For the past three years, Aaron and I have been co-facilitating a two-day workshop called Designing Making Experiences where our goal is to introduce educators to making and maker-centric learning through designing curriculum and prototyping projects that they can take back and use in their classrooms. We teach skills and tools as it becomes appropriate…
(created by Rachel for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017)
(written by Rachel for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017) A few years ago, I biked to a neighborhood church in Berkeley to see Naomi Klein, one of my all-time heroes, speak about her new book, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. During her talk, Klein – a master journalist, speaker, and storyteller –…
(written by Lara for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017) Purposeful making allows for students to learn by doing. Teachers create safe and enjoyable spaces for students to learn, integrate and apply skills in a collaborative process, Students are able to ask questions, grapple with problems, create, experiment, receive feedback and design solutions to bigger,…
(written by Heather for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017) In my history class a purposeful making experience needs to combine a purpose for the making with a purpose for the historical understanding. Both parts need to be significant, and the combination of the two purposes should be greater than either one together. Historical understanding…
(written by Hadiyah for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017) Purposeful making: this idea is still uncovering itself. currently I am experiencing it as: growth-mindset, keeping it real and honest (checking-in and checking yourself!), how are you building in checking and balancing strategizes and against what standard(s)?, how does it connect, and to what (especially…
(written by Gary for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017) Behold! The parents experience maker-centered learning for themselves! After leading a monthly creativity workshop with the parents of Lighthouse, I saw firsthand how much fun and learning occurred based on all the positive feedback received. Comments from parents such as, “this was really fun”, and…
(written by Erin for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017) I believe that all making is purposeful. Individuals will rarely take up a making project without there being a need for them to create something or to experience the process of making it. The notion of purposefulness, for me, becomes more muddled as the maker…
(written by Dominic for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017) Purposeful making, to me, is making that meets the needs and/or wants of not only myself, or my students, or my school, or our community, but seeks to bring these categories together so that they can become more aware of their interconnectedness. Making can be…
(written by Bryan for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017) Meaning and purpose are forms of making. Meaning and purpose are created; they are not absolute. Meaningful making to me means “making something that does good in the world,” because that’s how I understand it to be used most often. But the act of making…