The makerspace areas have been stocked with art supplies,
recycled household items, Legos, various electronics, and robotics
kits that teach simple coding and programming. Combined
with kid-friendly websites and apps, these technologies provide
students with opportunities to express ideas and apply what they
are learning in their traditional computer and art classes. Any
student can submit a proposal to use the makerspace. In the first
week after Think, Make, Share! was introduced to students, 320
student-proposals were submitted. That is almost half of the total
school population of 700 students.
Mrs. Carnicelli explained, “The main difference between what
students do during regularly scheduled classes and what they
do in the makerspace involves independent thinking. In class,
students are led through activities to learn a desired objective. In
the makerspace, students direct their own learning, using their
acquired knowledge to develop and solve problems. They use and
independently apply information. Classroom learning becomes
more relevant when the students discover that they can use that
information to successfully accomplish a goal.”
Starting with a gift from the Hutchinson PTA and two grants from
the Greensburg Salem Education Foundation, the teachers have
been actively soliciting donations through a variety of funding
streams. The most active of these options has been through the
website DonorsChoose.org. At last count, Mrs. Sparrow estimated
that $7,000 worth of learning tools and technology have been
purchased from these three sources to support the makerspace
mission of giving students more hands-on and minds-open
opportunities.
In addition, when 1994 GS grad VIbha Sazawal and her husband
Vijay Ravindran heard that the school was looking for Dash and Dot
coding robots and accessories, they donated several units valued
at approximately $1,000. They became aware of the DonorsChoose
classroom request after a posting on social media by retired GSHS
teacher and Hutchinson grandmother, Mrs. Dee Cook. Sazawal was
part of the development of these kid-friend programming robots
when she worked as a consultant for Wonder Workshop.
It is the district’s hope to replicate many of the features of
Hutchinson’s Think, Make, Share! project at the other two
elementary schools.
Greensburg-Salem | Summer 2016 | icmags.com 41
GRE E N SBU RG SAL E M SC HOOL DI STRI C T NE WS
Two teachers at Hutchinson elementary are collaborating to help
children not only think outside the box and but also outside the
classroom. Technology teacher Michelle Sparrow and art teacher
Cheryl Carnicelli are fostering creativity and innovation through the
schools new Think, Make, Share! initiative. There are designated
“makerspaces” (locations where students gather to share resources
and knowledge, work on projects, network and build) in both the
computer classroom and visual arts classroom. Here students are
investing their free time, before school or during recess, to make
something new, create an invention, improve upon an existing
item, tell a story, and/or solve a problem.
Greensburg Salem
THINK, MAKE, SHARE!