STEAM Education

Maker oriented STEAM Education

Maker education offers a transformational approach to teaching and learning that attends to the real and relevant needs of learners and humans. It is an approach that positions agency and student interest at the center, asking students to become more aware of the design of the world around them, and begin to see themselves as people who can tinker, hack and improve that design.

Maker education is fundamentally about approaches, mindsets, and community – not about stuff – and that focus on educators and the institutions they work in emerges from our core belief that maker education is about people. We know that people need support, tools, resources and community to fully participate in the opportunities offered. We know that learning is contextual and social, and that for children to get what they need, educators must have what they need.

Theory

Building on the work of educational theorists like Jean Piaget (constructivism) and Seymour Papert (constructionism) maker-centered learning develops that awareness through interactive, open-ended, student-driven, multi-disciplinary experiences that allow for the time and space needed to develop diverse skills, knowledge, and ways of thinking. In maker-centered learning environments, students imagine, design, and create projects that align the content of learning with hands-on application. Maker education can surface the deep knowledge and resilience in communities, making space in institutions for different ways of knowing and sharing knowledge.  Maker education isn’t about the stuff we can make, it’s about the connections, community  and the meaning we can make, and who holds the power to decide what our futures hold.

Fostering a Sense of Empowerment and Resilience

Simon Mangiaracina, a dedicated STEM teacher at the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders in Austin, Texas, said that seeing his students develop confidence is one of the most striking aspects of a maker program.

“Students feel really uncertain at first and then suddenly familiar with so many of the tools and techniques and materials we’re using — knowing just the basic stuff like the difference between different kinds of screwdrivers and saws, what kind of wood to use,” he said. “I see maker education as a way to find learners who are less experienced with certain aspects of creating and making and expose them to this new world of making and solving problems.”