What Is a Maker Space?

Copyright 2013 by Grand Center Arts Academy in St. Louis, Mo.

The Grand Center Arts Academy (GCAA) Makerspace in St. Louis, Mo., is a drop-in, laboratory-like environment where students design products that serve an authentic purpose. Students choose what they want to make and are mostly self-guided in their creations. Andrew Goodin, facilitator at the GCAA Makerspace, provides an array of low- and high-tech materials for student tinkering. Goodin might use probing or clarifying questions to help students think about their design challenges, but generally, his role is to be a guide on the side—Makerspace learning is student-directed.

The so-called "Maker Movement" is an approach to invention and innovation with a decidedly do-it-yourself ethos. Businesses and institutions are dedicating virtual or real "maker spaces" that are a sort of sandbox for launching and testing ideas. Schools like GCAA are integrating maker culture as a way to engage students in interdisciplinary, creative problem solving.

GCAA consolidated the layout of their library to make room for their Makerspace, which they characterize as a "STEAM room" because it maximizes students' creative application of STEM concepts in a project-based atmosphere. "Rather than learning a concept first, and then demonstrating their understanding on a test, students in the Makerspace synthesize background knowledge and apply their artistic skills to learn and create," write GCAA educators.

Learn more about GCAA's Makerspace by following the Makerspace project's blog.

ASCD Express, Vol. 9, No. 9. Copyright 2014 by ASCD. All rights reserved. Visit www.ascd.org/ascdexpress.