Maker Education
Maker Education
I have become so passionate about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Education over the last 5 years- having been inspired during my ongoing Primary Science Education learning journey.
I was really impressed when I met Dr Alison Buxton and learned about Maker Education (which has become increasingly popular in this country after being developed in the USA). She is an expert in her field and feels passionately about supporting children, particularly from under-represented groups, in engineering. It made real sense to me that we should continue to support our pupils at school with skills including cutting, creating and building- these seem to have had a diminished focus in education more recently, in favour of more academic study. These are core skills required in life and when learning, so to develop resilience, patience, determination and problem solving skills.
Initially, Alison trained some of our pupils as Junior STEM Ambassadors in 2018 (with skills which they then shared with other pupils at school). She subsequently visited our school in Spring 2019. We have developed this relationship- with visits across 2019-20. She planned and delivered inspirational sessions for our year groups in turn- these were engaging, relevant and inspirational. Our pupils really thrived and were excited by these sessions which carried STEM learning forward- in an ‘up-to-date’ way, which the pupils enjoyed. In September 2019 Alison worked with our Y5s- supporting and inspiring them in designing and creating models of a base for humans living on Mars. This was an excellent learning experience for us all. At Christmas our Y3 pupils made Christmas decorations from wood and added a ‘light’ element with LEDs. These younger pupils were involved, with support, to use the glue gun, junior hack saws and other ‘hands-on’ tools. They did a superb job.
Covid hit.
In recent months, our school has become part of a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Trust funding project, World Builders, in collaboration with Dr Buxton. It is a 2 year action research project- we are currently one of the University of Sheffield’s School of Education and Literacies Research Cluster- in collaboration with the National Video Games Museum. This will be supporting our children to take on the role of video games designers and artists and to be confident in using digital technologies- in turn developing literacy skills. Our school is one of six Yorkshire schools who will undertake staff professional development with video game designers to develop activities for our pupils to take part in. We feel very strongly that all children should access the same opportunities- no matter what their socio-economic environment, so are very proud and excited about this project.
As stated on the Maker Futures website-
Dr Alison Buxton, of the Maker{Futures} programme, said:
‘Our Maker{Futures} programme advocates the use of ‘maker-mindsets’ so that children gain confidence in bringing ideas to life with digital and physical tools. These skills will be key to future video games designers but also to many other industry sectors.’
Happily, we were able to welcome the Maker Move team to our school in December 2021. Activities they devised and facilitated for our pupils included programming, problem solving and working and communicating in teams. Our Year Y3/4 children had a brilliant day. Pupils absolutely loved this session which included a programming activity to help Santa- who was lost! They used Ozbot’s- which are colour sensitive- and worked in teams most effectively so create a route to save Christmas. Other activities included creating augmented reality masks, manoeuvring remote control robots, creating play doh creatures which were then animated and stop motion photography, including the use of Lego.
It was fantastic to see our pupils utilising and developing their maker skills once again.
In addition, activities that can be undertaken at home can be found in Dr Buxton's book, ‘Maker Workshop- 15 Amazing projects you can make today’ as well as projects on the Maker Futures website as referenced below.
Maker Education is such an interesting, increasingly vital and relevant form of learning- supporting the development of core transferable skills. It is a mixture of DT, IT, Science and Art. It is a valuable way of up-levelling knowledge and information suitable for the modern and more technological age and makes learning far more engaging. Initial projects we viewed included innovative bonfire night art which incorporated LED lighting for further effect and depth and road safety tags for clothes including reflective material and LED lighting. Engineering Habits Of Mind (EHOMS) including planning, designing, creating, and adapting all play a role. These strategies re-reinvigorate learning and support children understanding, for example, with knowledge of how different joints in woodwork are created so they can assemble projects without just wrapping them in sellotape! Also, children who have barriers to learning and/or other extra needs can really develop their confidence and mental health. This can also support wider areas of the curriculum.
Please find links discussed below.
https://makerfutures.org/world-builders-the-paul-hamlyn-foundation-awards-funding-to-the-university-of-sheffields-makerfutures-programme-and-the-national-videogame-museum-to-develop-the-games-designers-of-the-futu
Dr Alison Buxton https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/education/people/academic/alison-buxton
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maker-Workshop-amazing-projects-today/dp/1783125233
Thank you for reading. I hope you have found this informative and subsequently come to enjoy Maker Education and it's benefits as I do myself at our school.
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