An Exploration of Maker Spaces in Vancouver Island Public Schools

by: Kelsey Lawson

“Maker” is an umbrella term for people who have been known as hobbyists, tinkerers, hackers, builders, crafters, artists, and innumerable other terms.

“Maker spaces” are those places where people come together to create all types of things – physical items and virtual products.  Initially found in places such as community-based spaces with nominal paid memberships or in libraries or children’s museums, maker spaces have more recently begun to be implemented in schools across the world.

As Maker Spaces are a relatively recent phenomenon in education, I am exploring how such spaces are being implemented in a BC-specific context to support constructionist learning for students, particularly those at the upper-elementary and middle school grade levels before classes typically transition to subject-specific content such as woodwork, metalwork, or robotics.

I wanted to know things such as how maker space teachers chose the technologies they included in their spaces, how they funded and obtained supplies for the space and courses, what support they had from various levels of their school community, how such learning differs from or complements learning in an academic classroom, changes teachers had noticed in their own teaching methods and in their students’ learning or engagement, and any recommendations maker space teachers had for others who were in the beginning stages of implementation. I decided to perform a comparative review of dedicated school-based maker spaces to document the various ways that maker spaces have been implemented and used to support student learning. Following the completion of my comparative review, I intended to use this information to create a guiding resource for BC teachers wishing to incorporate maker space concepts within their classrooms and schools.

Initially, I thought I’d contact teachers in maker space classrooms across BC and visit sites that were within driving distance, so as to have as much information as possible from which to identify themes and draw conclusions. Following guidance from my instructors that any type of school across the whole of BC was too broad a study, I decided to narrow it to public school districts on Vancouver Island, then further to Central and North Vancouver Island. I planned to schedule on-site visits to maker space classrooms to interview teachers in person as well as to observe and document the physical spaces. Then COVID struck, throwing a wrench into everything I had so carefully planned and requiring that I redo a fair bit of the work I had already completed. Despite how it felt as though I should have SO MUCH TIME for thesis work, I found the opposite to be true.

So, ask me anything. I’m perfectly willing to talk about the roadblocks that pop up in the thesis process, working through your literature review, how inkshedding never actually takes 30 minutes. Hopefully my experience so far can be useful to you.

How can we utilize technology as an adaptive and supportive strategy to assist elementary teachers in implementing physical activity in the classroom?

Bindy Gill Master’s Thesis/Project Video link:
https://viu.video.yuja.com/V/Video?v=659630&node=3177733&a=75371464

Throughout my personal life, I have seen the benefits of having physical activity and movement intertwined in my day to day living and teaching. There is more motivation and focus, a better positive mindset and attitude, a willingness to take on challenges, problem solving and prompt wholesome feelings of wellness.

In my journey as an educator, I have seen an increase in sedentary time for children. As a result, children today can face increased physical and emotional health concerns. A potential approach to address these concerns is an accessible content website created to encourage and support teachers to facilitate opportunities for regular physical activity into their curriculum. Another theme of this project thesis was to address the challenging teacher task of improving student attentiveness in sedentary learning environments. The primary literature for time-on-task research substantiates the importance of physical activity to enhance student focus and responsiveness across the curriculum.

To these complementary ends, I designed a website with the aim to raise awareness about the benefits of physical activity in the classroom, as well as mitigate some barriers or challenges faced in implementing daily physical activity. It is hoped that Fit Stops (fitstops.weebly.com) will act as a resource guide for teachers to implement physical activity in the classroom by offering easy to access web-based resources that will help overcome these barriers and time-on-task challenges.

Engagement and Critical Thinking in High School Classroom

When I was studying in High School, I thought if I would become a teacher my aim will be to create an easy and meaningful environment in the classroom. Looking back to the days when I was in High School, there was the time when I did not like few subjects and always though them to be boring. But as I grew up and engaged myself into the teaching profession, I decided to find an answer to my question and realized the fact that those subjects were not boring but the way they were being taught was boring.

While doing this survey, I felt I had an opportunity to understand the preferences of students for learning methods in high school in India. The study gathers the data and concluded that students learn best when they are involved and has the hands on learning experiences.

Presenter: Rashmeet Kaur

A Self-Study on Early-Primary Literacy

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Hi! And welcome to my asynchronous presentation for the 2021 VIU Research Conference. On this post you will find a link to my blog, as well as a video summarizing my research question and method. Please start with the video first, then move to the blog for a bit more detailed information on my research.

As a new early-primary educator, I am interested to know how I can become the most effective literacy educator for my grade 1/2 students, with effective teaching strategies proven by research.

Please feel free to ask me anything, in regards to my research focus, the process, and/or my time in the MEDL program. I would love to provide any support that I can for 4th year students and individuals interested in similar topics.

Click the video below to hear a summary on my research focus and a brief introduction to my blog.

Blog Link: https://larissaandliteracy.wordpress.com/

Thanks for viewing!

– Larissa

The Optimal Set of Teaching Tools and Materials for Globally-based ESL Teachers of Young Learners

Hello!

My name is Olive Pasynkova, I am an ESL teacher from Russia with almost five years of teaching experience. I am currently pursuing my Master’s of Education in Educational Leadership. I love teaching and try to use arts and crafts in my classrooms together with my students. However, not always do teachers have access to all the resources. This problem has been a part of many educational practices in language centres across the globe. Hopefully, we could make Teaching Tools and Materials more available for teachers and students in the future. Here is my research, I hope you enjoy it. Please, do not hesitate to ask me any questions, I look forward to your comments.

Techno-fying Reggio

Reggio-inspired teaching and learning is deeply rooted in environmental and hands-on learning, so what happens when a pandemic hits and all education has to shift online?

My research question comes out of this environment and the struggles to implement Reggio practice through technological means. I am exploring if technology education can be implemented in a Reggio-inspired intermediate elementary learning environment without corrupting the philosophy of Reggio Emilia education.

My project is designed to support the transition of Reggio-inspired practices into the digital world.

Cheryl Noon