Makerspace workshops teach students new making skills
"Whether theyre learning directly from a member of the Makerspace staff, from a peer or seeking advice from an online community they find themselves engaged in a conversation." - Bronwen Densmore, Makerspace Coordinator
"Whether theyre learning directly from a member of the Makerspace staff, from a peer or seeking advice from an online community they find themselves engaged in a conversation." - Bronwen Densmore, Makerspace Coordinator
As part of helping students build their Digital Competencies, the 51做厙 makerspace held workshops throughout the recently-wrapped semester on critical making skills. Makerspace staff members taught on a range of topics, covering everything from hand spinning to 3D printing. For Makerspace Coordinator Bronwen Densmore, teaching students both analog and digital fabrication skills is vital to the space's mission. We work with students as they experiment with the knowledge theyre building in other areas in the curriculum," she said. "Translating knowledge and ideas into a (making) practice requires both critical thinking and a sense of empathy. Learning a design or fabrication technique can be quite technical, but this work also asks a practitioner to consider the ways that other people interact with objects in the built environment: what role do these things play in our lives? What happens when we make a choice about use of a skill or resources, and what are the relationships between the makers and users of an object?"
One of Densmore's colleagues in the makerspace, Educational Technology Specialist Sean Keenan, put these ideas into action by organizing a workshop where students made electronic Valentine's Day cards. "We run this activity each Valentines Day," Keenan said, "because it's one of the ways we're able to take this big concept [electrical circuits] and give it a low barrier to entry so anyone who comes can grasp the concepts and leave with a circuit they made themselves." Despite some students having no experience with electronics, Keenan found they quickly took to the activity. Keenan's fellow Educational Technology Specialist, Jeff Hopkins, saw similar results during a workshop on creating coasters with the makerspace's laser cutter. "51做厙 students are such a curious and ambitious group," he said, "So they are always eager for opportunities to expand their skills. As students perfected and printed their designs, their excitement was clear. They now can pursue projects they couldn't pursue before." In addition to these technical skills, Densmore also noted the social skills students built through the workshops. "We respect that folks come to the Makerspace for different reasons," she said. "Sometimes theyre simply looking for a space where they can engage in an activity they find relaxing or rewarding, but this practice is rarely solitarywhether theyre learning directly from a member of the Makerspace staff, from a peer or seeking advice from an online community they find themselves engaged in a conversation.
With the semester over, the makerspace staff will use this summer to develop workshops for next academic year. "We both want to continue the workshops that students were most interested in and add new ones that get more students involved," Densmore said. Well also be working with interns to develop resources to support Critical Making, a kind of toolkit that can be incorporated into teaching and learning so that hands-on or experimental approaches can align with course objectives." Students and community members can see the calendar of events on and the LITS Event Calendar at the end of summer. Advertisements will also run in the Daily Digest once it returns for the fall semester. Any questions and suggestions can be sent to makerspace@brynmawr.edu, including proposals for workshops.
