Three Things You Need to Know About BT Lower School's MakerSpace

This summer, Lower School teacher Mrs. Toby Kaplowitz took Digital Harbor Foundation’s course about the process of design thinking and the philosophy behind “making.” She then researched and developed a MakerSpace customized for Beth Tfiloh Lower School.  

When the Lower School teachers returned to BT at the end of the summer for their teacher meetings, they got their own taste of the MakerSpace experience. Lower School Guidance Counselor Mrs. Elana Weissman, MSW, led them through a hands-on activity, demonstrating how a MakerSpace incorporates the design thinking model already used in Lower School classrooms.
 
LS teachers have a MS experience at back-to-school professional development meetings
 
But what is a MakerSpace, and why does BT have one?

Here are three things you need to know about BT’s MakerSpace:
 

1. A MakerSpace is a collaborative learning environment

A MakerSpace is a collaborative learning environment where students and teachers can gather together to create, invent, tinker, build, experiment, design, explore and discover using a variety of tools and materials. The MakerSpace adds a new dimension to BT Lower School’s student-centered learning environment.
 
“Students using the MakerSpace use design thinking to meet a challenge or solve a problem presented either by the teacher or fellow students connected to what the class is learning,” explains Lower School Assistant Principal Mrs. Susan Yurrow. “The students use their ‘free thinking’ to figure out how they are going to solve the presented challenge.”
 
 
Morah Shoshi Benjamin asked her Kindergarten students to think about the symbolic foods we eat on Rosh Hashanah, and why specifically those foods. The students turned their ideas into functional honey jars through design thinking and using the MakerSpace materials of their choice.
 

2. MakerSpace challenges can be used at any point in the learning process

MakerSpace projects can be used to introduce a new topic, encourage further exploration of a current unit, or as a recap to assess student learning.

“We know that children learn best when they feel autonomous, when they have purpose and when they are motivated by interest,” explains Lower School Principal Mrs. Nina Wand.



When learning about idioms, Mrs. Platt’s fourth grade students demonstrated the difference between the figurative and literal meanings of several popular phrases. The students paired up and were assigned specific idioms. Using their selected materials, one team member created a representation of the idiom’s literal meaning, the other of its figurative meaning.

3. Students learn how to use “design thinking” through MakerSpace challenges

Although it may look like an arts and crafts room, a MakerSpace is so much more – it’s a hands-on learning lab where students use the design process to think through and solve problems using everyday items.

The design process includes:

•    Imagining… brainstorming the possible solutions to the problem or challenge
•    Planning… determining what needs to be done to meet the challenge
•    Creating… building or drawing the solution
•    Improving… figuring out how to make the solution even better
•    Communicating… sharing respectful feedback with other students about their solutions

The final step of the design process, communication, encourages students to ask themselves several important questions to further their learning experiences: What worked? What didn’t? Were you able to solve the challenge? What did you learn? How will you revise and improve? After this reflection, the students go back and revise their projects, incorporating their own ideas and their classmates’ feedback.
 

 
BT students aren’t the only ones excited about the MakerSpace. At a recent Lower School committee meeting, committee members got a chance to tinker in the MakerSpace. One committee member shared her excitement for this new Lower School learning environment: “It gave me such a rewarding feeling leaving there last night so I can only imagine how rewarding and motivating it is for the children.”
 
A special thank you to the Beth Tfiloh Parent Association for their generous financial support that made the MakerSpace possible.
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Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School

Learning together. For life.
Baltimore’s only Jewish independent preparatory school serving PreSchool through Grade 12.