As one of just 13 schools in the province, Sacred Heart School has been trained to create a physical environment that fosters opportunities for hands-on learning and creation, often enabled by emerging technologies.
Funding allowed for the purchase of ten iPads, robots such as Bee Bots, a 3D printer, circuit building kits, sewing materials and Lego packages.
The Espanola school received a grant of $25,000 to create its Makerspace.
The funding also allowed for staff to learn about the technology and to plan lessons that connected to the curriculum and incorporated the ‘Maker Mindset’.
“Before our participation in the Makerspace project, there were small pockets of these kinds of activities happening in our school. Now, there are intentional lessons happening across all grades. These tasks encourage global competencies like collaboration, problem-solving and improving ideas. Often, students embed the technology into their work with little direction from the teacher,” said Sacred Heart Principal, Syndy Withers.
Makerspace activities and challenges are open-ended and allow for differentiated instruction. Most tasks are highly engaging, requiring collaboration, inquiry, communication skills and, perhaps most importantly, innovation.
“Students love using their Makerspace time to pursue their passion projects. Some students are learning to code, others are constructing models and some are even learning to sew. All students selected an area of interest and they are excited to share what they have learned with their peers,” said Grade 5 teacher, Laurie Donnelly.