A Quick Look Backwards and Forwards As We Start Year Four

It's hard to believe that our FabLab/Makerspace has started year number four. In August of 2014, we hit the ground running, and now, in 2017, we realize we haven't stopped. 

These pictures are from the June of 2014. 

This room will be transformed into a state of the art, Lower School FabLab/Makerspace.

From the beginning, we believed that at its very essence, making in school is an attitude, a mindset, a culture. It’s a process, a journey: where learning is personal and unique. Where work is real and meaningful; where there is an audience and reason for what is made.

Our guiding principles reflect this: 
1) To provide students and teachers with materials, tools and a place to imagine, create and
improve on a goal...for school work (project-based and inquiry-based learning) and for fun
2) To teach the design process and “Design Thinking” methodology
3) To encourage risk-taking and creativity

One of our favorite quotes comes from John Dewey, "Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.”

By the middle of August 2014, we were ready to welcome students and teachers into this space.

A very big MAHALO (thank you)! to Blake, 'Iolani class of 2013.

Before heading back to Santa Clara for his sophomore year (in 2014),
Blake got all our technical pieces up & running.

He also taught us about every piece of machinery and all their software.

It's 2017 and Blake was back this summer, helping us out again.

Only now he is a Santa Clara grad (duel major in Computer and Electrical Engineering).

He will be heading off soon to grad school to study "Computer/Human Interaction".

The interior design of the Lab has changed a bit over the years. Our current set-up has been working great and we'll keep it this way for a while. We have enough room work or move around, machines are easily accessible as are all of our supplies.

The Lab, August 2017

What have we done over the past 3 years? You can look back at all our posts to see projects like the garden signs made with kindergarteners; habitat creatures created in first grade; Scratch Jr. programing with second; the third grade making space exploration vehicles and hooking them up to Scratch and MakeyMakey; Fourth graders creating their own laser cut name tags; game board pieces made in fifth grade; and laser cut catapults for sixth grade science class. These projects and so much more have been made for school or home; during the school day, at after-school classes and in summer school.

Here are some of the past projects our students have made

So what's ahead for us? For sure, more integration at each grade level. One of the things we are going to start to incorporate this year is green screen technology. A number of grade levels create iMovies and, in talking to teachers, giving students the flexibility and creativity that a green screen offers has exciting possibilities.

You'll have to check back from time to time to see what else is going on throughout the year. We'llend with the, a quote from Sir Ken Robinson's book The Element, “Our task is to educate their (our students) whole being so they can face the future. We may not see the future, but they will and our job is to help them make something of it.”