MakerSpace at Gnowledge Lab of HBCSE
HBCSE has launched a new initiative to support and improve the quality of engagements in the makerspaces and tinkering labs that are being setup in many schools across the country. This makerspace follows the CUBE (Collaborative Understanding of Biology Education) model of project based STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) education, which focuses on conversations around making and investigative projects. The engagements emphasize documenting the process of making and investigations as a primary goal, with a lesser emphasis on finishing the project. This design creates sufficient opportunities for all the members to engage in conversations based on written and digital media, which are essential for authentic learning. We developed a sophisticated platform that awards badges based on the activity of each registered user. We regularly conduct workshops for teachers (along with students).
About MakerSpace
The focus is on Do-it-Yourself (DIY), free and open source (FOSS) scientific instruments, hardware or anything that involves making, tinkering and engineering for research and educational purposes. Such project challenges are designed to help students and teachers develop ideation, design thinking, parametric thinking, and computational thinking abilities. The makerspace also organises workshops for both teachers and students across India to get them excited about STEM education while nurturing their inherent creativity and curiosity. Currently, the space is equipped with digital fabrication technologies, wood-workshop and electronics prototyping labs. Few of the projects made so far are Instruino, Hard Disk Centrifuge, DIY Gaming Station, Hydroponics, DIY Weather Station, DIY Spectrophotometer, DIY web-camera based microscope. Complete list of projects can be found here
Here are the key activities of makerspace:
- Design, development of new project challenges in the form of activities and interactive exhibits
- Documentation, discussion and sharing on the online platform (metastudio.org)
- Research in the area of exploring the potentiality of makerspace as a learning environment.
- Empowering the schools/colleges/institutions to start community makerspace and support them in the endeavor to be self-reliant to do all the above.
Pedagogical Framework
The initiative is inspired by constructionist, and connectionist models of education which recognize the best context for learning as written, verbal and expressive conversation in a constructive and playful environment. Conversation and discourse around the project(making) becomes the central theme of the knowledge construction. The learning environment is kept as close-to-life and as close-to-professional practices as possible by incorporating a number of citizen science projects.
STEMGames MakerSpace Workshop and Orientation Programs
Here is the list of orientation sessions and workshops done under the MakerSpace Initiative:
- 5 July 2019 (Vashi) STEM Games program was conducted during the inauguration of the Science Nurture Program at Indian Women`s Scientists Association (IWSA) on 5th July 2019 where 40 students and 6 teachers participated.
- 22 July- 25 July 2019 (Jaipur) A 4-day long boot camp by MakerSpace and CUBE was conducted at Neerja Modi School, Jaipur where the participants actively participated in projects while using the platform in real-time. There were a total of 150 participants – 130 students and 20 teachers during the workshop. Participants were engaged with 5 model projects from CUBE lab and 5 projects from MakerSpace team (Weather Station modules-3, Drip-ponics, DIY Webcam microscope.The workshop process is documented at https://stemGames.metaStudio.org/c/nms.
- 31 July- 1 August 2019 (Amravati) A 2-day long workshop by MakerSpace was held at Amravati with 60 participants in collaboration with Eklavya. The participants were educators from Ashram Shala schools and were involved in making DIY digital microscopes from web cameras.
- 10th October 2019 (HBCSE) 9 DIET educators visited MakerSpace lab to explore the STEMGames and understand how tinkering can be used to enrich the science and mathematics curriculum. The session involved discussing the pedagogical principles along with exposing them to projects which can be incorporated in their current curriculum
- 4th Feb 2020 to 7th Feb 2020 (Shirpur) Gnowledge Lab(MakerSpace) in collaboration with Shirpur Education Society organised a 4 day workshop at Shirpur, Dhule from 4th Feb 2020 to 7th Feb 2020 in which 100 students and teachers of 12 schools participated. The workshop introduced project-based learning practices for STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) education. This was designed for 13 years and above including teachers of nearby ATL Tinkering Labs. Out of the 12 schools which participated, 9 were already equipped with the ATL ( Atal Tinkering Labs) by the NITI Aayog.
The design of the workshops
- Each project is conducted in a multi-grade model and the team composition involved students and teachers of Grades 6-10 of various schools.
- The teams are asked to work on project challenges and document their journey on the platform.
- Town hall causerie session, peer feedback are very central to the entire design. This also enables cross-pollination of ideas.
- The workshop culminates in form of an open house exhibition where each group share their jouney of prototyping, along with their learnings and challenges along the way.
Project Challenges
Details of the projects challenges can be found here