The separation of subjects // funding a makerspace // links

Thoughts on the complete separation of subjects and areas of learning

I appreciate Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom's recognition that in contemporary learning environments there's a chasm between each subject. Math, language arts, history, science, art, and physical education are all taught separately. This separation is only increased when students get older and go to different classrooms for each subjects, with different teachers and for equal amounts of time. Growing up, I knew I wasn't one of the students who was good at art. I also knew I wasn't one of the students who was good at math. Every student was labeled by other students and teachers alike based on their strong areas and their weak ones. People who were thought to be bad at math would continue to be bad at math--it became part of their identity. 

Math and science have been separated from the humanities--especially art--and needlessly so. In contrast, people mathematicians and scientists used to be closely identified with art (Leonardo Da Vinci is the prime example mentioned in Invent to Learn). This is another result of schools separating subjects so rigidly. Arts and sciences should converge again with the use of makerspaces and fablabs. One of my favorite artists, Vik Muniz, recently released a project called "Sand Castles," in which drawings of castles were etched on individual grains of sand before being blown-up into large photos. In order to do this, he collaborated with Marcello Coehlo--an MIT graduate and teacher at MIT Media Lab. (While I was reading Invent to Learn I kept trying to remember where I had recently encountered the Media Lab.) Located at The Creator's Project is a video documenting the project. Skip ahead to 2:25 to see Coehlo explain his role. In order to push the limits of art, we need to often turn to science.

Seymour Papert believes that every student's experience is different. He explains that he was amazed by gears when he was presented with them as a young child, but he adds a disclaimer supporting his belief: not every child will feel toward gears what he felt toward gears. Not every child will have have the same reaction to the same object. This is why Papert finds computers to be attractive for learning environments. Every student given a computer is presented with the same object, but there are an infinite number of possibilities for how they interact with the computer and what they do with it. This notion is completely equitable for all students, but it also individualized. This combination is rarely found in classrooms today, which usually rely on one lesson plan given to all students, despite their individual learning styles, past experiences, and interests.

---

Thoughts on funding

Kickstart a Kid's Makerspace by James Floyd Kelly is helpful in guiding organizers of a makerspace to choose equipment and in showing that makerspaces probably don't cost as much as you think they do. The final estimated costs are  $11,000 and $23,340 for a basic and a bigger kids makerspace, respectively. In the comments, many have added suggestions and substitutions to bring the cost down lower. While this cost may be substantially lower than many think it might be for purchasing 3D printers, lasercutters, arduinos, and the like, it is still a large sum of money for schools in lower-income locations. When a school has difficulty buying books, a 3D printer is out of the question. The same is true of libraries that are in bad financial situations. I think many would agree that the communities that would have the most difficulty purchasing these items are also the ones that would benefit the most from such spaces.

Kelly advises the use of Kickstarter or Indiegogo, but I recalled Donors Choose, a crowdfunding platform mentioned on Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies of 2014 which only has projects that raise money for K-12 schools. Schools that are considered to be high poverty are listed as such. A look at Donors Choose right now shows that teachers are using the platform to raise money for exactly the kinds of hands-on, technology-based items Kelly says should be in a makerspace. One teacher is requesting money to buy SD cards for her students' Raspberry Pi computers. Another, in a campaign called "Tools For Our Makerspace" is hoping to buy drills. Perhaps Donors Choose draws a different crowd to fund from than Kickstarter and is better known, but it seems that a centralized place to fund donations for K-12 schools has proven to be a good idea.

---------------------------

Some Relevant Links:

After being introduced to Seymour Papert, the "Father of the Maker Movement," I had to know more! Here's The Daily Papert, run by Gary Stager, one of the authors of Invent to Learn. Here is the tag for "tinkering."

And, an article posted just this afternoon called 'Humanities Folks' Need to Pay Attention to STEM, and Vice Versa