iPads, MakerEd and More in Education

The old paradigm is that you learn the content in school and then at some point, when you’re older, there’s this magic tipping point where you know enough to start doing something with it. That’s faulty logic. We give students the opportunity to explore what they can do with what they know, as early as possible. We’re trying to harness that restless curiosity that students have when they’re young and nurture it rather than allowing it to atrophy. Honoring student voice and student choice is essential. We invite kids to explore topics of their own interest and ask open-ended questions. They’re not just doing labs to show you that the teacher is right. Students need to explore data to reach their own conclusions. It’s about action learning that gets kids exploring.

Alright – let’s dive right in! When we first got started, the only knowledge we had of utilizing a STEAM station in the classroom, was what we read.  We were a bit nervous at first because the task seemed daunting and oh…we had ZERO space for all of the things we thought we needed! What we discovered, however, was that the setup was much easier than we had anticipated. We each chose a corner in our classrooms devoted to creating. Laura’s was called “Tinker Town” and Jess called hers “Imagination Station.” We filled it with things we already had in the classroom.  We basically searched for easily manipulated recyclable items to put in bins (ie. q-tips, cotton balls, yarn, pipe cleaners, paper towel rolls, cardboard, tape, etc.)  Our STEAM stations became the perfect place to house those extra odds and ends we always saved in our closets because we would “need it someday.”



We knew we wanted the creating to be authentic, so we decided that each STEAM activity would connect to a piece of literature. We started simple.