Maker Spaces and Themes

Have you considered having a theme for your Maker Space? We have always felt that Maker Spaces are a great way to enrich students in the classroom. Providing a place for students to follow their passion or explore subjects that they have an interest in is priceless. Maker space tasks often align with the seasons of the year and the holidays space. However, we would like to suggest that themed maker spaces, in which all activities pertain to a particular topic or person, would be a great addition to your classroom.

Why Themed Maker Spaces? 

We feel there are so many reasons to organize your Maker Space in this manner that we have begun a new series of complete themed Maker Space activities. Using a theme can invite students to delve into a specific topic, study one person’s body of work or explore a period of time in history through a STEM or STEAM lens.

Reinforcement of Current Concepts

A themed Maker Space allows the students to engage in relevant activities immediately after being taught. Task cards and challenges provide an easy way for teachers to gradually add newly taught activities thus providing ongoing reinforcement. A quick check of the students’ notebooks and end products give teachers valuable, on-going information about students’ understanding allowing for reteaching opportunities either in whole or small group.

Ongoing Review

Themed Maker Spaces are a perfect way to review a topic that was previously taught. Students work in a maker space independently, so instruction of new topics is not slowed. Ongoing review avoids the need for large blocks of time for review and reteaching.

Differentiation 

One of the challenges of classroom teachers is to provide opportunities for students to exhibit what they know in ways that align with their learning styles. Themed maker spaces are an excellent way to provide a variety of avenues for students to show mastery. The large range of activities allows teachers to either select appropriate activities for certain students or allow all students to choose the activities. Typically, the range of activities for each themed maker space include:

• Direct application of concepts, such as simple machines.
• Recreation of a technology or utilization of something used in the past such as building an electric telegraph machine.
• Improvement or extension of an idea or invention such as design a better way to clean up an oil spill.
• Imaginative designs and building upon today’s technology such as to build the perfect classroom. 

Extend and Enrich

One of the original purposes of a maker space is to allow students to be enriched and to expand their horizons. We love that themed maker spaces can allow students to do just that within a topic.

The focus of a themed maker space can either be a unit that is part of your curriculum or one that is broader but cuts across the entire curriculum.

For example, our Simple Machines Make Space Studio is perfect to be used alongside instruction of a unit on simple machines, for all of the reasons listed above. 

Maker Space Studios that focus on topics not in the curriculum or that focus on a broader topic, person or era are still a wonderful learning experience for your students. These themed maker spaces give students opportunities to explore other topics outside of their curriculum, as well as provide enrichment. They tend to integrate the curriculum and enrich all subjects – history, math, science and art. 

Our Leo’s Lab Maker Space Studio is a great example of how certain themed maker spaces can involve all subjects. This lab provides activities that involve simple machines, Leonardo Da Vinci’s art and inventions, as well as the exploration of a number of science topics. Students also learn valuable information about the Renaissance Period through these activities and gain a great appreciation of this amazing man.

Perfect STEM Classroom Activity

One of the challenges of teaching in a STEM Classroom is the need to provide appropriate activities for a large span of ages.  Often this entails continually setting up and prepping for each class throughout the day. Themed Maker spaces eliminate this, as most activities are appropriate for a very large span of ages. They meet the students where they are developmentally and allow for easy modifications if needed.

Themed Maker Spaces for you

We suggest that teachers utilize a mixture of themed makers spaces – those that directly relate to the curriculum and those that address other areas.

Be sure to check out the rest of our new series of themed maker spaces. 

Need some general information on creating a Maker Space in your classroom? Our previous blog, ADDING MAKER SPACES, has some great ideas and suggestions that will be very helpful for you.

And to start you off as you consider adding a Maker Space theme, download this freebie from us that includes some Maker Space Essentials!

Let us know if you would like us to develop a themed maker space lab for a topic that you teach. We’re happy to help!

Wendy and Cheryl

Get Caught Engineering