Proposal: Maker Faire

In the spirit of creating a new Seneca High school teacher mantra: Less us,

more them, (Martinez 70), I would like to propose that Seneca High School hosts a

Maker Faire one afternoon in our media center space. Since the idea of making is

such a new concept to our media center staff, we would like to pilot it with sixty

STEM students before we roll it out to the staff and community.

The more them concept comes from a theory of teaching emerging called

constructionism. This theory doesnt mandate a specific method of teaching

(Martinez 71). Instead it relies upon teaching methods that are child-centered,

open-ended, project based, inquiry based models, not unlike the approach suggested

by Grant Wiggins in our districts recent UBD training. This approach employs eight

big ideas that will allow students to be at the center of learning and to tinker,

engineer, and make. Therefore- less us. This constructionism promotes

learning through experience, where failing is actually learning and the success of the

project does not rely on getting it right, or memorizing facts. Paperts

recommendations at the root of creating a Maker Fair are as follows:

1. Learning by doing. We learn best when we learn to make something we

really want.

2. Technology as a building material. Using technology to make things

allows you to make a lot more interesting things.

3. Hard fun. We learn best if we like what we are learning. It should be fun

and fun doesnt mean easy.

 4. Learning to learn. Students need to take control of their own learning and

not rely solely on being taught.

5. Taking time. Students need to learn to take ownership over how they

manage their time.

6. You cant get it right without getting it wrong. Being wrong or failing is

often the first step to learning. Students have to start to use failure as a tool

to learn.

7. Do unto ourselves as we do onto our students. The best lesson for our

students is for them to watch us learn and show them how to struggle in

order to grow.

8. Knowing about digital technology is as important as reading and

writing. We must engage our students to use technology as a learning tool

NOW (Martinez, 2013, pp. 73-74).

A Maker Faire such as the one I propose will allow us to support the educational

approach which celebrates the arts, crafts, engineering, science projects, and the Do

it Yourself Mindset (Martinez, 2013, p. 174). Most of the activities are very low cost

since we currently have most of the materials in the media center and our student

numbers are going to be controlled.

With these thoughts in mind, I have come up with stations for students to

pick and choose at their own pace and interest level. These stations will be located

throughout the media center and they will be safe havens for students to make,

learn, and ultimately have fun.

Activity/Station Materials Cost
Catapult- Students are to Plastic spoons, straws, $20
make a catapult that they pencils, tape
can only use one hand to
launch. See who can
throw an object the
farthest.
Stretch the piece of Pieces of plain standard Donated
paper- students can take paper. Scissors.
one piece of paper and
stretch it out as far as
possible, without
separating pieces.
Build a chair that can All different size pieces of Donated by community
support your weight corrugated cardboard,
scissors
Create a Rubberband Toothpicks, bottle caps, Donated by community
car. See how far you can straws, rubber bands
get the car to go.
Magnetic Poetry Station 3 Large Magnetic Poetry Own in the Media Center
Students will use the Tool Kits
Large Magnetic Poetry 2 rolling large white
tools to create poems on boards.
the white board space. markers
Take a picture of each
poem and email it to
bstrittmatter@lrhsd.org
Glow Doodle Station- 1. Mac computer lab, cell No cost
Students will create Glow phones, glow sticks
art in the MAC lab space.
Create a Holiday Song 8 glasses, a few gallons of Donated
using water, glasses and a water, a pencil
pencil to create the
sounds