ALMADEN
COUNTRY SCHOOL
Sudents who attend
the “Calling All
Makers” middle
school elective class
meet in the Imaginarium
makerspace
to work on selfdirected
projects.
February/March 2018 67
HEATHER AVRECH
infrared sensors controlled by a microcontroller. The idea is to
empower students by driving home the notion that they can
create technology, not just consume it. The best programs, he
says, are self-directed. But he cautions that not all students thrive
in that environment. “Kids who learn differently, they don’t do
well,” Blikstein argues. And only a small percentage of students
are as self-motivated as Lym, he adds. “In schools not addressing
this problem, those unmotivated kids either drop out because
they feel lost or they’re doing mindless things.”
That divide may exist in any school, but for the students
who thrive in a makerspace, integrating DIY into the regular
curriculum brings about change on many levels. Not all of the
projects are techie in nature. As an example, Bellarmine science
teacher and makerspace facilitator David Dutton says Lym’s project
means a low-tech sewing machine will be added to the lab’s
developing resources. “Students are allowed to arrive with ideas,
or no ideas at all,” he says. “The relaxed atmosphere gives them
space to try things out.” Workshops introduce students to tools
and the maker mindset. “It’s not about the goal or end; it’s the
journey, the overall design and engineering disciplines, the idea of
community,” says Dutton.
The school’s relatively new program began with a private donation
in 2015 to purchase a laser cutter and 3D printer. Dutton
took on the role of developing the lab in late 2016. Plans already
underway will add curriculum for prosthetic hand fabrication;
creating clean water systems for urban and rural areas; and designing
durable, lightweight, underground weather stations for use by
firefighters and emergency rescue operations.
Bellarmine is hardly an isolated example. At Almaden Country
Day School, girls in a MakerSpace Club have built storage units
and repaired tools and technology in a creativity-centered “Imaginarium”
space. Electives in the curriculum vary and now include
3D Printing, Design and Construction and Tynker to Minecraft:
Intro to Coding. Director of Technology Mary Beth Gay says all
K-8 students participate. Collaborative teams bring interactivity
to projects like a standard seventh-grade Dystopias in Literature
assignment. “Previously, it was all done on paper, with drawings
done solo and not shared until they were complete. Now, they
create in 3D and discuss it before they have a final product,”
says Gay. A Family Maker Day invites parents to join the fun for
multigenerational making.
In keeping with the school’s values, ACDS’s eco-conscious
program uses mostly donated, recycled materials. One example:
Up-cycled plastic bags were woven into a rag rug configuration
and used to construct a sturdy, durable stool for outside seating
in the school garden. A full-size kayak, made with plastic bottles,
had different results. “It was so big, we had it stored outside. We
discovered that some of the adhesive we used wasn’t waterproof
when it rained and the glue melted and it fell apart.” Even so,
students learned valuable lessons. “One of the beneficial things
about making is teaching the students about failure and trying to
iterate the project with new information,” says Gay.
The maker program at Hillbrook School in Los Gatos dates far
back to the school’s founding and conversion to a day school in
the 1960s. “It’s been a part of our core curriculum since the beginning.
Projects are totally initiated by students,” says Ilsa Dohmen,
director of teaching and learning.
Years ago, students built a Village of Friendly Relations, a series
of four typical village structures arranged around a square. The
students used a bank building for practical training in trading and
negotiations. The exercise was based on the students’ interactions
with real-life communities they had engaged with to learn about
commerce, construction and village planning. Drawing on those
earlier experiences, students in makerspaces located throughout
the campus gained mechanical and high-tech skills using everything
from hammers to power drills to CAD and coding software.
Meanwhile a group of fifth-grade girls is rebuilding and adding to
the original village. “They got stuck building a roof, so our facility