Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom - Softcover

Sylvia Libow Martinez; Gary S. Stager

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0989151107 ISBN 13: 9780989151108

Publisher: Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, 2013

Synopsis

Join the maker movement!
There’s a technological and creative revolution underway. Amazing new tools, materials and skills turn us all into makers. Using technology to make, repair or customize the things we need brings engineering, design and computer science to the masses. Fortunately for educators, this maker movement overlaps with the natural inclinations of children and the power of learning by doing. The active learner is at the center of the learning process, amplifying the best traditions of progressive education. This book helps educators bring the exciting opportunities of the maker movement to every classroom.

Children are natural tinkerers
Their seminal learning experiences come through direct experience with materials. Digital fabrication, such as 3D printing and physical computing, including Arduino, MaKey MaKey and Raspberry Pi, expands a child’s toy and toolboxes with new ways to make things and new things to make. For the first time ever, childhood inventions may be printed, programmed or imbued with interactivity. Recycled materials can be brought back to life.

While school traditionally separates art and science, theory and practice, such divisions are artificial. The real world just doesn’t work that way! Architects are artists. Craftsmen deal in aesthetics, tradition and mathematical precision. Video game developers rely on computer science. Engineering and industrial design are inseparable. The finest scientists are often accomplished musicians. The maker community brings children, hobbyists and professionals together in a glorious celebration of personal expression with a modern flare.

When 3-D printing, precision cutting, microcomputer control, robotics and computer programming become integral to the art studio, auto shop or physics lab, every student needs access to tools, knowledge and problem solving skills. The maker movement not only blurs the artificial boundaries between subject areas, it erases distinctions between art and science while most importantly obliterating the crippling practice of tracking students in academic pursuits or vocational training. There are now multiple pathways to learning what we have always taught and things to do that were unimaginable just a few years ago.

Making for every classroom budget
Even if you don’t have access to expensive (but increasingly affordable) hardware, every classroom can become a makerspace where kids and teachers learn together through direct experience with an assortment of high and low-tech materials. The potential range, breadth, power, complexity and beauty of projects has never been greater thanks to the amazing new tools, materials, ingenuity and playfulness you will encounter in this book.

In this practical guide, Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager provide K-12 educators with the how, why, and cool stuff that supports making in the classroom, library, makerspace, or anywhere learners learn.

About this title

About the Author

Sylvia Martinez is President of Generation YES, a non-profit with a mission of empowering young people to improve their schools and communities with modern technology. Sylvia works in schools around the world to bring the power of authentic learning into classrooms, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) subjects. Sylvia speaks, writes, and advocates for student-centered, project-based learning, gender equity in technology, computer programming, and life-long learning. Previous to Generation YES, Sylvia was in charge of product development at several software publishers, designing and creating video games and educational software. Sylvia also had a career in aerospace engineering as a senior scientist on the GPS navigational satellite system research and development. She holds a masters in educational technology and a bachelors in electrical engineering.

Gary S. Stager, Ph.D. is one of the world's leading experts and advocates for computer programming, robotics and learning-by-doing in classrooms. In 1990, Dr. Stager led professional development in the world's first laptop schools and played a major role in the early days of online education. In addition to being a popular keynote speaker at some of the world's most prestigious education conferences, Gary is a journalist, teacher educator, consultant, professor, software developer, and school STEM. Director. An elementary teacher by training, he has taught students from preschool through doctoral studies. Gary is the founder of the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute for educators.

From the Back Cover

"Learning is often confused with education. Martinez and Stager clearly describe learning learning through engagement, design and building. The best way to understand circles is to reinvent the wheel."
- Nicholas Negroponte, Founder of the MIT Media Lab and One Laptop Per Child


Join the learning revolution sweeping the globe!

3D printers, robotics, programming, wearable computing, and Arduino capture the imaginations of today's student. When exciting new technologies combine with hands-on traditions, your classroom becomes a makerspace where learning soars. The time is now to place invention and creativity ahead of worksheets and testing.

Using technology to make, repair, or customize the things we need democratizes engineering, design, and computer science. Fortunately for educators, this maker movement overlaps with the natural inclinations of children and the power of learning by doing. Making, tinkering, and engineering are how people learn and work in the 21st Century.

This book explores how you can join the exciting maker movement and turn any K-12 classroom into a center of innovation.

From the Inside Flap

The first book about the maker movement written specifically for educators!

"A dynamic masterwork that engages readers from the opening sentence to the last. The craft of making things becomes a philosophical cornerstone to a true education, as this book makes abundantly clear. Rather than rant against the status quo, this book shows both why the transformation of education is essential, and presents specific strategies to make these changes. In many parts of the world, education has lost its way, and this book provides a map back to the educational experiences that are both tremendously effective and a great deal of fun as well." (David Thornburg, Director, Thornburg Center)

Edition details

• Publisher: Constructing Modern Knowledge Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0989151107
• ISBN 13: 9780989151108
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 252