How Makerspaces Increase Creativity and Promote Innovation in the Classroom
Humans are natural makers, eager to conceive, to create, and to mold the world around us. This is especially true in children, who are still learning each day how to interact with their surroundings. Tapping this desire to invent, schools across the country are discovering that makerspaces can help reinforce daily lessons and generate an interest in a range of topics.
Regardless of a student’s passions, makerspaces allow them to turn their learning into action. Makerspaces are much more than the traditional art studio, wood shop, computer center, or science lab typically found in schools. Instead, a makerspace combines the tools (and skills) used in all these settings and more to offer a place where students can feed their innate drive to craft things, while also building valuable experience in a range of academic subjects.
Within a makerspace, you may find materials for electronics and robotics, coding, 3-D printing, kinetic machines, working with various textiles and materials, and even creating and editing digital media and special effects. Anything that can be used to create has a spot in a makerspace.
It is this versatility that makes these spaces so valuable to student learning. Makerspaces increase problem solving skills in students, tap into STEM academic areas, and support innovation and creativity. Students who spend time creating and discovering in a makerspace practice complex technical skills and material crafting while expressing their ingenuity on a range of school projects.
Makerspaces are also integral for tactile learners. These spaces allow students to see concepts in action and get hands-on knowledge of the topics they are learning in the core academics central to their success.
Giving students access to a makerspace can mean anything from a full maker lab at school to a place in the home with supplies for them with which to craft. It is easy to set up a makerspace at home with tools, raw materials, and more to unleash their inspiration to solve problems, to create something innovative, or to explore how things work.
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