Written by Nethra Singhi
“Learning by Doing” is a motto many educators are adopting today, aiming to make their classrooms more interactive instead of a lecture space. This is the motto Agastya has followed since its inception. But this then brings up the question: “Where to do?”.
Our answer to this is our state-of-the-art Innovation Hub, a makerspace for students, where they sate their curiosity, conduct interesting experiments, and make working model solutions for real-life problems they face.
Makerspaces? What are those?
A makerspace is a place where one can use ready materials to experiment with and gain information from. It is born from the constructivist movement that believes one learns by creating and building upon existing knowledge. Simply put, it is a workshop or lab type of area where children can be curious, create and make their ideas and knowledge tangible. From films, engineering and architecture models to a robot or a mechanical eye, many things can be made in a makerspace.
While the traditional classroom lecture format lends itself nicely to some subjects, many others need a new approach to cement understanding. Here, makerspaces aim to provide resources and areas for children to use their imagination and rationale to build their knowledge. They encourage them to experiment and create rather than merely consume.
Keep in mind that what children create is not for an end project or done at the end of learning. It is in the process of creation that they study and what they make of the result.
Using makerspaces is thus a way of student-centred learning that encourages them to nurture their spirit of inquiry. It also adds to their creativity and innovative thinking, something that is quite stifled in a traditional classroom.
Moreover, makerspaces provide a unique opportunity for collaboration. When a group of students is learning the same topic, it gives them a way to discuss their opinions and provide tangible examples. For example, if they are learning about light and refraction, they can use objects in the makerspace to create a mirrored tower with different angles and intensities of light and study its effects. They can also create low-cost lighting solutions for houses that don’t have electric connections with daily use objects like aluminium foil, batteries, etc.
What does it take to make a makerspace?
The possibilities are endless. A makerspace can take many forms, from an entire library transformed into a learning commons with blocks and areas for children to create their own storybooks to a science lab where children can make the experiments instead of using pre-made models to study a phenomenon.
The central idea is that a child should be able to MAKE it on their own and internalise a concept in that process. Thus, before transforming a physical place into a makerspace, thought needs to go into the pedagogical implications of it and what resources are being provided to what end.
While all schools need to create makerspaces, one can do it in their own homes on a smaller scale. Find a corner that can safely store tools for your child and has space for them to use said devices, and voila! They have their personal makerspace.
We at Agastya have Mobile Science Labs in buses that travel all across India. The “Mobile Innovation Bus” is a makerspace that provides the Kuppam Innovation Hub tools to lakhs of children in the country’s remotest corners! The Innovation Carnival was conceived to take the spirit of innovation mobile and start a program that could travel to create a more creative, curious, constructive, innovative new generation of students.
