IN Greensburg Salem Summer 2016 | Page 43

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!