STEM engagement for students in a Makerspace | Phil Carew & Liana Gooch | TEDxRosalindParkED
## Speaker Context
- Speaker role/profession: Presenter at a session, discussing education and technology integration.
- Audience, setting, occasion of the talk: A session where the speaker is presenting their experience/model.
- Framing the speaker establishes: The education landscape has changed dramatically, and technology is a real key way in what has changed education in the last nine years.
## People
- Liana: Young girl growing up in the 1980s in New Zealand, used as a comparison point for technology exposure.
- Speaker's two young nieces: One in primary school and one in kindergarten, used for comparison regarding current technology access.
## Organizations
- Turret College: School where the speaker's students are located.
- UK innovation unit: Partner in the work conducted with David Price.
## Places
- Skull: Location used in the opening imagination scenario where a small drone floats over buildings.
- New Zealand: Location where the speaker's comparison figure, Liana, grew up.
## Tools, Tech & Products
- Drone: Small drone used in the opening scenario to send images.
- 3D printers: Devices churning out innovations; utilized in the makerspace.
- Spiro ball: Robotic ball used for a physics challenge.
- Tablets or devices: Technology used by nieces and students for play, movie making, or coding.
- Minecraft: Game used by students for coding and learning.
- Laptops or computers: Technology used in the past and currently in classrooms.
- CAD design: Software/process students use in classrooms (mentioned alongside coding).
- Robots: Technologies imagined for the future; used in the makerspace.
- Flying cars: Technologies imagined for the future.
- Digital tools and technologies: General category of tools students need engagement with.
- Bee BOTS: Basic devices used for initial stages of coding.
- Digital devices: General reference to technology students use.
- Mac or PC lab: Location where students design on CAD software.
- Sketchup: Specific CAD software used in the makerspace.
- Plasticine and cardboard and scissors and glue: Traditional elements available in the makerspace.
- Google Doc: Tool used as a repository for discovered resources.
## Concepts & Definitions
- Digital makerspace (dizzies own): The space at Turret College where students learn, described by the acronym D.I.Z.Z.Y.
- D: Design
- I: Innovate
- Z: Gamify
- Z: Inspire
- Y: *Implied, associated with the acronym.*
- STEM: Fields related to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, which the speaker decided to infuse across all subjects.
- Iterative design process: The focus of the makerspace, involving multiple stages of refinement.
- Digi Identities: A series of identities developed from the Australian Curriculum for digital technology to anchor skills and knowledge.
- DIGIBOTS: Initial stage of developing mindset (engineering, building, designing).
- Digi Explorers: Year three to four stage, introducing basic levels of design and problem-solving.
- Digitas: Year five stage, focusing on engineering, sophisticated construction, and collaboration.
- Year 9 and 10: Stage realizing the need for entrepreneurship.
- VCE level years (11-12): Stage where students begin to specialize in a specific STEM vein.
- ByOD C evening: Program for parents (Bring Your Own Device and Child).
## Numbers & Data
- 1980s: Decade when the speaker's comparison figure, Liana, grew up.
- 90s: Decade when the speaker grew up.
- Nine years: Time elapsed since the speaker completed secondary school and the timeframe for educational change.
- 75%: Percentage of future jobs requiring STEAM thinking and skills, according to a report.
- 2014: Year when the journey started after reading a report.
- Four: Number of key elements in the D.I.Z.Z.Y. acronym.
- 15 minutes: Time allotted in the CAD design challenge for parents and students.
## Claims & Theses
- The education landscape has changed quite dramatically.
- Technology is a real key way in what has changed education in the last nine years.
- Students in classes are doing it now; they're not waiting for teachers to deliver the curriculum.
- Students will also prepare to collaborate and are working in the digital realm.
- We're going to infuse STEM across all of our subjects, not keep them in separate silos.
- We need to celebrate failure as well as success in the makerspace.
- The goal is to make sure that this is real life learning.
- We need that extra expertise in our schools.
- We want the digital to complement the STEM thinking within the school, but also to have a little look into our entrepreneurial skills as well.
- Students will ultimately apply valuable Digi skills that they've acquired at school, regardless of the field they enter.
## Mechanisms & Processes
- **Opening Imagination Exercise:** Following a small drone floating over buildings in the skull, descending towards one building, and involving year two students studying location, prep students learning coding with robotic devices, and year-seven students making innovations with 3D printers.
- **Making/Prototyping Cycle:** Sketching an idea $\rightarrow$ building a prototype with Lego or plasticine $\rightarrow$ designing on CAD software (Mac or PC lab) $\rightarrow$ running the full cycle on 3D printers.
- **Digi Identity Progression (Skill Acquisition):**
- **DIGIBOTS:** Working with games and basic devices (e.g., Bee BOTS) to build initial coding mindset.
- **Digi Explorers:** Using Minecraft, finding problems, and basic problem-solving (Year 3-4).
- **Digitas:** Working on sophisticated construction, collaborative groups, robotics, and CAD online, leading to 3D printing (Year 5).
- **Year 9/10:** Focus on entrepreneurship, realizing the need to promote goods/create jobs.
- **VCE Level (11-12):** Specialization in a particular STEM vein.
- **Workshop/Community Engagement:** Running voluntary nights (wine and cheese) where people can play and tinker with tools, followed by regular teach meets and professional learning updates for demonstration.
- **Parent Workshop:** Parents and children come in after school to design and sketch a product (15 minutes) and then learn basic Sketchup tools to design personally.
- **Digi Quest Program:** Operating after school and in holiday time for students to work on activities like Minecraft Crafing.
## Timeline & Events
- 1980s: Girl growing up in New Zealand (Liana).
- 1990s: Speaker growing up.
- Last year: Time spent underpinning what it meant to explore STEM, leading up to the launch of the Digi Zone.
- July last year: Launch month of the Digi Zone.
- Last eight months: Time elapsed since the launch of the Digi Zone when presenting.
- Next term: When a group of engineers are coming to provide authentic problems for the students.
## Examples & Cases
- Small drone floating over buildings in the skull, sending images to year two students studying location.
- Drone descending towards a building, near prep students learning basic coding with robotic devices.
- Sound of 3D printers churning out innovations from year-seven students.
- Students grappling with the physics challenge using a robotic ball known as the Spiro ball.
- Students using laptops coding, using CAD design, or using Minecraft in the classroom.
- Students working with a group of different levels on Minecraft, teaching each other.
- Current group of digital futurists working with a renowned architect to build structures whose struts will be printed off on industrial level 3D printers.
- An example where year five to nine teachers are presently working on at least one instance of using a digital tool in their programs.
- A case where year eight students were seen on the floor doing the physics challenge.
- A day when the whole mess faculty worked with a technician about teaching linear equations using robotics.
- A day when year eight teachers worked with the technician about teaching measurement using Minecraft.
## Trade-offs & Alternatives
- Options for learning focus: Focusing solely on STEM silos versus infusing STEM across all subjects.
- Approaches for school development: Being a separate, isolated space versus integrating within the school environment (the "Sign" concept).
- Parent Engagement Methods: Attending presentations versus participating in hands-on workshops.
- Tech Focus: Using only digital tools versus integrating traditional elements like plasticine, cardboard, scissors, and glue.
## Counterarguments & Caveats
- It was initially thought that the "Innovation Zone" name was the best, but the "Dizzies Own" acronym was chosen.
- The speaker mentions that the buzzing enthusiasm seen in some instances "never really happens" when the speaker tries to replicate it.
- When planning for the future, the speaker admits they don't actually know if flying cars or roaming robots will happen in 20 years.
- The speaker cautions that one cannot just walk into a digital space and expect it to happen overnight.
## Methodology
- Extensive research: Conducted when starting the journey in 2014, including reading a report from Professor Ian Chubb.
- School visits: Going to see what other schools were doing with their maker spaces.
- Development of "Digi Identities": Structured curriculum mapping based on the Australian Curriculum for digital technology.
- Developing the Digi Zone: A physical and programmatic space structure.
- Implementing a support structure: Creating the role of the Digital Integration and ICT Support Officer.
## References Cited
- Professor Ian Chubb: Author of the report with recommendations on STEM fields for the government.
- Australian Curriculum for digital technology: Document used to guide the development of the Digi Identities.
## Conclusions & Recommendations
- **Action for new schools:** Do extensive research; do your homework.
- **Expertise Needed:** Determine what expertise needs to be brought into the school.
- **Support Role:** Create a role like the Digital Integration and ICT Support Officer.
- **Community Tapping:** Tap into early adopters through voluntary nights (wine and cheese).
- **Sharing:** Hold regular teach meets and professional learning updates to build excitement.
- **Parent Engagement:** Strongly encourage engaging the parent community and running hands-on workshops.
- **Future Proofing:** The work in the Digi Zone is "really future proofing our students for whatever challenges that they may face."
## Implications & Consequences
- Ignoring the necessity of collaboration, creativity, and problem-finding will result in an incomplete skill set.
- The failure to integrate expertise will result in the school being a separate silo from industry.
- If students do not learn resilience through failure, they cannot redesign, rebuild, or rethink their practices.
## Open Questions
- What the technology will look like in 20 years (e.g., if robots will roam the streets or cars will be flying).
## Verbatim Moments
- "I love an acronym as most of us do."
- "Dizzies own acronym."
- "We really celebrate the failure as well and we think our students need to know about failure and they need to become resilient."
- "It's it it's critical that we interface because we don't always have the expertise out there."
- "We want our students to have fun and we want them to be engaged so we want to continue researching innovative technology but then we really just want this technology to further support the teaching and learning at our school."
- "I want to take you back to those original students that we heard about when we were on the drones and images; it's 10 to 15 years into the future."