We're curious! We know how to download an app. We know how to access a web page. We know how to snap pictures or make a video. Now we want to know how to make THINGS! What if we could design something & then watch it made with a 3D printer? What could we make? Help us make our ideas become real!
Our students are in a school filled with teachers interested in making the shift from teaching content to teaching learning.
We believe every student has creative ideas and that honoring individual creativity provides motivation to succeed. We believe in fostering success through the permission to fail and that often those failures lead to new questions that drive a student towards answers. We believe in the idea that often learning occurs through play and this is where our Library Maker Space comes into the picture. Our library is bright, colorful, warm, and inviting. It is the perfect place for creative discovery through play. It is the perfect place for self-directed learning and students have embraced it as such. There are collaborative work areas, individual work areas, computer stations, BYOD permissions, and (most importantly) a skilled library media specialist ready to foster a creative Maker Space open to all students who wish to play with technology and create something.
My Project
Our Library Maker Space is already stocked with old technology that students are allowed to disassemble and explore. They can use the pieces to create sculpture or they can simply explore how it was originally put together. As they have played with the old technology their curiosity has been ignited, and we are actively seeking out resources for students to build their own computers (Raspberry Pi or others). We see the natural progression to giving students the resources they need to learn how to code so they can create their own apps and programs. Again, the atmosphere here is the permission to fail - failure is not an end to an idea but rather a hint at that idea's new direction. It is an atmosphere of happy accidents and eureka! moments. We believe that a 3D printer is part of this natural progression to the creation of new things. We believe that students will surprise US with something novel and unique. Students will learn that they can design and that they can create.
This project will take our Library Maker Space to the next level of engagement and excitement.
Our students are already beginning to think of themselves as makers/creators and the 3D printer will give them a whole new avenue of exploration. There is no more important thing we can impart upon our students than knowing how to learn. Content knowledge is so quickly outdated, but knowing how to learn, will carry our students throughout their lives.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Grigsby and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.