Ecker Hill’s brand new MakerSpace is a well-organized creative hub that’s become a student favorite. Supported by a PCEF Classroom Grant, the open, lab-style room is filled with tools, creative supplies, and technology – all things that make hands-on learning accessible and fun.
This fall, Computer Science Integration Coach Summer Marshall invited PCEF to watch students work in this hands-on setting. We joined a 6th grade DLI French class where the day’s activity was creating a short story through stop motion animation.
“They’ve been working on reading and comprehension of a French story, Jules au pays d'Asha,” French teacher Nathaniel Mae said. “Now they’re tasked with writing their own story using themes from the book. They’re writing their plot line and will use the pictures and technology to tell the story and then narrate it in French.”
With their story ideas drafted, students were ready for the next step. Summer walked the class through creative materials they could use, including art supplies, Legos, Play-Dough, and taught them how to use the Stop Motion app on the iPad. Once they understood the basics, she sent them off to create. Students spread out beyond the classroom into the open space and hallway, building their sets and characters and beginning to capture images.
Summer said this hands-on process is where students' imagination and skills come together.
“Our students love being directors and set designers for their own stories and seeing them come to life,” she commented. “The hands-on aspect of Stop Motion from building the characters to moving the pieces and crafting the backdrop causes the students to really have to decompose their writing and consider the most minute details. There is a huge ‘wow’ moment when their still images turn into motion.”
Many aspects of Real World Learning were on display as students applied hands-on skills from everyday learning to their projects: writing stories (language arts), building characters and sets (art), experimenting with timing and sequencing (technology and math), and narration (world language) to name a few.
When asked what she enjoys the most about MakerSpace, Summer said, “My favorite aspect is seeing the students practice skills that they will use throughout their lives. The MakerSpace naturally encourages creativity, collaboration, iteration and critical thinking all while students are having fun and are actively engaged.”
Other educators who have brought their classes into the MakerSpace echoed the same excitement. Christine Brenish, 6th grade coding teacher, shared, “What stood out to me was the teamwork and watching them go through the computational thinking/problem-solving process. I actually heard them using vocabulary from what we discussed before heading down to maker space! But the teamwork and their excitement for what they were able to create was what was most fun!”
Grant Gill, 7th grade math teacher, added, “I love seeing the energy of kids getting to be hands on, creating their own projects and the focus and hard-work that they bring to the table.”
French teacher, Nathaniel Mae shared, “As kids have made their stop motion videos they have seen their stories come to life and are so ready to create engaging stories with consistency and the full narrative arch. Students understand a movie and now they're applying it to their own storytelling. It's amazing.”
MakerSpace has become a place where students learn by doing, and utilize future-ready skills of creativity and critical thinking. With support from PCEF’s generous donors, Ecker Hill students are building skills needed to help them reach their academic and lifelong potential.
