Page 15 - TTMNSummer2024

STEM/Engineering
Teaching Today Minnesota | Summer/Back to School 2024 Page 15

Makerspace Opens Doors to a New World of Creativity

Richard Rohlf ng, Cleveland Public School and interests. Students are encouraged to take
As a fourth-grade teacher, Kim Germs- thoughtful risks, persist in problem solving,
cheid’s focus was instilling in her students her collaborate with others and engage in hands-
love of literature and reading. on learning while developing 21st-century
But three years ago, Germscheid did a skills.
180 when she took on the role of elementary A f rst step in encouraging careers in
STEM educator, teaching K-4 science, tech- STEM, learning in Makerspace can be high
nology, engineering and mathematics labs tech or low tech.
and supervising the school’s “Makerspace,” Serving the technology-driven end of the
a room dedicated to self-directed learning and spectrum, the room is outf tted with a trio of
play. 3D printers, a laser engraver, a Cricut (paper
Germscheid still uses literature in STEM and sticker cutting) machine with a heat press,
though. robots for learning about engineering and
“Many of our challenges or projects are motion control, a programmable plastic mouse
based on books like “Rosie Revere Engineer,” for teaching basic computer coding concepts,
“If I Built a School” or “Hidden Figures,” so I and kits for hands-on working with electronic
still get to share my love of reading and good circuits and gears.
quality literature. I also use several books on “I had to learn so much in this position,”
Science Fair projects and things to do with Germscheid said.
recyclables and cardboard.” On the lower tech side, students use their
Adjacent to the school’s media center, hands and simple tools—like scissors and a problem solver. Critical thinking, creativity, like,” said third grader Lucas Baker.
Makerspace is a room where elementary stu- markers and paint brushes—to do their proj- collaboration and communication are skills Germscheid’s fellow elementary teach-
dents discover, invent and problem solve using ects, some skewing towards the artistic while kids are going to need for the future, whatever ers can see how their students love having the
a variety of materials and machines. others are designed to be functional. that may bring. I encourage students to think time and materials just to explore, build and
In short: they use the room tinker, some- Materials on hand include cardboard, bal- outside of the box, work together and commu- create.
thing kids do naturally. They build things; they loons, popsicle sticks, toothpicks, beads, pipe nicate clearly.” Their observations are correct, Germs-
take things apart, and they learn by doing it. cleaners, tape, straws, playdough, clay, coffee While elementary teachers reserve Mak- cheid said.
Makerspace is an environment to encourage f lters, bottle caps, yarn, construction paper, erspace for their students’ self-guided projects, “This is where the students want to be.
that process, Germscheid said. cardboard tubes, recyclables and more. Many Germscheid also teaches K-4 technology labs They want to tinker; they want to learn; they
“It’s project-based learning. It’s play. It’s of the materials are donated by parents or other in the same room. Third graders, for example, want to play.”
what we used to do. We kind of got away from community members. are currently learning TinkerCad, an on-line
that, and now we’re circling back.” Working in Makerspace embraces failure program they use to create 3D designs that
Makerspace is meant to tap into multiple as part of the learning process, Germscheid come to life on one of the room’s 3D printers.
learning styles and intelligences, Germscheid said. “It teaches us designing, using your www.isd391.org
said. The lab encourages high student engage- “A lot of it is fail fast and f gure it out: imagination, and thinking what you really
ment and allows for undiscovered passions be a creative thinker, work with others and be

William’s Journey into Engineering and Robotics

Continued from Page 13

tions about our process.” build and program robots for. This year’s ativity and self expression that you can
His teachers at BHS and the com- challenge involved picking up cones have through a robot is understated,” said
munity volunteer mentors for the team and cubes and placing them on poles or William. “My advice for kids looking for
all pushed Wiliam to learn as much as shelves on the other side of the f eld, as their passion is to just try stuff! I am for-
he could, try new things and f nd the well as balancing three robots on a sort tunate to have found robotics pretty early
best way to solve the problem while of teeter totter device. The teams compete on and that the Pathways at BHS sup-
still expressing creativity. During his in qualifying matches, win ranking points ported that.”
senior year, the team kicked into high and ultimately the top eight teams are William is already scoping out dif-
gear, ranking number one in the state of ranked and get to select their robots and ferent class projects and possible clubs to
Minnesota, winning two regional tourna- alliances to compete in a double elimina- join and plans on volunteering at tourna-
ments and ultimately advancing to the tion bracket. ments or becoming a mentor for a team
2023 FIRST Robotics Championship in “This was my most active year someday.
Houston where they ended up f nishing on the team and I did a lot to help out,
f fth in the world. learned about CAD work, worked on
It was amazing all around,” said programming, wiring and I was one of
William. “My big goal this year was to go the drivers of the robot,” said William. www.isd191.org
to the world championships and we put in “Programming is fun because you can
a lot of work and built the best robot we do some really fancy things beyond trig-
could. We did well throughout the year gering an action with a button. There are
and kept going until we ended up in the ways to have the motor change speeds
top eight. Houston was so surreal with based on how far it is from an object or
stands full of people watching us and using cameras and vision software to
cheering.” track things.”
Competitions center around dif- “People don’t always have the best
ferent games and challenges that teams view of robotics, but the amount of cre-