MPP teachers worked to create makerspaces in their classroom: learning environments where students and their teachers could tinker, design, and create together. These were not traditional makerspaces, with lots of tools, technology, and materials. Instead, they were regular academic classrooms in which students were given the space to imagine, design, prototype, and improve on their work. We call this maker learning.
Key Idea: A makerspace is an approach to learning that can happen in any physical space with any set of tools, or no tools at all!
The three steps of the Design Cycle -Discover, Create, and Improve- provide a framework for student ideation, creativity, and innovation. Two free tools that can be used for prototyping are MIT’s Scratch, for computer programming, and TinkerCAD, for 3D design.
Below we share several digital resources and tools that were used by MPP teachers and offer tips on how you can use them in your own classroom.