Makerspaces and School Libraries
Pennsylvania School Librarians Association, May 2015
Ideas for Bringing Making Into Your School
Learn More
- Start making things yourself
- Visit school and community makerspaces
- Go to a Maker Faire
Start Small
- Find interested faculty and students to collaborate with
- Consider your school’s culture and where making fits best
- Make do with materials you have or can obtain easily and cheaply
- Talk it up to students, faculty, admins, parents
Expand Deliberately
- Host a workshop - PUBLICIZE IT
- First purchases should be tools and resources with low barriers to entry
- Remember: you don’t have to master something before you bring into your program
Space Comes Last
- A dedicated makerspace is most sustainable when the culture has already taken hold
- Once you have a space - INVITE, INVITE, INVITE
Josh Wesigrau
Email: jweisgrau@friendscentral.org
Website: http://makerspace.friendscentral.org/
Twitter: @jweisgrau
Mary Fran Torpey
Email: mtorpey@friendscentral.org
Website: blackburn.friendscentral.org
Twitter: @mft77
resources and inspiration
Books
Makerspace Playbook: School Edition by the Makerspace Education Initiative
Make Space: How to Set the Stage for Creative Collaboration by Scott Worley and Scott Witthoft
Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering and Engineering in the Classroom by Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary Stager (see also: the Invent to Learn website)
School Library Makerspaces: Grades 6-12 by Leslie B. Preddy
The Art of Tinkering by Karen Wilkinson
Making Makers: Kids, Tools, and the Future of Innovation by Ann-Marie Thomas
Sew Electric by Leah Beuchley
Makerspaces: A Practical Guide for Librarians by John J. Burke
Articles
Why the Maker Movement is Here to Stay by Ken Denmead
Learning by Making by Dale Dougherty
Full STEAM Ahead in School Library Journal
- What’s the Maker Movement and Why Should I Care by Gary Stager
- We Need Libraries as Much as Maker Spaces by John Spencer
- Editorial Board Thoughts: Libraries as Makerspace? by Tod Colegrove
- The New School Library: The Human Connection to Digital Resources and Academic Success by Elisabeth Abarbanel, et al.
- School Libraries and Makerspaces by Josh Weisgrau
- 7 Things You Should Know About Makerspaces by the Educause Learning Inititiave
Pennsylvania local resources
K-12 Makerspaces
- makerspace at Friends' Central School in Wynnewood, PA
- Ignite at Verrado Middle School in Litchfield Park, AZ
- Castilleja School in Palo Alto, CA
- Kaechele Elementary Library Learning Commons in Glen Allen, VA
- Mason Elementary School, Cedar Park, TX
- Stewart Middle Magnet School in Tampa, FL
- Creativity Lab at Lighthouse Community Charter School in Oakland, CA
- Makery Tech Labs at Burke's in San Francisco, CA
- Fab Lab at Marymount School of New York in New York, NY