I am on a journey to create a makerspace at my school in the preschool through 8th grade Technology classroom. This room has been off to a rocky start this year since new Technology classes were introduced, two teachers utilize the room (one being me), and all ages and sizes of students filter through the space. Of special note, the creation of the makerspace is being completed on a “dime” as there is no real budget allocation towards it.
Step 1: Materials
The transformation of the classroom began with the organization and acquisition of materials. I decided to start with the materials because one needs them to “make.” I collected together some loose bins located around the room. Many of the bins were the deep TROFAST IKEA bins. Labels were created and affixed for the categories of: Bags (paper and plastic), Newspaper, Foil, Small Cardboard, Attach, and Random. Most of the bin labels are easily understandable except for the last two. The “Attach” bin currently contains anything used to connect items together such as paper clips, binder clips, string, tape, glue, and rubber bands. Since I am just starting out, I do not have much in this category, and it makes sense to combine it all into one. Then, the “Random” bin contains items that could potentially be useful, but do not exist in large quantity and cannot be exactly classified. For example, we have a small collection of depleted tape rolls that might act as wheels in future projects.
The bins are filled with items that already existed in the classroom, stock from the teacher workroom, and recyclables from my house. I decided to avoid asking for material donations until specific items are identified as necessary for an upcoming project to prevent an overstock of unneeded items.
No comments:
Post a Comment