Schools without a makerspace or without plans to implement a makerspace are now in the minority.
By Dian Schaffhauser
While more than half of school libraries in the United States and Canada (55 percent) offer maker programs to students, STEM isn't necessarily the biggest focus. The most common offering for almost four in five respondents to a recent survey (79 percent) was arts and crafts.
A new resource from the California Community Colleges provides a step-by-step guide to building makerspaces on campus, from initial planning stages to facility design, pilot programs and community outreach. The free Makerspace Startup Guide comes out of the C.C.C. Maker initiative, a project funded by the California Community College Chancellor's Office, Workforce and Economic Division.
By Karen Rubinstein
Pop-up makerspaces have allowed project-based learning to grow and blossom. Using higher-order thinking skills, students are given the opportunity to problem-solve, ask questions, think, create, innovate, fix and revise. A new set of learning theories have popped up as well. Innovation and design theory have become a way of learning, with entrepreneurship at the helm.
By Dian Schaffhauser
A technical college in Washington has received National Science Foundation funding to expand its maker-based learning program. Bellingham Technical College received a $649,480 "Scholarships in STEM" grant to support the college's project, "Building Inclusive Maker Communities for Engineering Technology Students." The program will connect three cohorts of 12 low-income, academically talented students over the course of five years, who will participate in multi-year, extended projects.
Central New Mexico Community College has partnered with a local startup to help bring collaborative robots, or cobots, to businesses in the area. Cobots are designed to work with human beings on a range of repetitive or dangerous tasks, such as screw driving, painting or manufacturing tasks. The devices are also designed to be relatively inexpensive and to be repurposed from one task to another without complicated coding.
When Tampa Preparatory School launched decided to turn a closet into a virtual reality lab, they had no idea how far their students would run with the tools....
By Dian Schaffhauser
Six months after the official launch of a $17 million makerspace initiative, California community colleges are mass-producing student makers. The "CCC Maker Initiative" has funded makerspaces in 24 campuses with the intent of offering educational activities that will help students prepare for their careers. Each college received implementation grants of between $100,000 and $350,000, renewable for a second year.
In addition to improvements in cost, the device reportedly allows for larger-scale printing and greater precision than many commercially available bioprinters. The team released its research under a Creative Commons license to encourage others to build their own as well.
In addition to improvements in cost, the device reportedly allows for larger-scale printing and greater precision than many commercially available bioprinters. The team released its research under a Creative Commons license to encourage others to build their own as well.