HILLBROOK SCHOOL
Fifth grade students
work with their history
teacher to shingle the
Hillbrook History House
in the Village of Friendly
Relations on campus.
Students who do not thrive in sports, arts or social arenas, but stand out
in the maker atmosphere, are suddenly seen as leaders by their peers.
February/March 2018 69
DREW BIRD
are quick to address the issue. During last year’s summer camps at
all-boys Bellarmine, approximately 30 percent of the students were
girls. Additionally, Dutton says female faculty members constitute
a high proportion of the teachers using the space during regular
school terms. He plans to have women colleagues from the semiconductor
and research industries visit the lab. “They’ll talk about
discrimination so the boys receive the right message,” says Dutton.
“It makes no difference if it’s a man or woman in engineering and
design. If you’re really curious about stuff, it’s not gender-based,
but it can be gender-masked. We can change that.”
Pang cites studies that demonstrate spacial awareness differs
between girls and boys, but says the difference is not genetic.
“If there’s differing capability, it’s completely fixable. By doing
hands-on, 3D-thinking, we can close the gap.” Effective projects
that motivate girls are aimed at learning or making life easier, not
“What can I make to sell?” A cancer project Pang mentions didn’t
seek to create a cure, but resulted in students designing a museum
that taught cancer patients about their condition.
At Almaden, Gay observes that girls approach science in ways
that are unique. “Girls want to know the reason for learning
things; boys just want to play around with tools.” What succeeds
are “reason for learning” projects like one that made lessons on
electricity and circuits compelling by having students make puppets
with eyes that lit up.
Well-trained teachers can make a difference. If a kid hits a deadend,
Blikstein says, unsupervised failure is not good. “We have a
romantic…view of failure. We say a famous guy has a first company
that failed and then he learned a lot. Probably, that guy had
a lot of help with his second company that succeeded.” Teachers
must never let failure be so frustrating that kids will give up. They
can step in to suggest new things to try or to make connections
between project-based and traditional learning.
Blikstein says maker curriculum must continue to be measured.
“There is a re-occurring error in education that we believe in
innovation without research. We have to track the metrics,” he
says. When a public school in a low-income area has a lab as wellequipped
as makerspaces in private schools or affluent areas, that
will be a measure of success. “If you can’t distinguish the difference,
that’s one victory,” says Blikstein. Another metric of success is data
that shows that children who find it insufferable to sit for five hours
and memorize facts, learn successfully through maker curriculum.
For Dutton, Pang, Gay and Dohmen, evidence of success is on
display daily. Students who do not thrive in sports, arts or social
arenas, but stand out in the maker atmosphere, are suddenly seen
as leaders by their peers. Improved empathy, widespread respect
and diversity are embraced Difficult lessons in collaboration are
made easier to teach by these programs. Makerspaces have also
been instrumental in increasing patience, resilience, teamwork,
time management, creativity, cultural understanding and listening
skills. All of which bodes well for a promising future—both
for the concept and the young students who are fortunate enough
to utilize it. n