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hi everyone welcome back to edtech
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classroom i'm
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so happy you're here if you're new here
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welcome
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i'm maddie i'm an ed tech coach and k
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through five stem teacher in los
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angeles i post weekly tech tutorials and
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videos for teachers
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and like i said i'm so happy that you
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found my video today
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so for today's video we're going to be
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talking about how to create
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mini makerspaces so i am the host of a
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podcast
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called the edtech classroom podcast and
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one of my favorite topics to talk about
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on this podcast
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and it's really been lately at least one
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of the most highly requested topics for
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my podcast
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is how to create a mini maker space so
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today's video is going to be about
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exactly that i'm going to walk you
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through the process of creating a mini
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maker space
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if you're a parent watching this is
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something that you can do with your
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children
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at home or if you're a teacher this is a
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great idea for you to implement whether
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you're teaching in person
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you're teaching remote or sort of a
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hybrid of the two
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so what we're going to be doing today is
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basically we're going to be learning how
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to create
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maker spaces in a box so basically the
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way it works is we're going to be
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gathering a bunch of different materials
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from recyclable materials to low-cost
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items that you can find at a place like
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target or the dollar store
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we're gonna be combining it all together
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and i'm gonna give you some
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recommendations for stem activities that
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you can do with your students or
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with your children so the first stop on
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our list is we're going to check out
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target now one huge misconception about
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maker spaces
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is that they have to cost a lot of money
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you know i think when people hear the
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term
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makerspace they think of 3d printers
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laser cutters
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all that jazz and stuff that's really
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expensive and while these high-tech
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tools of course
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are really awesome if you have the
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budget for it you can still incorporate
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stem activities in your classroom on a
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very low
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budget you know so really the focus of
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today's video is not only going to be
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how to create a maker space
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but really how to create a budget
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friendly
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maker space so again we're going to be
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looking at recyclable materials
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extremely low cost materials all right
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so the first thing we're going to do is
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we're going to head to target
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and i will see you guys there
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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all right hey everybody we just got back
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from target
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and i think the biggest thing that i
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realized
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while i was there is that i actually
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didn't need to buy
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anything i actually didn't need to buy
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anything target kind of can add up
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right so when we're looking at all these
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maker materials these art supplies
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all of these costs can start to add up
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even something like a three dollar bin
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for example
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for a student to put their materials in
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that adds up when you think about having
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you know 24 students in your class
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so when i came home what i decided to do
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was gather up a bunch of recyclable
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materials
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that i thought could sort of act as a
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replacement for some of the things that
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i might find at target
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so i have this box here that i went
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ahead and filled up with some different
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maker materials
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um what i love about the idea of each
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student having
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their own cardboard box is i think it
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really allows them to have
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ownership over their maker materials so
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right now
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in this 2020-2021 school year when we're
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thinking about you know all these social
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distancing measures in place for example
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students really need to have their own
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set of materials now i know in a lot of
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ways the idea of a maker space is that
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kids are able to collaborate
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share materials so what i love about
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this box is it kind of acts as a fun
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storage container for students to keep
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their materials in
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and it's better for the environment than
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a plastic bin and of course it would
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save you
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the teacher a lot of money so if we take
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a look at the things i have inside here
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i sort of have a fun mix between
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recyclable materials and
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really low cost items so like i said i
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actually didn't buy anything while i was
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at target because i realized i kind of
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had everything i already needed
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um but there might be some things that
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you might want to check out from
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you know maker materials that you might
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want to buy at a place like target or
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the dollar store
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so if we take a look here i'm going to
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show you some of the materials that i
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have in
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my mini maker space now what you see
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here is what i would give
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to one child in my class so for example
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if you have 24 students in your class
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you'd want to have
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24 different boxes filled with materials
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like these
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now if you're a parent of course you
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might want to have one for each child in
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your home
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all right so of course we have some fun
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red solo cups i thought these could be
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really helpful for something like
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building so i have three red solo cups
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in my mini maker space here
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i also have some coffee filters when
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thinking about you know doing
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parachute challenges for example with
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students i think that coffee filters can
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be a really
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great uh tool to use so i have these as
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well
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another great tool for building um you
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know legos are awesome
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as a stem teacher i really love legos
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but that's something that's definitely
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really expensive so i thought that a fun
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replacement for legos this is kind of
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some outside of the box thinking here
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but
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i got a deck of playing cards that i
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found the deck is actually
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it's not even a complete deck which is
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why i decided to put it in this box here
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but again i thought that cards could
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sort of be a fun building activity
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for students so i have a deck of cards
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here
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i also have some paper plates um i
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really like using paper plates in
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general
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for maker activities i think that you
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know these are something that a lot of
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people have around the home so i thought
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that this could be something great to
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include as well
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now i have an egg carton um so i
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actually had eggs for breakfast and
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finished a carton today
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so i decided that this could maybe be
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something fun to put in my box
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there's sort of a bunch of different
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creative things that kids can do with
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this you know they can cut it up
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they can you know do a bunch of
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different things so i just have an empty
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egg carton here that i thought could be
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a fun
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maker material now some more things that
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i have these are kind of like the
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classic
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thing when you think of when you think
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of doing maker activities at home
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i have these three paper towel tubes you
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could also use
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uh toilet paper rolls but i really like
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these because i think that they can be
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really great for kids who are doing you
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know building slides or wanting to do
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any sort of really building i think
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these can be a really great tool to use
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all right next i have some modeling clay
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so i actually got this from
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target in the dollar section um over the
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summer so a few months ago
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this cost me three dollars from target
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and it's a modeling clay that has a
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bunch of different colors in it
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so this might be an example of something
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that you might want to actually purchase
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what i really like about modeling clay
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is it allows students to
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actually build a prototype um so
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prototyping is obviously something
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that's
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really important in stem really
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important in doing
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you know maker challenges so i like to
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use modeling clay for students to
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actually build
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their first model or their first stem
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build
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they can kind of like create their idea
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using this modeling clay and then they
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can use their other maker materials
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later on
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to actually make the final version so
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modeling clay can have a lot of really
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great
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uh practical applications in stem and
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maker challenges
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next we have let's see so many fun
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things left
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next we have these pom pom balls so kids
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love pom pom balls if you're a stem
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teacher
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or just an elementary school teacher in
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general you might notice that kids
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really really love to use pom pom balls
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i just wanted to bring some color into
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my mini maker space
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so what i did was i actually found an
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old
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gift bag that i had and i just cut off
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the pom pom balls from that so you
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actually don't need to go out and
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purchase any pom pom balls
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think outside of the box here there's so
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many really great things that you can
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find around your home that you can
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incorporate
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so again i got these fun pom pom balls
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alright next we have popsicle sticks
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so popsicle sticks are again another
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really great
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building tool if you've ever done a
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maker challenge with your students you
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probably have noticed that they can
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build some
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really really creative things out of
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popsicle sticks
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so if you're a big popsicle eater you
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could of course
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use those but these are actually
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something that i purchased again
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from target over the summer so this is
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um just one other thing that you could
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possibly add to
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your mini maker space all right next
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here we have some scissors so of course
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scissors is again
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something that you would want to
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purchase uh but when you're doing maker
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challenges you're going to need a pair
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of scissors
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and you're also going to need some tape
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so two things that i happen to have at
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my home
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but these are some things that you might
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want to purchase if you do not have
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tape or scissors all right two more
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things here so next i have a bunch of
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crayons now i just threw these crayons
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in here
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loosely um so i just put a handful of
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crayons that i thought i could use ooh
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they're falling everywhere
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a handful of crayons that i thought
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could be uh great
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for you know drawing out some ideas so
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these crayons here and the last thing i
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found is some strings so when you have a
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maker space you always want to make sure
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that you have something that you can use
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to tie
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so really you need to have things that
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you can tie with tape something sticky
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glue etc so i found this string just
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somewhere i'm not really sure what it
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belongs to it looks like maybe it might
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have been on a bag or something but i
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did find some string
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um of course if you have longer string
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you could use that if you don't have
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string at your home
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you could also look into using something
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like dental floss
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um so of course floss might cost more
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than string but if you're not looking to
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go out and purchase anything that could
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be a nice
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alternative all right so that's
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everything that i have in my mini maker
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space here
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it might not seem like a lot but i'm
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going to give you guys some different
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ideas of things that you can actually
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create
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and build with your students using the
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items that you found in my
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mini makerspace here so the idea of a
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mini maker space is something that works
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really really well if you're doing
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distance learning right now
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now i know that schools across the
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country are doing a bunch of different
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things you know we have schools that are
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learning 100
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in person 100 online some sort of hybrid
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of the two
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so i do know that every school is
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different and every classroom is
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different as well
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but i think that this is a really great
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idea for something that you can do
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during a period of distance learning
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when kids are actually learning from
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home
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you can create some sort of scavenger
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hunt for example where kids can go
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around the house
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and try and collect different materials
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like this i actually have a really fun
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at-home learning scavenger hunt where
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kids can create their own mini maker
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space so i'll be sure to have that
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linked in the episode description down
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below
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so i'm also gonna have an image overlay
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right here where you can actually see an
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example of what kids might have on
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their scavenger hunt sheet alright so
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again like i said i think this is a
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really great example of how you can have
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maker activities at home when kids are
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learning in distance learning
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i do think this idea works really well
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in the classroom in a normal typical
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school year
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the idea of having a mini maker space
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like i said really allows students to
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have agency over their materials
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it can make it so that they can
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basically store something like this
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store this box
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that i showed you guys underneath their
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seat under their desk
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and it can be something that they pull
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out when it's time to work on different
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maker challenges
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now i'm not saying that teachers need to
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go out and buy 24 gardens of eggs that
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would be
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ridiculous unless you really like eggs
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but i just really gave this example here
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so that you guys can kind of understand
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how you can gather different recyclable
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materials so
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for example something that you could do
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with your students is you can actually
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send a letter home
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and ask each student to bring their own
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box to school
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and so instead of you going out and
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buying plastic bins each child in your
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class could have
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their own cardboard box to keep their
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materials in
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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all right so i finished building this
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bridge i'm super excited about it i used
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uh a bunch of different maker materials
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from my mini maker space so i used paper
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towel tubes
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i used a red solo cup i used popsicle
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sticks
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tape some of the deck of cards and i
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used
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some string so i only used one material
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that wasn't in my mini maker space and
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that is a hole punch
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and as i was building this i thought of
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a couple of other recyclable materials
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that you might want to include
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it might be a good idea to include
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rubber bands or hair ties
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it might be a good idea to include tin
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foil or
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saran wrap and i also came up with a few
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ideas of things that your students could
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actually make
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using the exact materials that i have in
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my mini maker space
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so of course in this example here i made
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a bridge you'll see that i actually made
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a drawbridge that i'm pretty excited
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about so you'll see
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that it just plops open like that uh but
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your students in addition to making a
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bridge they could also make
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a tower they could make a
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water slide or a regular slide i really
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like doing
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the playground challenge with my
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students where basically they're given
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maker materials and they have to make
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their dream playground so there's
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those are just a couple of ideas that i
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came up with that your students could
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try out using the maker materials that
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are in their mini makerspace
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alright so hopefully this video is
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helpful in
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allowing you to come up and brainstorm
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some ideas for how you can actually
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incorporate recyclable materials into
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your classroom
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now again i know that every classroom is
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different you know i know some schools
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have access to more
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recyclable materials or maker materials
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than others
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but the point that i'm really trying to
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make with this video is that you don't
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have to go
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out and buy a bunch of fancy things in
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order to have
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a successful maker space in your
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classroom it's really important that we
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think outside the box and try and find
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really low
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cost or recyclable materials that we can
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use with our students
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so if you liked this video be sure to
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subscribe give me a
00:15:19
thumbs up i post weekly tech tutorials
00:15:22
for teachers
00:15:23
and fun other videos like this one you
00:15:26
can also check out my podcast the edtech
00:15:28
classroom podcast
00:15:29
if you do want to learn more about
00:15:31
makerspaces
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my podcast is really a place where i
00:15:34
talk a lot about project-based learning
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i give a lot of ideas related to
00:15:38
creating a maker space in your classroom
00:15:40
so again if that's something that you
00:15:41
want to learn more about i'd recommend
00:15:43
checking out my podcast
00:15:44
the edtech classroom podcast you can
00:15:46
find it on apple
00:15:48
and spotify and really wherever you like
00:15:50
to listen to your favorite podcast
00:15:52
so again thank you so much for watching
00:15:54
this video and i'll see you back here
00:15:55
soon
00:15:56
bye friends
