Makerspace: An Opportunity for Hands-On Collaboration During A Pandemic

The pandemic has had significant impacts on the way that educators deliver instruction to students. Instruction and lessons include a heavy dose of technology (at my school, at least), particularly for students who may be quarantined on such short notice. Because of social distancing and trying to limit the spread of the virus, lessons do not include as much face-to-face collaboration and socialization as they once did. Makerspaces, though, give students those opportunities to collaborate and work with tangible objects. According to Ana Canino-Fluit, “Making is an inquiry-driven SOCIAL activity” that gives individuals an opportunity to solve problems, “create items that address their needs,” and dream up ideas that they may not have considered before (2014).

While considering this week’s blog about Makerspaces, I knew that I wanted to explore ideas and resources that allow students to create and play using their hands and tangible items. Gwyneth Jones is known as the “Daring Librarian” of Murray Hill Middle School in Maryland. Her blog post about setting up a Makerspace on a budget has creative ideas for collecting items and creating tasks that appeal to students. One idea in her blog that appealed to me was the Recycled Book Art Gallery. I have seen posts on social media from educators who use old book pages to create bulletin board displays, but I had never considered adding weeded books from the library to a Makerspace! It would be neat to give students old books to see what they can create with the pages, or even the whole book!

For more Makerspace ideas from Jones’ blog, check it out here: “Maker Space for Little or Nothing”.

References

Canino-Fluit, A. (2014). School library makerspaces. Teacher Librarian, 41(5), 21-27.