Approaches to Curriculum Integration [DRAFT #2 Mar. 2020 – JB]

Do you want to weave maker-centered learning into your environment, whether that’s a school classroom, a library, museum, or community makerspace? This module introduces three adaptable approaches to integrating making and learning. Throughout, you will:

 

  1. develop your understanding of each approach
  2. choose one to apply to your own activity or lesson planning
  3. and design an activity or lesson to effectively meet your identified learning goals. You can tweak an activity or lesson plan you’ve already developed or you can start from scratch.
A maker-centered lesson or activity can take many forms and fall in many places in a sequence of learning. As you think about identifying a learning activity to plan or modify, use the approaches to find a way that is new to you. 


Read & Reflect

Review the three approaches to maker education described below. Choose the approach which would most stretch your own practice to explore further and follow the link attached. 

Tinkering to Discover: Learners develop an initial understanding through tinkering and making. Learners work toward short-term learning goals and then explore, make, and own their discoveries.

Making to Learn: Learners build on, deepen, or cement understanding through making. The educator defines concrete learning goals and provides structure, scaffolds, and support for learners.

Application Project: Learners apply their understanding in order to make a specific project, deepening and showcasing their knowledge.

 

Tinkering to Discover

Read the example of a Tinkering to Discover activity linked below:  

Tinkering with Light and Shadow to support Science Discovery

      Answer the following questions, which are adapted from Visible Thinking’s Connect, Extend, Challenge thinking routine:

    • How is the activity connected to what you already do in your own learning environment?  
    • What new ideas from the activity have extended or pushed your thinking in new directions? 
    • What about the activity is still challenging or confusing for you to get your mind around? What questions, wonderings or puzzles do you now have?

      Practice using the Tinkering to Discover approach to brainstorm hands-on, learner-driven activities by playing the card game Designing Learning Experiences. You can play this ideation game on your own or with others. 

    • Print out the three decks (double-sided, short-edge binding): Learning Dimensions, Maker Ed Approach, & Media of Making. Separate & shuffle. From the Maker Ed Approach deck, remove the Making to Learn and Application Project cards.
    • Write down 3-5 learning goals or topics that you will be working on with learners. The Exploratorium’s Learning Dimensions of Making & Tinkering, included in this deck, can help you identify learning goals that you value but may not always actively design for. 
    • Set out the three decks in the middle of the table.
    • Select one card from each deck, including from the 3-5 learning goals or topics that you generated. The Maker Ed Approach card you use will be Tinkering to Discover. 
    • Brainstorm as many activity ideas as you can that fit the criteria represented by each card. 
    • Repeat two more times, drawing new cards from the Learning Dimensions and Media of Making decks each round.

    Based on your exploration and reflection, you will now apply the Tinkering to Discover approach to plan a maker-centered activity for your learning environment. 

Whether you are adapting an activity plan you already have or are starting from scratch, record answers to the following questions: 

Learning Goals: What learning goals does your activity support? These goals may be related to particular content, skills, mindsets, or all three. What Learning Dimension of Making & Tinkering do you want to focus on? 

Medium/Media of Making: What medium or media of making would you be most excited to integrate into your activity? The variety of tools and materials of making is virtually endless and activities as diverse as sewing, woodworking, cooking, and physical computing all offer learners opportunities to explore, discover, create, and learn in a hands-on, minds-on way.

Document your activity planning whichever way works best for you. You can use the Planning Packet: Designing Learning Progressions to support your planning, even if designing a single activity.

Looking for more inspiration? Explore the following resources to support your thinking around the Tinkering to Discover approach.

    • The Approaches to Maker Education resource describes salient features of the Tinkering to Discover approach. Review the Tinkering to Discover reference sheet on page 3.
    • Inquiry through Provocación, a lesson structure developed by Lighthouse Community Public Schools in Oakland, CA, supports learners to make meaning and build shared understanding collaboratively over time. This structure is a great place to start when using the Tinkering to Discover approach.
    • The Tinkering Studio, out of the Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA, offers a rich repository of projects that are amazingly tinkerable and can be used with learners of any age. Look through some of these for inspiration or to try out yourself.
    • Looking closely with Agency by Design’s Take Apart is a great way to weave complex objects and tinkering in throughout a unit of study.

Share

Share your lesson with @MakerEdOrg on social media with #MakerEdLesson.

 

Making to Learn

Read the example of a Making to Learn activity linked below:  

Making to Learn about the Civil Rights Movement through Sewing and Textiles

      Answer the following questions, which are adapted from Visible Thinking’s Connect, Extend, Challenge thinking routine:

    • How is the activity connected to what you already do in your own learning environment?  
    • What new ideas from the activity have extended or pushed your thinking in new directions? 
    • What about the activity is still challenging or confusing for you to get your mind around? What questions, wonderings or puzzles do you now have?

      Practice using the Tinkering to Discover approach to brainstorm hands-on, learner-driven activities by playing the card game Designing Learning Experiences. You can play this ideation game on your own or with others. 

    • Print out the three decks (double-sided, short-edge binding): Learning Dimensions, Maker Ed Approach, & Media of Making. Separate & shuffle. From the Maker Ed Approach deck, remove the Tinkering to Discover and Application Project cards.
    • Write down 3-5 learning goals or topics that you will be working on with learners. The Exploratorium’s Learning Dimensions of Making & Tinkering, included in this deck, can help you identify learning goals that you value but may not always actively design for. 
    • Set out the three decks in the middle of the table.
    • Select one card from each deck, including from the 3-5 learning goals or topics that you generated. The Maker Ed Approach card you use will be Making to Learn. 
    • Brainstorm as many activity ideas as you can that fit the criteria represented by each card. 
    • Repeat two more times, drawing new cards from the Learning Dimensions and Media of Making decks each round.

    Based on your exploration and reflection, you will now apply the Making to Learn approach to plan a maker-centered activity for your learning environment. 

Whether you are adapting an activity plan you already have or are starting from scratch, record answers to the following questions: 

Learning Goals: What learning goals does your activity support? These goals may be related to particular content, skills, mindsets, or all three. What Learning Dimension of Making & Tinkering do you want to focus on? 

Medium/Media of Making: What medium or media of making would you be most excited to integrate into your activity? The variety of tools and materials of making is virtually endless and activities as diverse as sewing, woodworking, cooking, and physical computing all offer learners opportunities to explore, discover, create, and learn in a hands-on, minds-on way.

Document your activity planning whichever way works best for you. You can use the Planning Packet: Designing Learning Progressions to support your planning, even if designing a single activity.

Looking for more inspiration? Explore the following resources and repositories of lesson and activity ideas to support your thinking around the Making to Learn approach.

    • The Approaches to Maker Education resource describes salient features of the Tinkering to Discover approach. Review the Making to Learn reference sheet on page 4.
    • MIT’s Edgerton Center offers a diverse K-12 curriculum, replete with lesson plans and STEM project ideas.
    • The Exploratorium offers an extensive portfolio of Science Snacks, engaging, hands-on activities with clear and specific learning goals. Use any of these as a jumping off point for crafting Making to Learn-style activities.
    • EL Education’s Models of Excellence assembles a rich library of Making to Learn-style activity ideas.

Share

Share your lesson with @MakerEdOrg on social media with #MakerEdLesson.

 

Application Project

Read the example of an Application Project activity linked below:  

Examining Social Justice Themes through micro:bit and Scratch

      Answer the following questions, which are adapted from Visible Thinking’s Connect, Extend, Challenge thinking routine:

    • How is the activity connected to what you already do in your own learning environment?  
    • What new ideas from the activity have extended or pushed your thinking in new directions? 
    • What about the activity is still challenging or confusing for you to get your mind around? What questions, wonderings or puzzles do you now have?

      Practice using the Application Approach approach to brainstorm hands-on, learner-driven activities by playing the card game Designing Learning Experiences. You can play this ideation game on your own or with others. 

    • Print out the three decks (double-sided, short-edge binding): Learning Dimensions, Maker Ed Approach, & Media of Making. Separate & shuffle. From the Maker Ed Approach deck, remove the Tinkering to Discover and Making to Learn cards.
    • Write down 3-5 learning goals or topics that you will be working on with learners. The Exploratorium’s Learning Dimensions of Making & Tinkering, included in this deck, can help you identify learning goals that you value but may not always actively design for. 
    • Set out the three decks in the middle of the table.
    • Select one card from each deck, including from the 3-5 learning goals or topics that you generated. The Maker Ed Approach card you use will be Application Project. 
    • Brainstorm as many activity ideas as you can that fit the criteria represented by each card. 
    • Repeat two more times, drawing new cards from the Learning Dimensions and Media of Making decks each round.

    Based on your exploration and reflection, you will now apply the Application Project approach to plan a maker-centered activity for your learning environment. 

Whether you are adapting an activity plan you already have or are starting from scratch, record answers to the following questions: 

Learning Goals: What learning goals does your activity support? These goals may be related to particular content, skills, mindsets, or all three. What Learning Dimension of Making & Tinkering do you want to focus on? 

Medium/Media of Making: What medium or media of making would you be most excited to integrate into your activity? The variety of tools and materials of making is virtually endless and activities as diverse as sewing, woodworking, cooking, and physical computing all offer learners opportunities to explore, discover, create, and learn in a hands-on, minds-on way.

Document your activity planning whichever way works best for you. You can use the Planning Packet: Designing Learning Progressions to support your planning, even if designing a single activity.

Looking for more inspiration? Explore the following resources and repositories of lesson and activity ideas to support your thinking around the Application Project approach.

    • The Approaches to Maker Education resource describes salient features of the Tinkering to Discover approach. Review the Making to Learn reference sheet on page 5.
    • The Maker Methodology, developed by MIT’s Edgerton Center, delivers a useful frame for designing projects and processes for your learners to apply prior knowledge and understanding in order to make, build, and create.
    • EL Education’s Models of Excellence assembles a rich library of Application Project-style activity ideas.
    • MIT’s Edgerton Center offers a diverse K-12 curriculum, replete with lesson plans and STEM project ideas. Use any of these as a jumping off point for crafting Application Project-style activities.

Share

Share your lesson with @MakerEdOrg on social media with #MakerEdLesson.