COLLABORATIVE WORKING IN
STEAM AND MAKER SPACES
T
he current rise in popularity
of robotics, coding and
programming
in
STEAM
activities is a sign of the times.
Technology is moving fast and in
the digital age we live in, the coding,
robotics and indeed AI industries are
becoming hugely important future
employers for the students of today.
The industry, quite obviously, sits
on the T of the STEAM spectrum
but it is an industry encompassing
the whole spectrum of science,
technology, engineering, arts and
mathematics. The programmer, the
product developer and the packaging
designer could all have benefitted
from a broad STEAM education. These
are individual functions with their own
areas of expertise but they must cross
over, interlock and be collaborative.
The teaching of STEAM based subjects
in a maker space environment fosters
this sort of collaborative working and
will stand students in good stead in
their future career choices. Just as in
any organisation, in a maker space
environment, students with different
abilities come together to think, solve,
create and see projects through to
completion. The collaborative way
of working on a peer-to-peer level
mimics real work situations.
Just as an organisation needs to be
organised, so it is with a maker space
and the right choice of fixed and mobile
storage options are an important part
of getting it right. Students perform
better when they take ownership
of their own maker space, selecting
their own resources, returning unused
items and keeping their kit organised.
For the teacher, it’s a win-win as self-
service resources reduce set up and
take down time, leaving more time for
teaching and learning.