is that it is very easy to find wonderful projects that allow students to tinker and explore. One maker project I could include for relatively low cost is building electromagnets. Electromagnets illustrate the connection between electricity and magnetism. In real life, electromagnets are the foundation of many common electrical devices, such as door bells, MRI machines, electric motors, loudspeakers, and headphones.

TeachEngineering.org has a fantastic lesson plan for investigating the properties of electromagnets by allowing each student to create their own small electromagnet.  The lesson plan is very thorough and is perfect for someone like me who has very little experience in this area.  

The Alaska Science Standards that are being addressed in this project are: 

• [11] SA1.1 The student demonstrates an understanding of the processes of science by asking questions, predicting, observing, describing, measuring, classifying, making generalizations, analyzing data, developing models, inferring, and communicating.
• [10] SB2.1 The student demonstrates an understanding of how energy can be transformed, transferred, and conserved by examining energy (i.e., nuclear, electromagnetic, chemical, mechanical, thermal) transfers, transformations, and efficiencies by comparing useful energy to total energy.
• [11] SB4.2 The student demonstrates an understanding of motions, forces, their characteristics, relationships, and effects by conducting an experiment to explore the relationship between magnetic forces and electric forces to show that they can be thought of as different aspects of a single electromagnetic force (e.g., generators and motors).

I'm looking forward to trying this one out this summer and even more so with my students.  They alway take it to the next level and amaze me! 

Resources:
Electromagnet. (2019, May 19). Retrieved June 9, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnet#Uses_of_electromagnets

University of Colorado. (2019, April 14). Creating an Electromagnet - Activity. Retrieved June 9, 2019, from https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/cub_mag_lesson2_activity1Electromagnet. (2019, May 19). 

Essential Question 3

To what extent should we allow students to figure things out for themselves?

My students come to me as freshmen in high school and by then the large majority of them have decided they are not good at science and are even worse at math.  Due to this fixed mindset, they are unwilling to try to figure things out for themselves.  The result is that of learned helplessness.  I have a large number of students that will ask for help through every step of a story problem or just flat out refuse to try because they are afraid to fail.  This is an issue I struggle with all the time.  How can I best help my students succeed in situations like these?

A.J. Juliani (2018) wrote, "We have the choice to allow for failure and provide support…or do it for them and make it easier on both of us."  This statement really hit home for me.  How many times have I "helped" a student complete a problem that they could have done on their own if they had put forth just a little effort? And why did I help them? ...because they wore me down and it became easier to just walk them through the answers than to watch them get upset. 

"Letting our children 'figure it out' on their own is one of the most empowering ways to give them ownership of their lives and learning path." (Juliani, 2018).  In order for students to be willing to figure things out for themselves we need to teach them that it is not just okay to fail, but it is encouraged.  "You can't grow, advance, and move forward without repeatedly stumbling and falling on your face.  If, as toddlers, we went in to the process of learning to walk with our adult mindset, we would still be crawling." (Burgess, 2012, p. 154). 

Jessica Lahey (2015) wrote, "Year after year, my 'best' students -- the ones who are happiest and successful in their lives -- are the students who were allowed to fail, held responsible for missteps, and challenged to be the best people they could be in the face of their mistakes."

The best thing we can do, as teachers, is to give our students guidance and support them as they figure things out for themselves.

Resources:
Burgess, D. (2012). Teach like a PIRATE: Increase Student Engagement, Boost Your Creativity, and Transform Your Life as an Educator. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting.

Juliani, A. (2018, October 15). The Power of Letting Students Figure it Out. Retrieved June 6, 2019, from http://ajjuliani.com/the-power-of-letting-students-figure-it-out/

Lahey, J. (2015, March 08). Why Parents Need to Let Their Children Fail. Retrieved June 6, 2019, from https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/01/why-parents-need-to-let-their-children-fail/272603/