Grade(s): Professional Development for Middle School Teachers (ADST Focus)

Date(s): September Duration: 1.5 - 2 Hrs

Lesson Topic/Title: Introduction to Maker Mentality and Empathy

Subjects: BC’s Three Core Competencies: Communication, Thinking, and Personal and Social

Number of Students: 30

Big Ideas
- How can we encourage teachers to implement makerspace frameworks and maker mentality within their pedagogy and educational practices?
- How can we encourage teachers to consider the role of empathy and EDIDA frameworks within their teaching practices in relation to
makerspaces?

Curricular Competencies (BC Core Competencies)

Communication
- Communicating
- Connecting and engaging with others
- Focusing on intent and purpose
- Acquiring and presenting information
- Collaborating

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 - Working collectively
- Supporting group interactions
Thinking
- Creative Thinking
- Generating and incubating
- Critical Thinking and Reflective Thinking
- Analyzing and critiquing
- Questing and investigating
Personal and Social
- Positive Personal and Cultural Identity
- Understanding relationships and cultural contexts
- Recognizing personal values and choices
- Identifying personal strengths and abilities
- Social Awareness and Responsibility
- Building relationships
- Valuing diversity

(Core competencies, n.d.)

First Peoples’ Principles and Perspectives

- Learning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors
- Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of
place).
- Learning is embedded in memory, history, and story.
- Learning requires exploration of one’s identity.

(First peoples principles, n.d.)

Content Objectives
- Characteristics of Makerspaces
- No-tech materials
- Where makerspaces exist
- Maker Mentality
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 - Pedagogical frameworks
- Positive Failure
- Future-ready competencies
- Foundational knowledge regarding intersectionality and empathy
- How the wheel of privilege exemplifies potential limitations of traditionally marginalized individuals
- How intersectionality and privilege potentially exist within the classroom and makerspaces
- Empathy as a tool to ensure an inclusive makerspace

General Objectives Specific Objectives

Makerspaces
- Teachers will be able to describe typical features that At the end of this lesson, teachers will be capable of:
constitute a makerspace by evaluating existing spaces in their - Defining a makerspace
classrooms or other educational settings. - Defining a maker mentality
- Teachers will be able to recognize the characteristics of a - Recognizing the role of positive-failure
makerspace by correctly collecting and identifying no-tech - Define future-ready skills exemplified in makerspaces
materials that exist within a makerspace. - Analyze various pedagogical frameworks that exist within
makerspaces
- Finding no-tech materials that exist within a makerspace

Intersectionality & Empathy

- Teachers will evaluate their privilege and intersectionality by At the end of this lesson, teachers will be capable of:
determining where they are on the Wheel of Power. - Compare and contrast the role of privilege and intersectionality in
- Teachers will assess the role of privilege and intersectionality their classrooms and subsequent makerspaces
and how it exists in their classrooms and future makerspaces - Demonstrate a conscientious approach to creating sustainable and
by considering the potential limitations traditionally inclusive activities that combat potential limitations traditionally
marginalized individuals experience. marginalized individuals experience
- Teachers will recognize and synthesize their identity by - Evaluate core values within oneself
conducting a self-reflective empathy interview. - Compare and contrast intersectionality and empathy

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 21st Century Competencies
Critical thinking
- Educators will be invited to critical think and reflect on their intersectionality and privilege
Collaboration
- Educators will be working through various scenarios that encourage collaboration
Communication
- Educators will communicate their learning throughout the duration of the unit
Reflection
- Educators will reflect on their learning in the creation of their FlipGrid

(21st century competencies, 2015)

Characteristics inherent within a community of makers and makification includes:

- Physical making that employs multidisciplinary approaches to solving problems
- Educators are encouraged to collect no-tech materials during a provocation that could exist within a makerspace and subsequent
physical making
- Sharing ideas and artifacts with others
- Educators are encouraged to share ideas by the inclusion of “Here’s What” Flipgrid, which fosters community and collaboration
through sharing
- Iteration that has a failure-positive approach
- “Sweet Cocoon” acts as an example of a failure-positive attitude within inquiry and design-based learnin
- Individual autonomy that empowers maker/learner choices and control
- While this lesson is mandatory, educators will be given the autonomy of choice throughout their future lessons

(as cited in Cohen et al., 2016, p. 220)

Learning Goal(s)
I can identify my positionality on a wheel of privilege.
I can identify characteristics of makerspaces and maker mentality.
I will utilize my learning from the sessions and apply it back to my classroom.
I will remain considerate in understanding how EDIDA frameworks and intersectionality come into play within my classrooms.

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 Prior Knowledge
The instructor will assume there is no prior knowledge considering this is an introduction lesson.
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Decolonization, Anti-Racism (EDIDA) Frameworks
This lesson ensures the utilization of the EDIDA frameworks by presenting learners with a foundational knowledge of intersectionality.
Intersectionality conceptualizes “race, class, and gender as interlocking systems: they do not only operate ‘on their own,’ but are often experienced
together, by individuals who exist at their intersections” (Costanza-Chock, 2018, p. 531). Moreover, Kimberlé Crenshaw (2015) provides additional
knowledge concerning the theory of intersectionality. The first provocation is a waste-paper basket challenge which encourages educators to begin
thinking and consider their identity and intersectionality, in addition to the start of understanding how systems in place further perpetuates
traditionally marginalized individuals.

The materials used within this Professional Development session are primarily personally owned devices with multiple considerations for the
potential use of assistive technology. There is also the consideration for how teachers engage with the materials (i.e., teachers will be encouraged to
work in pairs to promote comfort and safety when engaging with something new).

All voices are included and heard throughout this lesson by relying on anonymity. The purpose of this lesson is not to point out others and their
privilege or lack thereof. Furthermore, as teachers share their level of comfort or understanding regarding makerspaces, the feature of remaining
anonymous does not situate teachers in an inadvertent competition.

The content of this lesson specifically considers the diversity lens. By exemplifying the strength of diversity within the staff and the potential
intersectional contexts, teachers are encouraged to examine how diversity exists within their classrooms. Throughout the lesson, there are further
explanations of how diversity has been negatively perceived and reflected within traditionally marginalized groups. Furthermore, this lesson invites
educators to consider their “uncritical habit of mind (including perceptions, attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs) that justifies inequity and exploitation
by accepting the existing social order of things as given” (King, 1991, p. 135, as cited in Waite, 2021, p. 70). This lesson provides the fundamental
knowledge required for change that holds educators accountable through the “cycle of reflection, interrogations, reflexivity” (Waite, 2021, p. 79).

By adhering to Kye’s (2020) tenets of culturally responsive pedagogy, the lesson does the following:
- Throughout the lesson on intersectionality and its functions, we develop a knowledge base regarding cultural diversity
- While working collaboratively as a staff, we demonstrate the ability to build a community which serves as a further demonstration for our
students

Notably, this introductory lesson does not explicitly reflect each tenet (Kye, 2020, p. 2). This introductory lesson provides the groundwork for the
subsequent lessons within the unit to review and examine the remaining tenets.

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 Differentiated Instruction and Accommodations
Differentiated Instruction
- Multimodal Presentations and Approaches
- Teacher choice when completing tasks to demonstrate their learning
- Using visuals
- Small group meetings for collaboration and ensuring understanding
Assistive Technology
- Visual aids
- FM systems available for hearing impairments
- Google R&W
- Google Speech to Text
- Google Translate available
Additional Accommodations:
- Alternate Assessment:
- Google docs for individuals unable to communicate through FlipGrid
- Extended amount of time to complete end task
- Record and post lesson to school’s LMS
- Teachers who missed the session
- Teachers who would like to review

Materials
- Personally Owned Device
- Something to takes note with (digital or non)
- Bag/Container/something to collect materials

Lesson Sequence
Introduction: Minds-On Critical Guiding Questions:
- The Waste-Paper Basket Challenge - What was the purpose of this exercise?
- clearly how one’s socio-economic can directly - What did you learn from it?
influences one’s ability to achieve success and - What happened during this exercise? Were you surprised by
opportunities anything?
- A Powerful Lesson About Privilege - How did it feel to be in certain areas of the room?
- Explanation about the game following the exercise

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A) Experience: Foundational Knowledge
- What is Intersectionality?
B) Experience : Provocation
- “Sweet Cocoon” animated short (TheCGBrothers, 2015)
- Interact with guiding questions to start a discussion
- Mentimeter Word Cloud: Code: 91518138
- Question 1: What does it mean to be a “maker”?
- Question 2: Who is a maker?
C) Experience: Provocation
- Genial.ly - What is a makerspace?
- How can you apply what you have learned here that you could apply
this back to your classroom?
Critical Guiding Questions:
- How does inequality exist within our classrooms?
- Does social context influence the way in which students interact
within the classroom?
- Does our personal intersectionality influence our students?
Critical Guiding Questions:
“Sweet Cocoon” animated short:
- What did you notice about the video?
- How does the element of empathy present itself in the video?
- What challenges did the caterpillar and insects face?
- How did they approach these challenges?
- What was their outlook or perspective in approaching these
challenges?
- Would you do anything differently?
Mentimeter
- Reflections or thoughts on each of the word clouds
Critical Guiding Questions:
- Do makerspaces already exist within our school?
- Do any of our students already exemplify the notion of a maker
mentality?
- What future ready skills or competencies would you like to see our
students develop?
- How could we create moments to encourage the development
of said competencies?
- How could intersectionality affect makerspaces?
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 - Does our pedagogy currently reflect the ideologies and theories
behind makerspaces?
- Is there a benefit (or not) of incorporating these ideologies
into our practice?
- What kind of tools should be included within a makerspace?
[Leading question into part-D challenge]
- Display of no-tech, low-tech, high-tech materials
- Do these materials already exist within our classrooms?
- How could these materials be used?
- Do some materials look easier than others to engage with?

D) Experience: Challenge - Treasure Hunt Critical Guiding Questions:

- Explain the difference be no-tech, low-tech, and high-tech Discussion of materials
materials - What kind of materials fit within each category?

- Treasure Hunt Pre-Treasure Hunt

- Instruct educators to consider what kind of no-tech - What materials classify as no-tech?
materials they could collect to comply materials for a - Where can we find these materials? Inside or outside?
makerspace (give examples: cardboard, old fabric,
classroom materials [pencils, scissors, tape], single-use
plastics)
- Teachers will have ten minutes to explore the space
(outside or inside) or their classrooms (if applicable) to Post-Treasure Hunt
collect as many of no-tech materials in their bags or - How could you use the collected materials within a makerspace?
containers they brought with them - Is there anything that you would not consider using? Why or why
- Once teachers return, have them share with a partner not?
what they collected
E) Experience: Challenge - Empathy Interview Critical Guiding Questions:
- Pose the Padlet to conduct a self-reflective empathy interview - Tell me about yourself?
- Display following QR code - Who inspires you the most?
- Encourage educators to post their answers to the padlet - What do you fear the most?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?

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 - Once the padlet has multiple responses, invite the teachers to
engage in the listed critical questions through collaborative
discussion.
Conclusion: FlipGrid
- Instruct teachers to create a FlipGrid addressing the critical
questions
- Partners are welcomed and encouraged
- How might empathy impact a makerspace?
- Is there a connection between intersectionality and empathy?
- How does intersectionality impact our ability to empathize with
others? (positively or negatively)
Critical Guiding Questions:
- What? (What did you learn today?)
- So what? (Why is this important?)
- Now what? (From what you learned today, will you take back to your
classroom and students?)

Assessment
Diagnostic
- Mentimeter Word Cloud Code: 91518138
- Assessing educators’ current level of knowledge, understanding

Formative
- In-session discussions
- Instructor feedback throughout discussions
- FlipGird

Summative
- End of Unit culminating task

Lesson Extension
- Flipgrid: “Here’s What” - demonstration of ongoing learning throughout the unit

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 References

21st century competencies: Foundation document for discussion. (2015).

http://edugains.ca/resources21CL/About21stCentury/21CL_21stCenturyCompetencies.pdf

BuzzFeedVideo (2014, December 9). Students learn a powerful lesson about privilege [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KlmvmuxzYE

TheCGBrothers (2015, February 27). ** Oscar nominated ** 3D animated shorts: “Sweet cocoon” - by ESMA | TheCGBros [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0a0aNqTehM

Cohen, J., Jones, W. M., Smith, S., & Calandra, B. (2017). Makification: Towards a framework for leveraging the maker movement in formal

education. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 26(3), 217-229.

Core competencies. Building student Success (n.d.). BC Government. https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies

Costanza-Chock, S. (2018). Design justice: towards an intersectional feminist framework for design theory and practice, in Storni,C., Leashy, K.,

Mcmahon, M., Lloyd, P., and Bohemia, E. (eds). Design as a catalyst for change. DRS International Conference 2018, 25-28 June, Limerick,

Ireland. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2018.679

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First peoples principles of learning - gov. (n.d.). First Nations Education Steering Committee.

http://www.fnesc.ca/first-peoples-principles-of-learning/

Intersectionality: What is it and why it matters. (2021, March 8). University of British Columbia.

https://vpfo.ubc.ca/2021/03/intersectionality-what-is-it-and-why-it-matters/

King, J.E. (1991). Dysconscious racism: Ideology, identity, and the miseducation of teachers. Journal of Negro Education, 60(2), 133-146.

https://doi.org.10.2307/2295605

Kye, H. (2020). Who is welcome here? A culturally responsive content analysis of makerspace websites. Journal of Pre-College Engineering

Education Research (J-PEER), 10(2). https://doi.org/10.7771/2157-9288.1190

National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) (2018, June 22). Kimberlé Crenshaw: What is intersectionality? [Video]. Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViDtnfQ9FHc&t=2s

Waite, S.R. (2001). Disrupting dyscinsciousness: Confronting anti-blackness in educational leadership preparation programs. Journal of School

Leadership, 31(1/2), 66-84.

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