Meaningful Making:

Projects and Inspirations for Fab Labs + Makerspaces

volume 3
Edited by Paulo Blikstein, Sylvia Libow Martinez, and Heather Allen Pang

Constructing Modern Knowledge Press

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0
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Edited by Paulo Blikstein, Sylvia Martinez, and Heather Allen Pang

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Published 2023 by Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, Torrance, CA USA

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EDU039000 EDUCATION / Computers & Technology

EDU029030 EDUCATION / Teaching Methods & Materials / Science & Technology
v2
 Contents

About the FabLearn Fellows Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi Freedom! It Is Easy to See

About the FabLearn Labs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi by Michael Mumbo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
About this book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Finding Gears Late
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
by Rafael Vargas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Meet the Contributing FabLearn Fellows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Foreword by Paulo Blikstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv Between the Garage and the Electronics Workshop
by Mouhamadou Ngom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Reflections: Gears of My Childhood . . . . . . . . . . 2
Reading “The Gears of My Childhood” Again
E ala! E alu! E Kuilima: Up! Together! Join Hands! by Nusarin Nusen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
by Toni Marie Kaui . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Find Your Unique Gear
Gears and Fears Xiaoling Zhang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
by Greg Houghton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Gear of Innovation
Gears of Learning Débora Garofalo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
by Ridhi Aggarwal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Remote Gears Making Do: Adaptations for COVID and
Remote Learning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
by Ed Bringas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Six Little Lessons Learned from COVID-19
Papert Reloaded
by Federica Selleri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
by Federica Selleri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Online Teacher Training in Mathematics Education: A
What Makes a Project Meaningful?
Maker and STEM Approach to Promote Active Learning
by Lina Cannone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
by Charles Pimentel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Who Killed Our Inborn Maker Culture?
Lessons Learned from Hosting Virtual Innovation
by Martin Oloo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Challenges in Kenya
Finding My Gear at Twenty-Three by Brenda Nyakoa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
by Nadine Abu Tuhaimer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Tea Sippers & TurtleStitch
Making Means Head and Heart, Not Just Hands by Kristin Burrus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
by Lior Schenk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Making Remotely: Sending Embroidery Kits Home and
Stop Waiting to Love Learning Again Teaching on Zoom
by Kristin Burrus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 by Heather Allen Pang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Motivation In Your Hands: The Emancipation of Manufacturing

by Charles Pimentel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 by Martin Oloo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Time to Tinker The AI Club: The Importance of Student Agency in the

by Lars Beck Johannsen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Teaching of Artificial Intelligence
by Charles Pimentel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Making for All. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Quilts: Collaboration, Coding, & Culture . . . 110
Special Needs Lab Digital Quilting Around the World
by Lars Beck Johannsen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 by Greg Houghton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Garotas STEM: A Project to Encourage Girls to Pursue STEM Teaching Collaborative Programming: A Creative Adventure
Careers Using Lynx
by Charles Pimentel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 by Débora Garofalo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Let’s Think, Build, and Code! Create a Quilt That Wraps the World
by Michael Mumbo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 by Lina Cannone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Game of Drones: The Beauty of Mistakes Experiencing a Powerful Mathematical Idea
by Lars Beck Johannsen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 by Ridhi Aggarwal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
SenFabLab: Our Robotics Workshop for Children Quilting the Young Coders
by Mouhamadou Ngom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 by Michael Mumbo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Reflecting on the Teachings of Gary Stager and My Work
with Robotics with Scrap Materials
Cultures of Reuse & Recyling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
by Débora Garofalo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Robótica com Sucata: Por uma educação criativa para todos
by Débora Garofalo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Curiosity Heals at the Repair Café
by Mathias Wunderlich. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Robotics with Scrap: Creative Education for All
by Débora Garofalo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Encouraging Diversity in Computer Science
by David Malpica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Recycling 3D Printing Plastics
by Lars Beck Johannsen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Emancipatory Maker Practices in the Global South
by Renato Russo, Leah Rosenbaum, Paulo Blikstein, Yipu Zheng, Interview: Coffee Grounds to Bioplastic
Anisa Bora, Yue Liu, Brenda Nyakoa, Ridhi Aggarwal . . . . . . . . . . 87 Interview: Repurposing Projects at Nā Hunaahi
Interview: Upcycling an LED Racing Game
Change. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Maker and Makerspace Culture. . . . . . . . . . . 144
How FabLearn Changed My Perspective Towards
Technology in the Makerspace Children’s Lived Experiences: An Integral Part of the
by Ridhi Aggarwal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Makerspace
by Ridhi Aggarwal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Contemplating Education Reform
by Toni Marie Kaui . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Why Teach Maker Education?
by Lars Beck Johannsen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Is ChatGPT a Threat to Education? For the Banking Model of
Education, Yes Culture and Making: A Strong and Powerful Connection
by Charles Pimentel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 by Federica Selleri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Education in the Age of AI Maker Culture: An Ally in Education and Curriculum

by Lars Beck Johannsen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Reform
by Débora Garofalo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Technology is a New Kind of Trojan Horse: Reflections on a
Text by Professor Paulo Blikstein Makerland: Exploring the Connections Between
by Charles Pimentel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Makerspaces and Seymour Papert's Mathland
by Charles Pimentel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Having Financial Resources Does Not Guarantee Learning
by Débora Garofalo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Weekend Makercamps for Students
by Mathias Wunderlich. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Projects in Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Cultural Making: Storytelling through Kalamkari
by Safoura Seddighin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Making in China or Made in China?
by Xiaoling Zhang. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Robot Art
by Lars Beck Johannsen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Biotinkering 101
by Lina Cannone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Stitching Roots: Exploring Family History through
Biomaking, Coding, and Stitching
by Lina Cannone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Cherokee Language Syllabary Using 3D Design in Tinkercad
by Josh Ajima. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Making Puppets Come Alive
by Ridhi Aggarwal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Imagine Anything: 3D Design without a 3D Printer
by Lars Beck Johannsen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
GoGo Board in Brazil: The Engine of Digital Inclusion
by Charles Pimentel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Ideas about America: Making in History Class with Fabric
Collage
by Heather Allen Pang. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Found Object Puppetry
by Ridhi Aggarwal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Mole Day in the Makerspace
by Josh Ajima. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
vi MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

About the FabLearn Fellows Initiative • How can we generate an open-source set of
The FabLearn Fellows program was created in constructionist curricular materials well
2013 and housed at the Transformative Learning adapted for makerspaces and fabrication labs
Technologies Laboratory (TLTL), then at Stanford in educational settings?
University’s Graduate School of Education and now • How are teachers adapting their own
housed at Teachers College, Columbia University. curriculum in the face of these new “making”
The Fellows program brings together experienced technologies, and how can they be better
educators from all over the world to contribute to supported? What challenges do teachers face
research about constructionist learning, maker when trying to adopt project-based, construc-
education, physical computing, and computer tionist, digital fabrication activities in their
science education in schools to create an open-source classrooms and after-school programs?
library of curricula and best practices. • How are schools approaching teacher
To date, there have been three cohorts of development, parental/community
FabLearn Fellows, a diverse group of sixty educators involvement, and issues around traditional
and makers. Many Fellows from the first cohort have assessment?
continued to contribute to the FabLearn program
as Senior FabLearn Fellows. Together the Fellows About the FabLearn Labs
represent twenty countries, including sixteen FabLearn Labs (formerly known as FabLab@
states in the United States, and work with students School labs) are physical makerspaces in K–12
from a wide variety of demographics at public and schools developed by TLTL and managed in collab-
independent schools, community organizations, oration with US and international partners. While
museums, and nonprofits. today there are a growing number of fabrication
The FabLearn Fellows program was created as labs in school settings, in 2009 FabLab@School was
part of a larger project sponsored by the National the first such program designed from the ground
Science Foundation entitled “Infusing Learning up specifically to serve grades 6–12.
Sciences Research into Digital Fabrication in There are currently FabLearn Lab installations
Education and the Makers’ Movement” (NSF Award on the Columbia University campus (US), and in
1349163, Division of Information & Intelligent East Palo Alto (US), Palo Alto (US), Moscow (Russia),
Systems). Some Fellows have been supported Bangkok (Thailand), Barcelona (Spain), Melbourne
by the Lemann Foundation (Brazil) and the (Australia), Sobral and several municipalities in
Suksapattana Foundation (Thailand). the state of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), and Espoo
(Finland), with partner labs in many other cities.
FabLearn Fellow goals The intellectual roots of FabLearn extend back
Despite the recent popularity of the maker to the work of Seymour Papert, a pioneer in the
movement and fabrication labs in education, most field of educational technologies, and his collab-
teachers work in isolation, cut off from other prac- orators at the MIT Media Lab. Papert, Cynthia
titioners doing similar projects and disconnected Solomon, and colleagues developed Logo, a
from learning sciences researchers. One of the programming language designed for children
main objectives of the FabLearn Fellows program and the first systems for educational robotics.
is to bring researchers and practitioners together Their constructionist perspective (a belief that
to help bridge these gaps, learn from each other’s children learn most effectively when they build
experiences, share these lessons with their local artifacts and share with peers) is at the heart
community, and together create educational of the FabLearn program. A second important
materials for the rest of the teaching community. component is the work of Paulo Freire, a Brazilian
Through this project, we hope to answer four scholar who was a pioneer in highlighting the
major questions: importance of culture, equity, and social justice
• How can we scale up maker education without in education.
losing its transformative power? The original Fab Lab was conceived in the early
2000s in the Media Lab at MIT by Neil Gershenfeld
 vii

(in collaboration with Bakhtiar Mitkak) as a creative Editors

space for university students. Within five years Paulo Blikstein, Sylvia Libow Martinez, and
the concept had been transplanted success- Heather Allen Pang
fully to community centers and entrepreneurial
Editorial guidance and section introductions
centers around the globe under the banner of the
Sylvia Libow Martinez
Fab Foundation. In this book, the spaces that are
affiliated with the Fab Foundation are called Fab FabLearn Fellows project principal investigator
Labs, while those not associated are called fab labs, Dr. Paulo Blikstein, Associate Professor of
fablabs, makerspaces, or their own unique name Learning Technologies & Design, Teachers College,
based on the preference of the organization and Columbia University
author.
FabLearn Fellows principal advisor
Paulo Blikstein was a student at the MIT Media
Sylvia Libow Martinez, coauthor of Invent to
Lab when the very first Fab Labs were being created.
Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the
He began researching digital fabrication in education
Classroom, and president, Constructing Modern
in 2004 as part of his doctoral work, created the
Knowledge
FabLearn Lab concept when he joined the Stanford
faculty in 2008, and designed the first-ever digital Special thanks
fabrication lab at a school of education which still Leah Rosenbaum, Renato Russo, Yipu Zheng, Livia
operates at Stanford University. Blikstein is currently Macedo, Jonathan Pang, Tamar Fuhrmann, Alicja
an associate professor of Communication, Media Żenczykowska, Diana Garcia and the students and
& Learning Technologies & Design at Teachers postdocs at the TLTL.
College, Columbia University.
Transformative Learning Technologies Laboratory
About this book The Transformative Learning Technologies
This book is a compilation of some of the work Laboratory (TLTL) is a multidisciplinary research
of the FabLearn Fellows and Senior FabLearn group creating and investigating new technolo-
Fellows. Included are articles about making and gies for project-based STEM education. Within
fabrication in many different learning spaces, ideas the realm of digital fabrication in schools, the
for projects, reflections, curriculum integration TLTL conducts research and disseminates
strategies, and much more. Many of the articles findings through four main programs: FabLearn
and projects include resources for additional Labs (educational makerspaces in K–12 schools
reading and exploration, and every FabLearn developed in collaboration with US and interna-
Fellow has a page on the FabLearn website tional partners, formerly known as the FabLab@
(fablearn.org) where more projects, details, and School project), FabLearn conferences, FabLearn
contact information can be found. training programs, and the FabLearn Fellows
program.
Acknowledgments
Constructing Modern Knowledge Press
Contributing FabLearn Fellow authors Constructing Modern Knowledge (CMK) Press
Nadine Abu Tuhaimer, Ridhi Aggarwal, is a publishing company dedicated to producing
Josh Ajima, Lars Beck Johannsen, Ed Bringas, books supporting modern learner-centered
Kristin Burrus, Lina Cannone, Debora Garofalo, approaches to education.
Greg Houghton, Toni Marie Kaui, David
Malpica, Michael Mumbo, Mouhamadou Ngom, Caution
Nusarin Nusen, Brenda Nyakoa, Martin Oloo, Some of these projects call for tools and materials
Heather Pang, Charles Pimentel, Lior Schenk, that can be dangerous if used improperly. Always
Safoura Seddighin, Federica Selleri, Rafael Vargas, follow manufacturer’s guidelines and safety rules,
Mathias Wunderlich, Xiaoling Zhang, and use common sense.
viii MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Meet the Contributing FabLearn Fellows

Brenda Nyakoa David Malpica

Brenda Nyakoa is a delivery advisor at the Airbel David Malpica is a CTE Graphic and Interactive
Impact lab for the International Rescue Committee Design and Computer Science teacher at TIDE
(IRC) where she manages the design and Academy, a small public high school in Menlo Park,
implementation of Education Technology (EdTech) California, United States. At TIDE, Malpica serves a
Programs for children living in communities affected diverse community of emergent bilinguals, students
by crises. Previously she worked as an associate at with disabilities, and native speakers, while teaching
Global Minimum Inc., a non-profit that implements dual credit courses in partnership with Foothill
innovative hands-on programs for youth in Africa College. Prior to TIDE, Malpica has worked at startups
through STEM education. She has worked with Piper and LightUp, and has worked with students
over 1,000 high school youth in Kenya through from fifth to twelfth grades at Bullis Charter School,
innovation boot camps and maker workshops to The Girls’ Middle school, and Skyline High School
help them create innovative solutions to challenges with a focus on integrated subject matter projects.
in their communities. She holds a BSC in Electrical He holds a bachelor’s degree in Game Art and Design
& Electronic Engineering from the University of from The Art Institute of California; a master of arts
Nairobi. in Learning, Design, and Technology from Stanford
University, and a Career Technical Education CLEAR
teaching credential from UC Berkeley Extension.

Charles Pimentel
Charles is a MYP Design, Robotics, and Math
teacher at the American School of Rio de Janeiro Debora Garofalo
(www.earj.com.br), an international institution Débora Garofalo is a public school teacher in São
that delivers high-quality education within the Paulo, Brazil. In 2015, she started the Robotics
International Baccalaureate curriculum. He holds with Scrap (Robótica com Sucata) project to teach
an M.Sc. in Informatics and a Postgraduate degree robotics and computational thinking to children and
in IT in Education from the Federal University of young people in the city of São Paulo, using recycled
Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). His work focuses on the materials and trash from the neighborhoods the
inclusion of Artificial Intelligence teaching in students came from. Since 2015, over 2,000 students
K-12 Education through Educational Robotics. have been directly involved in this project, and today
He has also developed a Maker Math course, the work has become a public policy of the State
which aims to introduce robotics, automation, of São Paulo which impacts 2.5 million students.
physical computing, digital fabrication, and AI to Currently, she is the Innovation Director of Multirio,
K-12 schools. The course explores the mathematical an enterprise attached to the Municipal Secretary of
skills and competencies involved in the process of Education of Rio de Janeiro, responsible for innovative
building automated prototypes, with the purpose of public policies. Débora has received several awards
creating solutions to real-world problems through a including Teachers of Brazil 2018, the MIT Creative
STEM approach. Currently, he is a D.Sc. student in Learning Challenge 2019, a UN Peacekeeper Medal
Informatics at UFRJ, focusing on Data Literacy. 2019, and she was named one of the ten best Teachers
in the World by the Global Teacher Prize 2019.
 Meet the FabLearn Fellows ix

to inspire young people to explore technology

creatively through community workshops and online
maker activities. Foundation Futures supports
disadvantaged young people and their families
to access and train alongside employers and local
Ed Bringas businesses on practical activities. During the Covid
Ed has been in the maker education field for over 15 pandemic, Make Stuff has provided free online and
years. Currently, Ed is a STEAM learning specialist ‘unplugged’ computing activities to local residents in
and classroom teacher at Fannie Lou Hamer the northeast of England.
Freedom High School in the Bronx, NYC. Prior to
that, Ed worked in the nonprofit sector writing,
implementing, and designing STEAM curriculum.
During that time, he co-authored an award-winning
National Science Foundation grant that worked on
bringing Fab Labs to high school students in the
South Bronx. He has written books around robotics
curriculum and articles for MAKE Magazine. Ed is Heather Allen Pang
a graduate of the Interactive Telecommunications Heather Allen Pang teaches history and making to
Program at New York University and holds a Master’s eighth graders at Castilleja School, a grade 6–12
degree in Special Education from St. John’s University. private school in Palo Alto, California, United States.
Ed lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter. She herself is a graduate of the all-girls school (class
of 1984) and serves as the school archivist, 8th-grade
dean, and History-Social Science Discipline Lead.
Castilleja’s Bourn Idea Lab is closely associated with
Stanford University’s Transformative Learning
Technology Lab. Before joining the faculty at
Castilleja, Pang taught at the University of California,
Davis; Santa Rosa Junior College; and American River
Federica Selleri College. She holds a bachelor’s degree in European
Federica Selleri is a learning designer and PhD history from Wesleyan University; a master of arts
candidate. Passionate about education, technology, in teaching in European and American history from
and design, she is one of the founders of FabLab the University of California, Davis; and a doctorate in
Valsamoggia (Bologna). Since 2016 she has designed American history from the University of California,
and made workshops and courses about 3D printing, Davis.
2D and 3D modeling, coding for local schools, children,
teachers, and retired and unemployed people.
Selleri has collaborated with the Reggio Children
Foundation about play and learning and with the
Andrea Bocelli Foundation about digital technologies
in pediatric hospitals. She is also a PhD candidate in
“Learning Sciences and Digital Technologies” at the
University of Foggia. Selleri holds a BA in Graphic Josh Ajima
Design and Visual Communication (ISIA Urbino), an Josh Ajima is the Makerspace Facilitator at the
MA in Eco-Social Design (Free University of Bolzano/ Academies of Loudoun, a public STEM magnet high
Bozen) and is a graduate of FabAcademy. school in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States.
He was awarded the VSTE Innovative Educator of the
Year award in 2017 for his work integrating maker
education into the content area. He has a passion
for digital fabrication, has won the FormLabs 3D
Design Awards for Top Educational Model, and
served as a reviewer for Make: magazine. Ajima
shares his work on making in the classroom on his
Greg Houghton blog (designmaketeach.com) and YouTube channel
Greg Houghton is an experienced media developer (youtube.com/designmaketeach). He holds a
based in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Greg is project lead bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of
at Foundation Futures Make Stuff, a new makerspace Virginia.
x MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

and educators about tinkering and making projects.

She is the co-founder and president of We Make
Lab, a non-profit organization whose mission is to
bring children and young people closer to creative
learning, coding, making and tinkering topics. In
Kristin Burrus her town, she also runs a CoderDojo club with other
Kristin Burrus has 23 years of experience in education. volunteers to help kids expressing creativity. Lina is
From 2017 to 2019, as a FabLab Specialist in a K-12 a trainer for teachers and educators, she has taught
public magnet school, she developed and facilitated several courses, and she facilitates the development
problem-based learning and design thinking units of educator's skills and professional networks. She
for elementary, middle, and high school students, holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of
integrating digital fabrication into content classes. Bologna, in Management Engineering.
In August 2019, she became the Digital Fabrication
Ecosystem Lead at STEM School Chattanooga,
providing professional development and support for
digital fabrication teachers in the district. Currently,
Kristin is the Innovation Manager and Lead teacher
in the Global Center for Digital Innovation (GCDI),
the first K-14 educational Fab Lab in the Nation. She
is a National Board Certified Teacher and holds a BS Lior Schenk
in Biology and a Masters of Education. Lior is captivated by both science and the arts as
ways of knowing the universe and thus merges both
subjects as an interdisciplinary teacher at Pittsburgh’s
Environmental Charter School. From themes of
surrealist portraiture to Anthropocene speculative
fabulation, Schenk aims to engage students in
making as a liberatory force for social and planetary
justice. In this critical moment of disconnect, he
Lars Beck Johannsen is a staunch advocate for creative learning and
Lars Beck Johannsen is a Fablab manager at Fablab making, perhaps our most crucial and forgotten,
Skanderborg, where he facilitates workshops for human practice. Schenk is a graduate of UC San
schools, runs after-school programs, educates Diego and the University of Pennsylvania, with a
fellow teachers and runs a weekly openlab. He has a B.S. in Physiology & Neuroscience and an M.S.Ed.
background as a K-12 teacher, teaching math, arts and in Science Education. He also partners closely with
music from 2003 – 2018. In 2014 he discovered maker- institutions such as the Green Building Alliance, the
technologies through the fablab@school project in MIT Presencing Institute, and the National Writing
Denmark, and they became an integrated part of Project in pursuit of thriving learning ecologies.
the subjects he taught. At the moment he is engaged
in establishing new makerspaces in local schools
and developing an after-school project around the
concept of escape rooms. Further, he works closely
with researchers from University of South Denmark
(SDU) around different areas of investigation e.g.,
the use of tangible objects as a mediating means for
Computational Thinking and problem-solving. Martin Oloo
A graduate of FabAcademy, a social impact
entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of Fablab
Winam, Martin serves on the Board of the
Association of Countrywide Hubs, Kenya. A social
worker, but has a great passion for STEAM education
and has been promoting its hands-on approach
through Fabkids in partnership with Global Kids
Lina Cannone Day, SHE-Builds, and Jua Kali Plus programs. With
Lina Cannone is a primary school teacher and the over 15 years of ecosystem building, Martin has
Makerspace manager at IC Orazio in Pomezia, Italy. also been instrumental in founding of Lake Basin
She is the founder of “Let’s STEM,” a blog for teachers Innovation and Investment Week and supporter
 Meet the FabLearn Fellows xi

of African Makerspaces Network and AfricaOSH.

Martin also has longstanding interest on the
financial sustainability of Fablabs, makerspaces,
and other innovation hubs where he has worked on
the development of the Open Catalogue of Business
Models for the mAkE project. Mouhamadou Ngom
Mouhamadou Ngom, known as Modou, is a member
of the team that installed the first FabLab in Senegal.
He founded Senfablab in 2018, a digital fabrication
laboratory located in Grand-Yoff, Senegal, and is part
of the MY Human Kit network. This space is dedicated
to fostering creativity, learning, prototyping, and
sharing, as well as promoting digital technologies
Mathias Wunderlich and hands-on learning. Senfablab also operates as a
Mathias Wunderlich is a teacher at the Freie Aktive mobile lab, catering to students from suburban and
Schule Wuelfrath in Germany near Düsseldorf. This rural areas, providing training in computer science,
is a K-13 school with deep roots in the pedagogy of robotics, and 3D printing. Modou organizes training
Maria Montessori as well as Rebeca and Mauricio sessions on e-waste recycling and digital embroidery
Wild. The school offers students the opportunity to for seamstresses. Thanks to Senfablab, digital
work, invent, and tinker whenever they want. It gives embroidery is now certified in Senegal. Senfablab
students maximum freedom of choice for what they played a pivotal role in the establishment of Senegal's
want to learn, when, with which classmates, and first FabLab led by young women, the “Linguère
in which chronology. Wunderlich runs a dedicated Fablab,” which is also known as Queen Fablab.
makerspace there, with all kinds of tools and materials
for crafting, making, electronics, and more. He‘s
responsible for a number of school activities: a Repair
Café, kids workshops at maker fairs, participation in
science competitions, different student companies,
and more.

Nadine Abu Tuhaimer

A computer engineer, a digital fabrication specialist,
and a passionate maker, co-founded menalab — a
startup acclaimed for its product design services
and comprehensive training in design, prototyping,
and digital fabrication. Her contributions within
Michael Mumbo the 3Dmena team reshaped Jordan's technological
Michael Mumbo is an educator deeply rooted landscape, advocating passionately for fablabs
in Mathematics and IT. As the Co-founder and and 3D printing. Nadine's legacy flourished with
Director of Edutab Africa, an EdTech enterprise the inception of Jordan's first Fabrication Lab and
in Kenya, he orchestrates both facilitation and Manufacturing Incubator, Shamal Start/FabLab
the creation of coding activities and educational Irbid. At its helm, she channeled expertise from
resources for STEAM courses. His true passion lies the Fab Academy Diploma, guiding startups to
in constructionist learning, particularly Math maker materialize their visions. A founding member of the
learning, driven by the belief that math's riches are Fab Arab Network, Nadine pursues a Master's degree
within everyone's grasp through discovery, not in Engineering Management from Princess Sumaya
just for the academically inclined. Michael leads in University in Jordan, and the University of Arizona
various virtual Maths Circles under The Global Maths in the USA. Nadine aspires to champion access to
Circle, USA, furthering math education. He's also a quality education for marginalized communities.
finalist in the Falling Walls global summit, dedicated
to kindling children's scientific curiosity. Beyond
education, Michael explores uncharted territories
through mountaineering and cycling, seeking new
connections and inspiration.
xii MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Nusarin Nusen
Nusarin Nusen teaches programming and invention
at the Constructionism Consulting Center (CCC)
within the Darunsikkhalai School for Innovative Ridhi Aggarwal
Learning (DSIL) in Bangkok, Thailand. Her previous Ridhi co-founder of Swatantra Talim, a non-profit
experiences includes curriculum design, facilitating working in alternative education in India with
project-based learning for students in grades a vision to co-create every village as a “Center of
2 through 6, as well as designing professional Innovation” and every child as an “Innovator.”
development workshops for teachers and adult Passionate about working with children and devising
learners centered around the design process and contextual engagement tools that co-create a learning
FabLab pedagogy. Nusen has a bachelor’s degree environment for their joyful experience, Ridhi is
in industrial computer technology and master’s a puppeteer and an origami lover. She has been
degree in computer engineering from Chiang Mai instrumental in co-creating maker-spaces in public,
University. private schools, and non-formal learning centres. A
graduate of Lady Shri Ram College (Delhi University)
and a post-graduate in education and commerce from
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and Delhi
School of Economics. She has been a Wipro Seeding
Fellow 2017-23, Vital Voices Visionaries Fellow 2022
and Young & Emerging Leaders Forum 2023-24.

Rafael Vargas
Rafael Vargas is an architect and multidisciplinary
designer. He directs the Fab Lab at the University
of Puerto Rico, where he teaches and manages
research projects for graduate students dealing with
digital prototyping and design. Rafael created the
Emergent Tools initiative, which delivers technology Safoura Seddighin
training to diverse communities around the Puerto Safoura is the co-founder of Fabinnov, the first
Rican archipelago and other Spanish-speaking educational fablab in Iran, located in the city of
territories through physical and online courses. He is Isfahan. As the manager of the educational outreach
involved in creating educational experiences dealing program of the fablab (named Fabinnov Skills School),
with various technologies, such as 3D printing, she and her team design, develop and implement
parametric design, digital fabrication, 3D modeling, programs and products that would slowing spread
and most recently, virtual reality. He pioneered the the maker culture and innovative learning practices
development of the first maker spaces in schools considering the context of education in Iran. During
in Puerto Rico. Rafael often provides professional her 14 years in the US, she studied and worked in
design services and consultancy related to emerging designing, implementing and using new technologies
fabrication technologies and their applications for for human development and related fields. Fabinnov
architecture, design, engineering, and product serves both the industrial and educational sections.
development. Fabinnov Skills School activities are designed based
on two main themes which are mostly missing from
the formal educational system: “joy of making and
courage” and “digital design and fabrication.”
 xiii

Other Contributors

Renato Russo
Renato Russo is a Brazilian doctoral student
Toni Marie Kaui at Teachers College, Columbia University, and
Toni Marie Mapuana Kaui is the Founder of Nā a researcher at the Transformative Learning
Hunaahi, an independent competency-based high Technologies Lab (TLTLab). Renato graduated
school in East Hawaiʻi. Nā Hunaahi perpetuates the from Stanford University’s Learning, Design, and
Native Hawaiian language and cultural practices Technology (LDT) Master’s program. At TLTLab,
through design-based integrative STEAM curricula he partners with local organizations and schools
and in partnership with community organizations. worldwide to investigate how maker education
Kaui models innovation to promote student intertwines with local socio-cultural practices to
development of creativity and imagination. She create uniquely relevant and meaningful learning
champions increased engineering and technology experiences. At Teachers College, Renato is also part
education and opportunities for underserved of the teaching team for Beyond Bits and Atoms, a
and underrepresented student populations and graduate-level course that teaches students to design,
works toward achieving these goals as a Society for build, and critique constructionist educational
Science Innovation Education Fellow, a Department technologies. Besides his work associated with maker
of Defense STEM Ambassador and a Code.org education, Renato has presented and published
facilitator. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in work on disinformation and its close connections to
Integrative STEM Education, a Master of Education cognitive processes associated with learning.
in Education Leadership, a Bachelor of Arts in
Architecture, and a Bachelor of Science in Business
Administration.

Xiaoling Zhang
Xiaoling Zhang is a Secondary teacher at The ISF
Academy (Hong Kong SAR, China). She teaches
IB MYP and DP courses as well as school-based
self-initiative courses. She has run projects of
Making+learning Chinese ancient poems, Making
+ history learning and Scratch+book reading with
students from various language level groups across
different grades. Her passion is to integrate Making
and Technology into classes to provide students with a
comprehensive type of learning experience and foster
their understanding, creativity and interdisciplinary
learning ability. She holds a Master’s degree of
Education in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language
from The University of Hong Kong, and Bachelor of
Arts in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language from
Shanghai Normal University.
xiv MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Foreword
by Paulo Blikstein

Shaping and combining materials transcend stark juxtaposition between mass-produced goods
cultures and geographies, and even species — and these handcrafted items is not accidental.
beavers also build exquisite nests and dams. Most Companies go to great lengths to assure customers
of what we know about ancient peoples comes from that their products indeed contain elements of
objects they made, from everyday items such as hand-craftsmanship, whether it’s a leather bag
pottery and tools to ceremonial objects like jewelry that’s been “hand-stitched” or a wooden chair
or religious icons. Humans took making to unprec- that’s been “hand-sanded.” This complex relation-
edented levels of complexity, going far beyond ship reflects one of the key tensions that define
basic needs or utility to reach for expressions of modern life in industrialized regions — a pull
spirituality, customs, and aesthetics. A clay pot between the efficient and the meaningful, the
might look purely functional — meant for carrying generic and the unique, and the machine-made
water or cooking food — but its production is and the handcrafted. How could maker education
often deeply embedded in cultural practices that help us better understand this tension and engage
carry emotional and symbolic weight. An heirloom youth in this discussion?
quilt might be made of simple fabrics, but its The answer to that question could be a way to
value comes from the history and love embedded conceive our work in the next decade. As the maker
in its stitches. Passed down from generation to and digital fabrication movement celebrates its
generation, it becomes a family artifact that holds tenth anniversary in schools, let us focus less on the
stories and memories. latest and greatest digital fabrication machines, or
But when objects started to be mass-produced, clichés such as “getting kids to follow STEM careers,”
our relationship with them changed. Walter and more on inquiring into the relationships we
Benjamin’s 1935 essay “The Work of Art in the create with objects when we construct, destroy,
Age of Mechanical Reproduction” discusses how share, love, and critique them. We are drowning
industrial reproduction altered how we consider in objects, yet we barely have time to develop rela-
the authenticity of art. Benjamin suggests that the tionships with them. It is common to hear people
aura — the aesthetic authority of artistic works talk about how making their own bread, cheese, or
— is lost when we copy paintings or sculptures en chairs changed their lives. It was clearly not about
masse. Would a similar process apply to the made the efficiency of the process or even the quality
objects around us? Is an industrially produced clay of the product (both possibly inferior) but about
pot devoid of authenticity or history? the relationship that was established between the
Research in Material Culture has pointed out maker and the materials, processes, and products,
the puzzling relationship between the urban the successes and failures, the moments of sharing
dwellers of the 21st century and authenticity. with others, the experiments, and learnings along
In an age dominated by automation and mass the way.
production, the quest for the authentic has para- So, what does it mean to “make” when everything
doxically become both more elusive and desirable. can be made by machines faster and better? This
As we consume industrial objects on a daily book brings many examples of how this conversa-
basis, we decorate our homes with hand-woven tion could go — from making household appliances
tapestries, artisanal pottery, and traditional using found materials in India to repairing them
artwork sourced from remote communities. The in Germany to repurposing them in Italy. Those
 FOREWORD xv

examples suggest some more nuanced ways to societies. From the most mundane household item
look at these different contexts. For example, girls to the most sacred religious artifact, objects hold
in India used found materials to make a clothes a wealth of information that can help us better
washing machine because new materials were understand who we are and where we want to be.
not available. In Germany, the concept of a Repair But in addition to these conversations about the
Café connects generations and gives young people future of maker education, this book celebrates
opportunities to be useful in their community those who are the true engine behind maker
(even though material availability is not an issue). education: teachers. All over the world, from
In an Italian example, repurposing organic Senegal to Brazil to Hong Kong to the United States,
materials provides lessons in thrift, ecology, and maker teachers accomplished a once-in-a-gen-
material science. In Hawaii, using non-native, eration school reform project — they created a
invasive species as building material for projects is new type of space and a new culture in schools,
a statement about taking back the land. How do we making constructionism part of the students’ day
conceive these radical differences despite the fact in ways that have not been seen in decades. And
that these groups were all using found or recycled they did this often outside of the official routes,
materials? It is less about creating a “recycled with amazing stamina, creativity, and initiative.
materials” curriculum that could work everywhere, In this volume, we have many examples of this,
but about understanding how these ideas and such as holding maker camps in the face of COVID
materials can be appropriated and transformed lockdowns, starting an AI club run by students
locally. (attracting international expertise), teaching other
Makerspaces could be, thus, more than just the teachers how to teach design and making, estab-
place to make objects, but the locale in schools in lishing a scrap robotics project that has become
which these rich discussions happen — it should public policy, finding ways to teach making
be both about making, its context, and its critique. remotely, establishing thriving makerspaces in
It is the perfect place to discuss consumerism and unexpected places, and many more.
programmed obsolescence, inequality, design This book also documents a unique period in
inclusiveness, sustainability, ableism, corporate history, the global COVID-19 pandemic. Almost at
greenwashing, or what objects mean to people the same time this third cadre of FabLearn Fellows
and their families. But even more fundamentally, was announced, schools began to close around
maker education could give students a space to the world. The focus of this cadre was going to
examine these issues from a unique perspective be “cultural making,” but this slightly changed as
— that of someone who is engaged viscerally in the Fellows, like all educators, grappled with the
the construction and deconstruction of objects immense challenges they faced both personally
rather than following a recipe to make keychains and professionally. As you read the articles in this
or participating in a merely theoretical exercise volume, you will see the ingenuity and determina-
in social critique. As Edith Ackermann would say, tion to support young people displayed by these
the most powerful aspect of creating things is educators. Aspects of our attempt to investigate
the “cognitive dance” of diving in and “being one” cultural making remain in these articles, but as
with your creation, and stepping out, taking some happened with many things during the pandemic,
distance. Making objects should also be about we had to adapt and include other topics and kinds
making meaning, and understanding how they of activities.
relate to our lives, our planet, and all the social Granted, maker education has a long way to go
issues of our time. to be truly democratic and transformative, but we
The objects we create serve as reflections of our need to celebrate and elevate the efforts of the maker
lives and societies, capturing a myriad of functions, teachers of the first decade of this movement, who
emotions, and purposes. They are time capsules that did what many thought impossible: fundamen-
allow a glimpse into our world, helping reconstruct tally change how people think about teaching and
the values, technologies, and everyday lives of learning.
 Reflections:
Gears of My Childhood
 3

The first section of this book is a collection of articles by the FabLearn Fellows reflecting
on an essay by Seymour Papert called, “The Gears of My Childhood” which appears as the
foreword to Dr. Papert’s seminal book, Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful
Ideas (1980). Dr. Papert’s theory of learning, constructionism, is a pillar of FabLearn as
it presages how the digital fabrication and maker movements can be combined with a
compelling, modern vision of learning.

Papert writes about his own love of gears as a child, and how both the love and
understanding of gears allowed him to learn other things.

“What an individual can learn, and how he learns it, depends on what models he has
available. This raises, recursively, the question of how he learned these models. Thus the
‘laws of learning’ must be about how intellectual structures grow out of one another and
about how, in the process, they acquire both logical and emotional form.”

The FabLearn Fellows offer their personal recollections of how both logic and emotion
must be present to foster deeper understandings and connections with powerful ideas.
4 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

E ala! E alu! E Kuilima: Up! Together! Join Hands!

by Toni Marie Kaui

Teachers are at the heart of my fondest memories

of my primary and secondary education. Ms. Neet,
Ms. Kala, and Mr. Akana were my fourth, fifth, and
sixth grade teachers, respectively; Mrs. Harbottle
taught music in grades four through eight; Mrs.
Melahn taught me seventh and tenth grade math;
I had Mrs. Huch for ninth grade English; and Mrs.
Powers for eleventh grade English. These classes
also happen to be the classes I learned the most in
and whose content I can readily recall. Papert, in
his essay, “Gears of My Childhood,” highlights the
relationship between affect and learning, and was
what these teachers provided for me — memorable
classroom experiences leading to well-learned
content.
As I embarked on a new adventure of opening
my own high school, Nā Hunaahi, I took to heart
the relationships I developed and nurtured with
my primary and secondary teachers. I aimed to
create learning environments that supported
knowledge acquisition and retention, which meant
implementing practices beneficial to creating
memorable classroom experiences. I recalled
my memories of how these teachers and their
classrooms made me feel and asked colleagues and
friends and family to do the same in an attempt to
find commonalities and central themes of teachers
who positively impacted learning and the learning
environments they created. These trips down
memory lane confirmed the importance of the
affective domain in learning, specifically a “sense
of belonging – when one feels a part of a particular
group” (Trujillo & Tanner, 2014).
A signature pedagogy of Nā Hunaahi is
“learners engaged in the construction of an
artifact or shareable product” (Hay & Barab,
2001) in order for the learner to build his/her
knowledge. However, attention must also be given
 Reflections: Gears of My Childhood 5

to the development of practices that imitate the language, as with many Polynesian languages, is
positivity, joy, and happiness felt by students its “distinctions in its pronouns between inclusive
with memorable classroom experiences in which and exclusive forms and between dual (2) and
knowledge was acquired and retained. In “Gears plural (3 or more) referents” (Saft, 2017) allowing
of My Childhood,” Papert suggests the need for “a the speaker to clearly orient “the number of people
positive affective tone that can be traced back to … being referred to and whether their interlocutors are
experiences that connect with joyful and optimistic going to be included or excluded in the content of
memories and prior experiences” (1980). I might the speech. An inclusive form, then, can serve as an
add to his suggestion by also inspiring teachers to immediate signal that all of those involved are (or
create positive affective tones through relationship are not) part of one inclusive group or community”
building. Baumeister and Leary define “a need to (p. 96).
belong, that is, a need to form and maintain at Beyond its use in speaking and writing, kākou also
least a minimum quantity of interpersonal rela- evokes images of togetherness and unity and
tionships” (1995), and teachers, as persons with supports the development of a sense of belonging.
significant time spent with students, can create a In addition to the use of language, 'ōlelo no'eau,
sense of belonging by purposefully and intention- or Native Hawaiian poetical sayings, are used
ally choosing to form quality interpersonal rela- to remind students of their connection with each
tionships. Additionally, numerous studies connect other, their teacher, the school, and the community.
a student’s academic success with his/her sense “Pūpūkāhi i holomua, unite in order to progress”
of belonging, and that sense of belonging can (Pukui, 1983), is referenced often by teachers,
be developed by an individual and/or the school coaches, community leaders, and government
(Brooms, 2019; Korpershoek et al., 2020; Master officials to remind us of our connectedness,
et al., 2016; Museus et al., 2017; van Caudenberg et and that progress comes through our combined
al., 2020; van Herpen et al., 2020). Regardless of efforts. At Nā Hunaahi, we use 'ōlelo Hawai'i and
who or what supports the development of a sense cultural practices and quality time to build strong
of belonging in students, doing so helps create adult-youth relationships. These relationships also
memorable relationships that foster learning and demonstrate our commitment and dedication to the
achievement and creates an anchor students can student as a person, to his/her family, and to his/
set and navigate back to throughout their lifetimes. her learning and achievement. It also contributes to
In Hawaiʻi, we like to say, “It’s a kākou thing,” developing a sense of belonging for the student.
meaning it is the responsibility of all. Kākou is the When looking to support student learning and
first-person inclusive plural pronoun used to denote achievement, in addition to allowing students to
three or more persons including the speaker. The build knowledge through construction of learning
beauty of 'ōlelo Hawai'i, the Native Hawaiian artifacts, we must also address the affective
6 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

domain of sense of belonging. By creating a sense Master, A., Cheryan, S., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2016).
of belonging, we help students develop a context Computing whether she belongs: Stereotypes
around their content of learning. undermine girls’ interest and sense of belonging
in computer science. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 108(3), 424-437.
Museus, S. D., Yi, V., & Saelua, N. (2017). The
impact of culturally engaging campus envi-
ronments on sense of belonging. The Review of
Higher Education, 40(2), 187-215.
Papert, S. (1980). Gears of My Childhood. In
Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful
Ideas. Basic Books.
Pukui, M. K. (1983). lelo noʻeau: Hawaiian proverbs &
poetical sayings. Bishop Museum Press.
Saft, S. (2017). Documenting an endangered
language: The inclusive first-person plural
pronoun kākou as a resource for claiming
ownership in Hawaiian. Jourrnal of Linguistic
Anthropology, 27(1), 91-113.
Trujillo, G., & Tanner, K. D. (2014). Considering the
role of affect in learning: Monitoring students’
self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and science
identity. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 13, 6-15.
van Caudenberg, R., Clycq, N., & Timmerman,
C. (2020). Feeling at home in school: Migrant
References youths’ narratives on school belonging in
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to Flemish secondary education. In European
belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as Educational Research Journal (pp. 428-444).
a fundamental human motivation. Psychological van Herpen, S. G., Meeuwisse, M., Hofman, W.
Bulletin, 117(3), 497-529. A., & Severiens, S. E. (2020). A head start in
Brooms, D. R. (2019). I was just trying to make higher education: The effect of a transition
it: Examining urban black males’ sense of intervention on interaction, sense of belonging,
belonging, schooling experiences, and academic and academic performance. Studies in Higher
success. Urban Education, 54(6), 804-830. Education, 45(4), 862-877.
Hay, K. E., & Barab, S. A. (2001). Constructivism in
practice: A comparison and contrast of appren-
ticeship and constructionist learning environ-
ments. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 10(3),
281-322.
Korpershoek, H., Canrinus, E. T., Fokkens-
Bruinsma, M., & de Boer, H. (2020). The
relationships between school belonging and
students’ motivational, social-emotional,
behavioural, and academic outcomes in
secondary education: A meta-analytic review.
Research Papers in Education, 35(6), 641-680.
 Reflections: Gears of My Childhood 7

Gears and Fears

by Greg Houghton

When reading Papert’s essay I was fascinated by to do with this futuristic soundscape I enjoyed
the way that Papert creates the link between his so much. Something so obvious now seemed
earliest childhood memories to his own learning impossible to understand then. I would watch the
and how these experiences shaped the way he BBC music show Top of the Pops religiously, and try
would forever interpret the world around him. to figure out what was going on. I would write to
In the essay he describes how his love of my favorite musicians to try and find out how they
automobiles helped him to give context to the created their sounds, but if I was lucky the PR staff
gears in a construction set. The gears then became would only send me a signed photo of the act.
a “comfortable friend” for him to experiment and
explore mathematical ideas. This concept of
building on learning and developing strong
abstract representations to think with really
interests me and is something I would like to
explore further here.
My own personal gears story began with music,
in particular the Yamaha VSS30, a sampling
keyboard used primarily by my brothers to play
expletives in 8bit samples across 32 polyphonic
keys, but for me, there was more. I was fascinated
by the way that audio could be looped and
manipulated using effects to create new and other-
worldly sounds.

The Shamen – 1993

Computer technology and music were two things

that I had not linked. Around this time I would visit
the local Bainbridge’s department store to see the
The Yamaha VSS-30 latest tech gadgets. I was amazed at the computer’s
I loved electronic music. I would spend my pocket ability to display a photograph, but still, the idea of
money on records and cassettes with no concept the machine’s full potential was not clear to me. It
of how this music was created. At no point did I wasn’t until a few years later that I managed to
consider that the sampling keyboard had anything sneak into a nightclub one Tuesday evening after
school that I was awakened to this connection. I
8 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

had recently bought the album Homework (ironic, When considering Papert’s essay “The Gears
right) by Daft Punk and they were headlining. That of My Childhood” and reflecting upon my own
evening was the best homework I would ever have. I experiences my initial thoughts were — what if
stood in the balcony in amazement as I watched Papert wasn’t exposed to cars as a child or didn’t
visuals played via the MIDI keyboard connected to have the opportunity to play with toy gears, or
an Apple Mac computer. On stage, Thomas even, what if he wasn’t a “he,” what then? Would
Bangalter and Guy Manuel played an array of this alternate identity have developed an “intense
electronic instruments the likes of which I had involvement” with automobiles, or gears, or even
never seen before but most importantly, I saw become a mathematician?
people enjoying and interacting with technology in
ways I had never considered possible.

Daft Punk – Daftendirektour 1997

From that day I was hooked. At that time, digital

musical instruments were relatively inexpensive
and they weren’t too hard to come across. I built
a small setup of my own and began to learn about
waveforms, patterns, synchronization, and
sampling through play. I was inspired to learn Erector set – 1930s advertising
about video, animation, and sound. To this day I
apply these principles to my work and not just in Of course, we can look at this advertisement today
the context of music. and think that it’s of its day or things were just like
At the same age that I found my love for sound, that back then, but have things really changed that
Papert “developed an intense involvement with much? Do we still see gender bias in transitional
automobiles.” At this young age, we both had found objects? Of course we do! How many people have
our favorite pastime. missed learning opportunities by not being given a
Returning to the essay, I was intrigued as to what toy that might have become a transitional object to
an “Erector Set” was so I decided to take the risk of a passion or a deeper understanding or something
Googling it. An Erector Set advertisement from because of their sex?
the 1930s reads, “Hello Boys! SEE WHAT MIGHTY If you were to walk into any major toy store you
MECHANICAL MARVELS YOU CAN BUILD WITH will see a pattern, the pink aisle and the blue aisle.
The Great new Erector!” Where would you most likely find a Meccano set or
I was confronted by an uncomfortable thought. an engineering toy?
What if my experiences had been determined by In 2019, research conducted by the Royal
my sex, race or gender? Academy of Engineering found that just 12 percent
 Reflections: Gears of My Childhood 9

of engineers in the UK are women and they Notes

earn on average 11 per cent less than their male 1. Closing the engineering gender pay gap (2019)
counterparts.1 raeng.org.uk/media/nsgnbjah/raeng_gender-
I don’t want to oversimplify the issue or suggest pay-gap_web.pdf
that toys are to blame for this, but through my own 2. djcity.com.au/blog/the-worlds-highest-paid-
experience, electronic music has the same issues. djs-electronic-acts/
In 2020 the top 15 highest paid DJs in the world
were all men.2
Papert said in “Gears of My Childhood” that
“a modern-day Montessori might propose, if
convinced by my story, to create a gear set for
children.”
I think this could be a positive conclusion — let
us build a gear set, let us create a sewing set, let us
create a whatever set! But let us not impose gender
stereotypes upon these objects.

8-Bit Cross Stitch – Make Stuff North East Activity

Nostalgia plays a pivotal part in Papert’s story,

without his experience of automobiles and with
gears and the Erector Set Papert may never have
discovered his “comfortable friend” that helped
him become the person he became. Some of us
may never find our own “comfortable friend.”
I hope that as an educator I can help others
find their own “comfortable friends” and not be
constrained by the vision that our modern patriarchy
imposes.
10 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Gears of Learning
by Ridhi Aggarwal

The essay “The Gears of My Childhood” by Seymour Hence, I started making games from old cardboard
Papert raises many questions and sparks as I reflect boxes, newspaper, and twigs. The games I saw at
on my own life experiences, both my own childhood my friends or relatives’ homes, I made on my
experiences and those of being an educator experi- own and iterated the rules to suit the material or
encing my student’s learning experiences. the structure. These self-made games were not
To me, the word gear metaphorically means only exciting to play but actually created a lot
a slight push that puts things in motion for you to of my mental models around problem solving,
learn from your own experiences. As John Dewey generating ideas, and resource optimization. I
pointed out in his book Democracy and Education, didn’t realize this until I studied these concepts in
economics and management later on in university.
“An ounce of experience is better than a ton of
These models are not just facts and concepts,
theory simply because it is only in experience that
any theory has vital and verifiable significance. but they gave me perspective to find a way through
An experience, a very humble experience, is the maze if I got stuck. This was apparent one year
capable of generating and carrying any amount when an accident left me with steel rods in both
of theory (or intellectual content), but a theory arms. Writing exams seemed impossible and I was
apart from an experience cannot be definitely advised to drop out. But I started thinking of all the
grasped even as theory. It tends to become a possible ways I could write my exams, and I found
mere verbal formula, a set of catchwords used the answer in making. As I was making something
to render thinking, or genuine theorizing, I realized that I still could easily cut using scissors
unnecessary and impossible” (1916). with both of my hands. This gave me the idea to
The nature of these experiences should be to drive try writing with both my hands simultaneously to
inquiry and demand thinking. But what is there compensate for the loss of control in my arms. In
to inquire? Well, it can be about everything and the end I passed my exams and my perseverance
anything in life that children have curiosity and and problem-solving skills were validated.
open-ended questions about. Children should be Problem solving and learning-by-doing had always
given the opportunity to explore their questions been an integral part of my learning. But in spite
like babies explore the world around them. Babies of knowing and experiencing it, it was very hard
drop things to test their strength and sound, and to internalize it as a teacher. A lot of reflection
form theories about the world by experimenting. was needed to understand how I could facilitate
These kinds of experiences, exploring things, the kind of learning I valued in my own life. When
and playing games have been the gears of my life as I started to teach, I understood that the focus of
they have provided opportunities for me to think, my lessons should be on doing, and learning would
reflect, and learn. happen as a result.
As a child I loved playing games. But the major I designed many such tasks but in the end, they
question back then was — how can I possibly possess were mere tasks. While the children were experi-
all those games or toys I see? The constant urge to encing making, I questioned the nature and extent
play pushed me to make new games on my own. of their learning.
 Reflections: Gears of My Childhood 11

For example, in a class where children were to a shop to charge it. To investigate the question,
learning about alternative sources of energy, they they read some books and did some trials before
made windmills and solar cookers. But there was coming up with a plan to make a solar mobile
no connection to why we were making them. They charger, which they then built. It worked perfectly.
were busy completing the task but had no chance to This not only gave us the answer to our questions
incorporate what they were doing into a larger and a useful tool, but seemed to me to be the proof
understanding. Every child followed the same that questions and thinking are closely related
process incorporating the same design. There was to doing and making and learning results from
no opportunity to alter the course of the task to fit inquiry.
the meaning-making of any individual student. Since then, there have been many such
instances where children’s questions have led to
their exploration and tinkering as well as finding
answers. This has led everyone in our organization
to make it a priority to provide opportunities for
students to do things and make things with both
body as well as mind using hand and senses.
Tinkering and making develops a sense of resource-
fulness, a discipline of working and exploring with
different types of materials and tools, even when
the students attempt to construct something out
of their imagination. In this process the student
This made me think and reflect on my experience finds a space for creative expression instead of
of observing my students doing and learning. Was being a passive learner.
the making actually resulting in any kind of deep Aligned with children’s driving curiosity, asking
learning? questions and finding answers by exploring and
The question stayed me for a long time until doing drives meaning-making in any field of
one day my co-teacher and I were working with knowledge. And when it is in the context of the
students on a project about the workings of a hand individual child it evokes further questions. John
pump. I had made a working model of the hand Dewey said that experience has two core character-
pump to explore the nuances with students, but istics, continuity and interaction. Thus, for knowledge
they seemed to be disinterested in the discussion. to be relevant it has to remain alive, and we have
This was an unusual thing. On probing them, I to make and re-make the connections rather than
found out that my design was flawed, and they treating information as a finished product to be
were not sure if they should challenge my thinking held in memory.
and knowledge. Thus, the children NOT raising I believe in this maxim from John Dewey, and it
questions was answer to my question. Children has been the gear which keeps me motivated and
would learn by doing only when they make things has made me a more reflective teacher.
that are answers to their own questions. Based on
“Give the pupils something to do, not something
this idea, we started a Question Hour in which
to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to
children could just share their daily curiosities demand thinking; learning naturally results”
about anything and everything. They raised (1916).
questions and discussed possibilities, and then
they explored the ideas by making things.
In one such conversation a child raised a Reference
question about alternative sources of energy. They Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and Education: An
asked that if it’s that effective, can it be used to Introduction to the Philosophy of Education.
charge a mobile phone as there was no electricity Macmillan.
in the village and they had to walk 5–7 kilometers
12 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Remote Gears
by Ed Bringas

I’ve been engaged in Maker education now for for me to understand the concepts deeper. But not
about 16 years and I truly believe that learning everyone is going to understand math through
should be done through an array of modalities. I Ferris wheels, gears, or generative art — but I think
find that in my own life, I tend to learn better when this diversity of understanding through experience
I hear things and make things based on what I see is why I enjoy teaching Making in the classroom.
and touch. I also know that I’m a visual learner, I Making is an experience that connects different
like seeing things in front of me. I like to play with ways of learning to make both new ideas and
objects and ideas to see how they work or relate to objects. There’s something mystical about the
other ideas. moment when an idea just clicks into place
My personal “gear” story happened when I was through the experience. What makes it very special
in graduate school. I took a generative art course is how intimate these ideas are to each individual.
where we used computer programming to make When people are Making, they are engaging with
animated pieces of art. There was one project where the materials all the while they are forming new
I started to play around with sines and cosines to ideas. Everyone is making their own connections
make my animations grow and shrink to make the and meaning through the process. I believe that if
piece look like it was breathing. It was through Dr. Papert could see a Maker classroom he would
that tinkering that I understood what cosine and appreciate the work being done. His ideas about
sine were. It was also my first glimpse of what I the computer are how I see Making, “Because it can
wanted to achieve in my career, taking math that take on a thousand forms and can serve a thousand
is so beautiful and finding ways to teach it in a way functions, it can appeal to a thousand tastes.”
that made sense to others. Learning trigonometry As I write this and think about Making and
in my junior year of high school was rather bland, Papert’s constructionism learning theory, I think
it was just going through the motions of solving back to my daughter’s parent teacher conference we
problems but not understanding what the point just had. She is in second grade and in a week she
was or having an experience to ground my ideas. will have been learning remotely for a whole year.
Currently I co-teach a class called Trig Functions She has done more remote learning than in-person
with Kate Belin. We start with students building a instruction in her entire elementary school career.
Ferris wheel and looking at the motion between She is a lovely person, of course a parent would say
the bottom of the ride and the top of the ride. This that, but in truth, she loves to learn, create, and
provides a guidepost for the experience to study the imagine. Sadly, we spoke with her teacher about
concepts. It wasn’t until I started making art with how the science lessons are not engaging her.
trigonometry did I feel like I really understood the All her science lessons are watching videos. Her
concepts. class is learning about simple machines and will
Everyone has a different experience latching ultimately create a bridge from these experiences,
onto different interests and ultimately different but they are learning about simple machines only
ideas. Dr. Papert spoke of this when he said, “I fell through watching videos.
in love with the gears.” The visual representation We chose this school not for any promises of
of sine and cosine in my animation was the vehicle “academic rigor” but for the holistic curriculum and
 Reflections: Gears of My Childhood 13

the level of project-based experiences in the

classroom. As a teacher, I also know the challenges
of trying to do engaging remote instruction and
stretching one’s own creativity to include hands-on
work. I wanted to communicate to the teacher that
something was missing in the remote instruction.
Both my wife and I believe it’s the lack of
engagement and socialization but how could this be
improved in a remote situation? What would get
my daughter into learning simple machines? What
is her “gear” in all of this?
It dawned on me today after she went to a
friend’s home, a girl that she visits every Thursday
to do science and socialize. She came home so
happy to show me her Catmobile that she built
with recycled boxes, straws, and bottle caps after
studying wheels. She was proud to show me the
charms she made with yarn, bottle caps, and hot
glue.
At that moment I realized what was missing,
the constructivist piece that attracted us to attend “Catmobile” By Zoë Bringas
this school. With remote instruction, she was
missing the hands-on learning and the magic of
making connections between new ideas through
the hands-on approach.
I wholeheartedly believe that she learned more
about wheels today than she has the entire time
watching videos about wheels. Watching her light
up, beaming proudly, at what she made helped me
see the glimmer of her love of learning again and of
her own gears turning.
14 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Papert Reloaded
by Federica Selleri

Italy, March 2021. We are in the middle of a But more than the practical skills I acquired, the
pandemic, schools are closed and, as a technology most important lesson I learned was to analyze the
teacher, seeing children every day in Google Meet problem in front of me and try many small solutions
boxes is both hard and fascinating. Hard for obvious until I found a way to solve (or get around) it. It’s the
reasons — everyone is trying to talk, chatting, using same thing I try to make my students understand.
the tool they have in their hands (and are forced to As a new teacher, I’m still learning many things, but
use), exchanging ideas, organizing online playtime I think it’s fundamental to start from a “construc-
together, and looking at the games others have at tivist” approach to education.
home — all while the teacher tries to get them to do In teaching technology, it is essential to develop
something. a flexible and resilient approach, so students do
However, it is fascinating to note the children’s not get knocked down by the first difficulty they
great resilience. Their ability to always turn what encounter in using an app, a device, a program, a
they have into a way to do what they want. They tool, etc. I’m experiencing firsthand the effort and
have learned that every Google Meet has a code, so passion it takes to support students as they learn.
if the teacher has one they can create another, and It’s especially hard to help children at a distance, to
get together online to talk and be together. Wanting explain to them that they don’t have to give up if the
to do something at all costs has, in some ways, program doesn’t start or if the connection is slow.
“forced” them to adapt the medium to their needs, The way I have found to do this is very simple and
going above and beyond to help each other. can be summed up in the word LISTENING. When
This situation reminded me of my first you approach a digital tool you have never used
experiences with computers when I was a child. before (whether it is a computer, Scratch, Google,
In my parents’ house there was only one desktop Arduino, etc.), the first impression is often disori-
computer, because my father, an IT specialist, had entation due to not knowing exactly where you
his own personal laptop, so he had assembled a are in the process or what to do. This feeling risks
desktop one to use at home for schoolwork, not for irreversibly conditioning any future experience of
games. In the afternoons after school, my brother approaching technology.
and I wanted to use the computer to play games,
but without getting caught. I looked for solutions
to keep us undetected, and that’s how I learned to
clear history and cache, open anonymous windows,
put everything on my portable USB stick, change
passwords, etc. It was fun watching streaming
series, chatting, playing videogames, and then
deleting (most of) the traces I left behind!
Of course, I was convinced that I always deleted
everything, but today I can imagine that my father
knew a lot more than I did and was able to see what
Design process – from paper to prototype in schools
I was up to. (Workshop designed by FabLab Valsmaoggia)
 Reflections: Gears of My Childhood 15

As Papert said, we need to create and take care of Papert rightly declares that the computer is a
the conditions in which the learning process takes tool that offers countless possibilities. However, as
place, because the creation of cognitive models with gears and mathematics, it can be hated right
is closely linked to the experience associated with from the start if we don’t listen to students so we
them. can create the conditions for students to be able to
Therefore, it is important to pay particular experiment in a constructive way.
attention to the context in which the experience When we approach a tool with children that they
takes place, and to design it in such a way that it can don’t know, the first thing I try to do is engage their
be about generating ideas and not about running curiosity. By creating a challenge or a problem, I try
into obstacles. This means thinking about the tools to make them find their own way to the solution,
you want students to use, and trying them out for supporting them when they ask for help or expla-
yourself to evaluate their possibilities, but listening nations. Exploring unknown tools in a creative and
to the students’ hypothesis about how things work playful way creates a positive model linked to that
and supporting their investigations. type of experience, which will become an essential
foundation for future learning processes.
16 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

What Makes a Project Meaningful?

by Lina Cannone

I have read Seymour Papert’s article “The Gears Love blossomed again at university with a
of my Childhood” before and it always inspires computer science class. The exercise of imagining
the same questions. What is meaningful? What scenarios in my head where I can foresee and
triggers the sense of involvement that allows imagine how to realize them has helped me in
children and adults to “fall in love” with a project? different areas of my life. I still use these skills
At this moment, I have only found partial answers daily, for example using recursive cycles to break
to these questions. down complex activities into simple structures or a
I remember exactly when I discovered computer routing algorithm to organize daily activities.
programming. I was 6 years old, and my father Now I teach in a primary school in a city near
had given me a Commodore 64 for my birthday. Rome.I try to offer my students different experiences
It was not easy for me (I had just learned to read), so that each of them has the opportunity to find
but I found a guide to the BASIC programming what is meaningful to her or him. In my school
language in the box with the computer. Following we are lucky to have a makerspace and I often find
the instructions, I was able to write a program that myself wondering what activity to propose. A few
would print (the printer … such a wonderful thing!) years ago, I noticed that depending on the project,
some recipes for my mother. not everyone felt involved. Some dedicated time to
I experienced a great satisfaction in creating their project, carried out research, and constantly
working code that did precisely what I had improved their artifact. Others, on the other hand,
imagined. I also remember that I tried to draw were sloppy, working in a hurry to be able to move
with asterisks, a dog as I recall. After that we had on to the next activity. It was a difficult balance,
other computers with other operating systems and because a too well-defined project might not
there was no longer the need to write programs to emotionally involve the whole group, yet my very
write a text or draw. young students (about 6 years old) could not be
expected to have the skills necessary to start from
scratch.
Papert’s explanation of how Logo was designed
gave me new insight into this dilemma. The Logo
programming language has a “low floor,” allowing
children to engage with minimal prerequisite
knowledge, and a “high ceiling,” offering oppor-
tunities to explore more complex ideas. I think
this aspect is what fascinated me about computer
programming in my own life, the possibility
of being able to approach a challenge even as
a beginner, yet having the possibility of future
understand that was more complex — low floors
Commodore 64 (photo by Bill Bertram CC BY-SA 2.5) and high ceilings.
 Reflections: Gears of My Childhood 17

Now I always try to suggest activities that can So, what actions can a teacher take to facilitate
be accepted, adapted, or declined according to this meeting? I believe that a synergy between
everyone’s interests. Other goals are to offer a space teacher and learner must be nurtured. We must
that can be explored with a relaxed timeline, while abandon pre-planned activities and projects that
asking stimulating questions to help them find ignore the participation of the learner. We must
their project idea. Sometimes we start from the give way to the co-planning of activities.
materials, for example glitter or rainbow straws, I remember that when I was in front of my
other times from an idea found on Pinterest or Commodore 64 I did it by choice, no one ever asked
seen the day before on YouTube … who knows! me to do it or told me what to do. I believe that
Another interesting aspect that I found in the the choice to start a project and the enthusiasm in
article is in the following sentence: “Anything is designing and deciding what and how to do it is an
easy if you can assimilate it to your collection of important detail that makes the work meaningful.
models.” This construction of models happens
when people have good, creative experiences. I
believe that our mission as teachers and educators
is to offer opportunities to our students, and to
propose experiences, challenges, and learning
environments that can allow everyone to discover
their own version of Papert’s gears. No one knows
what it is until they meet them.
18 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Who Killed Our Inborn Maker Culture?

by Martin Oloo

Across Kenya, over 50,000 engineering students exciting experience one would want to have as a
graduate annually from universities. But we should child. Kids in these regions have no choice but to
ask — does this translate to actual productivity? build their own toys. Resources are so scarce, and
The answer is — it doesn’t. This is no different from the urban life of going to a store to buy toys is just
most African countries. Very little manufacturing a fantasy. The culture of making was all around us,
is taking place locally and this, I believe, is directly born of necessity.
due to the lack of practical experience in our I grew up in the rural parts of Western Kenya in
education system. Most graduates can explain the Africa and this was my story too. When I started
theory of how things work, but are not confident school, the entrance test was being asked to fold
enough to try to make things. your hands over your head to touch the ear on the
Growing up in the rural Africa can be the most opposite side. The school was far away and so as

What kind of toys do your children play with? Who chooses those toys for your child?
 Reflections: Gears of My Childhood 19

I reached upper primary level, I had more lessons

which pushed us into more making. They included
building musical instruments, making mosaics,
stitching, and others, but that seemed to end with
primary school. Going to high school, there were
no practical subjects offered, even though as an
individual, I remained interested in making and
repairing things.
My life took a different turn when I became a
community social worker fighting gender violence
and promoting children rights. I remember one
day when I was working at a childcare center and a
volunteer from Ireland bought LEGOs for the kids;
this became my one of primary responsibilities to
play with the kids and help them make various toys
out of LEGO.
Later while working to establish a Gender
Violence Recovery Centre (GVRC), we decided to
do a survey and I went to the field to collect data.
I spoke to so many girls and young women in their
early twenties who were single mothers, divorced,
a little boy I had to rely on joining older people to or married but all suffering Gender Based Violence
walk to school. Some of the classwork I remember (GBV).
from my early days included drawing lessons where As a social worker, I did not have much to give
we were taken out of the classroom to draw on the other than counseling and hope. But they were
bare ground. Other lessons included making toys suffering and they needed more help than that.
— animals, houses, cars, and household items. They were in a vicious cycle of poverty and most
As I grew older and more experienced, my peers of them had dropped out of school. Their spouses
and I started building things that mattered to us. were often also very young school drop-outs —
I could spend many hours making toy cars using frustrated men who had turned to drug addiction
wires, or tangle (a plant bearing lots of round fruit) and domestic violence. What kind of support do
which we used as wheels. We also built more useful they deserve? They all agreed that they needed
items, such as a wheelbarrow-like tool made of hands-on skills that would help them generate
recycled automobile parts and waste materials. their own income.
These could be used for transporting farm harvests I relate to this quote from Seymour Papert’s “The
to stores, enjoying the rides at no cost, or ferrying Gears of My Childhood,”
water which had to be fetched from a long distance “What an individual can learn, and how he learns
away. it, depends on what models he has available.
When sent to a shop, I could take my nyangee–a This raises, recursively, the question of how he
hand-made ring that you roll on the ground as learned these models. Thus the ‘laws of learning’
you tap it, chasing it just like you roll a car tire. On must be about how intellectual structures grow
this journey you would hear me reciting the items out of one another and about how, in the process,
I was sent to purchase — sukari kwota, majan gi they acquire both logical and emotional form.”
change — meaning ¼ kg sugar, tea leaves, and the This vision inspired me to enroll in the Fab Academy
rest of the list until I reached the shop. This was Digital Fabrication Course in 20161 which rekindled
to ensure that I would get to the shop faster and the maker fire in me.
avoid distraction by my friends on the way. When
20 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

This then led to the establishment of FABrication Notes

LABoratory Winam, an innovation makerspace 1. archive.fabacademy.org/fabacademy2016/
where makers can share both tools and knowledge fablabgearbox/students/163/
to learn to custom-make things they want and 2. fablabwinam.org/
need.2
Working in Fablab Winam with different
makers, learners, professionals, and kids has
provided me with a unique opportunity of seeing
how making and Papert’s learning theory of
constructionism are applicable in the real world.
Even with the number of innovation hubs
growing quickly in Africa, there are still many
questions. Will the efforts of makers who are
focused on working with children revive our
dying culture of making and self-sufficiency?
Can teaching people to make things spark cottage
industries that help people, especially women,
escape poverty and violence?
This maker culture can have impact on
individual lives and our whole country. I am
hopeful that maker culture may turn around the
economy of our country and encourage a lot of local
manufacturing. These cottage industries could
have an impact on the multiple crises currently
facing the country. When more young people get a
chance to make things not just in their early lives,
but as a respected part of all education, maybe we
can answer these questions and change this story.
 Reflections: Gears of My Childhood 21

Finding My Gear at Twenty-Three

by Nadine Abu Tuhaimer

After reading Dr. Papert’s “The Gears of My in programming, I do admit that it was easier for
Childhood,” I realized that I found my gear long me than some of my colleagues.
past my childhood. Since then, I’ve been teaching in the Fab
As a kid I used to love tinkering with anything Academy program and trying to incorporate what
I could get my hands on, whether it was an old toy I learned with the different educational programs
with a mechanical movement, an old computer, or I run at the Fab Lab where I work, the first Fab Lab
even random household objects. in Jordan.
Luckily, I grew up with a mom who loved I incorporate hands-on practical learning
tinkering herself and a father who as a mechanical methodology in almost all the Fab Lab educational
engineer, had every tool there is to help me in this programs. I believe in the importance of
hobby of mine. engagement, if kids are engaged, it is more likely
When I finished high school, I thought my they will develop an interest and a passion for
passion was programming. I had a knack for whatever they are learning.
writing programs and analyzing how the digital Although I know there is truly no age limit to
world works. I was lucky enough to be born at finding your gear, I still aim to maximize the
the time where I was young enough to know the exposure of youth to as much as possible at a young
internet but was still able to play in the streets. So age to enable them to find their passion and their
naturally I decided to study something related to own gear as quickly as possible.
my love for the digital world, which is why I studied
computer engineering. After graduation, I realized
that my love for tinkering with objects outshined
my love for programming, I love to see the tangible
results of what I do and not have them confined to
a computer screen. That’s when I stumbled across
the Fab Lab world.
I was like Willy Wonka walking around in my
own version of a chocolate factory. I was 23 when
I first learned what a Fab Lab was, which is a space
with different tools that enables people to build
customized solutions to problems. There was no
lower or upper limit to what the problem can be,
whether you wanted to just customize a mobile
stand or build cutting-edge products that could be
turned into viable businesses.
Jordan’s first Mobile FabLab, “Luminus Mobile FabLab
At 24, I decided to take the “Fab Academy – How Sponsored by Orange”.
to Make Almost Anything” course. This is a six
month long intensive program that teaches the
principles of digital fabrication. With a background
22 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Making Means Head and Heart, Not Just Hands

by Lior Schenk

Can you recall the secret thrills of your childhood? but rather “comfortable friends” substantiated and
The deep fascinations that enraptured you? We reified in the things he had come to know and love.
might call them obsessions, fixations, or phases This notion of knowing — what it means to
— as doomed to end as the passing of seasons — know something, to learn, to develop knowledge
for even as I was filling my room and imagination — formed the central thesis of Papert’s career.
with dinosaurs, I never became a paleontologist. Knowledge is not merely absorbed through
Neither did Seymour Papert who “developed an cognitive assimilation, but actively constructed
intense involvement with automobiles before the through affective components as well. Papert
age of two,” become an automotive engineer. The would assert, in other words, that we learn best
deep fascinations of our childhood are but infantile when we are actively engaged in constructing
experiences — and so we are quick to forget them things in the world. Real, tangible things. Things
in the grounds of our becoming. you can hold, manipulate, and feel in order to make
For Papert, however, these pastimes of playing sense of them.
with car parts — turning gears with his hands, Look inside schools, however, and you shall
rotating all manner of circular objects against each largely see a different picture. Rather than learning
other, learning the stories of their functioning the world by reading and writing the world, experi-
— fostered within him a deep love for gears that encing it with the fullest of our senses, we learn the
transcended innocent playthings. The gears instead world by hastily memorizing facts about the world.
served as material medium to the universe’s most Or, as Harvard Graduate School of Education
poetic distillations. Car child did not become car professor David Perkins suggests, schools suffer
professional — he became a mathematician. from “aboutitis” — never getting to play the whole
He also became a cyberneticist and renowned game and only learning about the game (2010).
learning theorist, responsible for both the 1:1 Perhaps this is why the so-called maker
computing initiatives and the constructionist revolution is surging today. In a school culture
movements rippling across education to this day. where learning has become so rote, so mechanized,
As a preface to his seminal book on construc- and so devoid of meaning, making is an attempt to
tionism, Mindstorms, Papert reflects on the gears restore meaning to education. We can also call it
of his childhood. Gears were, he describes, “both hands-on learning or student-centered pedagogy.
abstract and sensory,” acting as “a transitional When going to school means jumping through
object” connecting the formal knowledge of hoops, and when boredom in the classroom is
mathematics and the body knowledge of the child. higher than ever, we as educators are called to shift
As he turned wheels in head and hand alike, the what it means to learn in school.
complex patterns of differentials and transmission But there are problems with these movements
shafts and mental gear models provided the means as well. Hands-on activities like making slime or
for Papert the child to see mathematics in his own crafting Grecian urns can offer the illusion of disci-
world. Multiplication tables and variables and plinary engagement — this is science, this is cultural
algebraic equations alike were all embedded in the literacy, and hey the kids are having fun too!
workings of the gears! Thus they were not abstract, But following cookbook instructions does
 Reflections: Gears of My Childhood 23

not equal scientific inquiry and slapping gluey down to our most fundamental cognitive and
newspaper on balloons does not equal historical neural architectures. What if, as educators, we
analysis. Similarly, making a model of a cell, invested our energy towards such heart in our
whether it is from paper or cake or plastic, lends curriculum? What do we want our students to love,
no further understanding of how cells function if in fullest understanding and appreciation? I think
the student is not also thinking how their model that goes far deeper than, say, what standards do we
works as a model for cells! What are the parts, how want our students to master!
are they connected, why do they look the way they Making is a vital act. Not because it is assumed
do, how are they complex? to be fun, or entertaining, or an escape from the
Too often we leap into hands-on activities traditional disciplines of schooling — though all
with the belief that because they are fun, they are of the above are often true. Making is vital because
engaging and therefore students will learn more it represents what teaching and learning could and
deeply. But we are mistaken when having fun should be. When students are actively engaged
merely means being entertained. Through the trap in the construction of a meaningful product in
of passivity we shall learn nothing. order to be shared with the community, THAT is
But I also think a component is often left out, powerful learning! Uncanny, because it seems
and that is the heart. When Papert writes of his so obvious. Complex, because it is so difficult to
involvement with gears, he does not limit his achieve. Yet revolutionary, because it is precisely
language to just cognitive and sensorimotor what is missing in so many classrooms today.
actions. He is adamant in describing the emotional Revolutionary also, because it is a shift in how
forms of his play: positive affect, feelings of joy, we relate to things in the world. Making is not
wonder, magic, and love. And he speaks of love just about giving kids things to put their hands
quite often — most pointedly, when he asserts that on. It’s about embracing the agency of children
the “essence of the story” is not in the doling out as learners, and their agency over media and the
of gear sets for all future generations of children material world. It’s about shifting the paradigm
but that he as so poignantly “fell in love with the from students as receivers of knowledge to
gears,” other people will fall in love with other students as constructors of knowledge. It’s about
things. Papert’s successes, as he would ascribe, letting go of the mindset of command and control.
were not due to interacting with gears as objects It’s about liberation. It’s about the heart of what it
— rather due to falling in love with the gears as more means to be human — fully sensing and making
than objects, as a conduit across intellectual and sense of the complex world in which we are bodily
emotional worlds. immersed.
I think this concept of love is worth further We live in a time where we are profoundly
attention in teaching and learning. Not love as disconnected from nature, from each other, and
a toxic unwavering positivity, and definitely not our own selves. We are so disembodied, and we
love as dedication to test scores. I mean love as yearn to become whole. I daresay that making is
understanding, interconnection, and interbeing. not just vital but sacred to being human. Without
When we stretch our perceptive faculties through it, we are lost. So let us come to our senses and
deepest care, expansive listening, and attending make way. This is the way.
to another, it allows us to see people for who they
really are. As Dr. Humberto Maturana said, “Love, Reference
allowing the other to be a legitimate other, is the Perkins, D. (2010). Making learning whole: How seven
only emotion that expands intelligence.” principles of teaching can transform education. John
We expand our notions of objects from that of Wiley & Sons.
reductive othering It to that of fullest personhood
Thou (Martin Buber) — surely that must be the heart
of learning! A change of paradigms made manifest
in our very perception of others-in-the-world,
24 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Stop Waiting to Love Learning Again

by Kristin Burrus

I’ve been a little worried lately. Not about the pandemic, the building construction stalled, and an
world, or politics, or COVID-19 — well yes, of opening date of August 2021 has been pushed back
course about those things, but lately I’ve been all the way back to… not yet. A tentative move-in
mostly worried that I’ve forgotten how to teach. I date of April 2021, has been promised and I am
feel out of practice and out of touch. Everyone in cautiously hopeful. Eight months of planning at
education is a bit out of practice, having spent a first seemed a blessing. But some of my confidence
lot of time teaching remotely, learning how to use has waned with the passing months. How will I get
Zoom, learning how to be somewhat engaging for the space ready for kids in time for summer camp?
our students online, and learning how to connect Do I remember how to use all of the equipment?
with people at a distance. What supplies do I need to order? How long does
In the midst of all this I have been transitioning it realistically take to put together a full-sized
from an established position in a school where I ShopBot? And most importantly, do I remember
taught for 20 years to a FabLab Lead Teacher role how to teach?
at the Global Center for Digital Innovation (GCDI) Of course, I haven’t been idle for eight months.
in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It’s intimidating, I have been working with students the whole time.
exciting, and amorphous. This year teaching has been more informal and
My job description is all about collaborating focused on small groups of students who want
with classroom teachers to help integrate maker coaching on soldering, or laser cutting, or Fusion
education and digital fabrication into content 360. I have facilitated professional development
areas, inspiring kids of all ages to create prototypes workshops for teachers both in person and
of their innovative ideas, and giving community virtually. I have been productive and contributed
members a space to try their hand at entrepre- to the school community. In many ways, it has
neurialism. It is truly a dream job! And so far, I’m been the best teaching experience of my career. But
still just dreaming about it. I just can’t shake that feeling of uneasiness while I
Reflectively, I feel like I am pretty good with wait…
change, and I love a challenge. It’s the delay that Fast forward to about a week ago, when I read,
has made me nervous. In the midst of a global “The Gears of My Childhood” by Seymour Papert.
Papert begins by explaining how much he loved cars
as a child and how he found an affinity for under-
standing the interactions of gears, particularly the
differential. Honestly, my first thought was, “Oh
no, do I need to understand a differential?” Then
I realized the story was really about how Papert
credits the experience of loving gears and being
able to use a differential as a model of learning for
his successes in mathematics. He states, “Anything
is easy if you can assimilate it to your collection
FabLab under construction . Photo Credit: Betty A . Proctor,
Chattanooga State Community College
of models. If you can’t, anything can be painfully
 Reflections: Gears of My Childhood 25

difficult.” I completely agree. When knowledge can Now one of my favorite systems to observe is a
be connected to previous experiences or mental group of students highly invested in brainstorming
models it fits within a student’s mind and can be solutions or making a new design, they invest both
more easily learned. But it must also be loved, like their minds and emotions when working on a
Papert loved gears, to be transformative. meaningful problem. There is a genuine sense of
After Papert points it out, it seems so obvious pride, maybe even love, in creating something out
that our ability to learn is tangled up in our of nothing.
emotions. As a child, I found comfort in the natural Maker education provides kids with the
world. I loved figuring out how bugs and plants and opportunity to examine how things work, how
mammals all interacted and needed each other. It systems are interconnected, and how they can
is no surprise that my major in college was biology. influence those systems through innovation and
I loved systems — at first, the only systems I could creation.
see were ecological, then I started seeing systems Perhaps the uneasiness I’ve been feeling lately
in things like bicycles, and eventually, I started stems from the fact that I’ve been in limbo, not
seeing systems in the art of teaching. It became fun really knowing how things in my life are connected
to plan lessons for students that sparked inquiry or how our pandemic world will adhere to the
and wonder. previous rules of cause and effect. Patterns have
Students aren’t aware of all the “strings” holding changed; interactions are no longer predictable.
together a complex unit plan, intertwined like It’s been a dark year and I feel like maybe my fears
a food web, and designed to lead them toward about teaching are simply a manifestation of my
self-discovery and hopefully a love for learning. fears about the world.
Papert wrote, “The understanding of learning I am looking forward to awakening a renewed
must be genetic. It must refer to the genesis of love of learning for myself and my students in
knowledge.” Maybe it is the science teacher in the GCDI and creating lessons with intertwined
me that wonders if this statement was a bit of “strings” that lead students to new discoveries
a joke, but I like the idea that it is the genesis or about themselves and their world. That’s why I see
beginnings of learning that impacts students the April as a date for change, for moving forward, for
most. It includes the how, when, and where of taking back some control, and a date to just stop
learning. waiting. I know moving into the new FabLab is
really only a symbol, however, I need it and I will
take it!
26 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Motivation
by Charles Pimentel

Seymour Papert's essay “The Gears of my inspire them and help them see meaning in what
Childhood” made me think about the ancient story they do. It is thought-provoking how Papert knew
of a young man named David, who defeated the at a young age that he understood the functioning
mighty giant Goliath in an epic battle. Maybe you of gears and the structure of differentials so well,
know this story well or maybe you have only heard including making connections between them and
about it. mathematical equations.
David was small, had no resources, and was I remembered my childhood, how I used to ask
alone in this fight, but he did something that so many questions and how curious I was. And
changed his story — he put his heart into that duel. I thought: “How can I create a space that fosters my
And he won the battle. students’ curiosity? How can I help them have ideas that
But why did I remember David? itch?” I concluded that my classes should be more
Papert’s story, which talks about the way in constructionist, that is, more exploratory.
which he put his heart into his relationship with One of the first projects I developed with my
the gears and how that changed the way he saw students was the Mousetrap Car, where students
the world around him, reminds me of David. build cars powered by the spring of a mousetrap.
This story reminds us that in life what we do This project became another gear for me. I started
needs to have meaning and motivation. That is an to see different applications for the Mousetrap Car
important reflection for us, both as educators and project in math and science courses. I could see
as apprentices. Papert’s story also reminded me of that students were engaged and motivated, filming
my own story. Maybe you also have memories of their cars on their smartphones, figuring out the
someone, or something, that changed your view of trajectory, and using calculators to estimate the
the world. speed of their prototype.
Some years ago, I had the opportunity to read an Shortly afterwards, I expanded my activities to
article by the Brazilian writer Rubem Alves, which educational robotics with LEGO Mindstorms and
was published in a large newspaper in Brazil. In to the electronic prototyping platform Arduino.
that article he used a phrase that touched my heart, At that point, I also developed interactive math
“curiosity is an itch in the ideas.” That phrase became quiz projects with my students, using the visual
the gear of my life as an educator. programming language Scratch, and introducing
As a mathematics teacher, I always hear the concepts of computational thinking. What I
same question from my students, “Where am I going found was that the “itch in the ideas” that I wished
to use this formula in my life?” — usually related to the for my students had started to take hold in me.
Bhaskara (quadratic) formula. It is a valid question, Thus, I became an educator who researches new
especially if that student has no interest in the field methodologies and technologies for teaching
of mathematics. mathematics.
I would love for my students to create This new identity led me to new paths. In
connections between the real world and math. 2018, I was involved in the implementation of the
For a teacher of this discipline, it is wonderful to makerspace at Polo Educacional Sesc, where I was
have students who, like Papert, have models that a math teacher. I collaborated with other educators
 Reflections: Gears of My Childhood 27

Designer in Digital Fabrication training course

on the creation of the course called Designer in Stimulating curiosity and promoting incentives
Digital Fabrication, an initiative to empower for the student to put their heart into what they
the students to use the resources available in our are learning is a good start for a meaningful and
new makerspace 3D printers, laser cutter, and enjoyable classroom. The giant Goliath, for many
other prototyping resources through the Design students, represents their efforts to create a
Thinking process. connection between what is taught at school and
I began to participate in makerspace educator the real world.
training with our network of schools. These actions But there is nothing like strong motivation to
inspired me even further and became the differen- help learners to move on and overcome difficulties.
tial in my professional life. The term motivation is derived from the Latin
By merging low- and high-tech resources for word movere, which means “to move.” Motivation
hands-on activities, my eyes were opened to a new can be defined as “the forces that act on or within
perspective on math teaching. That was how in a person that cause the awakening, the direction
2019 I created the Maker Math course. and the persistence of the voluntary effort directed
Teaching mathematics through digital towards an objective.”
fabrication, educational robotics, and artificial Papert was moved by his gears, and they rever-
intelligence is the guiding thread of this course. berated in a life focused on research, innovation,
Mathematics, which exists in all these technol- and the inspirational constructionist theory of
ogies, allows the student to develop skills and learning. I found meaning in seeing this come to
competences through the development of projects life in the work of my students and their incredible
of interest. motivation to learn and grow.

Educator training
28 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Time to Tinker
by Lars Beck Johannsen

Gears! I believe that we need to help our students

discover their own gears, and help them channel it
What comes easy to you? into their projects whenever possible. I also believe
Love it, show it, share. that it is a teacher’s task to help students develop
new gears. Another task is being aware of the way
Connect, evolve, and have fun! you learn. If something is easy to you, it is natural
to believe that it is also easy for everyone else, but
When Seymour Papert tells the childhood story of that is not the case. We need to help our kids to
his love for gears, he tells a story about a system discover their strengths!
of tangible objects that became obvious to him, There are a few things that could make this
though it would seem complex to others. Through happen. One is knowing your students! Not just on
play and love for the turning and interaction a factual basis but also on a more personal basis.
between the gears he gained a scaffold to learn How would you otherwise discover, what makes
other subjects. Papert, for example, mentions an them tick, what they love, who they are?
experience where he understood multiplication
and variables through his mental image of how Time, patience and more unsupervised
gears worked. time!
The point here is not that every child will learn It takes time to build relationships that are genuine.
multiplication by learning how gears work. The And it takes time for the child to immerse oneself. I
learning experience is very personal. We all have sometimes worry about the small amount of unsu-
our own version of gears. His love for gears, physical pervised time that each child has for themselves
objects he could manipulate, and experiment with during a day. In Denmark the school days were
gave him a mental representation of the mechanics recently made substantially longer, basically to
that translated into other concepts. perform better in PISA and other tests. Though the
intentions were to reform the school system, the
What can we learn from this? reality was more of the same — a lot of instruction.
I think that it is difficult in most classroom Fortunately, we have solid traditions for teaching
situations to see the gears of the individual pupil. using projects but that is a rather small part of the
Some kids are explicit about their special interest school day. Especially in 8th and 9th grade, which
or excel in obvious ways. But many of us might not concludes our basic school, teachers often depend
even be aware of our own gears. I, for one, have on instructional teaching, because they have so
trouble naming my own gear. Maybe it is because much to cover before exams. I know that is the
I am more of a generalist. I don´t know. I have standard argument for not working more with
always loved many different things, and would projects.
rather learn something new than master what I When I was a child the school days were about
am already able to do. Of course, that is not true 4–5 hours each day including breaks. I had a lot
in every aspect. I spend a lot of time teaching, of time after school on my own or with friends.
tinkering, and creating music but I will not say that There were no adults present to manage our
I have mastered them — yet.
 Reflections: Gears of My Childhood 29

activities, and we did a lot of tinkering in that

time — sometimes rather dangerous things, but
that is another story for another time. That extra
time is now taken away by our school system and
filled with textbooks. I strongly urge all the schools
I work with to make time for more project based,
constructionist, student-centered learning. The
after-school programs, which most kids attend
because the parents are working, also need to be a
more inspiring place to spend your time. A place to
tinker, do what you love, make stuff together with
other kids, and have fun! They need to be places
where the adults know when to leave kids alone,
and when to help and guide them.
Think of your favorite childhood game or
activity … where was the adult?
True, meaningful learning comes from within
the child — not from an adult telling you what to
do!

Make sure they get time to tinker!

30 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Freedom! It Is Easy to See

by Michael Mumbo

Many times during my childhood, I was misun- and deep understanding and above all freedom to
derstood not only by my caregivers but also by think differently, things not found in my village
my peers. Even my teachers, who I view as my school.
destiny makers, sometimes misunderstood me. To my parents I was that family lawyer, they
Life and education in rural Kenya back then was called me okil kamaloka — the lawyer. I always
an adventurous experience accompanied with the wanted to see that statements and assumptions
bliss of childhood memories; such as the school made sense. However, I knew I had to be extra
bells that reminded us when it’s playtime or when careful especially before my mother or else things
class time was over. The sound of the school bell would be rough at home and also at school, because
could open a whole new chapter in the day, where she was a teacher in the same school I went to. I
playtime went on until dusk. Getting home in the can vividly recall my nice morning walk to school
dark however, meant knowing this will not end coming to an end when I was met with the stroke
well, but you still march home like a movie star only of the cane for incomplete or incorrect math
to be ushered in to the disciplinary committee. assignments.
But blissful childhood memories aside, It took me a while to realize that the rote nature
mathematics was a real “monster” to me. of math wasn’t my favorite cup of coffee. I was
Math class made me feel like I had thoughts that curious about numbers, patterns, and whether
made sense in my brain, but I couldn’t express the they made sense. Statistics let me satisfy my
ideas verbally or through writing. I know now that curiosity about how things worked.
I have an inquisitive nature that required patience My high school math career had fun moments

School Bell
 Reflections: Gears of My Childhood 31

and a few instances of strong smashes on my head Back in my high school days, I was obsessed
by my teachers. My math teachers always said that with logic. This made me think for a moment,
things were easy to see in their eyes, and sometimes maybe I had inherited my mother’s prowess in
I saw them too. It seemed like my math journey accounting and money matters despite her limited
was taking a turn from being misunderstood to educational background. In business studies,
understanding. accounting was always a option, and my confidence
In my work with kids, they have taught me in my own abilities made me think accounting was
three important things: the art of patience in my destiny. I was all wrong.
teaching and learning, to honor the freedom to Math started to make more sense when I went to
think differently, and to remember that what is university as a math major. It even became exciting
so obvious to adults is not always obvious to kids. in an introduction to logic, proofs, and refutations
I find it awesome, and a moment of pure bliss class. I felt like my nerve endings were ignited, as I
when one of my students can ask a question that realized that the math monster of my younger days
uncovers assumptions about what seems obvious was something I could conquer. I fear so many
but isn’t! young people never get past this monster, and as a
For example, when looking at a grid, why result, there are so many untapped skills and great
do we count the corner twice while getting the minds lost in the pool of conventional learning. I
dimensions for length and width? The moment a have always found joy and beauty in collegial math
child innocently asks you to help them understand discussions and for this reason, I resolved to help
what you have always found to be obvious is a and support young learners in trying to regain the
moment that makes a teacher. Children have this long-lost glory of the language of math.
weird ability to not know many things yet! This
means that until they experience it or are taught, Math is freedom
nothing is obvious to them. As a math teacher, I am
learning to be more careful in my assumptions.
32 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Finding Gears Late

by Rafael Vargas

Papert’s fascination with gears relates to his mathematics. It was when I was exposed to having
childhood learning. He developed an interpretation to solve real design problems in my adulthood that
of mathematics in the gears’ inherent mechanical I had to revisit and relearn these connections.
properties and function. His fascination with While Papert’s constructionist theory of
gears had a direct relationship with understanding learning focuses on the importance of tools, it
how automobiles operate, which was a topic of also stresses the idea of context. The immediate
immense interest for Papert when he was young. context of the person learning is vital to assimilate
This assimilation of the model of gears is what cognitive skills and apply actual action to
engaged him with mathematics and made him feel developing knowledge. Learning is an experience
comfortable with equations. of self-reliance, and being a maker becomes an
Being currently involved in various education advantageous skill for problem-solving.
initiatives in Puerto Rico, I can identify that I did I believe that, as an educator, understanding
not have that kind of assimilation with specific this is essential at a personal level. Curiosity about
models related to any learning experience when trying to find out how things operate is something
I was a child. I also disassociated my topics of I can observe in students when working on projects
interest in school and what I was thought to be in our workshops and classes.
practical at the moment. Perhaps this is unsur- The immediate context of some of the students
prising, due to how I was exposed to mathematics in Puerto Rico is an economic crisis: hurricanes,
and sciences in my early childhood. earthquakes, and a current pandemic. The
It was later in my life, when I was studying significant challenge (and opportunity) is to
architecture as an undergraduate student, that I provide the processes and spaces for individuals to
started viewing the buildings and the products that find their “gears” in this context, and not have to
I was designing as systems, meaning structures wait for adulthood.
composed of complex parts. I discovered my
fascination with technology and its usefulness as
a tool to solve problems. I was ultimately inclined
to explore design through science, mathematics,
and emerging technologies, and learned topics
like programming, parametric design, and
digital fabrication. Those tools required me to be
proficient in certain skills that I was not interested
in learning before, unless it was to pass an exam.
Nevertheless, I was always attracted to the
science and mathematics disciplines (in their pure
and traditional forms), just not in a playful way
that I found interesting. Now, I find it interesting
that my inclination towards creative fields was
always treated by school as something unrelated to
 Reflections: Gears of My Childhood 33

Between the Garage and the Electronics Workshop

by Mouhamadou Ngom

My learning story is similar to Seymour Papert’s Eventually I would arrive at 6 pm every day after
story of learning many things through mechanics. the garage closed and stay until 10 pm, so I spent
I come from a modest family and I stopped going all morning in the garage and all evening with
to school at an early age to help my parents. Moussa.
When I was 15, I walked into a car garage to This is where I made my first electronic
learn a trade — mechanics. Being very young, my creations: a radio made with recycled parts, an
role was to do some light tasks for the adults. intercom installed at the door of our house, and
Two years later, my uncle who worked in a fuel an FM transmitter to broadcast music in the
distribution company with a car garage inside, neighborhood.
took me under his wing. A year after that, my boss, Two years later I went back to school for training
an employee in this company, opened another in electronics and computer science.
garage and I started working for him. I repaired a lot of electronic devices and I
I stayed there for four years before meeting participated in the installation of the first Fab Lab
Moussa, an electronics expert who transformed in Senegal.
my life. Moussa repaired video games and had a To conclude, I would say that the most important
very well equipped shop with generators, oscillo- part of learning by doing is careful observation.
scopes, and other tools I didn’t know about. My secret as a specialist in electro-mechanics
I began to watch him work, and I listened to his is to take careful notes. For example, before disas-
discussions with the other technicians, although I sembling a mechanism, I mark the intersections
didn’t understand a thing. I watched and listened between the different gears.
to them religiously without understanding the This is why I ask learners to observe well, to
terms used. listen well, and to document their work.
34 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Reading “The Gears of My Childhood” Again

by Nusarin Nusen

After I finished to reading “The Gears of My understands, and creates their knowledge
Childhood” by Seymour Papert, it made me think in different ways and also at different levels.
about what I learned from this article during It depends on their background experience,
my master’s degree. In Thailand, this article is observation skills, and how well they can connect
widely discussed in teacher education programs, the new knowledge to old knowledge.
especially among constructionists in Thailand. For me, the essential parts of learning are not
From understanding what Seymour learned only arranging hands-on learning experience for
from gears, I found it liberated my thinking about students, but also providing the opportunity for
learning. Observation of one’s own interests students to make decisions on their own, to try
becomes tacit knowledge for that person. New things, and learn from mistakes. To me, those are
knowledge gets inside your mind and connects the first steps for students to gain confidence and
with one’s existing knowledge. This type of learning feel comfortable enough to try things and construct
is such an individual process. Only the person who their own knowledge.
experiences it can construct their own knowledge.
Moreover, I’m impressed with the power of the
computer, and I agree that the computer can help us
see concepts such as simulation and feedback very
quickly. Troubleshooting is a process of correction
that is helpful in acquiring new knowledge.
However, in some school cultures, especially
in conventional Thai schools, schools often make
students feel insecure about exploring and
expressing what they think. The mindset is that
everything has only one correct answer. This instills
a mindset in our students that being correct is good
and mistakes are bad. If someone makes mistakes,
the teacher will cross out the wrong answers with
a red pen or will give a zero score. This means
students can’t learn from mistakes because they do
not want to make any mistakes and eventually they
become a person who lacks the confidence to try
things on their own.
From my teaching experience in constructionist
schools, I’ve found that each student connects,
 Reflections: Gears of My Childhood 35

Find Your Unique Gear

Xiaoling Zhang

There is a Chinese saying: “You may figure out By more, he is saying that it is more than just
a person’s future from his childhood.” I think it learning something, it creates a good feeling, a
applies well to the experience that Dr. Seymour “positive affective tone.” For me, this affective
Papert shared with us in “The Gears of My aspect of assimilation is the power behind making-
Childhood.” based learning.
It seems that many important events in
“But I was painfully aware that some people
Dr. Papert’s life can be traced back to the gear
who could not understand the differential could
systems that brought him joy in early childhood. easily do things I found much more difficult.
Understanding gears became a starting point Slowly I began to formulate what I still consider
which drove his development as a human being, the fundamental fact about learning: Anything
mathematician, and researcher. is easy if you can assimilate it to your collection
Dr. Papert’s experience makes me think that of models. If you can’t, anything can be painfully
it might be a natural human instinct to love difficult. Here too I was developing a way of
fiddling with objects as a prompt to explore the thinking that would be resonant with Piaget’s.
world around us. By building and playing with The understanding of learning must be genetic.
things, we are also building the connections It must refer to the genesis of knowledge.”
between ourselves and the physical world. When My understanding of this is that every child or
it happens frequently and reliably, then it becomes every person has their own unique “gear.” But can
a way of thinking. It makes it easier when we see everyone find their gear? Or can we help them to
consistency in the world to believe that there are find something that THEY love and can be applied
laws behind seemingly superficial phenomena and as a bridge to understand more abstract ideas and
to discover even more possibilities. the world. It seems that unique gear can’t be cloned
“By the time I had made a mental gear model or taught, but must be discovered.
of the relation between x and y, figuring how Through making, I found that one of my gears is
many teeth each gear needed, the equation had to be open to discovering new possibilities. While
become a comfortable friend.” embracing the uncertainty, the projects inspired
both myself and my students.
For someone like me who is not that good at Four years ago, my former students did a
mathematics, I am still not able to thoroughly mini exhibition project based on the themes of
figure out how the equation relates to a mental the Chinese culture unit in my Chinese second
gear model. However, I can empathize with the language class. Despite the limited time and
thrilling feeling when my students and I discover materials, the products that students made
something new when making a project and it surpassed my expectations. That experience gave
“clicks.” It echoes what Dr. Papert says in this essay, me the first taste of the charm of making.
“Assimilating equations to gears certainly is a What making projects brings to our brains is like
powerful way to bring old knowledge to bear on the turning of different gears. Some are turning
a new object. But it does more as well.” one way, and others are going the opposite way, yet
they work together to bring out new thoughts and
36 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

ideas and in turn, greater enthusiasm in teaching

and learning. That’s why when I was introduced to
the idea of a makerspace, I immediately wished
to try for myself and make it “click” into more
learning experiences.

These images are from a pre-makerspace student building design project . It combines a Western clocktower on one side, while the
other side is in the style of a traditional Chinese pavilion .

First trial product in the makerspace with a group of four students .

A Chinese style partition screen interpreting their understanding of an ancient poem .
 Reflections: Gears of My Childhood 37

The Gear of Innovation

Débora Garofalo

When reading the essay by Seymour Papert, “The Like Papert, I believe that the “gears” available
Gears of My Childhood,” the preface to his 1980 to students need to be revised. In our case, the
book Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful maker movement made it possible to give a new
Ideas, I couldn’t help reflecting on my own purpose meaning to traditional areas of knowledge, to bring
and work with education. experimentation and playfulness to the teaching
For me, the story of the gears is about finding and learning process, and to introduce active and
the things that motivate me. I am passionate about innovative methodologies so my students could
finding ways to make it possible for my students have new experiences and understandings of the
to be protagonists of their own lives by having the world.
opportunity for engaging and meaningful learning These changes brought solid results. It gave me
by using the lessons of constructivism and of new understandings as well, as I was learning,
Paulo Freire. So, when I started working with teaching, and trying to mediate new processes all at
scrap robotics for children and young people from the same time. Therefore, not only did we find new
underprivileged communities in São Paulo, Brazil, paths for learning, but we have also created a new
I wanted to provide them with an education that teaching methodology that today has transformed
focused on creativity and problem solving, but that public policy and impacted 2.5 million students. It
also involved academics. has had enduring outcomes such as the creation of
My purpose was to show them that the universe the São Paulo Basic Education Innovation Center,
of programming and robotics was also for them. an organization that develops methods, practices
To do this, it was necessary to invent new paths and technologies to drive innovation in public
in education so that experimentation, doing, education.1
creativity, and meaning had increased importance.
The maker movement was instrumental in that Notes
transformation. 1. centrodeinovacao.educacao.sp.gov.br/
Making Do: Adaptations for
COVID and Remote Learning
 39

The third cohort of FabLearn Fellows started their journey in early 2020, the same time
as the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the globe, changing our lives forever. It would
be impossible to ignore the impact of the pandemic both personally and professionally.
Educators in schools around the world worked valiantly to support their communities
in a scary time when no one really knew what was safe and what could result in deadly
infections.

In some schools, tools and materials were simply boxed up and put away for fear of
spreading disease. In some, makerspaces were repurposed as classrooms. Other schools
worked to provide hands-on materials to students to make sure that the benefits of making
could be maintained during times of remote learning. Some schools pivoted to digital
making, including programming, as a way to ensure students had creative opportunities
even without physical materials.

What we learned during this time should not be forgotten as things return to “normal.”
We learned, once again, that learning is not contained in a building or bound to the
traditional trappings of subjects, bell schedules, tests, and grades. Learning happens in
communities that care about each other and want to make the world a better place, no
matter the obstacles.

You will see the impact of COVID-19 throughout this book, but this section in particular
reveals the ingenuity of real-time adaptations to a changing landscape, the “making do”
part of making.
40
40 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Six Little Lessons Learned from COVID-19

by Federica Selleri
Making Do: Adaptations for COVD and Remote Learning 41
42
42 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Online Teacher Training in Mathematics Education:

A Maker and STEM Approach to Promote Active Learning
by Charles Pimentel

In 2021 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, educational process, where teachers teach the way
I was invited to organize two-week long online they were taught, most often as a passive spectator
teacher training workshops for Mathematics in the classroom.
teachers from public schools in the Brazilian state To change this situation, the ongoing education
of Rio de Janeiro. of mathematics teachers is important to break this
I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk cycle and take new paths (Santos, 2017).
about using maker education and an integrated
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics with a STEM and Maker
Math) approach to the teaching of mathematics. approach
Although I had already given some hands-on This is why I was invited to conduct online teacher
courses for math teachers, the opportunity to carry training workshops in an initiative called Rio de
out this type of activity virtually made me very Mãos Dadas,2 organized by the institution SescRJ,3
excited. with support from the public and private sectors.
But I wondered, would it be effective to do In a partnership with Polo Educacional Sesc,4
maker activities virtually? the high school where I was a teacher, we offered
a course for public school teachers in the area of
Teacher training is the best investment mathematics. The modules I proposed and taught
in education were “Collaborative and Hands-On Math” and
Nothing is more important to education than a “STEM: A New Way to Look at Math.”
well-prepared teacher. These modules were attended by eighteen K–12
According to Brazilian mathematician Marcelo educators and aimed to introduce active method-
Viana (director of the Brazilian National Institute ologies with maker education and an integrated
for Pure and Applied Mathematics – IMPA1), STEM approach.
training is the Achilles’ heel, meaning the weakest According to Gavassa (2020), maker education
part, of helping teachers teach math in Brazil is student-centered as students learn through
(Viana, 2017). discovery. Likewise, by promoting the development
Giraldo states that university education can have of multidisciplinary practices, the STEM approach
essentially no effect on teacher’s understanding encompasses the understanding of scientific
of how to teach math. In Brazil, undergraduate concepts and phenomena by learners while
courses in the Mathematics Licentiate favor engaging in design and engineering practices
academic mathematics, without paying attention (Bevan, 2017), using mathematics as a symbolic
to school mathematics, nor to the methodologies language to represent reality.
for teaching the discipline (Giraldo, 2018). In the module “Collaborative and Hands-On
Thus, the classroom reference for educators Math” I asked the teachers to reflect on the
who graduate from higher education and start importance of the student`s role at school, and
working in basic education are the experiences they the potential of hands-on activities to provide an
had, as students, during their school life (Cabreira, environment of innovation, collaboration, and
2016). This truth leads to a repeated cycle in the creativity, thus allowing the student to leave the
 Making Do: Adaptations for COVD and Remote Learning 43

role of content consumer to become co-creator of • Use recyclable resources for hands-on math
their educational process. activities
I presented different ways to implement maker • Create a Learning Object that might be used in
education through different resources, that is, their classroom
starting from paper and glue to the new high-tech
possibilities available in makerspaces. Delivering a hands-on course virtually
The specific objectives of the “Collaborative and I taught the modules entirely online, each was two
Hands-On Math” course were: weeks long. The resources were made available
• Understand the roots of the maker movement in the virtual learning environment Moodle. In
and its connection to maker education addition, I held two synchronous meetings, one
• Recognize of the importance of maker education each week, with a total duration of four hours.
to develop competences in the mathematics Among the resources available were articles,
discipline videos, infographics, and articles from scientific
• Prototype a Learning Object with recyclable journals. All the resources were made available
resources before the synchronous meeting, so that partic-
ipants would know what would be covered
The “STEM: A New Way to Look at Math” module,
during the interaction with me and other course
on the other hand, aimed to provide a reflection on
participants.
education for the 21st century, taking into account
The synchronous meetings were held in Google
that students are digital natives and that they have
Meet. I sought to provide an environment for
information, in real time, in the palm of their
exchange and discussion. Participants reported,
hands through their smartphones. In this module I
for example, hands-on experiences they had
highlighted the integration of Science, Technology,
when they were students in K–12 education, and
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects
how this impacted their own education. During
as a way to make math more meaningful with
the presentation of the slides that guided each
real-world problem solving.
workshop, checkpoints were defined to discuss the
The specific objectives of the course “STEM: A
topics presented.
New Way to Look at Math” were:
I proposed collaborative activities such as the
• Present practical examples of how to implement
Semantic Panel (a type of a mood board to collect
the STEM approach for teaching mathematics
initial impressions) on the Canva platform and also
in the reality of Brazilian classrooms
used the Padlet tool. The Padlet was used to share
the hands-on challenge prototypes.

Educators discussing the difference between no-tech, low-tech and high-tech resources
44
44 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Display of learning objects prototyped by some of the course participants

Learning objects When asked what most caught their attention

As part of the course, the teachers were challenged in the course, they answered:
to make a “learning object,” something that • “Interactivity between the participants. In addition to
represented mathematics in the real world and clarifying the topic addressed”
could be used in their classrooms. They were asked • “The possibility of doing the work at the time of class,
to use easy to find recyclable materials to make energy, proposed challenges, teacher’s didactics and
their prototypes. exchange between participants”
To inspire participants, I made a video tutorial • “These new ways that the STEM model can provide
proposing a model of a Balloon-Powered Car, but the teaching of mathematics”
I advised them that it would be important for the • “Suggestions of tools we can use in teaching
project to be their own ideas, and which could be Mathematics”
made with materials available in their homes. • “The content, mostly. It was new to me”
At the end of the course, I asked the educators to
Evaluating the process
say in just one or two words what the course meant
To assess how the teacher training was received by
to them. Here is the word cloud created using
the educators who participated in the meetings, I
Mentimeter, an interactive presentation site.
sent questionnaires at the end of each meeting.
 Making Do: Adaptations for COVD and Remote Learning 45

While all these words show how the course Notes

was important in the professional life of these 1. gov.br/mcti/pt-br/composicao/rede-mcti/
educators, the word “resignification” stands out. instituto-nacional-de-matematica-pu-
It means to give a new meaning to something. ra-e-aplicada
As one of the main objectives of the course was 2. riodemaosdadas.com.br/714-2/
to provoke teachers to take a new look at a way to 3. sescrio.org.br/
teach mathematics, this signaled success. 4. poloeducacionalsesc.com.br/
I feel that providing a safe environment 5. Balloon-Powered Car – YouTube youtube.com/
for dialogue, experimentation, and sharing of watch?v=mSv0UbDO5mQ
experiences was essential for the participants to
feel connected with the project’s objective. References
The participants` engagement and the feedback Bevan, B. (2017). The promise and the promises of
pointed to the effectiveness of this online training. making in science education. Studies in Science
It shows that discussion about new ways to teach Education, 53(1), 75-103.
mathematics can be conducted in virtual environ- Cabreira, M. C. (2016). Percepções do professor de
ments, incorporate hands-on activities, and reach Matemática: relação entre formação acadêmica
educators who wish to expand their repertoire to e atuação docente. XX Encontro Brasileiro de
promote a teaching of mathematics that fits the Estudantes de Pós-Graduação em Educação
reality of education for the 21st century. Matemática, 1-12.
Acknowledgments Gavassa, R. C. F. B. (2020). Educação maker: muito
I would like to thank FabLearn Fellow Débora mais que papel e cola. Tecnologias, Sociedade
Garofalo for kindly guiding me on how to start e Conhecimento, 7(2), 33-48. doi.org/10.20396/
designing online teacher training. I'd like to also tsc.v7i2.14851
thank Gisele Ribeiro, a co-worker and math teacher Giraldo, V. (2018). Formação de professores de
for giving me support during the workshops and matemática: para uma abordagem problema-
actively collaborating to make the project better. tizada. Ciência e Cultura, 70(1), 37-42.
Santos, M. S. (2017). Da formação à prática docente:
uma habilidade criativamente inovadora. IV
Congresso Nacional de Educação.
Viana, M. (2017). Formação é calcanhar de Aquiles
dos professores de matemática do Brasil.
impa.br/noticias/formacao-e-calcanhar-de-
aquiles-dos-professores-de-matematica-do-
brasil/
46
46 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Lessons Learned from Hosting Virtual Innovation

Challenges in Kenya
by Brenda Nyakoa

Since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic students each are invited to a week long innovation
in 2020, learners and educators across the world boot camp where they attend workshops on
experienced a shift in their way of learning and innovation, human-centered design, entrepre-
teaching. neurship, and responsible leadership. They work
In Kenya, schools were closed in March 2020 with technical mentors to assist them in building
and reopened in October 2020. This meant the the first prototypes of their proposed solution.
parents and guardians stayed home with their Mentors are typically young professionals and
children. Some parents explored online learning industry experts in the respective fields in which
to keep their students engaged. However, many the participants are building solutions.
students who had no access to the internet and
digital resources had to wait for schools to reopen. Remote workshop delivery
Many organizations launched remote programs COVID-19 brought many changes to the
for students to engage with educational activities InChallenge program. Shifting from in-person
while at home. At Global Minimum Inc., we shifted workshops to virtual workshops meant reorga-
to remote delivery of our programs. In this article, nizing our presentation material and activities.
I will share lessons learned from facilitating our For instance, we redesigned the presentation
InChallenge program remotely. slides to be more visible when sharing screens via
Global Minimum Inc (GMin) is an interna- video conferencing and incorporated more visual
tional non-profit organization that encourages elements in our presentations to keep our learners
young innovators and leaders in Africa to engage engaged.
with critical thinking skills and hands-on Unlike in-person camps where we could
learning programs to tackle challenges affecting play games outdoors and provide materials for
their communities. GMin provides tools, safe hands-on activities, virtual camps limited us
spaces, workshops, mentorship, resources, and to online activities, but we were pleased to see
networking opportunities to African youth, that participants were creative in utilizing local
ultimately equipping young people in Africa with materials available to them to build crafts.
unique opportunities to take their future into For example, we use a marshmallow design
their own hands. Since 2008 we have worked with challenge to demonstrate the iterative nature of
over 10,000 youth aged 13–20 in Kenya and Sierra design thinking. In this challenge, participants are
Leone. GMin believes all youth have the potential asked to build a tower using 20 sticks of spaghetti,
to learn and create innovative solutions in their one yard of string, and one yard of tape. They are
communities. then required to place a marshmallow on top of
The InChallenge program is a national the tower and the tallest free-standing tower is
innovation competition for high school-aged youth declared the winner.
in Kenya and Sierra Leone. Every year, partici- In our virtual workshop, since some of our
pants are invited to identify a social problem in participants were not able to collect all the
their community and create a project to solve that materials, they used alternatives they could find
problem. Fifteen teams of finalists with up to four in their homes. For instance, instead of spaghetti,
 Making Do: Adaptations for COVD and Remote Learning 47

Participant displaying her spaghetti tower Prepping materials before dispatching to team
representatives

they plucked sticks from bushes around their the teams got to work on their solutions and made
homes. In place of tape and string, they used fibers impressive presentations.
from banana stalks and recycled old clothes. The
flexibility they displayed reminded me why cultural Internet connectivity
making is important. As educators and makers, we Another major challenge was internet connectivity,
need to account for the needs of all learners when especially for the individuals who were connecting
designing activities. from remote areas where the coverage is not as
robust. Moreover, some of the participants did not
Remote mentorship have access to a computer that they could use to
When we started hosting virtual innovation sign in to the workshops.
boot camps in 2020, one of the major challenges One solution that helped was purchasing
we experienced was the difficulty in delivering generic smartphones, which we sent to the finalists’
technical mentorship remotely. Teams of students parents to help them prepare for the camp. We
lived in different geographical regions across further provided data bundles for all the partici-
Kenya away from their mentors. Learners and their pants who did not have WiFi in their homes. With
mentors had limited time to build their prototypes. these adjustments, over 90% of the finalists were
As a result, many teams expressed frustration over able to participate in the workshops successfully.
the inability to finish building their solutions.
In April 2021, we hosted our second virtual Online collaboration
camp and started utilizing WhatsApp groups to Collaboration is a fundamental part of the
allow mentors to have extra time with the teams InChallenge boot camp. Each team of students
and offer consistent technical support. The groups works together to build a prototype for the solution
were more accessible as most teenagers who they have proposed. During in-person boot camps,
had access to a smartphone were familiar with every team gets a chance to buy materials for their
WhatsApp. With the increased mentorship time, prototype and build them together.
48
48 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

For the virtual camps, teams had to select a The journey continues
member to take the lead in the building process. Making remotely has been a rewarding and fulfilling
The team representative received the materials sent experience. Even though it came with challenges,
from our office in Nairobi to their homes and built it also presented us with an opportunity to learn
the prototype on behalf of the team. Although one new methods of delivering learning remotely. We
team member was building the solution, all other continue to explore and utilize available technology
members were supporting the process remotely via to engage our learners and educators to ensure we
video calls. This ensured the participants learned create enabling environments for our students.
how to work in teams to achieve their objectives. Making resources such as the internet,
At the end of the ten day boot camp, learners were prototyping material, and electronic gadgets
able to document their progress through video accessible to the students is fundamental to
recordings and photographs. encourage participation from learners especially
those in underserved communities.
 Making Do: Adaptations for COVD and Remote Learning 49

Tea Sippers & TurtleStitch

by Kristin Burrus

For 24 Sundays in a row, I have set an alarm and artists from New York, Boston, Tennessee, Texas,
jumped on a Zoom at 10 am. Usually, Sunday is the California, Italy, Germany, Sweden, and China.
one day a week I choose to sleep in, be lazy, and What brings us together is that we are all interested
not do anything productive. I do not like getting in using coding to make embroidery. Yes, you read
up early, but I can’t help myself; I just keep doing that right, we use code to determine the size,
it. I have Zoomed from all over the place these past shape, type, and color of stitches in an embroidery
six months, including a campsite in Kentucky with pattern.
very spotty wifi, from the car in nowhere Georgia TurtleStitch1 is a programming language
with an even less reliable signal, on the way to a designed for this. It is based on the programming
beach trip with two of my girlfriends, and from a language Snap! However, I have noticed that we
friend’s kitchen with two very young kids bouncing have done most of our coding in a Logo kind of
around. Most Sundays, however, I have been home way. This is not surprising since Cynthia Solomon,
in Tennessee in my PJs sipping coffee (ironically, co-creator of Logo, the first computer language
not tea) and absolutely enjoying the heck out for children, is one of our two fearless leaders.
of the morning. The craziest part of this whole Our other leader is Susan Klimczak, Education
experience is that I have been learning math and Organizer at South End Technology Center and
coding on these morning Zoom meetings as part of Senior FabLearn Fellow. These two are a pretty
an amazing group, self-titled “Tea & TurtleStitch.” hilarious duo and bring out each other’s strengths
Tea & TurtleStitch is a first-class group of each week. Cynthia is the master coder and Susan
educators and makers and intellectuals and is the master maker (as well as an amazing coder).

Joining our Tea & TurtleStitch Zoom group from my campsite on a Sunday morning in July .
50
50 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Susan has inspired me to learn not only how to code Best lesson yet — scale! I made a witch based
for embroidery, but also make finishing touches on Ed Emberly’s book teaching kids to draw
to the design like adding zippers to pouches and entitled, How to Draw Monsters and other Scary Stuff.
laser cutting frames for display. The group itself The first version resembled more of a chicken on
is a who’s who of maker educators and computer a broomstick than a witch (really, check out the
scientists. But the best part is the joy everyone picture). What I figured out is that, unlike the Ed
brings to the art and science of TurtleStitch. The Emberly drawing, an equal-sized nose and chin
simplest achievements are genuinely celebrated give the impression of a beak especially if it isn’t
on-screen and on Twitter. As a novice coder (and filled in with green color. I also realized after I
embroiderer for that matter), I have felt included embroidered the first witch that she was tiny and
and encouraged at every step. only about 1.5 inches tall. The design needed to be
In conversations with friends of mine over the big enough to make changes to her nose.
years who are math teachers, I have realized there My first instinct was to quadruple the size of
are some serious gaps in my math education, and every shape. While that did allow me to give her a
in my spatial reasoning. I could memorize things proper nose, now she was too big to embroider with
and pass tests (most of the time), but what I have my machine’s 4-inch hoop. Darn! The next step was
been lacking is a deeper understanding of mathe- to scale her down by ¼. Because I really did not want
matical concepts and any real practice in geometry. to sit and do the math for every step. I thought I
Calculating the volume of a “cone of corn” may have was clever and multiplied all the move blocks by
been part of my college entrance exam, but it never 0.75. It worked! Since Turtlestitch.org makes every
held any meaningful application in my life. I even design public, Susan and Cynthia would check on
worked at Baskin Robbins as a teenager and filled our progress between Sunday sessions. They would
waffle cones with ice cream, but I was never asked celebrate our successes, remix our projects, and
to measure the volume because folks just wanted offer suggestions when appropriate.
the most mint chocolate chip I could squish down While the design was cute, Cynthia noticed a
inside! Logo and our friend the turtle may have terrible inefficiency in my code. During our next
been developed for kids, but I am so grateful for Sunday session, she explained how she improved
the experience of finding joy in math for the first my code by creating a variable called SCALE. Now
time in my life. the witch can be changed easily to any size. In

It took several weeks before I was ready to start using my embroidery machine . Learning how to thread the machine was a whole
different learning experience. In the meantime, here is Susan’s multicolor (variegated) thread embroidery of my shell2 design.
 Making Do: Adaptations for COVD and Remote Learning 51

hindsight, it seems simple and so obvious, but for fellow Tea Sippers made learning difficult concepts
the mathematically disinclined, it was a revelation. FUN for me. I am as surprised as anyone that I
It is the simplest example of why variables are so want to spend hours after our Sunday morning
important in both coding and math, but it took a Zoom sessions working on a new design or a new
relevant application to really see it. coding concept.
This reminds me of my favorite quote by Seymour I am the luckiest person in the world to have
Papert, “Anything is easy if you can assimilate it to been led to this group. Thank you!
your collection of models. If you can’t, anything can
be painfully difficult.” Well maybe that is why math Notes
was always so difficult, I had no models with which 1. turtlestitch.org
to assimilate it. TurtleStitch and these amazing

“Chicken” witch and code with inefficient scaling.

I used Cynthia’s improved code using SCALE and designed a

final witch with a proper nose.
52
52 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Making Remotely: Sending Embroidery Kits Home and

Teaching on Zoom
by Heather Allen Pang

In the fall of 2021 my school was fully remote, but be helpful for the project. They did not lose the
we had the opportunity to send supplies home supplies over the several weeks we worked on the
before class started. I was ambitious, and I put embroidery. I also sent home some photocopied
together two different sets of making supplies as pages of simple embroidery designs from a Dover
well as some printed materials for my 8th grade US reprint book: Early American Embroidery Designs:
history class. An 1815 Manuscript Album with over 190 Patterns by
The two making kits were embroidery and Elizabeth M. Townshend (reprinted 1985).
fabric collage. I found some basic embroidery videos online
The embroidery kits included a 6-inch from my favorite sewing instructor on YouTube,
embroidery hoop, a skein of black 6-thread the Crafty Gemini,1 and posted those for the
embroidery floss, a needle (DMC size 5), and two students. (Seriously, she is a great teacher, and her
pieces of fabric. In late summer, when it still felt step-by-step project instructions are fantastic for
like I had all the time in the world to get ready sewing, quilting, knitting, bag making, and just
for school, I decided to use up some of the fabric about anything else she puts her hand to).
overflowing from my own collection and make Over Zoom, I showed the students how to put
drawstring bags to hold these supplies. I stayed up the fabric into the hoop, and how to do it so that
way too late making those bags the night before the fabric lines up with the bottom of the hoop so
I had to drop them off at school for sorting. That you can trace from a drawing or printout onto the
was my own fault. While my timing was off, I was fabric (hold it up to a window and let the sunlight
right that having the supplies in one bag would act like a light table).

“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”

— Audrey Hepburn. (Abigail K.)
 Making Do: Adaptations for COVD and Remote Learning 53

This is a trick I learned from another great online Instructions for all options
instructor, Shannon Downey (Her site, Badass • Pick one of the three options listed here.
Cross Stitch, might not be a name appropriate for • Your embroidery should cover (not solid, but
school, but that is the way it goes sometimes).2 filled, decorated, written on) more than half the
The first assignment was just to get some size of the hoop. It may be larger if you want.
stitches done. I asked them to submit a photo of • You may use any of the fabric (or some of your
the hoop set up with some stitches of any kind. own), any of the floss, in as many or as few
We worked on some other things for a while, and colors as you like.
I could tell that some of the students were working • Embroider your name or initials to sign your
on their own, since they asked me questions about piece.
how to do certain stitches, or what I recommended • Turn in a good quality photograph and a one
they try next. Others put the project away in the sentence explanation on Schoology before
bag and forgot about it. winter break
I talked about the importance of needlework in
the lives of women as we read about Oney Judge, Option 1: Finish the piece you started with your
an enslaved woman owned by Martha Washington. quotation or design
When she runs away, she makes a living as a If you started with a quotation, add a small
needlewoman, and we talked about the history design from a part of the pattern from Early
of cloth and sewing, the importance of making American Embroidery Designs (1815) by Elizabeth M.
clothing in a pre-industrial and early industrial Townshend.
world, and how the skills were essential to many If you started with a design from a part of the
women being able to make their way in the world pattern from Early American Embroidery Designs
in the 18th and 19th centuries. (1815) by Elizabeth M. Townshend, add at least 3
I had students pick quotations about the United words or a full quotation.
States, history, reform, justice, or related themes in You may add anything else you want to the
another lesson, and I brought that lesson together finished piece.
with embroidery to create the list of options for the
embroidery assignment:

“If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair .” —Shirley Chisholm
(“This quote shows the importance of having one’s voice heard .” —Zoe L .)
54
54 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Option 2: A modern pattern with words and will stay in my class even when we are back to
decoration full-time in-person school. It unites the history of
Do a google search for: free embroidery pattern the craft, which is important in American history,
printable and find one you like. Please pick one women’s history, and economic history (and really
that has words and patterns or images, or add your any period of history, those are just the ones that
own words to one that does not have any. Complete fit in my class) with practicing the craft. It is an
that pattern or modify it to suit your taste. opportunity for students to learn something that
might be completely new to them, but is an ancient
Option 3: Design your own idea and get it craft.
approved.
If you want to do something else, please pitch the Notes
idea to Dr. Pang. 1. craftygemini.com and youtube.com/play-
list?list=PLj9jdzKVN1echw6yse5esu2Ix-
Reflecting on this project
Mt3CkgFt
We have not done any other embroidery
2. badasscrossstitch.com
assignments this year, but several of the students
have kept going on their own. One mother
contacted me to find out what supplies I should get
for her daughter’s birthday, since she was embroi-
dering all the time.
Looking back on the work, I think this project

California wildfires “All is well when flowers grow, because flowers can grow in
the most barren of circumstances, and so can one.” ‚— Flo
 Making Do: Adaptations for COVD and Remote Learning 55

In Your Hands: The Emancipation of Manufacturing

by Martin Oloo

“Necessity is the mother of invention” is a famous to Fablabs and makerspaces across Africa which
proverb used across the world. In 2020, it was have both traditional tools and modern power
never more accurate as when COVID-19 disrupted and digital fabrication tools while at the same
and in many cases completely cut off supply time enjoying the privilege of global connectivity
chains in many countries. Everyone wanted to do which allows participants to embrace collaborative
something, to offer solutions to the problems of design from any part of the world.
COVID-19 including those of us in makerspaces.
For a lot of people, this was the first time they saw Fab Labs: Democratization of
the need for innovative makerspaces. manufacturing
Traditionally and culturally, many communities A FABrication LABoratory (Fab Lab) is described by
had ways of fulfilling their needs by making the founder, MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld as a
products. For example, communities had place where you can “make almost anything.” Fab
traditional healers, pot makers, ironworks, Labs are where an idea is turned into reality, where
weavers, garment makers, and leather tanners planning, design, production and fabrication
among others, but where are places for innovation? processes are all done in one place. Fab Labs
Where can you go and turn an idea into reality or allow people to make things without turning to
share your thoughts and get genuine feedback an outside manufacturer, thus emancipating the
from people experienced in modern industry? manufacturing process, and making it accessible
In the West, many households have a garage. These to average people.
garages, unlike in Africa where their purpose is This technological emancipation of manufac-
turing is supported by an array of digital desktop
fabrication and manufacturing tools which ranges
from cutting, drilling, and molding tools like 3D
printers, CNC millers and routers, laser and vinyl
cutters, and supported by electronic and power
tools. These tools enable makers to turn their ideas
to reality by designing and producing at the same
place under their full control.
Worldwide, Fab Labs have acted as agents
for democratization of manufacturing, since
the network of Fab Labs have similar tools and
Fablab users consulting with staff share similar processes. The worldwide need has
only to keep a vehicle safe, might hold a workshop generated the remarkable growth of Fab Labs,
where repairs and building things takes place. A makerspaces, hackerspaces, and innovation hubs
workshop fitted with tools enables one to build which provide shared tools and knowledge for the
something and liberates people from relying manufacturing of various items.
entirely on the others to repair small broken items In addition to production, Fab Labs provide
in your house. The need for such spaces gave birth a unique learning approach borrowed from the
56
56 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

work of Paulo Freire which encourages adding Red Cross, Field Ready, UNICEF, and even small
new things to familiar practices. This is expressed youth-led groups like Kisumu Youth Caucus made
by Paul Blikstein in “Travels in Troy with Freire: an impact in different ways by supporting various
Technology as an Agent for Emancipation” (2008). programs and disseminating information.
Paulo goes on to stress the dichotomy between On the 18th of March 2020, just four days after
being immersed in one’s reality (only being aware the first case was announced in Kenya, makers at
of your own needs) and emerging from reality Fab Lab Winam came up with a contact tracing
(being active in fulfilling those needs). The learners mobile application for passengers of Public Service
go from the “consciousness of the real” to the Vehicles (PSVs).1 This was in response to the Kisumu
“consciousness of the possible” as they perceive governor, Prof. Nyong’o’s appeal for PSV operators
the “viable new alternatives” beyond the “limiting to keep a manifest of all passengers. This was later
situations.” improved to include cashless payment and named
mSafari.2 This solution was a way to trace the
Humanitarian making in crisis spread of COVID-19 created by the movement of
In the March 2020 when the first cases of people in obviously overloaded matatus (minibuses)
COVID-19 were found in Kenya, there a feeling of in Kenya and many other African countries whose
panic, as everyone was clueless about its causes means of public transport are not so organized.
or treatment. Any ideas for curbing the dreaded During the same period, we set up virtual
disease were welcomed. As the medical health classes for teaching STEM to young people aged
workers were setting up facilities ready to receive 10 to 17. Our approach was peer education. We
patients, the maker community started to figure identified some students who were at home but are
out what they could build, and the media took good with STEM to offer virtual training to others.
charge of relaying correct information (although So many students benefited from this program.
this became more difficult thanks to freedom in On June 15th 2020, at the celebration of the
social media). Day of an African Child, Fablab Winam hosted a
Around the world, different makerspaces Global Kids Day in partnership with Fab Lab Kids.
and fablabs like Vigyan Ashram Fablab (India), Global Kids Day is a virtual maker-workshop for
Shenzhen Open Innovation Lab (China), Kamakura children from different parts of the world working
Fablab (Japan), Fablab Oulu (Finland), Fablab Leon and collaborating together. Each workshop has its
(Spain), Kumasi Hive (Ghana), Fablab Rwanda own strategies for developing values, knowledge,
(Rwanda), and many others joined forces. In Kenya, and skills, but they all share the same basic meth-
some learning institutions like Dedan Kumathi odological structure. It is championed by team of
University of Technology, Technical University of friends from different countries (Mexico, Qatar,
Mombasa, and Nyangoma Technical Institution Brazil, Japan, Argentina, Sudan, and Kenya). This
of the Deaf shared findings and solutions they particular one focused on African culture and over
invented. Other humanitarian organizations 500 participants from 10 countries benefited from
like Countrywide Innovation Hubs, Afrilabs, this workshop. Another workshop benefited about
100 children from Dolphine Korando Educational
Centre with support from BetterMe Kenya.
Fablab Winam has continued to work with
different people and firms to develop and locally
manufacture a number of items, including 3D
printed face shields, an elbow-operated tap, mask
clips/ear savers for facemasks, an elbow door
opener, a foot-operated tap for already installed
sinks, constant heat plastic roller sealer, and others.

Production area fitted with digital fabrication machines

 Making Do: Adaptations for COVD and Remote Learning 57

Our experience during COVID-19 showed

that 21st century skills and technology were the
main agents for emancipation. This will hopefully
continue to bring much needed transformation
and give consumers freedom and a sense of
ownership over the products they use. Someday,
manufacturing will no longer be in the hands of
the few, but everyone will be able to make their
own contributions in the production process,
Printing PPEs and other small medical devices. especially with respect to their environment and
Some of the products built in other Fablabs the locally available materials; designing globally
in response to the COVID-19 pandemic were and producing locally.
ventilators, sanitizers, handwashing stations and
foot-operated taps, air purifiers, respirators, face Notes
masks and face shields, elbow-operated taps and 1. kenyainsights.com/two-computer-geeks-in-
door openers, gowns, hospital beds, and many kisumu-develops-a-mobile-app-to-help-trace-
more. those-exposed-to-coronavirus-in-matatus/
2. msafari.co.ke
Self-reliant, participatory rural
development
Rallying people together to identify their own References
problems and designing their own solutions is Blikstein, P. (2008). Travels in Troy with Freire:
the topic of Stan Burkey in his book titled People Technology as an Agent for Emancipation. In
First: A Guide to the Self-Reliant, Participatory Rural P. Noguera & C. A. Torres (Eds.), Social Justice
Development (1993). Burkey says, “Go to the people Education for Teachers: Paulo Freire and the
live with them, love them, learn from them, work Possible Dream (pp. 205-244). Sense Publishers.
with them, start with what they have, build on Burkey, S. (1993). People first: A guide to self-reliant
what they know and, in the end, the people will say, participatory rural development. Zed Books
‘we have done it, have done it ourselves.’” Ltd.

Field Ready staff assessing the quality of FUTAP Victor & Angela after assessment of handwashing station
58
58 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

The AI Club: The Importance of Student Agency in the

Teaching of Artificial Intelligence
by Charles Pimentel

“Studying is not an act of consuming ideas, but The 2018 update of the National Curriculum
of creating and recreating them.” —Paulo Freire Guidelines for Secondary Education in Brazil,1
proposes that curriculum units known as Formative
Why teach AI in K–12 education? Itinerary2 of the Mathematics and its Technologies
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an increasingly include among other topics, studies on AI:
pervasive technology that has expanded its field of
“Deepening of structuring knowledge for the
action in a short period of time. AI has been applied application of different mathematical concepts
in areas ranging from marketing, medicine, in social and work contexts, structuring curricular
engineering, politics, and in services related to arrangements that allow studies in problem
human and financial resources, and even in leisure solving, (…), robotics, automation, artificial
activities, including games and social networks. intelligence, (…), considering the context and the
The ubiquitous nature of this technology has possibilities of provision by education systems.”
caused people to interact with AI passively without
According to Libâneo (2004), the school can no
considering, for example, that this interaction
longer be an isolated institution, separated from
exposes their individuality and privacy. As with
the surrounding reality but should be integrated
many user-friendly things, people often neglect
into a community that interacts with broader
the need for caution both in its usage and when
society. In fact, the school environment is a space
granting permission to access their personal data.
where this topic can be addressed. AI’s operating
One of the ways to raise awareness in young
logic can be presented and discussed as a means
people about this technology is via AI literacy
of clarifying to students what makes smart devices
lessons, so that users interact with AI in a critical
so invasive. Initiatives like this creates a new
and less passive way.
generation of citizens aware of the benefits, risks,
There are important reasons why the school
and care related to the use of such devices.
should include subjects related to AI in curriculum.
Among them, we can point out the impacts that Implementation of AI teaching at Polo
AI has caused on human relations in 21st century Educacional Sesc
(Druga, 2018). In addition, the expansion of the In 2019, in order to relate Mathematics, Computer
integration of this technology in day-to-day Science, and New Technologies to the high school
resources points to changes in the professional curriculum at my previous high school, Polo
world, enhanced by the fourth industrial revolution. Educacional Sesc, I proposed a course for the
Just as the first industrial revolution introduced Mathematical Formative Itinerary, called “Math
machines into the production system, the second Maker.”
introduced electricity and the third introduced The course is a STEM (Science, Technology,
information technology, the fourth revolution Engineering and Mathematics) approach that
encompasses a broad system of advanced technol- integrates robotics, automation, programming,
ogies such as artificial intelligence, robotics and the and AI.
Internet of Things.
 Making Do: Adaptations for COVD and Remote Learning 59

Just as the Brazilian Ministry of Education makes AI so important in countless applications.

proposed actions to modernize and update During the workshops, the students taught the
teaching through the Common National Base robot to recognize geometric shapes and move
Curriculum,3 the STEM approach is a government in a different direction based on the shapes.
initiative that emerged in the United States with Realizing that Frankie’s AI algorithm sometimes
the aim of improving the learning of these subjects. did not properly recognize the image learned
In November 2009, former US President Barack and consequently moved in a different direction
Obama presented the “Educate to Innovate” than expected, students compared it to an
initiative as a collaborative effort between the autonomous car and raised the following question:
federal government, the private sector, and the
nonprofit and research communities. STEM “Whose responsibility would it be if an AI driving an
education was recognized as an integrated autonomous car makes an inappropriate decision and
approach that brings greater relevance to the causes an accident? The owner of the car or those who
teaching of concepts in mathematics, physics, developed the AI algorithm?”.
chemistry, and computer science topics.
This approach provides the student with a more
modern understanding of the integrated nature of
STEM subjects and develops important skills for
the 21st century professional. They will be more
prepared for a labor market that demands a new
set of cognitive skills and abilities, previously only
accessible to specialists, promoting the democrati-
zation of various tasks.
At the Polo Educacional Sesc, one of the activities
that resulted from the Math Maker course was the
Artificial Intelligence Club.

The first year of the AI Club

In 2019, the first year of the AI Club, students partic-
ipated in workshops that promoted the introduc-
tion of Machine Learning concepts via educational Robot Frankie prototyping stage
robotics. Machine Learning is an AI field whose
objective is to develop algorithms capable of The first year of the AI Club showed us that we
improving its performance in specific tasks. needed to go beyond just learning mathematics
Machine learning algorithms learn information and computer science concepts. The meetings with
directly from data without the need for a prede- the students pointed to the need for a multidisci-
termined equation as a model. The workshops plinary discussion.
lasted four months, and the students did activities
related to pattern recognition, database definition,
training, classification and accuracy using the
Python programming language.
In the school makerspace, I prototyped
a Raspberry Pi-based robot called Frankie
(F.R.A.N.K.I.E stands for Fostering Reasoning
and Nurturing Knowledge through Informatics
in Education). This robot made it possible to teach
students the mechanisms behind an artificial Conducting field activities with the Frankie Robot
neural network, so they could understand what
60
60 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Students raised important questions, among members of the Club, provided experimentation
them the power that AI has in processing a large with the WiSARD neural network model.
amount of data and transforming it into privileged The debates of the AI Club, now lives-
information. One of the participants said that he treamed, were attended by educators from the
had read that “data is the new oil,” referring to the Polo Educacional Sesc and professionals from
phrase said by Brittany Kaiser, former director various fields, among them former students of
of the extinguished British company Cambridge the institution, as well as important researchers
Analytica. We discussed this and another like Professor Paulo Blikstein from Columbia
statement by computer scientist Kai-fu Lee who University.
said, “if artificial intelligence is the new electricity, Two debates can be highlighted, in which
big data is the oil that powers generators” in his students discussed the ethical, social, and political
book AI Superpowers. issues related to the use of AI whose themes were:
In addition, students showed concern for ethics “Artificial Intelligence and Ethical Implications”
on the part of those who develop AI algorithms and and “Power and Politics in the Digital Age”.
those who obtain and use personal data through
these algorithms. They explored fears about the
social impacts of using this technology such as
the automation of numerous fields of work and
consequent unemployment. It was impressive that
young people thought deeply about citizens who
would find it difficult to find jobs and reflected
about investments in social programs that might
become essential if AI is widely implemented.
Through these questions, we can see that the
results of the 2019 workshops went far beyond
technology learning and provided an important
reflection on ethical and social issues regarding AI.

The second year of the AI Club

With the pandemic in 2020, the AI Club continued
as best we could with remote experiments and
biweekly debates. For the second year of the AI
Club, I counted on the partnership of the researcher
and co-worker Isaac D`Césares. It is important to
emphasize that for entrepreneurial educational
actions to find success, establishing partnerships
with other educators is essential.
Machine Learning experiments were introduced
using free web interaction platforms such as
Teachable Machine4 and QuickDraw5 and proceeded
to hands-on programming activities on the Google
Colab platform,6 which allowed students to collab-
oratively program machine learning libraries on
the web in the Python programming language.
Online workshops explored AI topics such as
the Linear Regression Algorithm, Scikit-Learn
Clustering, Decision Tree Algorithms, and Neural
Networks. One of the workshops, organized by Online workshops promoted by students
 Making Do: Adaptations for COVD and Remote Learning 61

In the “Artificial Intelligence and Ethical from users taking simple Facebook quizzes.9
Implications” livestream,7 values and principles Facebook users didn’t realize the quizzes gave
involving the implementation and use of AI by permission to the company to gain access to all
technology companies were discussed. A student their likes and even likes from their network of
described the case of an American company called friends.
Target, reported in the book The Power of Habit, The students pointed out that with only
with the title “How Target knows what you want 270,000 users who participated in these quizzes,
before you know it,” highlighting how companies the company gained access to the data of approx-
like Target use their customers’ personal data to imately 87 million people. Based on their interac-
recommend products and boost their sales. tions, citizens’ personalities were typed to promote
Menstruation apps were also used as an example. political advertisements aimed at these people,
In these apps, a user can note not only the date of with content that caused the polarization of society
her period, emotions, and symptoms, but also if and influenced the country’s political destiny.
she had sexual intercourse and when. Thus, the In their presentation, the students explored
app can predict her next menstruation or indicate a study that claimed that by analyzing 70 likes,
the possibility of a pregnancy. When users approve Facebook “knew” the user better than a friend;
the “Terms of Use,” they allow their data to be used with 150 likes, better than his parents; and to know
by companies without being aware that it can be the user better than his love partner, only 300
shared and sold to other companies. For example, if likes were needed. They emphasized the need to
the user checks in the app that she has dry hair, she control access to this data so that what happened
can receive ads for hair products. At the center of in the American election is not repeated in other
the debate was ethics and personal data. elections.
In the “Power and Politics in the Digital Age” The AI coding experiments and debates proved
livestream,8 it was discussed, among other topics, to be complementary, as the students dealt with the
how AI is used in the dissemination of news, both subject through both practical use and thoughtful
real and fake, and targeted political propaganda. conversation. According to Paulo Freire, consuming
During this livestream, the students explored ready-made ideas does not make a person a scholar
the case of how the now defunct British company or a researcher but participating in the process of
Cambridge Analytica managed to influence creating ideas does (2001). This process of creating
elections in the United States by using data gained ideas is supported by action.

Live online debates

62
62 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

AI Club 2020 Remote Meetings Notes

Meeting 1: Presentation: “Artificial Intelligence 1. i n . g o v.b r / m a t e r i a / - / a s s e t _p u b l i s h e r /
Club – 2020” Kujrw0TZC2Mb/content/id/51281622
Meeting 2: Workshop: “Introduction to Machine 2. Formative Itineraries are curricular units
Learning and the Development Environment” offered by educational institutions that allow
Meeting 3: Debate: “Artificial Intelligence and the student to deepen their knowledge and
Ethical Implications” advance in their studies of interest or prepare
Meeting 4: Workshop: “Machine Learning for the working world.
Experimentation – WiSARD Weightless Neural 3. Document that defines the essential knowledge
Network on the Google Colab Platform” that all K–12 education students in Brazil have
Meeting 5: Debate: “Creativity and Artificial the right to learn.
Intelligence” 4. teachablemachine.withgoogle.com/
Meeting 6: Workshop: “A Matemática por detrás 5. quickdraw.withgoogle.com/
de predição usando um Algoritmo de Regressão 6. colab.research.google.com/
Linear” 7. YouTube video – bit.ly/ia_ethical
Meeting 7: Debate: “Teacher training, Maker 8. YouTube video – bit.ly/ia_politics
Movement and Artificial Intelligence in K-12 9. The story can be seen in the documentary The
Education with Professor Paulo Blikstein – Great Hack.
Columbia University – NY ”
Meeting 8: Workshop: “Clustering with Scikit- References
Learn: Working with Unsupervised Data” Druga, S. (2018) Growing up with AI – Cognimates:
Meeting 9: Thematic Panel at the Knowledge from coding to teaching machines. In:
Festival of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro: Dissertação (Mestrado). Massachusetts
“Artificial Intelligence in K-12 Education – The Institute of Technology.
teaching of AI, and the teaching through AI. How Libâneo, J.C. (2004) Organização e Gestão da
can the school prepare for this new reality?” Escola: Teoria e Prática, 5. ed. Goiânia.
Meeting 10: Debate: “Power and Politics in the Freire, P. (2001) Ação Cultural para a Liberdade e
Digital Age” Outros Escritos. 9ed. São Paulo: Paz e Terra
Meeting 11: Workshop: “Classification using the
Decision Tree Algorithm”
Meeting 12: Debate: “Artificial Intelligence
Contributions to Human Health”
Meeting 13: Debate: “Artificial Intelligence, IoT and
Smart Cities: The Contributions of Mathematics to
a Society 5.0”

The AI Club
Making for All
 65

In an ideal world, digital fabrication, making, and makerspaces should be open to everyone
— any gender, age, experience, skill level, ability, and any kind of interest. These articles
document different makerspaces and activities from around the world that reach out to
people and create communities of respect and trust.

When we work to include everyone, the benefits go beyond just making a statement or
feeling good about ourselves. Research shows that diverse groups generate ideas that are
more imaginative and less constrained. Diversity and acceptance are part of a virtuous circle
that results in more participation, more choices, and more confidence.

Creating these kinds of opportunities doesn’t happen by magic. These articles demonstrate
the thoughtfulness and care involved in making learning environments and practices open
and accessible to all.
66
66 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Special Needs Lab

by Lars Beck Johannsen

This school year a big change occurred in our either on their own or together with one other
makerspace. We expanded our space by 400 student.
square meters to start a new school for children • Most ideas have revolved around making
with special needs, combining traditional school something for someone else.
with our makerspace, and adding 40 students • They have mastered the use of the different
and 12 new teachers to our daily life. The idea of machines and help each other to a degree I have
the new school is that the first part of the day is seldom witnessed.
traditional school, and the second half takes place • During Openlab, they offer their help to adult
in our different workshop areas, where they can guests who are new to the lab.
work with metal, wood, ceramics, music, and the • They interact and establish relationships with
different machines in Fablab Skanderborg which “regular students” in “Fablab Freetime.”
has its own dedicated area. It has been an interesting seven weeks.
My role in this was starting a 1½ hour long
weekly subject simply called “Fablab.” The idea A change of plans
was to introduce some of the new teachers and I had first thought that I would have to do more
students to maker-based learning. It was a bit of instruction with our new students, but that
an experiment, but after the first seven weeks the changed after the first session. They simply had too
conclusion is simple — it was a huge success! many things they wanted to make to be bothered
Here are some of the things that we observed. by my teaching — so that plan was abandoned. Of
course, they needed a lot of guidance to start with,
Involvement of the special needs but most of them mastered the different machines
students (laser cutter, vinyl cutter, 3D-printer) rather
• Students come by during their breaks to start quickly. They were very good at showing each other
a 3D-print, lasercut something, or just hang how to use the machines and learning what they
around and have a talk. needed to know when the need occurred.
• Four out of the eight students have joined my I have a theory that a large part of the success we
afterschool program “Fablab Freetime.” experienced came from mastering the fabrication
• Two of the students also continued into our technology that enabled them to make things. They
Openlab night, which means that on that day are not just reproducing things but were intent
they spend nearly twelve hours in the lab from on making and creating things for others. In a
12:15 - 21:00. (They attend “Fablab,” “Fablab world where “special needs” is often looked upon
Freetime,” and “Openlab.”) as meaning “inadequate” it must be a boost to the
self-esteem to be able to do something that not
Observations everyone (including their teachers) can do.
• Our new students needed only a few instruc-
tional sessions to learn a bit of Inkscape, Creativity from the heart
3D-modeling, and coding with the micro:bit Another thing that I noticed is how many ideas they
microcontroller. have. They are really creative in many ways, much
• They have been full of ideas and have worked
 Making for All 67

more than I experience with so-called “regular Making changes

students,” where it often is a bit of a process to get We have now been running the program for one
the ideas flowing. and a half years. But some things have changed.
The best thing to come out of this was the way The lab is more integrated in the normal day of
that they took the lab to heart. Staying after school the students. The class itself is smaller but with a
and late into the evening to make more stuff, handful of really dedicated students.
helping the people who come to Openlab, but also There is no doubt that the lab has made a big
hanging around, having fun, and establishing rela- difference for the special needs students. Some
tionships with other kids. of them had never been able to participate in the
We are soon going to start round two of this regular school day, and now they are helping other
experiment and everyone has chosen to continue. kids learn how to 3D model, use the 3D-printer,
We will add a few more students due to the make vinyl cut stickers, and help with laser cutting.
high interest, and we will use some of the most They make up their own projects and execute them.
experienced students as mentors. I am really But most of all, they have changed a lot of people’s
looking forward to seeing what the next round will perception of what it means to be “special needs.”
bring. They continually surpass all expectations with their
“Build something that dances” was the only imagination, skill, and compassion for others.
project that I chose for them. In this image we
can see Victor’s build which he loved doing and is Notes
working on an iteration of the design that involves 1. Video of Build something that dances projects -
remote-controlling it with a micro:bit.1 The youtu.be/UrEPllZVto4
prompt “Build something that dances” is inspired
by the article “Exploring Circuits: Make Stuff
Light Up and Move” by Tracy Rudzitis in the book
Meaningful Making: Projects and Inspiration for Fab
Labs + Makerspaces (Volume 1).
68
68 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Garotas STEM: A Project to Encourage Girls to Pursue

STEM Careers
by Charles Pimentel
This text was written in collaboration with Nicolly Figueiredo, a student
at Polo Educacional Sesc in Rio de Janeiro. Thanks Nicolly!

On March 9, 2019, a Saturday, I was in New York to countless other innovations involving technology
City attending the FabLearn Conference, and in in education.
one of the hallways of Teachers College at Columbia But when I met her that Saturday in the hallway
University a very polite lady asked me about the at Teachers College, I did not recognize her. I
auditorium where the event was taking place. knew about Logo, but whenever I had heard about
We went together to the auditorium, sat in the the impact of this language on education here in
upper balcony, and that morning Professor Paulo Brazil, the emphasis was given to the work of the
Blikstein announced that the 2020 FabLearn mathematician Seymour Papert.
Lifetime Achievement Award would go to computer In fact, Papert has an undeniable and extremely
scientist Cynthia Solomon. Yes, the same very important contribution in the field of education
polite lady I escorted to the venue. through technology, in the creation of construc-
Cynthia is a pioneer in the field of Artificial tionist theory and in the metaphor of a Mathland,
Intelligence, Computer Science, and Educational which has mathematics education as its focus. His
Computing. In partnership with Seymour Papert work, and these themes, were always present in the
and Wally Feurzeig, she co-created the Logo lectures I attended when it came to the creation
Programming Language1 for children, in addition of Logo programming language and educational
technologies. But I had not heard of the importance
of Cynthia’s work.
It is a problem here in Brazil that many people
don’t even know the work of very famous women in
technology areas like Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper,
and Dorothy Vaughan. This is something that must
be fixed.
Returning to Brazil, I researched Solomon’s
biography, and I was impressed by the work of
this important computer scientist. I realized that
maybe I did not know Cynthia’s work well because
Cynthia Solomon, co-creator of Logo and pioneer of men have more visibility in society than women,
technology in education especially in STEM areas.
 Making for All 69

At that time, I was studying for a Masters in Co-operation and Development published the
Computing at the Federal University of Rio de results of a survey carried out in 64 countries.3 The
Janeiro (UFRJ), where there is a university work highlighted that parents were more likely
extension (project for social impact) called to expect their sons, rather than their daughters,
Minervas Digitais.2 Minervas Digitais is focused to work in science, technology, engineering or
on diversity and female empowerment in science mathematics.
and carries out, among different initiatives, The study also showed that only 14% of women
actions aimed at K–12 education. I realized that it entering university for the first time chose
would be an opportunity to bring the discussion science-related fields, including engineering,
about gender equity and female representation to manufacturing and construction. In contrast, 39%
the school where I work. of men entered university for the same fields. This
Thus, in November 2019, we decided to is significant not only because women are severely
try a project at our school focused on female underrepresented in STEM fields of study and
empowerment in the area of computing. I occupations, but also because graduates in these
suggested that we start by inviting the Minervas fields are in high demand on the job market, with
Digitais project members to visit our school to the highest salaries.
talk to some of our students. The meeting was a
success! The Garotas STEM project
From that moment on I started to integrate this In 2022, with face-to-face classes returning after
extension with the aim for more girls and women the start of vaccination against COVID-19, I wanted
to enter STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering to resume our focus on K–12 computing and new
in Mathematics) areas. technologies curriculum for our female students.
The low female representation in these areas is In our school, students have seven elective
an issue that has its origins in K-12 education. It course opportunities in STEM areas, and we
is during this time that students generally make observed that the number of girls in them was
choices that will define their educational and significantly lower than the number of boys. To
professional lives. encourage the presence of more girls in these
The article “The ABC of Gender Equality in courses, we started a project called “Garotas STEM”
Education” from the Organization for Economic meaning “STEM Girls” in Portuguese.

“Minervas Digitais” – First meeting in 2019

70
70 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Garotas STEM” Project Meetings – 2022

An important survey girls. However, it was observed that some students
Nicolly Figueiredo, a student in the Gorotas STEM chose more than one subject in these areas.
project, wanted to study exactly how many students Filtering out the duplicates, she found:
were enrolled in these subjects and survey them to • Total individual enrolled in STEM subjects: 64
identify the reasons that led girls at school who • Number of girls enrolled in STEM subjects: 22
chose STEM electives to do so. • Number of boys enrolled in STEM subjects: 42
Nicolly sent a survey to all the girls in the seven Next, a survey using the Likert Scale was given to
STEM classes asking them to report their relation- the 22 girls who participated in these subjects. The
ship with technology, how they feel about partici- form had the following answers: 1- I totally agree;
pating in the subjects, and their desire to pursue a 2-I agree; 3-I do not know; 4-I disagree; 5- I totally
career in a STEM area. disagree.
The data showed that among the 105 registered The students responded to these 10 statements:
in these STEM courses, 76 were boys and 29 were
 Making for All 71

The table above presents the results obtained optimism that no one fully disagreed, even though
through the questionnaire. 21.4% answered “I do not know,” which exceeds the
When analyzing the data from S1, we observe number of responses to “I disagree”.
that the respondents feel very safe when getting S7 (I believe that my lack of interest in technology
their hands dirty in the classroom. In relation to in elementary school is somewhat related to gender
S2, we see that there is a division of the answers issues) highlights that half of the respondents
between agreement and disagreement, 50% each, say they agree or totally agree with the sentence
confirming the imbalance in the number of girls in presented, the majority being “I totally agree.” It
the class. is notable that 28.6% of the respondents said they
Regarding S3, it is worth mentioning that the did not know their opinion on the sentence, which
term “Technology in Education” was not defined. highlights the possible need for discussion in this
This may have resulted in the large percentage area.
(14.3%) who say they do not know, which may be Analyzing the answers obtained in S8, we
simply a lack of knowledge of the term. observe that there is a large percentage that claims
S4 responses show that more than 50% disagree to disagree with the statement and, therefore, at
or totally disagree with the statement about some point, made choices regarding participating
adaptation, which suggests good adaptation in the in STEM subjects based on their gender.
environment. In S9 there is a strong agreement that they chose
According to the data obtained in S5, it can a STEM course out of curiosity. From this data, it
be inferred that most of the respondents had is possible to deduce that while the subject may
no contact with robotics or programming in be new, it did not stop them from taking a course
elementary school, given that our institution is about something they didn’t know much about.
only a high school. In statement S10, which highlights the
The answers to S6 were mixed. Although half willingness to get involved with a career directly
of the respondents agree with the statement, associated with technology, half the students were
only 14.6% fully agree. It seems to convey a bit of in at least some agreement. This suggests they
72
72 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

are open to technology careers but are not fully I hope that the story I told at the beginning of
convinced. But at least the agreement and even this article represents something that is changing
those responding “I do not know” far exceeds any in our society, so that women who develop projects
disagreement. like Cynthia Solomon can be highlighted for their
important work and discoveries.
Conclusion We hope that our STEM Girls project is a small
The data obtained through this research was in part of society recognizing and rewarding the
line with what studies on gender equality in the talents of all people as we prepare students for
larger society show: the number of girls is smaller STEM majors and careers.
in relation to boys enrolled in STEM subjects. Nicolly said this about project, “Garotas STEM
Currently, female students represent approxi- is just one example of the many ways we can fight
mately 34% of the total enrolled, pointing to the against gender inequality in our community. It
continued importance of the Garotas STEM project took me time to realize how uncomfortable I was
for the institution. being one of the few girls in my technology courses.
Another important result was obtained Garotas STEM helped to minimize the issue and
through the questionnaire answered by the girls gave me a chance to try out research skills.”
participating in these subjects. Their answers help
us to understand the motivations that led them
to participate, the challenges they faced, and how Notes
they see future possibilities. The results will help 1. Logo Programming Language –
the project propose actions to increase the number el.media.mit.edu/logo-foundation/what_is_
of girls participating in activities aimed at STEM logo/logo_programming.html
areas. 2. Minervas Digitais – facebook.com/
Promoting initiatives in K–12 education minervasdigitaisUFRJ/
that provide students with an environment for 3. oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-
reflection on the society in which they live is an gender-eng.pdf
important step so that in the future there can be
more policies aimed at inclusion and equity, so
that social justice can be developed.
In the future, these students will occupy roles
in the job market and will be responsible for
supporting the inclusion of future generations of
students. Thus, awareness today is vitally important
for the changes that are expected tomorrow.
 Making for All 73

Let’s Think, Build, and Code!

by Michael Mumbo

In January 2022, EduTab Africa had a great and patients by taking temperature measure-
opportunity to facilitate a robotics workshop ments, checking the proper wearing of masks,
during the 12th annual Think Young Coding and reporting to doctors about the condition of
Summer School in Nairobi, Kenya. This workshop COVID-19 patients.
was a collaboration between two Fablearn Fellows, We then started the robot building process.
me, Michael Mumbo, the co-founder of EduTab Brenda gave an overview of the different
Africa, and Brenda Nyakoa from the International components of the programmable Lego Spike
Rescue Committee. Our avid love for maker Prime kit, including motors and sensors. With a
education brought us together to share best little guidance, the learners were able to assemble
practices in student-centered learning to create these components and build a simple driving robot.
an engaging, interactive, and fun workshop for the The kit uses block-based programming called the
boot camp participants. Lego Spike Prime app which the participants easily
The participants were largely children from learned.
Kenyan primary schools and a handful of secondary
schools from around Nairobi. The age of the partic-
ipants was between 6 and 16 years. The boot camp
was structured to run through two weekends and
had sessions on Web and Game Development,
Robotics, and Drones. Over the first weekend, we
had two, three-hour introductory sessions which
covered basic concepts of robotics, one in the
morning and the other in the afternoon.
Since most of the learners were participating
in a robotics session for the first time, we initiated
conversations with them to understand what they
thought robotics was all about. We used simple
guided probing questions like:
“What comes to mind when you hear the word robot?”
“What can robots do?”
“Why do we need robots?”
“What does it take to make a robot?”
“Have you ever seen a robot?”
We observed that the participants started sharing
their opinions and discussing them amongst
themselves. We also watched a short video clip
showing how Rwanda, a country in East Africa,
used robots during the COVID-19 pandemic to
reduce human contact between health care workers
74
74 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

By the end of the session, they could program the Here is what some of them had to say about their
robots to perform simple actions like moving front robotics experience.
and back, making turns at different angles, making “One of my favorite moments was when I was able to build
sounds, and using different sensors like colors and up a robot from scratch because that’s what engineers do”
motion sensors to control the motion.
We saw the kind of learning that Seymour
“During the robotics session, I learned how to be
Papert’s talked about in his book, The Children’s
open-minded and appreciate other people’s decisions.”
Machine. “Construction that takes place ‘in the
head’ often happens especially felicitously when it Some learners were able to showcase their robots
is supported by the construction of a more public in the closing ceremony where parents, caregivers,
sort in the world.” and other guests were invited. It was impressive
On the second weekend, since most of the how the teams were creative in so many different
participants were familiar with the LEGO kits, ways. For instance, one team used only color
instead of going through a guided process of sensors to control their robot as it navigated the
building a robot and programming it, we gave room. Another team used color sensors, motion
them the freedom to explore different designs and sensors, and touch sensors to navigate. It was
build robots to their liking. We gave them a simple encouraging to see this organization be willing to
prompt: design a moving object that has wheels. support learners in their journey to creativity.
While working in groups of about 6 students, they Maureen Mbaka, the Chief Administrative
designed and created different wheeled vehicles. Secretary in the Kenyan Ministry of ICT, Innovation
It was amazing to see the deep collaboration and and Youth Affairs, who attended the showcase
creativity of the teams as they strategically divided event said,
themselves into smaller task forces within their
“We are determined to facilitate universal access
groups as designers, engineers, and programmers to ICT infrastructure and services for the youth
to effectively complete the task. through our programs.”
In our last session with the learners, we had a
moment of reflection to collect feedback to improve This collaboration opened our eyes to what we
future workshops for different learners. can achieve in improving learning outcomes for
students through global partnerships to share best
practices and resources.
 Making for All 75

Game of Drones: The Beauty of Mistakes

by Lars Beck Johannsen

In the summer of 2021 we wanted to host a Crisis!

MakerCamp for 12–15 year old kids in their first On the first day, after learning a bit about each
week of the summer vacation. My initial idea was other, we made our first models in Fusion360. The
to run it as an open lab, but since many kids didn't next step was to create teams, unpack the Air:bit
really know what they could expect by turning up, kits, and get to work. But when I opened the box,
we decided to make it a bit more directed than there were no drone kits in it. My boss had acciden-
usual. We bought a classroom kit of 6 Air:bits1 for tally ordered a classroom set of Hover:bits instead!
building drones and gave it the theme “Game of Uh-oh was my first thought, but then again, the
Drones.” controller board was the same and the motors were
The invitation, translated from Danish, sounds almost what we needed in terms of having two
something like this: clockwise and two counter clockwise motors for
“Welcome to MakerCamp 2021. You will be working each drone. Plus, I had ordered a few spare motors
in a team of 4-5 kids, where each team gets an Air:bit prior to the camp, which was just about enough.
drone to assemble. Your task is to improve the software, But everything else we suddenly had to make on
tweak the drone, and create an identity for your drone. At our own. It was a little crisis! And a crisis gives
the end of the week, your drone will compete with the other birth to authentic problems that need to be solved.
drones on a field that we create together as well. During
the MakerCamp there will be introduction workshops for Not a crisis!
3D modeling in Fusion360 and micro:bit programming.” What happened was that the kids went head on
in getting the missing parts made in the lab. The
Even though we had good reasons for making these
air was filled with determination and urgency
choices, I had some concerns:
in getting the job done. The newly achieved 3D
1. Would making it into a contest be counter-
modeling skills went into making the spacers
productive towards the willingness to take
needed for the drone to be set a bit above ground.
risks in their designs?
The body of the drone was laser cut. We used the
2. I'm not a fan of kits in general. You could call base that is provided as a resource from the Air:bit
it DIY but it is more DIBSEHADIFY (Do It website, but they also made personal tweaks to it.
Because Someone Else Has Already Done It Though the day took an unexpected turn, and a
For You) — a term I came up with during my lot of extra time was needed for making the basic
first visit to the BETT conference in London parts of the drone, it was a much more interesting
back in 2015. and educational experience had it not happened
3. What about their own ideas? Would there be this way.
room for messing about with other stuff?
My concerns turned out to not be a problem, and
there were several reasons for that. One of them
was that the MakerCamp took a turn on day one
that changed everything.
76
76 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Finding screws from scrap materials Laser cut parts

3D-printed spacer - and the screws fit! Testing the design

A completed racing drone

Designing protectors for the propellers

 Making for All 77

Lessons learned
The lesson here could be — buy the wrong kit or
use kits another way than they were intended.
On a more serious note, I would say just buy the
controller board, battery, some motors and make
the rest yourself.
As for the concerns about a competition, I
believe the students were more engaged in making
the drones fly and redesigning them to fly better,
than in winning the race. Let me share the story of
one of the most daring designs, built by a brilliant
student, Mikkel.
On the first day of camp, Mikkel found a
The race field version 1. It was simplified in the end
prototype of an arcade machine with an analog
joystick and a few buttons. He wanted to use that
as the controller for the drone. He ended up taking
it home with him and worked on it the whole
evening. He continued working through day two
and succeeded in having it working smoothly on
the final day. But he was the only one able to fly it
properly, as the rest of his team had focused on the
drone body, protectors, stabilizers, etc.
On race day, the first heat of the race went well
and Mikkell’s team had a lot of points. One of
his teammates, one who contributed the least to
the project, asked if he could fly the second heat.
Mikkel handed him the controller just like that —
go ahead he said. The other kid had no experience
On the hunt for a neodymium magnet to make the drone
with that controller, and it was a disaster, but pick up metal
no one was angry with him. In fact, Mikkel had
already won his own game. He had made it work
the way he imagined and succeeded!
I will be doing this workshop again this summer
but the next time I will frame it as “make something
move.” It could be a drone, hovercraft, boat, car,
or maybe something completely different. And I
think I will let it be up to them if they want to make
a race.
Lesson learned: Embrace mistakes and allow
them to take you in an unexpected direction.

Notes
1. MakeKit - Airbits and Hoverbits – makekit.no Redesigning an arcade controller to fly a drone with a
Raspberry Pi connected to a micro:bit.
78
78 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

SenFabLab: Our Robotics Workshop for Children

by Mouhamadou Ngom

SenFabLab is a space for creativity, learning,

prototyping, and sharing. SenFabLab is located
in Grand–Yoff, one of the most populated
and low-income areas in Dakar, Senegal, with
high unemployment for young people, lack of
educational opportunities, and difficult conditions
for people with disabilities. Women are an
especially vulnerable segment of the population.
SenFabLab aims to spread digital technolo-
gies and promote learning and training through
practice. Its main objective is to engage young
people, women, craftsmen, and people with
reduced mobility in the use of computers and
digital technologies.
One of Senegal’s SenFabLab programs is to offer
robotics clubs and workshops, in partnership with
the company Samarabot (My Robot), to welcome
children ages 7 to 15 into robotics and computing.
The objective is for all young people to have physical
computing experiences to no matter where they
live or how well-resourced their school is.
We use the free educational software for children
called GCompris.1 Young people start by using the
keyboard and the mouse by playing games.
Then we introduce programming with Scratch,
which is an easy-to-learn programming language
using blocks. After mastering the Scratch interface,
 Making for All 79

Kene, the teacher, asks them to imagine and then Currently we are setting up Lynx2 which we
design a scenario they can program. discovered with the Fablearn Fellows and will be
Introductory classes in the lab are led by taught to the children next year.
Kene and Salma, who work with children every
Wednesday between 4 and 6 pm. On Saturdays, Notes
a team goes to the schools with Bamba, to teach 1. gcompris.net
robotics. 2. Lynx programming - lynxcoding.club
Children who live in the neighborhood come to
SenFabLab, but others come from as far as 20 km
to take workshops and classes.
The children can stay for hours without even
realizing it, because the classes are interesting for
them. They learn by playing.
80
80 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Reflecting on the Teachings of Gary Stager and My Work

with Robotics with Scrap Materials
by Débora Garofalo

I have reflected a lot on what the PhD, educator, Starting with the needs of students
author, and speaker Gary Stager told us in a recent We started with the questions and needs of the
FabLearn Fellows webinar. students. Of the more than 1,000 students in the
Dr. Stager, the founder of Constructing Modern Technology and Innovation classes from the 1st to
Knowledge Summer Institute1 for educators has 9th grade, 70% reported that garbage was a problem
helped students of all ages in six continents not in the community. On rainy days it prevented
only to embrace learning by making, but also them from coming to school, due to flooding, and
“the power of computers as intellectual labs and also that the dirty water brought diseases such as
vehicles for self-expression.” In addition to that, dengue and leptospirosis.
he led professional development in the world’s In response to this overwhelming response,
first laptop schools and has taught students we initially proposed to have outdoor classes
from preschool to doctoral programs. Dr. Stager in order to understand the issue related to the
is currently the curator of the website The Daily garbage in the community and, during the walk in
Papert2 which helps educators to understand the the community, to collect recyclable materials to
huge influence his colleague, Seymour Papert had develop the robotics work with scrap.
in the field of education. At first, I heard from the students that “robotics
His relationship as well as his synergy with Dr. was not something for public school students.”
Papert’s ideas bears on my own work, especially the They did not think they could learn robotics, it
ones about the learning theory, constructionism, was something only for rich private schools. The
which says that people learn better if they are situation was solved with a lot of talking and
working on projects that are meaningful to them, dialogue and consistent encouragement to become
and when they are sharing their learning. the protagonists of their own learning.
These ideas make me reflect on the importance To overcome the challenges, it was necessary
of the scrap robotics project here in Brazil. Teaching to allow myself to learn from the process and to
robotics with scrap materials has demystified exercise active listening with the students. We
the teaching of programming and robotics here worked together to build the project in steps:
in Brazil. In doing so, we have dealt with many • Public classes and community awareness about
paradigm shifts in the process of designing student garbage and proper disposal
experiences that are challenging yet playful as a • Walking through the community to collect of
gateway to the maker movement and the teaching recyclable and electronic materials
of programming and robotics. • Weighing and separating out materials that we
The robotics work with scrap was conceived in could use
2015 at Escola Municipal de Ensino Fundamental • Selling recyclable materials we could not use
(EMEF) Almirante Ary Parreiras, a public • Constructing prototypes with creativity and
elementary school. The project was born of a need critical thinking
to imagine school in a new way, through technology • Holding a technology fair, which reconnected
teaching and working with the maker culture as a with the community and gave students the
gateway to teaching programming and robotics. opportunity to be take a leading role by reporting
about their robots and what they learned.
 Making for All 81

Dr. Stager said in the webinar that children deserve and they have improved their projects and found
to learn about how the modern world works. I additional solutions for the community.
believe this goes beyond learning scientific facts. I think the biggest lesson from both Gary Stager
For them to really learn, we must help them solve and Seymour Papert is allow the children to be
real problems. It made me appreciate that our protagonists of their own learning. They want to
robotics from scrap project achieved that goal. learn, they deserve to learn, and we must find ways
Seymour Papert invented a programming to make this happen for everyone.
language for children not because he thought
the math they were being taught was too hard, Notes
but because the math we teach in schools has no 1. Constructing Modern Knowledge Summer
connection to their experiences in the real world. Institute – constructingmodernknowlege.com
He said children need to be active agents and 2. The Daily Papert – dailypapert.com
protagonists in their own learning.
I recall that many people said our robotics
program would be too difficult to do. Even the
children held the belief that robotics are for
students from private schools. What I learned is
that our children rose to the challenge and created
something even more wonderful than anyone
expected, which made learning meaningful for
them.

Learning from meaningful experiences

We saw the idea of constructionism in the daily
work of the students. They continually explored
difficult concepts and displayed more complex
levels of cognitive development in the search to
solve real problems.
At the same time, teachers learned to take
the role of creative facilitator by providing an
environment capable of providing connections
to big ideas and subject area knowledge by using
innovative technology to solve a social problem.
To encourage the students’ creativity and
inventiveness and bring the maker universe to the
classroom, the first scrap materials prototype built
by a 6th grade class was a cart powered by a balloon.
This hands-on experience amazed the students,
and they discovered their own potential as makers
and creators. It was so exciting that I had to repeat
the experience with all my classes!
And I was sure I was on the right track when my
9th grade class interrupted a storyboarding lesson
to ask me if they could make the cart too.
All the project’s steps were built with the
students, who had total freedom to create and
build their prototypes from recyclable materials.
Over three years there have been many prototypes
82
82 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Curiosity Heals at the Repair Café

by Mathias Wunderlich

About 11 years ago I founded the first Repair Café away.” For us, a little gang of technically interested
in a German high school near Dusseldorf where we kids and two adults, the light said: “Hey, I have a
started to fix devices, repair chairs, and make problem, could you please care for me?” The kids
broken and abandoned things work again. The around the table speculated: “What's inside this
kids volunteered to stay after school and learned to machine? How does it work exactly? Which parts
fix things. do what? There's still life in it, so the cable must be
OK, otherwise, there would be no red light.” So,
we instantly were sucked into a technical inves-
tigation. They searched for the screws that held
the whole thing together and one of the boys got
a screwdriver.

The Repair Cafe is open about a dozen times per year here.

Once, a 12-year-old boy from my class came to the

Repair Café with a big bag. The bag contained a
complete automatic coffee machine including a
water tank, the coffee and filter holder, and even
a printed manual. He told us that he pulled it out
of the garbage because he thought it was wrong to Sometimes we just open devices to investigate what's inside.
discard a machine that was only two years old. His
mother told him it’s out of order and she already I would have let them open the machine and
ordered a new machine. He was a curious kid and investigate what's inside and what could be wrong.
wanted to know: what's the problem with this However, my Repair Café colleague who was not
thing? So, he brought it to our repair appointment. a teacher, but a very skilled technician, stopped
Fortunately, he saved all the accessories for the them. He explained that he would try to first find
machine, so we could fill the water tank, install the out what this tiny red light was trying to tell us
filter holder, and do a check. before investing a lot of effort into opening the
After connecting the machine to electricity machine. And yes, we even had the manual! So,
and switching it on, a tiny red light on the front four or five boys huddled over this tiny booklet and
appeared, and the machine did ... nothing. OK, searched for the meaning of the red light beneath
what does this red light mean? For the boy’s mother the three push buttons on the front. After a while
the light was telling her: “I'm done, throw me they found the German chapter and a description
 Making for All 83

for the push buttons and the red light. The kids had water hoses, the boiler, or the water pump. We
to read carefully and exactly to decode the meaning learned that most of the cases are connected simply
of the text. to decalcification and the disability (or inability) of
Eventually, they discovered that the light was adult people to read and understand a manual.
saying that the machine needed to decalcify. For the boy with the big bag, it was a great
What’s that? My experienced colleague helped triumph that day when he arrived home and
with a perfect short explanation of the chemistry presented the working machine and what he
of water and what chalky deposits, caused by water learned to his parents. And they also learned
evaporation, can do inside the different parts of something! Not only that their son is a smart boy
the machine. We needed a liquid for decalcifi- but also that it's worth it to think about our modern
cation. Now! Instantly! We only had one small life and to reflect on what is waste and what things
grocery store nearby, so we sent three kids out with are of value.
some coins for a bottle of vinegar. When they came For many of the students who have come to the
back, we made a diluted vinegar solution and filled Repair Café, it is more than just things that are
the water tank. After that, the kids followed the healed. They heal themselves, as they learn that
instructions in the manual for the decalcification they are smart and have value in society.
routine. There is a well-known German phrase that
They all had a big surprise when they pushed two applies here, “Alle sagten: ‘Das geht nicht!’ Dann
of the front buttons at the same time, as described kam jemand, der wusste das nicht und hat es einfach
in the manual, and the water pump inside came to gemacht.” It translates to English as “Everyone said,
life and made a deep humming sound. The routine ‘That's not possible!’ Then someone who didn't know that
worked exactly as described. They had to repeat came along and just did it.”
the routine several times, at first with the vinegar For our after-school-initiative, this story was
solution, then with fresh water. And after running one of the sparks and reasons why it succeeded.
this routine properly – surprise! – the red light was We were able to grow and open it up from the small
off! The machine worked as it had on its very first school community to the wider public. At least one
day. Repair Café per month was held over many years
For some of the kids, that afternoon was an where hundreds of people got advice and help with
awakening. They didn’t miss even one of our Repair their technical stuff.
Café meetings throughout the years! Later we A lot of communication and new connections
found out a lot more about these kinds of machines developed between students and the community.
— how to open them, and how to change fuses, Many elderly people who still understand the value

Students investigate a kitchen appliance. They know that Soldering isn't an ability just for itself, it's a skill that kids can
electricity is dangerous, and they are careful with it If they are use to fix broken devices.
not sure what to do, they can ask. Otherwise we trust them to
be responsible.
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84 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

of repairing things were impressed when they met We see every year that lives are changed as young
our smart and by then trained kids who knew how people see themselves as important, competent
to deal with mechanical and electrical problems. members of a community, and learn how smart
Parents have been very engaged in our project and skilled their older counterparts are.
over the years in a variety of roles — as learners, as The older generation sees that young people
supporters, as our advocates in the community. I are capable, caring, and compassionate, perhaps
believe the Repair Café experience helped parents dispelling myths about how “kids today” are lazy
understand or maybe even to remember what they and glued to video games.
already knew, that education can and must be The Repair Café may seem like a simple idea,
more than sitting six hours a day, five days a week one that could not possibly solve such a complex
in a room only to learn theory and facts. problem as healing communities. But even
Over the years, the Repair Café has proven complex, difficult problems can be solved. It may
time and time again that learning is best done in not be easy, but has to be done anyway, so as we
a community. The fact that a few appliances are say in our Makerspace — “Einfach machen!” — “Just
fixed is secondary to the valuable experiences of a make it!”
community coming together and learning about
each other.

Repairing things with kids is always fun, and always a gathering of young and old!
 Making for All 85

Encouraging Diversity in Computer Science

by David Malpica

I was a middle school teacher for three years before Be willing to train teachers and teach kids
I confronted the reality that teaching public school Many vendors offer resources and materials,
and financial safety in the San Francisco Bay Area but more effort needs to be put into widening
don’t square up, especially with a baby on the the curricular makeup of teacher preparation
way. I therefore quit my brief teaching career and programs, which are short and lean enough
enrolled in the most competitive coding bootcamp already. For example, middle school math is a great
available. place to introduce computing connections with 2D
This essay is a reflection as an educator and and 3D coordinate planes, which is fundamental to
software engineering professional on what can any future work in the field of building front-end
be adapted to any enterprise seeking to improve applications (the visual components of websites)
outcomes of underrepresented minorities in the and a great place for entry level jobs in software.
tech industry. K–12 education can’t just be about English and
It’s never too late to start, but public middle math anymore.
school is the key place and age group to build long Industry should seek to collaborate with teacher
term impact prep programs and schools to increase the number
My fellow students at the bootcamp were mostly of teachers (not just specialists, but all teachers)
young adults, male, and Asian or white. There was capable of computer science education.2
only a dozen or so of us who stood outside these Industry should also partner with middle
demographics. And although efforts were made schools, high schools, and community colleges
by the organization to attract minorities, it was to run meaningful courses, workshops, and
clear the incoming demographics were not diverse hackathons with effort, investment, real tools, and
enough. life-changing opportunities and rewards for both
Studies have shown that interest in STEM is students and teachers.
either nourished or starved during the transition
to adolescence.1 By the time they reach high school, Maintain a relationship with families
women and people of color have less interest in and children
STEM subjects, largely due to a lack of exposure Low SES minority families struggle supporting
capable of competing with the myriad distractions their children’s educational interests. Limited
of life as a female or minority youth. budgets for enrichment and math anxiety are just
Providing those opportunities and inspiration two of many roadblocks. Because this process needs
at the public middle school level should be an to start early, any enterprise needs to acknowledge
educational imperative. Any enterprise seeking that a reasonable metric of success will follow
to improve this situation needs to understand the the middle-school-through-college trajectory
right time and place to make a long-term difference of beneficiaries. This means sustaining a close
— public middle school. There’s only so much we relationship through programs that culminate in
can do at the high school level when interest has scholarships, internships, and jobs. It also means
already dropped. providing life-changing resources to families.
Often, families don’t even have the means to secure
internet access.3
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86 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

To attract diversity, offer diversity. In Even if students do not fully venture into
time, narrow it down. computer science majors and jobs, an introduction
A heterogeneous population cannot be served by to these big ideas of the 21st century will be useful
a homogeneous curriculum. Maxine Williams, to them no matter what their eventual interests
Facebook’s Diversity Chief, recently said, “What we are. We need all students, whether they become
look for are people who are very good in two specific historians or artists or biologists to be at least
subjects: data structures and algorithms.”4 For the acquainted with the power of the computer.
middle school population, the relevance of “data
structures and algorithms” might not be apparent. Notes
Therefore, a child’s budding engineering identity 1. Planning Early for Careers in Science (2006)
would be well served by a series of scaffolded afterschoolalliance.org/documents/STEM/
experiences that bridge their interest towards the RHTai2006Science_PlanEarly.pdf
hard skills. 2. Universities aren’t preparing enough computer
Creative computing and collaboration are two science teachers (2017) codeorg.medium.com/
solid starting points. At my bootcamp I learned universities-arent-preparing-enough-comput-
about pair programming, SCRUM, and git (GitHub er-science-teachers-dd5bc34a79aa
offers resources for education) which could be 3. Innovation in East Oakland: The Realities of
easily taught in middle school and above. Maker Keeping Up Outside of Silicon Valley’s Bubble
and STEAM projects are particularly well suited (2018) kqed.org/news/11665681/innovation-in-
to attract a wide range of students with creative east-oakland-the-realities-of-keeping-up-out-
interests that can eventually evolve into more side-of-silicon-valleys-bubble
specific computer science knowledge.5 4. Facebook Diversity Chief: ‘We Still Have More
Projects that incorporate the Internet of Things, Work To Do’ (2018) kqed.org/news/11679941/
games, robotics, graphics, sound, and technolo- facebook-diversity-chief-we-still-have-more-
gy-based arts and crafts will attract an even wider work-to-do
audience. Variables and structured programming 5. Mitchel Resnick: Designing for Wide Walls
will follow but must build on a foundation of (2016) mres.medium.com/designing-for-wide-
creative and collaborative projects. Eventually, walls-323bdb4e7277
students will be ready for data structures and
algorithms, machine learning, AI, full stack
concepts, frameworks, and more.
 Making for All 87

Emancipatory Maker Practices in the Global South

by Renato Russo1, Leah Rosenbaum1, Paulo Blikstein1, Yipu Zheng1, Anisa Bora1, Yue Liu1,
Brenda Nyakoa2, Ridhi Aggarwal3
The paper was co-authored by individuals from the Transformative Learning Technology Lab (home of FabLearn) and several
FabLearn Fellows. It was awarded the “Best Student Paper Award from the Learning Sciences SIG” at the 2023 American
Educational Research Association’s annual meeting.

Abstract more inclusive maker education (Vossoughi et al.,

Maker education has been extensively documented 2016). Nevertheless, much of the critique’s focus
in developed countries, and research points to still remains on North American and Western
benefits for learning and to pitfalls in efforts to European schools.
democratize those benefits. There are, however, In this paper, we go beyond the Global North
opportunities to investigate those factors in and look at maker practices in countries other
developing countries. In this paper, we examine than the US and Europe, marked by different
maker practices in communities in two countries of histories and educational systems. We report on
the Global South. For data collection, we partnered a global fellowship program that gathers maker
with local maker educators who also work in educators from 12 countries across different levels
grassroots organizations that offer programs of socio-economic development. We ground our
focused on skill development. Our evidence points work in the learning sciences and theoretical
to emancipatory practices that parallel well-doc- perspectives of design and science and technology
umented strategies found in literature both in studies (STS) to answer the following question:
the learning sciences and science and technology How do maker practices connect with emancipa-
studies. This paper contributes to broadening tory education in underserved communities in
the understanding of the importance of maker the Global South?
activities that bring local cultures front and center.
Theoretical framework
Introduction Maker education inherited a few assumptions from
Maker education has gained attention in the its parent trend, the broader-encompassing maker
learning sciences and education research, and movement. One such assumption is that making
there is a considerable debate about its contri- is emancipatory — by making their own products,
bution to the development of competencies individuals can subvert the producer-consumer
beyond STEM skills (e.g., Halverson & Sheridan, antagonism. Such a promise, however, has been
2014). Research and critique have also focused criticized by researchers in different traditions of
on alternatives to normative, US-inspired views education research. Despite the potential of maker
on making in educational settings, calling for education to equalize access to the development
expressive approaches that integrate students’ of STEM skills, many programs fail to incorporate
lived experiences and cultures (Eisenberg, 2002; youth’s social and cultural “funds of knowledge” into
Buechley et al., 2013; Blikstein, 2008). Others making activities (Barton et al., 2017), limiting the
have emphasized how makerspaces embody “democratizing effect” of maker education among
pervasive educational injustice and that practices underrepresented youth. In response, researchers
from non-dominant groups could contribute to a have designed learning experiences that address
88
88 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

the cultural practices of indigenous populations Methods and data

(Barajas-López & Bang, 2018) and urban groups The research team first conducted five focus groups
of marginalized youth (Holbert, 2016), among (N=18, total length: 5 hours) with maker educators
other groups. However, much of that research is from 12 countries on four continents. The research
conducted in the Global North and fails to consider team (composed of 6 researchers) then transcribed
the intricacies that characterize under-resourced the content of the focus groups and developed
areas in developing countries. research memos. After an initial round of analysis,
Examples of emancipatory practices through the team identified three emerging themes
making have been documented in settings not (Charmaz, 2006). Members of the research team
traditionally associated with formal education in then invited 3 of the participants of the focus
the Global South. For instance, in discussing the groups for in-depth interviews (N=3, total length: 3
repurposing of combustion engines in Thailand, hours) in which they further discussed the practice
Cavallo (2000) identified that people with little of repurposing, motivated by work described in
formal instruction were involved in a sophisti- the theoretical framework. Two of those partici-
cated culture of innovation that academia and pants are co-authors of this manuscript.
the government did not acknowledge. Blikstein Data for this paper comes mostly from the
(2008) laid out the connection between making in-depth interviews, complemented by data from
and emancipation through a robotics workshop focus groups. The research team transcribed the
in which students had the opportunity to address content of interviews and developed research
community issues through the development of memos that were then reviewed in team meetings.
projects that used scrap metal and old computer Besides textual data, members of the research
parts. And more than a decade later, hackerspaces team also analyzed pictures and videos of
and technology-driven community spaces in an projects implemented in the maker educators’
underserved community in Brazil have been the communities.
stage for artistic expression by youth that question
structures of power (Dalla Chiesa & Foletto, 2022). Results
Additionally, the subversion of ready-made We present summaries of two case studies that
products has been well documented in science and illustrate connections between repurposing and
technology studies. de Certeau and Rendall (2011) emancipatory practices through making, one
argues that ascribing new meanings to products is of the dimensions of cultural making (Blikstein,
associated with the struggle between individuals 2020). We focus on two main aspects of those
and powerful institutions. Ascribing such new connections: the appropriation of technology as
purposes is a way of resisting oppression by an instrument to question the reality imposed by
balancing the power dynamics between the strong systems of oppression (de Certeau & Rendall, 2011);
and the weak. Akrich (1994) similarly documents and how creative “de-scription” of objects (Akrich,
how designers define scripts within industrial- 1994) empowered a group of youth in procuring
ized objects and that those scripts incorporate materials for projects.
assumptions about those who employ those Emancipatory practices in rural India
artifacts and in what contexts. These imagined R. is a maker educator who runs a makerspace in a
uses, nonetheless, can be “de-scripted” by users rural Indian context whose challenges include lack
who can technically manipulate those objects and, of education amongst the population, poor infra-
thus, reshuffle social relations in their milieu. structure facilities, culturally rooted orthodoxies,
Those perspectives from the learning sciences social inequalities, and low recognition of local
and science and technology studies guide our knowledge. Every two months, R’s organization
analysis of making practices — specifically those runs “open innovation days.” Initially, educators
that employ repurposing of materials as a vehicle gave decontextualized material (e.g. electronics
for emancipatory maker education. or robotics kits) to students, and students built
projects by mixing those components with
 Making for All 89

locally sourced materials. For example, students Emancipatory practices in urban Kenya
combined wires and an LED with bamboo to make B. runs a maker education program in Kenya
a pencil torch. In another example, the students serving high school youth or recent graduates
collaborated with the village potter to devise a in Nairobi, a densely populated urban area. The
solar-enabled matka-cooler (earthen pot solar program in Nairobi exposes youth to events such
cooler). as hackathons and innovation bootcamps and
As the children started applying local knowledge conducts guided visits to local tech industry
by repurposing locally available resources to facilities, like a factory producing 3D printers out
problems identified in the community, they also of electronic waste. This program aims to ignite
began collaborating with community members. youths’ interest in inventing locally, innovating,
Upon reflection, R. and her team understand the and problem-solving.
effectiveness of exploring the community context Similar to the work described above in the rural
and children’s lived experiences in maker activities. Indian village, much of the students’ innovative
In her interview, R. shared nine projects, 4 of which work involves repurposing available materials.
had features designed to address social issues B.’s organization annually enrolls in an interna-
raised by the community: a bicycle-powered fodder tional robotics competition that supplies a kit
cutter, a bicycle-powered mechanical washing of component parts. However, participants did
machine (Figure 1); a bike umbrella; and a solar not always use all parts in the kit, leaving several
mobile charger. Those artifacts express applied components — such as gears, wheels, metallic
creativity and reflect the idea that makerspaces beans and rods, nuts and bolts, and chainlinks —
allow for technical workarounds to overcome available for repurposing. One group of students
socio-economic limitations (Dalla Chiesa & built a working prototype electric bike composed
Foletto, 2022). R. described the washing machine, exclusively of parts leftover from the robotics kit
for example, as an engineering innovation to (except for the paint). Program participants also
alleviate local girls’ domestic duties, freeing more built a prototype water filtration system using
time for studying. spare robotics parts as a frame. Participants are
By designing a new artifact out of existing currently testing this prototype.
products, the youth in the village seem to move Remarkably, participants subverted the scripted
closer to the “tactical” role described by de Certeau use of the technology proposed to them, instead
and Rendall (2011): they appropriated technologies ascribing new meanings to those artifacts (Akrich,
and made unexpected use of ready-made products. 1994). In her account about supply and demand
In the process, they found ways to reimagine mismatch, Akrich maintains that designers create
power dynamics by exploring their freedom to objects with scripts that “predict” how the user will
experiment. interact with those artifacts in their specific context
of use. Still, the user (through their expertise or
support from an expert) can reprogram those
objects and de-script them.

Discussion
This paper considers maker practices in informal
learning settings in two countries in the Global
South. We collected data in partnership with
educators committed to the development of those
communities. Through two case studies, we show
that activities developed by those maker educators
involve youth in practices of making that employ
Figure 1 . The bicycle-powered washing machine created by
locally sourced materials to address community
and for girls in a rural Indian village
90
90 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

needs. The first case study suggests a re-thinking a developing country might mean the possibility for
of power dynamics through the appropriation school-age kids to dedicate time to school instead.
of technology — a principle addressed in the It is not our role as researchers to assign what types
learning sciences literature (for example, Holbert of emancipation are valid or not, which raises our
et al., 2020). Technology’s role in emancipation second point. Based on the evidence presented,
resembles the role Freire assigned to literacy (1983): we propose that studying maker practices in the
in a process initiated by the identification of local Global South can bring a different perspective to
generative themes, devices created by the students the debate, one that takes into account its benefits,
in the village in India become their tools to affect more than its pitfalls, especially because maker
change in their material reality. In this case, locally education has been sometimes portrayed as legiti-
sourced materials mediate the appropriation of mating larger, structural problems in society. That
technology in a way that enables reimagining the is not to say that makerspaces should be regarded
stories of children in the village. Looking back on as neutral environments with the inherited right to
the program’s achievements, R. proudly tells the be complicit with those inequities. On the contrary,
story of an alumna who was the first girl in the focusing on global communities might inspire
community to enter college, pursuing a career the search for practices that bridge the Papertian
in Chikankari (traditional embroidery) craft and “learn by doing and sharing” with a genuinely
design entrepreneurship. Freirean emancipatory education.
The second case study offers a glimpse into
practices of de-scription of artifacts in addressing Notes:
community needs (water filter) and personal 1. Transformative Learning Technologies Lab,
desires (electric bike). As proposed by Akrich (1994), Teachers College, Columbia University, United
participants in the Kenyan program “partially States
reconstruct” the usage script devised by the 2. International Rescue Committee, Kenya
designers of the kits provided to them. In previous 3. Swatantra Talim, India
research in the learning sciences, Sheridan and
Konopasky discuss how resourcefulness — “the
ability to be aware of the potential around you” — is References
part of the ethos of the maker movement and has Akrich, M. (1994). The De-scription of technical
been adopted as a core value in some community objects. In W. E. Bijker, & J. Law. (Eds.). Shaping
makerspaces (2016). Our case study demonstrates technology/building society: Studies in soci-
how that ability is deployed in a setting with sharp otechnical change (pp. 205–224). MIT press.
differences from makerspaces depicted by most Cambpartiridge, MA.
of the literature. Here, de-scription presents the Barajas-López, F., & Bang, M. (2018). Indigenous
chance to experiment with technologies and create making and sharing: Claywork in an Indigenous
artifacts that are otherwise far from reach. Without STEAM program. Equity & Excellence in
readily available electronic goods, we found Education, 51(1), 7-20.
examples of kids reimagining the affordances of Barton, A. C., Tan, E., & Greenberg, D. (2017). The
components to construct their own devices. makerspace movement: Sites of possibilities
The findings in this paper offer an opportunity to for equitable opportunities to engage under-
rethink the role of making in diverse communities. represented youth in STEM. Teachers College
First, our data support the reasonable assumption Record, 119(6), 1-44.
that emancipation and agency mean different Blikstein, P. (2008). Travels in Troy with Freire:
things in an urban US community compared to a Technology as an agent for emancipation. In P.
rural Indian or a Kenyan city. In American urban Noguera & C.A. Torres (Eds.), Social Justice
settings, making might offer the chance for girls Education for Teachers: Paulo Freire and the
to connect with computing by producing e-textiles possible dream (pp. 205-244). Rotterdam,
(Searle & Kafai, 2016). Conversely, emancipation in Netherlands: Sense.
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Blikstein, P. (2020). “Cheesemaking emancipa- Searle, K. A., Fields, D. A., & Kafai, Y. B. (2016).
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Buechley, L., Eisenberg, M., Catchen, J., & (pp. 207–222). Routledge.
Crockett, A. (2008, April). The LilyPad Arduino: Sheridan, K. M., & Konopasky, A. (2016).
using computational textiles to investigate Designing for resourcefulness in a communi-
engagement, aesthetics, and diversity in ty-based makerspace. In Makeology (pp. 30-46).
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the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in Vossoughi, S., Hooper, P. K., & Escudé, M. (2016).
computing systems (pp. 423-432). Making through the lens of culture and power:
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environments: Building on indigenous equity. Harvard Educational Review, 86(2),
knowledge. IBM Systems Journal, 39(3.4), 206-232.
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Freire, P. (1983). Pedagogy of the oppressed Seabury
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Halverson, E. R., & Sheridan, K. M. (2014). The
maker movement in education. Harvard
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Constructionist Futures: The Art, Theory, and Practice
of Learning Designs. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Change
 93

Change. It’s an old adage that everyone wants change, but no one wants TO change. We
all want education to be “better,” but what does that mean? And even if we could all
simultaneously agree what it means, what will it take — money, time, new policy or law,
or all of the above?
Sometimes the world seems to change in an instant. Easy to access Artificial Intelligence
(AI) tools burst on the scene in 2022, and are sure to change education, but how? Will
schools try to ban AI, embrace it, or ignore it? And is it new?
Nope – in 2002, Seymour Papert gave a lecture at MIT about how he missed the good old
days of “big ideas” about the nature of knowledge and human learning.
“I have been through three movements that began on a galactic scale and were reduced
and trivialized,” Papert said. “The three movements — child development, artificial
intelligence, and kid-friendly computer science — were especially vital and big in the early
1960s.” (MIT News, July 9, 2002)
He went on to say that Piaget’s brilliant insights about child development have been
reduced to “little strategies for presenting math problems” instead of the powerful
idea that children develop intellectually without being taught. And as the cofounder of
the Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT with Marvin Minsky, Papert said that the “cosmic
question” of making a machine that rivals human intelligence had been forgotten in a race
to improve bottom lines and create more efficient workflow. Hmmm, sound familiar?
Papert said many times in his career that educational systems are “idea averse.” This
certainly makes the idea of change difficult. If new ideas are rejected or trivialized, the
same systems will be invented and reinvented again and again with new labels and
acronyms, but no real change. But despite his critique of the system, Papert engaged in a
lifelong effort to make schools better places to learn.
In these articles, the FabLearn Fellows offer their own ideas for change, both in their own
schools and for education in general. Like Papert, we are optimists who never give up, even
when things seem difficult.
94
94 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

How FabLearn Changed My Perspective Towards Technology

in the Makerspace
by Ridhi Aggarwal

In our makerspace, the focus has been to use unique power of computers. Papert deliberately
contextual and culturally relevant material that sought not to build computer programs that aimed
children can use to rebuild, iterate, and construct to get students to do something specific like solving
new knowledge. Some 3–4 years ago, the only math problems or repeatedly practice a particular
technology commonly used were mobile phones concept. Rather, he viewed computers as tools
and not every household had one. So, no-tech or that should empower children to explore topics
low-tech was the basis of our philosophy to operate meaningful to them. Papert believed computers
our makerspace in the village. could uniquely help students develop a deeper and
We also thought that introduction of technology a more intuitive understanding of mathematics.
generally brings in a lot of alienation among Following this vision, he created the
adolescents and youth. Research speaks to the programming language Logo in which users create
ill-effects of technology as people get detached on-screen geometric patterns and simulations
from their roots and lose connection with local by giving programmed instructions to a “turtle”
context, ecology, and relationships. Technology icon on the screen. This gives students concrete
was seen as only a tool for consumerism and opportunities to practice usually abstract math-
not a tool for creation. All these combined to ematical and problem-solving skills. This idea
create apprehension and distrust of technology of using computers as a tool to enable children's
in educators like us. It was reinforced by our
association with Krishnamurthi school of thought
and democratic schooling, which values freedom
of choice and expression, learning by doing, and
making learners active and informed members of
the civic society.
Being a part of the FabLearn Fellowship at
Columbia University has given me new perspec-
tives to reflect upon. On one hand I have been
exposed to the exciting work of other maker
educators from around the world and on the other
hand leaning about the great thinker and educator
Seymour Papert has opened up new horizons in
our work.
Papert criticized the usual paradigm about
the use of computers in education. For example,
a common use of a computer is to automatically
adjust the next problem being presented to the
user based on how accurately one has answered the
previous question. Papert views these programs as
glorified worksheets that fail to capitalize on the
 Change 95
95

thinking and enhancing mathematics skills gave and steadily we have started taking small steps by
us the starting point to introduce computers in our introducing Arduino microcontrollers and other
makerspace. We just had to find a common ground technology. Going further, as our community is
from which to start. rich in art and crafts, we started to think about how
The mathematics of patterns was that common can we integrate technology in the makerspace to
ground. Our community’s rich knowledge of enhance these crafts.
chikan kaarigari embroidery patterns served as At this stage another FabLearn webinar with
a link between contextual knowledge and Logo James Rutter from Haystack Mountain School of
turtle. We had often used their embroidery as a Craft gave insight as to how a makerspace can be
base to introduce patterns to the children but this well integrated with art and crafts. An example
time we integrated that with the Logo turtle. We that stayed with me was how in a jewelry designing
asked them to make some patterns, explore for workshop a person had to turn the coils many
themselves, and then make new patterns from times to make a particular piece of jewelry and how
their own exploration. that person thought of making a tool with the 3D
Constructionist learning focuses as much on printer to make the process easier. To me, this was
the process of making as in the end result. Children a beautiful example of how the makerspace can be
not only tried out new patterns in Logo but they an integral part of an art and craft space.
also translated them to their embroidery and These inputs from the FabLearn community
showed it to their parents and community which gave our makerspace new vigor to integrate
gave their art a new dimension. This is how we technology with the rich traditional art and craft
started opening doors to introduce computers and while keeping our values intact.
technology into our maker space. And now slowly
96
96 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Contemplating Education Reform

by Toni Marie Kaui

The purpose of education But even with the rise of public education,
The first free public school in America, Boston there was often a lack of standardized curriculum.
Latin School, opened in the town of Boston in 1635 Throughout the 1850s and 1860s, around the time
(Lisa, 2021). While Boston Latin was open to any Darwin published On the Origin of Species and
boy in Boston, we can speculate that only families Americans fought in the Civil War, “geographic
with some wealth could send a boy to school location largely determined whether students
rather than to work. With classrooms reserved learned biblical creation or evolution in class and
for the males with some amount of privilege, it whether slavery was taught as the central cause of
might be appropriate to question whether this the Civil War instead of states’ rights and Northern
was true public education, since this education aggression” (Lisa, 2021, p. 20).
prepared these sons to assume control of the We know all too well that political power and
family business; a task the home might no longer propaganda often propels change in education.
be equipped to provide, but hardly benefiting most Nearly a century later, when the Soviet Union was
Boston families. Free public schools were not the beating America in reaching outer space, education
norm in America well into the 19th century. reform became a means to compete in the quest for
Starting in 1837, Horace Mann radically changed domination of space and scientific prowess. At the
education in the United States with his concept of turn of this century, as America loses its dominance
free, public “common schools” as a means of stan- in the global economy, education reform has again
dardizing public education, supported by “normal become the focus of calls to address perceived
schools” to train professional teachers (Cremin, literacy and numeracy incompetence, as well its
2021). lack of vocational training.
Horace Mann advocated for public education However, have these efforts improved
for all Americans, regardless of race, ethnicity, education and prepared students for their futures?
or gender, through primary grades. His model The reasons behind why we educate our children
which focused on six fundamental propositions: drive the decisions regarding how we educate our
(1) an ignorant populace is unacceptable, (2) public children.
education should be free, (3) diversity creates
a better educational environment, (4) public A personal perspective
education should not be based on or controlled My personal experience with the impact of global
by any religion, (5) democracy should prevail in events on education began with another urgent
classrooms, and (6) education must be provided call to regain America’s position in the global
by well-trained, professional teachers (Cremin, technological competition. Science, technology,
2021, p. 4). Horace Mann’s determined advocacy engineering, and math (STEM) competencies were
for public education as a means to create literate, declared insufficient.
educated citizens suited to participate in a “U.S. eighth graders continue to rank in the
democracy became widely accepted and adopted middle of advanced economies in international
across the United States. mathematics and science assessments … [and]
foreign-born individuals account for a sizable
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share of U.S. S&E [science and engineering] these three tenets, my personal perspective on the
employment, particularly among workers with purpose of education is to provide students with
graduate degrees” (Khan et al., 2020, p. 2), indicating the necessary knowledge, skills, and experiences
the need to improve America’s mathematics and for them to achieve their goals through a culturally
science knowledge, skills, and experiences and relevant and engaging curriculum.
increasing the number of Americans enrolling and
completing graduate programs. Reforming curriculum
Our nation’s response to this crisis was the The reasons we educate our students drive the
Bush administration’s “No Child Left Behind” decisions we make as school administrators. The
legislation in 2001, holding schools accountable content and context of these decisions run wide
for students’ performance on standardized tests, and deep, and the repercussions of these decisions
and essentially forcing teachers to “teach to the leave an indelible mark on the students we
test.” In 2009, the subsequent administration of serve. Our purpose drives the decisions we make
President Obama passed “Race to the Top” and regarding student curricula.
“Every Student Succeeds Act” legislation, both of I believe the purpose of education should be
which gave more control back to schools and school driven by students — who they are, what they want,
districts and allowed them to make administra- where do they want to be — and this information
tive decisions that supported the learning needs should be used to identify how to best serve them.
of their students. The Obama legislation moved For example, a Native Hawaiian student
educational reform in the right direction and committed to restoring and revitalizing coastal
demonstrated a commitment to student learning fishponds interested in engineering and art
by leaving the decisions in the hands of the people deserves a curriculum and learning environment
who work most closely with students. maximizing his/her commitments and interests.
But I found myself asking the question — should This means employing a variety of pedagogy
national needs drive our purpose for education and practice, including design-based learning
and be used to navigate our educational landscape? (DBL), just-in-time instruction (JITI), and
Will responding to data and statistics bring the place-based learning (PBL). This student would
improvement envisioned? have the opportunity to perpetuate his/her cultural
practice, while simultaneously learning and expe-
Meaningful reform starts with student riencing professional practices of engineering
needs, not national needs and expressing his/her learning and achievement
There is great potential for meaningful change when through art.
school district leaders and school administrators Individualized student learning plans pose
are allowed to make decisions. Given the power to an issue for many teachers for many reasons.
decide who they serve, why they serve them, and One of those reasons includes not aligning with
how they serve them, schools and school districts and/or containing content learning standards.
can change their educational landscape. Although Consequently, teachers view individualized or
I work at a private school, when determining the customized curricula as requiring too much work
purpose for education, asking these questions is to make it feasible for a classroom of 20 to 30
critical. I serve the students who attend Nā Hunaahi students. Adding to the issue might be teachers’
and their families. I serve them because they chose lack of knowledge and experience with content
to attend Nā Hunaahi, and these students and standards alignment to curricula.
their families trust me to prepare them for their When contemplating the standards issue, I
futures, whatever that might be. I prepare these began wondering about the importance and need
students for their futures by including them in for content standards in K–12 education. In a 2021
vital educational decision-making and allowing FabLearn Fellows webinar, Gary Stager reinforced
their goals to drive their curriculum. Based on this contemplation when he shared that Papert
“always fought against terrible ideas like a national
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98 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

curriculum and the Common Core” (FabLearn, they vary depending on the publishing institution/
2021 9:34), which emboldened me to dive into the organization and specific state needs, which
idea of learning driven by student culture, goals, begs the question, what are content standards
and interests. standardizing?
To understand the breadth of this issue, we can
A tradition of standards review the recent changes in content standards
In 2009, a group of state leaders led efforts to for mathematics. As the chair of the National
develop the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Governors Association, former Arizona Governor
with the release of the final English language Janet Napolitano created an initiative that focused
arts and mathematics standards in mid-2010. on improving math and science education. This
By 2015, “42 states, the Department of Defense became the foundation for what would become
Education Activity, Washington, D.C., Guam, the the Common Core State Standards in math.
Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin However, not all states use these standards. Some
Islands have adopted the CCSS in ELA/literacy states continue to use the National Council for
and math” (Council of Chief State School Officers, Teachers of Mathematics content standards, while
2015). In the summer of 2011, the organization others use state-specific math content standards.
Achieve coordinated the development of the Next Independent and parochial schools often claim
Generation Science Standards (NGSS), with the their own modified and/or revised versions of
final document released in April 2013 (Achieve). a multitude of content standards possibilities.
Teachers today are well versed in standards The variations found for mathematics can also
such as the Common Core. But this is not new. be found for all other content disciplines, which
Standards have guided instruction throughout might translate to not having a truly standardized
history. In the 17th century, religious concepts content area.
such as morality, family, and community, rather
than academic pursuits, dominated the guiding A new tradition for content standards
principles of education, such as “Puritans … Reigeluth (1997) believed that rather than using
required parents to teach their children to read and content standards “to help make students alike
also required larger towns to have an elementary … they can be used as tools … to meet individual
school, where children learned reading, writing, student needs” (1997, p. 203). The diversity of
and religion” (University of Minnesota, 2016 ch 16). student abilities in learning supports his beliefs
At the culmination of the Revolutionary War, the about how to use content standards, but how can
publishing of textbooks started as first attempts this be implemented? I believe that the traditional
to standardize learning content, and could be education systems of Native and Indigenous
considered a first use of content standards. peoples provide a model.
From an educational reform perspective, The education of Native and Indigenous peoples
content standards have “…three purposes … [1] happened and continues to happen without the
publicly identifying what is important for schools need for traditional Western education. The
to teach and for students to be able to demonstrate. inherently incorrect idea that Caucasian male
… guide … instruction, curriculum, and assessment colonizers know what is best for the educational
… [2] providing a map of where the curriculum and academic advancement of Native and
should go and … [3] to fit the needs of diverse Indigenous peoples is an idea that needs to be
learners. Finally, … they can guide the allocation squashed. Native and Indigenous peoples have
of instructional resources” (National Research been educating themselves and their youth for
Council, 1997, p. 114). Unfortunately, a problem centuries before white colonization, and with
with content standards lies in the differing and this education, they built facilities that withstood
varied content standards available for schools. natural disasters, attended to medical needs
While content standards tend to have similarities, and issues, cultivated flourishing terrestrial and
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marine agriculture and aquaculture, and traveled As we continue our journey of providing Native
vast distances over oceans without modern naviga- Hawaiian youth with an education they deserve,
tional tools; these accomplishments represent only we continue to ponder and discuss these important
a fraction of what Native and Indigenous nations issues with our peers and our ancestors. In the
are capable of attaining. words of the great historian Herbert Kawainui
These achievements came without the need Kane, “there must be another way, if only because
for a set of content standards. Native and there has to be.”
Indigenous nations understood how to teach
future generations the knowledge and skills References
necessary for any occupation without needing Achieve. Developing the standards. next-
a written set of instructions. Through practical g e n s c i e n ce.o r g / d e ve l o p i n g - s t a n d a rd s /
experiences and efforts, masters passed on their developing-standards
knowledge and skills to apprentices. An argument Council of Chief State School Officers. (2015).
against this method of teaching and learning could Development of the Common Core State
be the limited number of apprentices masters Standards Initiative. corestandards.org/
could teach, which might have led to the need for about-the-standards/development-process/
large educational institutions teaching common Cremin, L. A. (2021). Horace Mann. britannica.
knowledge and skills for a given profession. com/biography/Horace-Mann
Adding colleges to the conversation means FabLearn. (2021). FabLearn Fellow webinar with
thinking about how secondary educational Gary Stager. fellows.fablearn.org/ffmedia/
institutions prepare students for success at the zoom/2021-04-20/zoom_0.mp4
post-secondary level. However, can success in Khan, B., Robbins, C., & Okrent, A. (2020). The
college be completely attributed to demonstrating state of U.S. science and engineering 2020.
proficiency in content standards? I posit that while National Science Board.
it might offer some insight into the possible success Lisa, A. (2021). History of the American education
of a student, it does not paint the whole picture system. msn.com/en-us/news/us/histo-
of a student. Therefore, there might also be some r y-of-the-american-education-system/
room to revisit the need for content standards and ss-BB1gzoNK
looking at different options that allow schools the National Research Council. (1997). Educating one
flexibility to prepare students for specific college and all: Students with disabilities and stan-
and career pathways without adhering to a full list dards-based reform. The National Academies
of content standards. Press.
Reigeluth, C. M. (1997). The Phi Delta Kappan.
Innumerable possibilities
Educational standards: To standardize or to
My school, Nā Hunaahi, “prepares students for their
customize learning.
futures, whether it be to pursue further education
University of Minnesota. (2016). Sociology:
or training, to assume adult roles in their families,
Understanding and Changing the Social World.
careers, and/or communities, and/or to cultivate
University of Minnesota. open.lib.umn.edu/
personal well-being,” which means it is our
sociology/chapter/16-1-a-brief-history-of-edu-
responsibility to prepare students for a variety of
cation-in-the-united-states/
future possibilities, which may or may not include
traditional Western education. Consequently, as
we work toward accreditation, we are responsible
for offering educational and academic opportu-
nities that address the needs of our students, not
necessarily the needs of education as a system.
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100 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Is ChatGPT a Threat to Education? For the Banking Model of

Education, Yes
by Charles Pimentel

OpenAI’s ChatGPT1 is a newly developed Artificial Try #1

Intelligence (AI) agent designed to perform Elections are a fundamental aspect of democratic societies,
high-level cognitive tasks and produce original text as they allow citizens to participate in the selection of
that is indistinguishable from human-generated their leaders and the direction of their government. The
text. process of holding an election is both complex and vital,
It is essential to highlight that AI only generates as it must be fair, transparent, and representative of the
a synthesis of what humans have already created, will of the electorate.
in activities for which it was trained, but performs
Try #2
them with greater speed and (sometimes) greater
Elections are a process by which citizens of a country or
accuracy than a human being.
members of a organization choose their leaders or repre-
Nonetheless, this draws a parallel to the
sentatives. This is typically done through a vote, in which
traditional approach of education, wherein schools
eligible individuals cast their ballots for their preferred
often mold students to replicate established rules
candidates or party. Elections can be held at different
and memorize concepts. This starkly underscores
levels, such as national, state or local level, and are used to
the antiquated nature of our current educational
select leaders for government, political parties, and other
system.
organizations.
For example, if a teacher proposes an activity
in the classroom such as, “Write an essay about Is this a threat to education?
elections” the students will search for the Schools that value traditional education, would
information on the internet and by rewriting give good grades to students who write texts like
several texts found and trying to connect them in a these, considering them prepared for society’s
consistent way, they will present an original essay. demands, as they “write well.” Paulo Freire (1977)
ChatGPT performs the exact same process. called this the “banking” model education, where
However, it is important to emphasize that ideas and content are “deposited” into students
writing a text does not mean learning and internal- and “withdrawn” when tested. But education for
izing issues related to the topic, but only demon- the 21st century, which needs critical thinking,
strates the ability to carry out searches on Google creativity and real problem solving, seeks to
and write something that respects syntax and develop student skills and competencies that go
semantic rules. That’s what OpenAI’s application beyond formulaic writing, memorization, and test
does… only faster. taking.
Thus, when asking ChatGPT to write a paragraph There are amazing, creative, critical, innovative,
about elections on two consecutive occasions, the and sensitive students who might not write as
platform presented two distinct responses. Both well as ChatGPT. In fact, while writing skills and
these responses were classified as originals on performing good internet searches are extremely
platforms that identify plagiarism. important, they are not the only evidence that
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should be used to assess the student’s academic Notes

development. 1. openai.com/blog/chatgpt
AI and its applications need to be seen as allies
for a constructionist education based on the ideas References
of Seymour Papert and also for a transformative Paulo Freire, Pedagogia do Oprimido, Editora Paz
education based on the critical and reflective e Terra, Rio de Janeiro, 1977, 4ª ed., (N.E.).
pedagogical practice of Paulo Freire.
Mathematics, language and humanities
dialogue with each other when the school
understands that the advancement of new technol-
ogies expands the opportunities for student-cen-
tered learning, promoting a multidisciplinary
educational process, while seeking solutions for
the real world.
Emerging technologies provide opportunities
in the school context for an active and meaningful
learning environment, provoking important
reflections on what is expected from the 21st
century school.
ChatGPT may be a threat to a traditional model
of education, but our job is not to preserve old
models of learning but to engage in an important
discussion: “Where should education for the New
Millennium go?”
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102 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Education in the Age of AI

by Lars Beck Johannsen

Some technologies are truly innovative, changing being practiced.

the way we live our lives. Recent development in One example is the teaching of a foreign
the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is certainly language, where high school teachers right now
in that category, some even compare it with the struggle with extensive use of AI generated papers
invention of electricity. In this article I would like and translations. And yes, the students are cheating
to share both some of my experiences in education and not really learning much about the language.
and share my thoughts and hopes for the future. But what if the AI was a personal assistant that
Five months prior to writing this article I listened to your pronunciation and grammar and
wrote a blogpost about the subject and already gave you corrections in a safe and personal space
in that short amount of time, a lot has changed. where you did not have to worry about classmates
AI technology moves fast, really fast, and both thinking that you sounded funny?
businesses and the general public have adopted I think a lot of subjects and the way that students
the technology to a high degree. I can not begin are being taught will change in the future. There is
to fathom all the aspects of AI technology, but will a lot that AI can assist us with, but also a lot that
focus on education. the technology cannot. AI is very bad at being
In Denmark, the debate about ChatGPT as human; it only mimics, and it only sees the world
a tool for cheating with school assignments is through the data it is given. It cannot replace the
ongoing. The debates range from banning the relationships between human beings.
tools, restricting WiFi, and trying to detect AI In the Danish school system there has been a
generated work. Probably not a good approach. focus on working together in groups and how to
Others talk about changing the assignments and deal with conflicts since the seventies. I think that
working together with AI instead. They suggest in the future it will be even more important to learn
that students analyze the output that is generated, how to be together physically in the same room
checking the facts and statements that is the as well as in virtual rooms. Another thing that
AI´s output. Another suggestion is that students comes to mind is the way that we learn, feel, and
prompt ChatGPT to write about a topic that is well manufacture through our hands. There are crafts
known to the student. Will they agree with what is that are still a long way from being automated and
being generated or is something that is obvious to still hold great value both as a learning experience
them be missing? and making tangible objects.
A recent documentary series made by the Danish Constructionism could work well in cooperation
national television (DR) invited different experts with AI, since creating tangible objects in the real
and scientists to debate and explain AI. What is world is something that could benefit from AI.
AI is already changing and what it might become Enabling the ideas to become real would be much
in the future is uncertain. The experts shared a easier and nonetheless a learning experience,
few perspectives on education and none of them especially if it grows out of the world around
looked good for teachers. But I would argue that it you, your culture, interpersonal relations, wicked
is the school system that is challenged, and that it problems or even silly and useless stuff AI would
needs to change the way education traditionally is never come up with.
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I have been wondering about what I will do use AI. AI can enhance what we do, both good and
differently in the future. My work is all about bad. It is very much up to us what we will allow it
creating and teaching how to create. Using AI is to do.
something I will encourage, not limit. There are Of course there is also the intentionality from
two major new areas I will focus on: prompting as businesses that use AI in their products, that is
a new aspect of computational thinking and the another challenge for the generations to come.
discussion about ethics involved with AI. One recent example is Snapchat's AI which seems
Prompting is giving instructions to the AI and to be another tool to keep you on the app longer
the more specific you can be, the better result the but also for getting more personal data from the
AI will generate. It is kind of a language of its own user. This is not transparent and something that is
and something you can do on different skill levels. the basis for a good discussion about personal data
Computational thinking is a part of this and it will and ethics. On a larger scale AI is being discussed
be interesting to develop ways to learn it. I am no globally on all levels of government and business.
expert in prompting but I am looking forward to Should it be open for all, regulated, or something
go on the journey alongside with my students in else?
the process of creating the projects that grow out AI will change the future of education for sure,
of the classroom or the fablab. and I think it is good news for the constructionist
You can not talk about AI without touching on approach and bad news for the more instructional
the ethical part of the technology. I think that it is education models. What else the future will bring
very important to have an open and free discussion to our local and global society is very much up to
about this not only in the classroom but on all levels every individual and the choices we make in the use
of society. of AI. It is certainly an interesting time in history
I have already experienced different approaches to be experiencing and I am sure that there is a lot
by students in the use of AI. Some students cheat of potential to prosper as humanity as long as we
with AI. Some students “tease” the AI to make remember to be human along the way.
faulty outputs. Students use AI for generating
code for their projects. Other students have a sense
of responsibility in how they behave towards AI
and are always polite in the conversation with the
language model.
In many ways these examples show that the
choices we make are fundamental to how we might
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104 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Technology is a New Kind of Trojan Horse: Reflections on a

Text by Professor Paulo Blikstein
by Charles Pimentel

Is the ideal school possible? What is the role of active learning and stimulates the quest for new
technology towards this purpose? How can teachers knowledge. In this sense, new technologies that
promote a meaningful learning atmosphere? This facilitate any of these things are important tools
article shares an experience in a high school in for an emancipatory education.
Brazil after reading and reflecting on the article by
“Another means is for individuals to design
professor Paulo Blikstein, Travels in Troy with Freire:
devices, systems, or solutions, using knowledge
Technology as an Agent of Emancipation. from science and technology, and then use
The ideas of Paulo Freire and Seymour Papert language to improve these devices through
are the fuel for this discussion, and the Maker critical interaction with fellow designers.”
Movement, through new technologies, is the (Blikstein, 2016)
engine that can lead us to a school where teaching
and learning might become significantly improved. At Polo Educacional Sesc, a project was developed
Ideally, the implementation of maker education in our makerspace to encourage the use of available
in schools would be well planned, with very technological tools to develop and carry out
clear objectives. Here, the Cheshire Cat in Alice’s activities in alignment with the school curriculum.
Adventures in Wonderland offers a warning, “If you The project proposed the following reflection
do not know where you are going, any road will to students: How can digital fabrication resources
take you there.” available at our school space support the development of
Although we find different social and low-cost learning objects for science teaching?
educational realities in the world, I find that
Paulo Freire’s pedagogy has the power to address
all learning contexts. Among his contributions,
“Generative Themes” are well known (Freire, 1970).
That is a pedagogical methodology that aims at
making students perceive themselves as agents of
change — that their own ideas, hopes, and vision
for the future are valuable. Generative Themes can
be a good start to implement actions that result in
meaningful learning.
Providing students with an atmosphere of
Polo Educacional Sesc
belonging, sharing, innovation, and meaning are
principles shared by Lev Vygostsky and Seymour
Papert. When students collaboratively develop Polo Educacional Sesc is a private high school in
a project with a common goal, exchanging Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, offering free-of-charge,
experiences, debating on best practices, agreeing top-level transformative global education to
on some points and disagreeing on others, their low-income students from Rio de Janeiro.
collective and significant construction generates Unfortunately, before going through this
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life-changing educational program, many of these Although the Sensor Track is different from the
students were in schools that lacked educational Air Rail, mainly because it has friction between the
and technological resources, laboratories and car and the track, the students still needed to use
often, teachers. concepts of math, physics, basic electronics, and
It didn’t take long for the students to detect C ++ programming skills to develop the project.
a problem: many resources for experimental With an Arduino Mega microcontroller, 9 LED
science teaching are very expensive, which makes arrays, 8 ultrasonic sensors, a 16X2 LCD screen,
them quite inaccessible to many schools. So, they wires, MDF wood, creativity and the help of a laser
thought they could use the prototyping supplies cutter, students produced a solution for less than
from the makerspace at the school to contribute $ 100.
towards the cause of low-cost science resources.
As they researched, an experiment similar to a
Linear Air Rail was identified by the students as
a potential project to be developed. A Linear Air
Rail is a perforated rail connected to an air blower.
This device can be used to study and experiment
with important concepts in kinematics, such as
speed and acceleration. It is an aid to the teaching
of physics and mathematics. In Brazil, this
experiment costs around US$ 1,000, which makes
it impossible for many schools to acquire.
With these thoughts in mind, the students
decided to develop a track with sensors that would
measure the speed of a Mousetrap Car, thus
generating performance tables and graphs. They
developed this track so that other students from
their own institution or from other educational
spaces with few resources would be able to create
these cars. The only source of energy for the
prototypes is a mousetrap, and the cars can have
different designs. Thus, by placing their model
on the track and activating the trap, students can
measure the performance of their creation.

Track with sensors for Mousetrap Cars

Reinventing an existing technological experiment

to reduce its cost dramatically was the path taken
by the group of students who participated in the
project. They knew that many schools, like the
ones they came from and studied in previous years
did not carry out experiments with their students
due to a sheer lack of resources. Empathy was an
important mobilizing agent of transformation.
Mousetrap Car modeling workshop
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106 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

“Freire’s focus on humanism and Papert’s “Students appropriate the Trojan technology as
emphasis on the creation of personally authentic means to liberate themselves from
meaningful artifacts are highly complementary” the incarceration of traditional pedagogy . Once
(Blikstein, 2016) deschooled, students shake off the dust and
engage in authentic inquiry and construction .”
As Blikstein points out, an authentic Generative (Blikstein, 2016)
Theme has the power to provide engagement and
“true emancipatory knowledge must make people Blikstein’s image of technology as a Trojan horse
feel like agents of action and change in the world”. in the school is spectacular. The technology may be
The Sensor Track project showed that when delivered in the horse, but the Trojan horsepower
students had the opportunity to engage in an is that it allows students to marvel at the awareness
action that could promote change, they identified that they are also an agents of change in society.
a problem (which was part of the academic life of
some of them) and then, developed a solution for it. Special Acknowledgment: I would like to thank
This is what is expected of education: that it Paulo Ceotto, specialist at Sesc’s International
changes students’ lives but also that students in Advisory Office for his invaluable contribution in
a privileged situation can commit to promoting the translation and adaptation of this article.
changes in other spaces that have fewer resources
and possibilities. Education has that power. Science, References
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics are the Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York:
mechanisms and students are the agents. Herder and Herder
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Having Financial Resources Does Not Guarantee Learning

by Débora Garofalo

I recently visited Recife, the capital of a northeastern Decades later, we are still struggling with the same
state in Brazil and their Municipal Department of issues. Technology does not guarantee learning.
Education to find out what they have been doing We must allow creativity and critical thinking in
in the field of teaching programming and robotics. the education process.
In conversation with several teachers in person, It is not just a matter of bringing expensive
after nearly two years of social distancing and technology and robotics to school to achieve
COVID-19, I got to know about their work and improvements in the quality of education. The
anxieties. innovative use of technology on a daily basis, by
One of their anxieties is that although they students and teachers, can radically change the
have cutting-edge resources, such as humanoid focus of the teacher’s practice. But the technology
robots and LEGO kits with which they have won must be used by students to develop their own
several national and international championships, ideas. With creative uses of technology, students
the greatest difficulty was in promoting learning become responsible for their own development
that was meaningful and real, such as solving real and, therefore, responsible for their own education.
problems with those devices. Papert’s learning theory of constructionism
I showed them how to start the work of the says that people acquire knowledge through the
Robotics with Scrap project, introducing maker construction of artifacts, which is what I saw when
culture without having so many resources. They students constructed robots with scrap materials.
were interested in finding out more, and how These constructionist ideas were based on the
children and young people turned it into a teaching work of Piaget, his mentor in the years he worked
methodology for 3.5 million students. with him in Switzerland, but actually date back to
At that moment, I remembered Papert’s his childhood, when mechanical components and
teachings and his pedagogical and epistemolog- gears became mental models that he could use in
ical concerns he documented in his books. These his understanding of the world, of mathematics,
concerns arose when classes remained essentially and of learning.
the same after the introduction of technology.
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108 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Papert’s interest in gears shapes his construc- References

tivist view of learning — what an individual can Freire, Paulo. Pedagogia do oprimido. Rio de
learn, and how they learn, depends on the models Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1979.
they have. Freire, Paulo. Pedagogia da Esperança: Um
Papert and Freire both defend and advocate for reencontro com a pedagogia do oprimido. Rio
the role of mediator in the social aspect of learning. de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1993.
For Freire, the use of technology in education Freire, Paulo. Pedagogia da autonomia. 9. ed. Rio
should embody technological praxis, since all de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1998.
use of technology is influenced by ideology. It is O Futuro da Escola: Seymour Papert e Paulo
necessary to identify the underlying principles of Freire – uma conversa sobre informática,
technological practices as we search for genuine ensino e aprendizagem. Produção da Pontifícia
justifications for their use. Universidade Católica de São Paulo – TV PUC.
For Freire, technology needs to be used with an São Paulo: PUC-SP, 1995. Vídeo na Internet (60
awareness of the potential for political-ideological min.), Formato MP4, son., color. Disponível em
manipulation which permeates technological envi- 177.11.48.108:8080/xmlui/handle/7891/395 >. 10
ronments and mediums. But Freire still asserts de out. 2021.
that a full understanding of technology humanizes Papert, S. Mindstorms: Children, computers and
people and makes them capable of transforming powerful ideas. Brighton: Harvester Press, 1980.
the world. Papert, Seymour. A máquina das crianças:
Both Papert and Freire demonstrate that the repensando a escola na era da informática. 2.
scientific and technological moment in which we ed. Porto Alegre: Artes Médicas, 1994.
find ourselves affects education. A fresh approach
to educational practices, seen through an epis-
temological lens, can generate autonomy for
both learners and teachers. The development of a
new education system should take advantage of
new technology not only to guarantee access to
information and content, but also to allow students
to be discoverers and researchers. There are all
kinds of technologies, including inexpensive ones,
that can enable the learners to explore and be
creative.
Quilts: Collaboration,
Coding, & Culture
 111

Midway through the FabLearn Fellow Cohort 3, we embarked on a project that is well
known to the Logo community — to collaboratively build a quilt out of individual patches
designed in the Logo programming language .

At the time, the world was still deep into the COVID-19 pandemic, so this project modeled
constructivist distance learning . People could work on their small piece on their own, but
still be part of a larger construction .

In the 1960s, Seymour Papert, Cynthia Solomon, we used a variation called Lynx from LCSI, a
Wally Feurzeig and others invented Logo, the first company Seymour Papert co-founded. It runs in
programming language for children. The “big idea” the browser, but is text-based, like earlier versions
was to not just give computers to children, but as a of Logo. Gary Stager provided us with a handout
way for children to grapple with deep mathemat- to introduce the language and how to get started
ical ideas. with the quilt project.1
By giving directions to a friendly turtle, the As the popularity of Logo grew in the 1980s,
turtle moves and draws. The original turtles of the some educators who were early adopters became
1960s were floor robots with a pen attached. As evangelists. Perhaps the most famous were Dan
computer graphics became more sophisticated, and Molly Lynn-Watt who wrote fun and accessible
the turtle took its place on the screen and “turtle books and articles to teach teachers about Logo.
graphics” was born. They shared the idea of making a quilt using
While modern incarnations of Logo like Scratch Logo in an article in the magazine The Logo
and Turtle Art are very popular, for this project Exchange, in May 1986,2 excerpted here.

To quilt is to collaborate
One of our favorite collaborative projects is the design of a Logo quilt . We ask each student to
contribute an existing turtle graphics design . Students who put a quilt together must solve a
number of problems that lead them to use powerful programming ideas .
112 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

The full power of Logo includes:

• The ability to use top down planning in designing a project
• The flexible use of procedures, subprocedures, and variables
• Clear naming schemes that make complex procedures easier to read
• The use of tool procedures
• The use of modular, state-transparent procedures
Many Logo students do not reach· this level of command over the language, however. We have
observed that, as long as Logo learners (adults as well as children) work on individual projects,
they tend to solve problems in personal, idiosyncratic ways, and avoid learning these powerful
techniques. In our experience, people do not learn to use these ideas until see a clear need for
them.
One way to create such a need is to involve several students in creating a collaborative project,
in which each one does a part of the programming, working towards a combined result.

Dan and Molly describe valuable aspects of this Dan and Molly also mention the respect for
project, including: culture that this project shows. Around the world,
• “Group agreement on naming procedures the concept of a quilt is valued. Not only are quilts
• Understanding the computer science concept of useful and beautiful, but they tell stories and are
“state transparency.” The turtle must begin and created by many hands.
end at the same position and heading, or else the
next person’s procedure will not draw correctly. “We also like the fact that quilt-making is
• Everyone can contribute at their level of a traditional art form, with techniques and
expertise. The designs can be simple or complex. aesthetics that make use of different materials
Programming techniques are shared and can be and technologies. This shows that computer
appreciated. activities do not have to take place in a high-tech
• Some programmers may find they need to use vacuum, but can incorporate ideas from other
variables to adjust the sizes of their drawings.” ages and cultures.”

Constructionism and culture The reflections by the FabLearn Fellows in this

The Fellows who undertook the quilt challenge section show the power of this collaborative project
came to these conclusions naturally as they worked has not diminished over the years.
to make patches that fit together. This is an often
misunderstood aspect of constructionism, that Notes
there is no intentionality in the lessons that are 1. Cooperative quilt instructions in Lynx and
learned. Dan and Molly show their deep under- Turtle Art by Gary Stager.
standing of how to teach computer science constructingmodernknowledge.com/quilt/
principles not by lecturing about them, but by 2. Logo Quilt article el.media.mit.edu/logo-foun-
creating projects with criteria, constraints, and dation/resources/nlx/v4/Vol4No9.pdf
challenges that are guranteed to push students Full archive of Logo Exchange magazine
into new understandings. el.media.mit.edu/logo-foundation/resources/
nlx/
 Quilts: Collaboration, Coding, & Culture 113

Digital Quilting Around the World

by Greg Houghton

The ability for teachers and learners to contribute, employed in creative activities in the past, the use
learn from each other, and remix work is a powerful of Lynx provides a new context to the approach.
shared experience for all involved. The process The ability to utilize, combine, and modify each
provides opportunities for individual interpreta- other’s code created a scenario that emulates a
tion and expression of ideas. Through the intro- developers use of repositories such as GitHub.
duction of the Lynx patchwork quilt project, the This modular approach to projects provides the
FabLearn Fellows were given just this opportunity opportunity for everyone to contribute to a bigger
and tasked with designing at least one tile or patch idea or finished product, while all can be involved
using the lynxcoding.club software. in creating a rich environment for collaboration
Too often creative activities are delivered and the cross pollination of ideas. To hear that
through meticulous step by step instruction Lars Beck Johannsen’s students in Denmark had
resulting in whole class facsimiles of the same utilized some of my initial code was a great feeling
product, this not only stifles creative expression and demonstrates the community aspect of this
but limits the potential to explore individual ideas. approach.
The project allowed for individual expression yet The variety of interpretations of the brief was
the end product was the result of everyone’s contri- enriched by the Fellows introducing cultural
bution. As the Fellows shared the code used to make elements, such as traditional tile designs and
their patches we were able to overcome challenges patchwork quilt production methods. This
by learning from each other’s discoveries and move introduced us to cultural elements and provided
forward with our creations. insight into each other’s heritage.
More often than not the computer is utilized in
the classroom in an attempt to “program the child”
as Seymour Papert would say. This approach is very
much an opportunity for the child to program the
computer. The visual feedback provides a fun and
accessible way to try out code, and the ability to
copy commands into procedures was an intuitive
way to build complex patterns.
When using the software I sometimes found
that the code I had created generated unpredict-
able results encouraging me to go back to the
procedures and try and debug where the issue was.
Sometimes I even found myself turning my head
or body to simulate the movement of the turtle.
Although the contribution of ideas to create a
collaborative piece of work is a technique I have
114 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Teaching Collaborative Programming: A Creative

Adventure Using Lynx
by Débora Garofalo

It is important that teachers and students from the whole group. This is a new way of thinking
understand that they can contribute to the effective and solving problems, rethinking the learning
use of technological innovations, as well as new process not as an end, but as a process under
ways of using them in activities and projects in the construction.
classroom. Making the teaching of programming It is no longer possible to imagine a society
possible through playful resources can be a key to in which people do not need basic computer
learning to think, figuring out new possibilities, knowledge, it must be considered important for
persisting, and developing 21st century skills. contemporary living, alongside basic knowledge
Adventures in creativity can happen in many of mathematics, philosophy, physics, and other
ways and one of them is using Lynx! Lynx is a new sciences (Resnick, 2017).
web-based Logo dialect and I had not tried this The activity reminded us that Papert and his
tool before but was challenged to do so with my constructionist approach to learning aims to
FabLearn Fellows Cohort 3 to build a collaborative promote the construction of knowledge by the
quilt, programmed in Logo and drawn by the turtle. young person who tells the computer what must be
I believe programming is a great lever in the done, through the programming language.
teaching-learning process, as it goes beyond under- Logo is not just a language, but also a philosophy
standing how the computer and programming about the nature of learning using technology
commands work. Programming activates logical (Papert, 1996), which provides students with
thinking to promote new learning connections, conditions to explore their intellectual potential.
especially when students analyze their hypotheses One of the powerful ideas of Logo is that once
and debug their programs. you figure out how to do something, you can “teach
The purpose of the activity was to recreate the turtle” a new word that will remember this
patchwork quilts, using mathematics in its sequence of instructions. These new words are called
everyday form, not in the formal way math procedures. Procedures behave just like primitives
is usually presented in teaching materials. (the built-in commands of a language), except that
Requiring every person to create a uniform patch, they are unique to a particular project.
and putting them together to create elaborate For Papert, the goal of education is to create
geometric patterns, connects programming and an appropriate context so that learning can be
constructionism, through the Logo language, and developed in a natural way. What is intended with
also honors quilting traditions that can be found in the Logo language is to create an opportunity for
cultures all over the world. a creative environment that makes it easy to solve
The project challenged us to create at least one problems. By proposing significant challenges
patch and share our patch with our peers. We like this one, related to topics relevant to student
could then take some of those patches and make a learning, we can create contexts where students
quilt from them. are the ones seeking innovative solutions and
In this sense, we went beyond a programming representing their own ideas using Logo.
activity that an individual could complete, towards One of the main lessons learned in this type
fostering engagement and effective participation of activity is to allow students to solve problems
 Quilts: Collaboration, Coding, & Culture 115

through immediate feedback on their actions. References

Thus, they can compare their initial ideas with the Papert, S. (1996). The Connected Family: Bridging the
result obtained, analyze their successes or errors, Digital Generation Gap. Longstreet.
ask questions, make new attempts, check their Resnick, M. (2017). Lifelong Kindergarten: Cultivating
results, and continue to build new concepts from Creativity Through Projects, Passion, Peers, and Play.
this process. MIT Press.
There are many benefits of teaching
programming in the classroom, and reflecting on
this challenge allowed me to think about teacher
practice using technology in the construction of
knowledge and worlds of creativity!

My quilt My quilt using the patches produced by my peers

116 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Create a Quilt That Wraps the World

by Lina Cannone

A particularly interesting aspect of being part of

the Fablearn Fellows group is to have first-hand
experiences of activities that we could offer to our
children.
Last month’s project was to make a collabo-
rative quilt, in which each component must use
one or more frames, each frame becoming a patch
in the quilt. The design of each frame was to be
written in Lynx, a cloud-based programming
environment derived from Logo. I had never used
this software before and I did not know the syntax.
The programming space at first approach was
quite spartan but over time I was able to discover
its potential and I really appreciated it.
When I start learning new software or a new The next step was to join the different frames and
language, I always prefer to use already made create a quilt. I particularly like this aspect because
code from which to start and that I can modify. even if at a distance, distributed all over the world,
This allows me to understand the syntax rules we were able to create something together. I felt
and to find out which part of the code does what part of a community — inspired by a project that
by analyzing different outputs depending on the unites us. It is a very topical issue, that of remote
changes I make. collaboration, which teachers have been trying
For this reason, when I introduce a new project to incorporate due to the pandemic. I believe
in the classroom, I always try to propose to kids that projects of this type can involve and engage
some inspiration projects whether it is software, students in a collaboration even if they are not
such as Scratch projects that can be modified or physically close.
used only as inspiration, or construction projects. During the activity, cooperation between peers
I noticed that initially, the students rely a lot on the occurred spontaneously. There were several times
suggested products but once they become familiar that someone shared their code and asked for
with the software or material, they tend to discard support to find an error that they could not identify,
the prototype and build something completely and the group supported them, thus avoiding the
different and that better reflects their tastes and frustration of failing. I analyzed a peer’s code,
abilities. and that gave me a greater knowledge of the tool
This approach was also useful on this occasion, and led me to reflect on how different people built
I started from a piece of code created by another codes with very different characteristics to do very
fellow. I modified it gradually to create my frame. similar things.
 Quilts: Collaboration, Coding, & Culture 117

The work of others inspired further ideas for References

other frames, and I believe that this “idea contam- Resnick, M. (2017). Lifelong Kindergarten: Cultivating
ination” is very positive because even if someone Creativity Through Projects, Passion, Peers, and Play.
initially does not feel able to design or build MIT Press.
their own project, thanks to the projects of their
companions they can find their own way forward.
Often, when we work face to face, I find it very
useful to let students pass between the tables to
find opportunities or to help those in difficulty.
The final step is to show your work to the group,
which has two important benefits: First, sharing
generates greater self-confidence and leads to
reflection and finding inspiration from the work
of others. Second, to tell what happened and how,
to activate the metacognitive functions that lead
to a greater awareness of self, revealing the logical
and creative processes that are triggered. Mitch
Resnick inserts sharing as one of the phases of the
creative learning spiral followed by the reflection
phase (Resnick, 2017).
Just like my students, I had an initial phase of
disorientation in which I did not know the software
and had no ideas of what to do. There was a period
of latency, of searching for inspiration, and then
I started to build something. The comparison of
my own work to the work of the other Fellows was
fundamental to be able to finish my project.
118 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Experiencing a Powerful Mathematical Idea

by Ridhi Aggarwal

“The universe cannot be read until we learn the language in which it is written. It is written in mathematics,
and the letters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to
understand a single word.”

— Galileo Galilei

The universe is a source of basic geometric shapes, Math talk

we discover them through the observation of As a teacher, while exploring Logo and the turtle, I
nature. This understanding of basic shapes and was thinking that this tool would give children so
their functions have taught us to mark time and much space to explore and learn while talking about
space in a variety of ways which has inspired mathematics. This interaction and conversation is
mathematics, technology, language, and ever often missing in mathematical learning. Reuben
evolving civilization. Hersh in his book What Is Mathematics, Really? says
As geometry is inspired by nature, children mathematics “… is learnt by computing, by solving
should also understand its elements by discovering problems and by conversing more than by reading
the world of shapes around them. The Logo turtle and listening.”
is one such tool that I experienced, which would This important element of mathematics can
help children discover the concepts by exploring on come alive as the teacher can start a discussion
their own. on angles, directions, and movement of the Logo
turtle with questions like – What happens when you
My experiences enter 45? What about 180? Some prompts like – Can
I remember when I was first introduced to Logo you try making a shape using what you all have learned
turtle, I was so excited to try it despite lacking any or explored till now?
technical or coding background. I was even more Talking about their learning and thinking in
excited to see the turtle move according to my wish a mathematics class through the actions of the
on my computer screen. I could make it move up turtle would help children construct many learning
and down, right and left, and experiment with its dimensions. Even if some students might struggle
movements. putting these pieces together, combining actual
Spending time exploring the different physical movement, concrete experiences, or
commands gave me the confidence to experiment walking like the Logo turtle, along with verbalizing,
more. Initially I was confused by the right and would help them to conceptualize the geometry
left command as I thought that the turtle would they are learning.
simply start to move in that direction, but when I
understood it better, I realized that all the possible Constructivist curriculum
angles could be explored. I loved exploring A constructivist curriculum focuses on students
reflection and transformation concepts and actively experiencing and building ideas to solve
bringing them alive in the form of the art my turtle personally meaningful problems along with
could make. taking ownership and being self-motivated. The
 Quilts: Collaboration, Coding, & Culture 119

traditional geometry curriculum often starts think about creating these objects, but as they
from the concept and then asks the child to solve use it naturally, they create and discover on their
a problem which may be out of context. However, own. This is constructive learning as it means
if we teach geometry through the movements that learners construct the mental models to
of the Logo turtle, children explore on their own understand the world around them.
and come to the concepts after having a concrete The Logo turtle creates that space for intuitive
contextual experience. This would mean that learning, while also serving as an object to think
children would be inventing basic concepts in with, which I need to explore myself with children
mathematics on their own, thereby learning to be to understand it further.
mathematicians. There are numerous reports that It can be said that physical actions on concrete
students fail to learn basic geometric concepts, objects are necessary to help students construct
especially geometric problem solving due to lack geometric ideas, such as through concrete manip-
of geometric intuition. The children do not have ulatives like geometry rods, blocks, geo-board,
enough examples to experience conceptual and isometric papers, and many others. Using manip-
procedural understanding of topics to be studied ulatives facilitates the learning process and it is
in higher classes like vectors, coordinates, trans- equally important to see whether the children are
formations, and trigonometry. able to establish a link between the action of the
manipulative to describe the action. Thus, students
Intuitive geometry must internalize such physical actions and abstract
The whole process for me started with exploring the corresponding geometric notions.
concepts intuitively on the Lynx coding platform, Learning geometric ideas can be seen in the use
which uses a text-based form of the Logo of the Logo turtle as the children will invent basic
programming language. While making geometric concepts which will help them progress to higher
shapes and complex patterns, I started to think levels of thinking in mathematics. Van Hiele
that Logo turtle is a powerful tool for intuitive proposes a model of geometric thinking levels in
learning. which the students move from one level of thinking
Seymour Papert in his book Mindstorms said, to the next.1
“I take from Jean Piaget a model of children as If a teacher plans the lesson combining concrete
builders of their own intellectual structures. manipulatives, experience from the real world, as
Children seem to be innately gifted learners, well as the Logo turtle to teach geometry, I strongly
acquiring long before they go to school a believe that students would not only progress
vast quantity of knowledge by a process I call into higher levels of thinking but also would build
‘Piagetian learning’ or ‘learning without being stronger conceptual understanding of geometry
taught.’” which they would be able to use in other situations
to solve other problems. They would thus be
As an educator who believes in the principle that
learning geometry relationally.
children learn a lot intuitively, I have experienced
the same when I observe toddlers playing with Reflections and implementation
loose parts, making shapes or patterns, using The quilt project with the FabLearn Fellows came
things in symmetry while making a pattern or at a time when we were exploring revolution as
balancing things, and making decisions intuitively. a theme with children in our organization. The
This process of children experimenting on their community has been doing embroidery and
own makes me further reflect on Papert’s “objects thread work on things around cloth. So, we were
to think with,” as a powerful concept that keeps exploring ideas about how cloth, and specifically
the learner at the center of the learning process. quilting, has been used as a tool for revolution. The
The best part is that the child does not have to children created quilts and did thread work around
120 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

revolution. I am excited to give them the exposure

to turtle geometry through Lynx where they can
explore more making digital quilt patterns and
then making those quilts physically.
It has been an enriching experience for me to
explore the concepts of Logo and turtle geometry
and reflect on how it challenged my own comfort
zone, and made me wonder how technology can
be integrated with children’s hands-on-contextual
experiences. One of the aims of our organization is
to give students ownership of their learning. This
mission sometimes comes with frustration on their
part, but putting them in charge and giving them
freedom often pushes them through roadblocks,
from which they emerge with an eagerness to
continue learning.
This experience of working on the Logo quilt
project with other Fellows has given me the push to
think about how, up to now, concrete hand-on-con-
textual experiences of making have been the key
to my work with children. But this experience has
given me many points to ponder and enhanced
my own learning as an educator. This has been a
powerful idea for me to explore further.

Note
1. Van Hiele model of geometric thinking en.wiki-
pedia.org/wiki/Van_Hiele_model
 Quilts: Collaboration, Coding, & Culture 121

Quilting the Young Coders

by Michael Mumbo

The word programming is misunderstood. It is a picks the worm. We progressively changed the
fallacy that it is disconnected from other subjects, values 15 units at a time, 0,15,30,45,60,75,90. We
that this “language of computers” is foreign and agreed that it can only pick the worm when the
hard to read, and takes years to learn. Maybe this units are between 0-10. But wait, what are we
is because some “experts” use abstract terms while talking about here? ANGLES of course!
introducing young people to programming.

The little one seemed to be aware of something

she called a “right-angled triangle.” Perhaps she
According to Seymour Papert, “Construction that heard someone mention it somewhere. Having all
takes place ‘in the head’ often happens especially these tiny pieces of information, I decided to put
felicitously when it is supported by the construc- programming on hold and walk her through some
tion of a more public sort in the world” (1993). math concepts about triangles.
Shouldn’t the children program and create ideas We drew a rectangle, which I then diagonally
that can be examined, shown, probed, and even cut. The little programmer agreed that one of them
admired by not only themselves but also others? was a right-angled triangle, but was not sure that
During one of our virtual programming the other upside-down half was also a right-an-
sessions with 8-year-olds, I met a student who gled triangle. It made me think for a moment that
made me think hard about my perception about perhaps she had only seen right-angled triangles
teaching programming to kids. In Kenya, the Grade drawn one way.
3 curriculum does not allow them to dive deeply After this, we got back to programming, where
into concepts like geometry. When you mention I introduced the concept of loops and conditions.
angles and geometry to a Grade 3, some of them This too often is introduced as an abstract concept.
might think that you are asking them about their But when you think of it as crossing the road, you
“favorite tree” (Geometry). usually look left, right, then left, and if the road
We were using a programming application is clear you cross, else you wait. I find this to be a
called “Little Quilt.” The learners need to have a powerful way to introduce if and else commands in
basic understanding of geometry principles to programming to the young programmers.
proceed with some of the programming stages.
Needless to say, the little girl proceeded to change Reference
the angles and the bearings to program a bird to Papert, S. (1993). The Children's Machine: Rethinking
pick a worm. This young girl was fully aware that School in the Age of the Computer. Basic Books.
making the birds turn at 15 units will not make it
pick the worm but when changed to 10 units it
Cultures of Reuse & Recyling
 123

This section is about reuse and recycling as a way of approaching the world, and how
this mindset can be turned into learning opportunities. It starts with an article in both
Portuguese and English about a project that has spread across Brazil called “Robotics
with Scrap.” The project started with students identifying a problem in their community
and solving it with ingenuity and technical skills. Other articles in this section approach
recycling and reuse from other angles, but all with the point of view that students can be
recognized as citizens of the future with rights to a clean, safe, environment, and a say in
determining this future.

Also included in this section are three interviews with Fellows about student projects
focused on reusing and recycling. These interviews followed a series of protocol questions
that were also part of the process of writing the AERA award-winning paper, “Emancipatory
Maker Practices in the Global South” found on page 87. These extended interviews offer
insight into ways that students and teachers interact with materials and technology, and
how local culture plays a part in the decisions and practices described.
124
124 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Robótica com Sucata: Por uma educação criativa

para todos
by Débora Garofalo

“Precisamos contribuir para criar a escola que é aventura, que marcha, que não tem medo do risco. A escola em
que se pensa, em que se cria, em que se fala, em que se adivinha, a escola que apaixonadamente diz sim a vida.”

—Paulo Freire

Você já pensou em transformar um problema No entanto, como em muitas outras realidades

dos estudantes e ou do território educativo em que adentram o Brasil, a escola não possuía os
currículo? materiais adequados para ensinar robótica aos
Essa é a história por detrás do trabalho de estudantes e a solução para minha angústia veio de
robótica com Sucata, que atualmente é uma um problema social relatados pelos estudantes: “o
política pública estadual de São Paulo, presente lixo”. Olhar para esse problema social que impedia
em mais de 5.400 escolas e eternizadas em obras os discentes de irem à escola em dias de chuva e
e relatos de experiência, recebendo diversos que trazia doenças como dengue e leptospirose,
prêmios, entre eles, Professores do Brasil 2018, foi a solução para ressignificar o ensino e desta
Desafio de Aprendizagem Criativa do MIT 2019 e maneira nasce o trabalho de robótica com sucata
considerada uma das 10 melhores Professoras do impactando os estudantes do 1º ao 9º em aulas
Mundo pelo Global Teacher Prize 2019 . regulares.

Bastidores do trabalho de Robótica com Para se inspirar na sala de aula

Sucata Para que você possa replicar o trabalho em sua
Quando cheguei a escola municipal EMEF aula, conheça alguns passos e como foi concebido a
Almirante Ary Parreiras em 2015 me deparei com partir das vozes dos estudantes e passos:
uma das realidades mais difíceis como professora
durante a minha carreira docente. Os estudantes Aula pública – de sensibilização da comunidade
estavam expostos ao alto índice de violência trazida sobre a importância do lixo e descarte de maneira
de fora do ambiente escolar e ao tráfico de drogas. adequado. Assim, foram realizadas saídas pela
Outro problema latente da comunidade escolar comunidade com trajeto definido em sala de aula
era a ausência do saneamento básico e estrutura por cada turma e série com o objetivo de sensi-
precárias das casas. Foi nessa realidade que decidi bilizar a comunidade local sobre a questão do
sair da minha zona de conforto como professora descarte do lixo e sustentabilidade 5R´s (reciclar,
de algumas turmas e me candidatar para a vaga de recusar, reutilizar, reduzir e repensar) e no
professora de Tecnologias. Com o objetivo muito percurso recolhendo o lixo eletrônico e materiais
claro de transformar a vida de crianças e jovens recicláveis.
através do uso das tecnologias, ao ressignificar
a aprendizagem através do uso de tendências Recolhimento de materiais – Recolhimento de
digitais como o ensino do pensamento computa- materiais recicláveis e lixo eletrônico pelas ruas da
cional, através da cultura maker, programação e de comunidade.
robótica como propulsoras a essa transformação. Separação dos materiais – Separação e pesagem
dos materiais do que seria usado em sala de aula
 Cultures of Reuse & Recycling 125
125

e do que poderia ser vendido através de parcerias Resultados

com ongs, tornando o trabalho sustentável e Com uma boa dose de criatividade na educação,
podendo adquirir itens como placas programáveis, foi possível oportunizar aos alunos da periferia da
fios, leds, entre outros materiais. zona sul da cidade de São Paulo o acesso ao ensino
do pensamento computacional e da robótica
Mão na massa – Aguçar a aprendizagem para com sucata, mais do que isso, oportunizar que
criatividade e experiências, como construção de fossem protagonistas da sua história, ter sonhos,
diferentes protótipos e envolvimento das áreas devolvendo a autoestima e possibilitando que os
do conhecimento, cultura maker, programação e estudantes fossem multiplicadores de conheci-
robótica. mento ao intervir na comunidade.
Esse projeto, ao longo de três anos, contribuiu
Pensamento computacional – idealização do para a melhoria do Ideb da escola, que passou de 4,2
trabalho através de mapas mentais e pesquisas para 5,2 nos anos finais, em 2019, além de auxiliar
com a programação realizada no scratch, software na redução do trabalho infantil e da evasão escolar,
livre educativo e interativo, que funciona por através da identificação de potenciais estudantes
blocos lógicos que dentro possui a programação. em risco de deixar os estudos. Estes passaram a
atuar como alunos-monitores, permanecendo em
Robótica com sucata – Exercício da criatividade, período integral, e me auxiliando na execução das
da inventividade, pesquisa e o desenvolvimento atividades junto às demais séries. Houve também
do pensamento científico, com a construção de a retirada de mais de uma tonelada de lixo das
protótipos com funcionalidades especificas dos ruas de São Paulo, que ao longo do trabalho foi
anseios pessoais dos estudantes unindo o lixo recolhido, separado e pesado.
reciclável e o lixo eletrônico. Entre os trabalhos Além disso, foi importante também para a
realizados estão carros, aviões, barcos, robôs como ressignificação do território educativo, impactando
Wall-e, casas, entre outros. na autoestima dos estudantes e possibilitando
novos caminhos de aprendizagem ao inserir na
Compartilhando ideias – Exercício do protago- rotina escolar o pensamento computacional e as
nismo juvenil através da feira de tecnologias, um metodologias ativas aliadas ao currículo.
momento para os alunos demostrarem os seus
trabalhos a comunidade e enfatizar a importância Por uma educação Criativa para todos
da sustentabilidade. Ao unir a criatividade a um problema social, os
estudantes puderam trabalhar de maneira inter-
Feira de tecnologias – Por fim, um segundo disciplinar ao usar as áreas do conhecimento
momento com a comunidade através da feira de como matemática, história, geografia, língua
tecnologias. Um momento para que os estudantes portuguesa, ciências, artes, ressignificando a
fossem protagonistas ao apresentar os seus escola e maneiras de ensinar e aprender.
trabalhos, mas que pudessem ser multiplicadores E este foi apenas o começo para trabalhar com
de informações ao mostrar a comunidade o que temas essenciais como a inclusão. Tive muitos
haviam produzido com o lixo. estudantes que possuíam deficiências e que
o trabalho de robótica com sucata, inseriu os
O trabalho deu – se em aulas regulares e estudantes nas aulas e sua participação, através de
incorporou diferentes conteúdos aprendidos a experiências e de troca com o outro, fazendo que os
elementos da cultura maker, da programação e da estudantes pudessem trabalhar com habilidades
robótica. O mais importante: aguçou a curiosidade cognitivas, motoras e sociais para a criação e
dos estudantes para buscarem novas informações, execução dos projetos.
despertando-os para o processo autoral e de auto- Durante as aulas os estudantes interagiam com
construção do conhecimento. os demais estudantes e materiais e pensava em
problemas para resolver questões do cotidiano,
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126 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

como a criação de sensores para cadeiras de rodas

e semáforos inteligentes para estudantes cegos.
Assim, os estudantes foram submetidos ao
desenvolvimento de conhecimentos e habilidades
relacionadas à solução de problemas complexos, ao
raciocínio lógico, liderança e autonomia.
O ensino de robótica com sucata é uma
abordagem integrativa, que reúne e mobiliza as
áreas do conhecimento e uma maneira eficaz de
trabalhar habilidades com estudantes especiais,
promovendo a inclusão e ressaltando que as
pessoas são o centro do processo de aprendizagem!

Note
1. Para conhecer mais acesse: youtube.com/
watch?v=5rMZtqwcsKI
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Robotics with Scrap: Creative Education for All

by Débora Garofalo

“We need to contribute to create a school that is adventurous, that marches, that is not afraid of risk. The
school in which one thinks, in which one creates, in which one speaks, in which one guesses, the school that
passionately says yes to life.”

—Paulo Freire

Have you ever thought about transforming robotics as propellants to this transformation.
students’ problems and/or educational interests However, as often happens in Brazil, the school
into a curriculum? did not have the appropriate materials to teach
This is the story behind “Robotics with Scrap.” robotics to students. But the solution to this came
This project is currently public policy in São Paulo, from a local problem reported by students — the
Brazil, found in more than 5,400 schools, and garbage. Garbage prevented students from going
documented in many articles and reports. The to school on rainy days. It spread diseases such as
project has also received several awards, among dengue and leptospirosis. Yet the problem was also
them, Teacher’s Brazil 2018, MIT Creative Learning the solution to our lack of materials and ended up
Challenge 2019, and for my role in creating the giving new meaning to the work. Robotics with
project, I was named one of the Top 10 Teachers in Scrap was started and grew to involve students
the World, by the Global Teacher Prize 2019.1 from the 1st to the 9th grade in regular classes.

Behind the scenes of Robotics with Scrap Inspiration for your classes
When I arrived at the Municipal School Almirante If you would like to replicate Robotics with Scrap
Ary Parreiras in 2015, I came across one of the most with your own students, here are some steps from
difficult scenarios of my teaching career. Students conception to implementation. As always, this
were exposed to a high level of violence and drug is going to vary based on the students’ needs and
trafficking brought from the school surroundings. local conditions.
Another associated problem of the school
community was the lack of basic sanitation and Public classes – Increase community awareness
the precarious structure of the houses. It was at about the importance of garbage and its proper
this time that I decided to leave my comfort zone disposal. Groups of students (different classes and
as a classroom teacher and apply for the position grades) created paths to be followed in tours of the
of Technologies teacher. I did that having in surrounding areas of the school with the objective
mind a very clear goal of transforming the lives of raising awareness in the local community
of children and young people using technologies, about the issue of garbage disposal and the 5R's
by reimagining learning using digital trends such of sustainability (recycle, refuse, reuse, reduce,
as the teaching of computational thinking and and rethink). Along the way, students collected
through maker culture, with programming and electronic waste and recyclable materials.
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128 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

The Robotics with Scrap project work took place

Recyclable materials collection – Recyclable in regular classes and incorporated different
materials and electronic waste were collected from skills learned from elements of maker culture,
the community. programming, and robotics. Most importantly,
it has sharpened students' curiosity to seek new
Materials separation – Collected materials were information, awakening them to the design
weighed and separated into what could be used in process and knowledge creation.
the classroom and what could be sold via partner-
ships with NGOs, making the work sustainable. Creative education for all
The money raised made it possible to purchase By uniting creativity with a social problem to be
items such as programmable boards, wires, LED solved, students were able to work in an inter-
lights, and other materials. disciplinary way using areas of knowledge of
mathematics, history, geography, Portuguese
Hands on process – To enhance creativity and language, science, and the arts, giving new
hands-on experiences, students built different meaning to school and its ways of teaching and
prototypes and involved different areas of learning.
knowledge, maker culture, programming, and Robotics with Scrap also served as a platform
robotics. for essential themes such as inclusion. I had many
students who had disabilities and the robotics
Computational thinking – Ideation of the process projects made it possible for those students to
through research and mental maps programed in participate, through experiences and exchanges
Scratch, free educational software. with others, improving their cognitive, motor,
and social skills in the creation and execution of
Robots built with scrap – An exercise of creativity, projects.
inventiveness, research, and the development During classes, students interacted with other
of scientific thinking, with the construction of students and materials and thought of many
prototypes using recyclables and electronic waste. solutions to everyday problems, such as creating
These robots were designed by students based sensors for wheelchairs and smart traffic lights for
on their individual ideas and desires. Among the blind students.
projects were cars, planes, boats, robots such as Thus, students were exposed to the development
Wall-e, houses, and many others. of knowledge and skills related to complex
problem solving, logical reasoning, leadership,
Sharing ideas – Students planned and ran their and autonomy.
own technology fair, a time for students to show The teaching of robotics with scrap is an
their work to the community and to emphasize the integrative approach, which brings together and
importance of sustainability. mobilizes different areas of knowledge, and is
an effective way to work with special students,
Technology fair – An important aspect of the promoting inclusion, and emphasizing that people
technology fair is the opportunity for students to are the center of the learning process!
be the protagonists when presenting their work.
They could show that they were working to improve Note
a community problem with real solutions to the 1. Tackling waste with robots | Debora Garofalo,
problem of garbage and waste disposal. Brazil | Global Teacher Prize. To learn more,
visit: youtube.com/watch?v=5rMZtqwcsKI.
 Cultures of Reuse & Recycling 129
129

Recycling 3D Printing Plastics

by Lars Beck Johannsen

I have for a long time searched for ways to recycle I also found students who would take on the
the failed 3D prints in our Fablab. Since I started assignment. They were a group of Ukrainian kids
the lab I have been collecting all the PLA filament who have fled the war and go to school here in
based prints in a bag just waiting for the right Denmark. Part of that is learning the language
technique. as well and this turned out to be a nice project for
Last year I tested a process where I baked the that. They had to learn the names of the colors and
prints in an aluminum can at 200 degrees Celsius the tools we used. It wasn’t the focus of the project
for about 20 minutes, which resulted in a fine solid but was a good secondary outcome.
that could be milled by a CNC. But young kids and We started by piling a bag of prints on the floor
CNC don’t mix well. It is also a long process that is and sorting it into similar colors. Each group took
more suitable for high school students who might their color and smashed them with a hammer into
learn more about the material science involved. smaller pieces. Then they were put in a blender
Later, I stumbled upon a 3D print recycling and processed until they became granulated. The
workshop from Fablab Spinderihallerne that I blender died in the process when it had to deal
thought might be worth looking into. with too large chunks of plastic, but that is a lesson
learned as well, and soon we had enough granulate
to continue.
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130 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

We then used the heat press normally used for This process of reusing PLA from 3D prints is
transferring vinyl stickers onto T-shirts, putting easy and shows students one of the good abilities
the granulates between sheets of heat-resistant that plastic has. It can be reused and given new
material for baking. We experimented with shapes many times over. One thing the students
different temperatures and time until we got a really liked was the way they could mix colors when
decent new flat piece of plastic that wasn't too they were making plates. The lesson here is also
brittle. part of learning about the properties of different
At the end of the session, they were asked to materials.
think of things to do with the material the following I am happy with the way it turned out, as it is an
week, where we would laser cut shapes from the important step in the process of making the Fablab
plastic sheets. I also tried to use it for vacuum more sustainable.
forming, which didn't turn out well because it was
too thick. Note: Do not try this with any non-PLA filament or
When the students returned the next week, PLA filament with additives.
we had them draw the shapes they wanted by
hand, vectorize it with the Adobe capture app, and
cut them on the laser cutter. They came up with
objects like pendants, earrings, guitar picks, and
nametags.
 Cultures of Reuse & Recycling 131
131

Interview: Coffee Grounds to Bioplastic

Interviewee: Lina Cannone.
Interviewer: Sylvia Martinez

Lina is a teacher at Istituto Comprensivo Orazio, a primary school near Rome, Italy. She teaches third to
fifth graders in her makerspace, seeing them once a week for an hour.

Sylvia: In your makerspace, do you notice grounds?

times when your students recycle or repurpose Lina: I researched it on materialsproject.org. That
something into something else? is a website that has a lot of recipes. The first time
Lina: Yes. We use often recycled materials like we mixed the product, we tried it with the exact
cardboard and wood. We use a lot of these kinds weight and we used a balance. Now we just mix
of materials because they are not expensive and it until it feels right — do we need it to be harder,
we have access to a lot of packaging. We use the more gummy, or more flexible?
recycled materials all the time to make new things. Sylvia: And when you introduced it to the
We use also use organic materials, like coffee students, do you think they understood what the
grounds from the teachers’ break room. We create purpose of this material was? That it was about
bioplastics from the coffee grounds, and then mix reuse and recycling?
that with cardboard, wood, and hot glue to create Lina: Yes. The first thing was to get the coffee
shapes. The children decide on the different shapes grounds out of the coffee machine. So we have to
to make every time we do this. And we use the open it and dry it. And then we start the process.
shapes in other construction. So, they know it’s something from the trash bin
Sylvia: So bioplastics, that seems very futuristic. and it's a recycling process.
How did you come up with this project? Sylvia: So when you dry it and you have the dry
Lina: This project came from research that I grounds, do you process it further to make it a solid
did about two years ago. I tried to understand material? And what do the students use that for?
how to use products that have low impact on the Lina: We boil it, dry it, add glycerin and cook it
environment in our makerspace. I also I wanted to with the grounds. There are many recipes on the
use products that are from our roots, our culture. internet. We use gloves, safety glasses and we learn
I saw many websites with recipes using shells, how to cook the material.
avocados, or other fruits and products that we
don't have in Italy. So, I focused on what we have Then we create shapes. Some make shapes like
and that is coffee, and so we have a lot of coffee bowls or cups and they need to figure out how to
grounds. create a mold. For example to make a bowl, they
have to press it into a bowl and then add a little
Sylvia: Yes. Very good coffee! So you focused on the bowl inside to make the shape, things like that.
coffee grounds. Was that your first choice or the It's a process to understand how to create what we
only choice? Have you tried other things and this need because it's a gummy product until it dries.
worked out the best or how did that happen?
Sylvia: And how long does that take?
Lina: First I tried sodium alginate and calcium that
is from algae. But it's only a product that I bought Lina: One week.
and not something that I could recycle. Sylvia: A week? So that's the next time you see the
Sylvia: Some cultures use that in food, but it's students, when they unmold what they've made
something you had to purchase, so it wasn't exactly and be surprised in a good or bad way!
right. And so how did you come up with coffee Lina: Yes.
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Sylvia: So what are some interesting things that connection with saving the planet and all of that?
students have made out of the coffee grounds Lina: No.
material?
Sylvia: We talked a little bit about building with
Lina: The first time we tried to do a simple flat cardboard. Do you think the cardboard reuse is
shape, but we didn’t have the recipe perfected, and easier for them to understand because it can be
it cracked like a biscuit. But we got better at the transformed into big things? Do you think that's
recipe and have made pots that we were able to use easier for them to understand than the coffee
to plant and grow lettuce for salad. grounds?
And now I'm trying again to do something more Lina: Yes. It's more immediately available in their
creative, maybe make things that can be used in lives. They can find it at home and everywhere, and
projects like cardboard automata, or decorative use it whenever they want. It's more common in
things to be used in anywhere. our culture to use cardboard to make something.
Sylvia: Did the students like it? Did they have a I am sure they know if someone at home wants
good time with this project? to create something, it’s easy to do something
Lina: Yes, they like when they create the molds, but creative with cardboard.
sometimes there is a frustration when something Sylvia: It's a good prototyping material that's cheap
goes wrong and the mixture doesn’t dry and just and easy to find. Whereas the coffee grounds, you
remains a little bit like mud. have to spend a lot of time making it into a usable
Sylvia: That's frustrating. So have kids ever come building material. Do you think that repurposing
up with a second idea where they want to try again the cardboard gave them a sense that they were
and do other things? recycling and doing a good thing?

Lina: Yes. They tried to create more resilience Lina: Yes. They love cardboard. Sometimes they
in the material by trying other ways to create, come at school with a lot of cardboard boxes to give
adjust the recipe, and to try new ideas. Or they us to create something during our hours in the
helped someone who had a good result in making makerspace.
other things with the final product. So we try for Sylvia: Do you think that's in the culture? Do you
two weeks and then we use what we created. If think that their families — the mothers, the grand-
something goes wrong, we have to restart. And mothers, the grandfathers recycle and repurpose
that takes a lot of time. and reuse a lot?
Sylvia: It's hard when things take a long time. I Lina: No, I think not. We have to recycle, but that
guess it teaches patience and that not everything gets taken away in the recycling bin.
happens immediately too. Do you think this project Sylvia: That's interesting. You think of older people
helped students think of trash in a different way? being very thrifty and fixing things instead of
Do you think it helped them understand recycling? throwing them away. But you don't think that's part
Lina: I don't know that. I don’t think they really felt of the culture that your kids experience at home?
any different about recycling. But I noticed that Lina: No. I think that for my kids now, they prefer
they are careful to use just a little bit of the product to buy something new than to fix what they have.
because they know how hard it is to make and how
much time they needed to create it. Sylvia: Do you think that's cultural? You've told me
you work with kids whose families have moved to
Sylvia: So they value it more because they know Italy, mostly from Eastern Europe.
how hard it was to create.
Lina: I think the improvement in their economic
Lina: Yes. status is the bigger influence than culture. When
Sylvia: Interesting. In their everyday lives they they come to Italy, some find good ways to live
are asked to recycle plastics and bottles? Is that and they enjoy the economic benefits. They focus
important to them? on buying things, like clothes, video games, toys,
Lina: Not so much. I think there is still a lot of work things like that.
to do to help them understand these ideas. Sylvia: I guess you can understand it, the things
Sylvia: You don't think they really understand the you were deprived of, the things that seem like,
“This is a mark of me being part of this new society,
 Cultures of Reuse & Recycling 133
133

that I have money so I can spend it. Why should I put something together, to create masks, create
fix things when I can buy them?” And they didn't objects, and artifacts. But others like the bioplastic
have that opportunity before. project because it's a process that needs attention,
Lina: Yes. Just that. patience.

Sylvia: Are you planning to use any other recycled Sylvia: Do you typically try and connect their
or repurposed materials in any other projects? projects in the makerspace to things that they're
learning in the subject areas?
Lina: I am going to try two new things this year.
One is using eggshells to create other bioplastics. Lina: Yes, we try to. Maybe not in this specific way
And another one is to have students bring old toys with bioplastics, because the actual material science
to school, and to create something new. Things like is a bit difficult, but with the other activities, we
motors in toy cars, or the speakers in talking toys try every time to connect with the curriculum. So if
or dolls. we do a Scratch project, it's connected to the story-
telling, or if we do a tinkering activity, like light
Sylvia: Any other thoughts you want to share about play, we try to connect with science curriculum,
the bioplastic project? the function of the eye and how it sees light.
Lina: I should say that it's difficult. We have to stay Sylvia: Is there anything else you want to share?
with kids and pay close attention because when we
make bioplastics it’s a careful process. We have to Lina: I would like to do more, but I only have an
be very organized and take a lot of care with safety hour a week for everyone.
and using the equipment correctly. The other
problem is that it’s not perfect and it doesn’t work
the same way every time.
Sylvia: Did you feel that there was any difference
in the way that certain students approached this
project versus other projects? Were some students
more interested who hadn't been interested before?
Lina: Yes. Some love to create a project when
they use cardboard because it’s quick and easy to
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134 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Interview: Repurposing Projects at Nā Hunaahi

Interviewee: Toni Marie Kaui
Interviewer: Renato Russo

Toni is the Founder and Head of School, at Nā Hunaahi, an independent competency-based high school
in East Hawai'i.

Renato: I want to ask you if repurposing, meaning Renato: Can you please describe the project that
finding new purposes for items or objects, is you are going to share with us?
something common or usual in your community? Toni: Yes. We found a project proposed by a student
Toni: Yes. My school does not have a lot of funding, from the University of Sussex, and we built on that.
so we have to, by our nature, repurpose and reuse It's basically a floating garden that you just toss out
and recycle things. It's something that we do quite into the ocean, and it would become a self-con-
often. With regards to our community, like other tained vegetable garden that people can harvest
community organizations, we do a lot of recycling, food from. It would just float wherever it floated,
but I can't honestly talk about repurposing, if there's and anyone who came into contact with it would
a lot of that happening. When I say recycling, it's be free to harvest whatever was in there. Because
just your standard type of recycling. all of the work that the students do is around a
Renato: Okay, so that's in the community? native Hawaiian coastal fish pond, we decided to
try and see if we could adapt the project to work for
Toni: Yes, but my school does a lot of repurposing. us using the materials that we have available to us.

Initial design studies

 Cultures of Reuse & Recycling 135
135

Renato: What materials were available to you? We didn't have the same resources or materials
Toni: The most important thing was to find the thing that this student from the University of Sussex had
that we could use as the floating piece, because we developed, so they had to design the entire project
don't have, again, a lot of resources. We already had themselves. They started off with smaller studies
these floating circles. I don't know what else to call using floral foam, making floral foam rings.
them. You can see them in the photos. They were Luckily, since we don’t have money to buy things,
originally used to try and see if anything can grow when we went to florists and asked if we could just
on them, but nothing was working, so they were have floral foam, they gave it to the students. They
just floating out in the fish pond. We have a fish did a small study using, a 16-inch piece of floral
pond built specifically to raise fish. foam to see if their idea would work. Then they
Because they were just floating out there, we revised it based on the data they collected, and
decided to try and see if we could use one to create observations that they made with those smaller
one of these floating islands that could grow things. ones. Now, based on that project, one of my
students is actually building a full scale one now.
Renato: Who is involved in making this project?
Toni: We have to try and find things that are
Toni: My students are the ones working on it. They available, or that we can ask people if they're no
started with just those circular pieces, and we longer using, in order for them to build it. The
found some netting to serve as a surface to put the entire process, because it's their design and their
planters on. Because that's all they had, they had research going into it, is entirely student-driven.
to figure out how they were going to make it work.

Full size design

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136 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Renato: How many students are working on this? Toni: Yes, we use a lot of invasive plants as material.
Toni: There were three of them who did the So plants that don't belong here, when we cut them
initial studies, but only one student's design was down, we use those a lot.
successful, so she's the only one that's carrying on Renato: Can you give me an example of that?
and building it full size. My other two students are Toni: We have a plant called Waiwi. Honestly, I
working on a new project now. don't know what the English name is for that, but
Renato: How often do they work on this? it's an invasive species that grows rapidly and then
Toni: They work every day on this. takes up a lot of land. We use the Waiwi to build
things a lot, and then to make things out of those.
Renato: How old are the kids? None of my students have decided to use any Waiwi
Toni: Seventeen. They'll be eighteen next year. on this project, but it is a resource that we use. We
Renato: You mentioned the need-based decision to try to use as many invasive things as possible. If we
repurpose materials. Were there other reasons you can get it from nature, then we'll get it, especially
selected this project? those invasive species.

Toni: Well, the project worked out because we had Renato: You mentioned the community practices
the big pieces, those floating rings. But it is also of repurposing, which is different from what you
because as a landlocked community and with land do at school, right?
being very scarce, especially land that can be used Toni: Yes. I mean, if the community is repurposing,
for farming, it served a real purpose to try and see if I'm not aware of it. The only thing I know is that,
we could get it to work. If these designs can be used of course, the community does a lot of recycling,
to help feed the community, like a free vegetable but standard recycling of cans and plastics. I'm not
garden that people can come and harvest, that aware of any other repurposing.
would be a real benefit to the community. Those Renato: Do you think this is because of lack of
were our two driving forces behind choosing to do value attributed to repurposing or to recycling? Do
this project. people avoid repurposing, or is it just not part of
Renato: Okay. Is this material used in other the culture?
educational projects for you, or this is only for this Toni: I think it's just not part of the culture. I mean,
one? I guess you could consider our use of invasive
Toni: No, no one else had been using it. Those rings species repurposing, because we do cut down a lot
have been just sitting around doing nothing for a of that to make other things. Repurposing things
couple of years. is not really, I think, part of the culture. Everything
Once we decided that that was the project that they that is part of our culture has a specific use. A lot
were going to work on, getting the other materials of our cultural practices involve the use of native
that the students needed was dependent on their plants and animals.
design, so it was kind of a just- in-time type of And so, since those are not in high abundance, we
collection of resources. And so, we had to prob- don't tend to choose to repurpose those things,
lem-solve in order to figure out how we were going because we don't have a lot of those resources in
to get those resources with very little money. the first place. Versus repurposing things that
Renato: Besides that specific material, do you see aren't originally from here and are invasive to
other materials that are used more frequently? Hawaii, I guess. We cut them down and use those
non-native materials to do other things that we
Toni: Well, no one else is doing a project like this, need to have done, like building gates, building
so I can't say much about that. buildings, framing out stuff. I would say, I guess,
Renato: For example, we saw in a community that would be repurposing. Now that we're talking
where people had lots of old bicycles lying around, about it and I'm thinking about it.
so many of their projects employed used bicycles. Renato: Maybe it happens with natural materials,
So in your case, it’s not necessarily bicycles, but but not with manufactured materials? In the
do you see any other materials being used more broader community?
frequently?
 Cultures of Reuse & Recycling 137
137

Toni: I mean, I don't see a whole lot of things just environment, and then find a use. Is that what
lying around. I can't think of an example where we you're saying?
have old bicycles not being used and lying around. Toni: Exactly.
Renato: Very interesting. You think this happens Renato: This is what happened with the Waiwi
often in your community, using invasive plants to trees, too?
build things?
Toni: Yes.
Toni: Yes, we don't want them here. So we try to
find a different use for it. For example, we have a Renato: So in your community, popular materials
lot of Albizia trees here, which grow far too rapidly. for repurposing are more natural than ones made
We found that, in our environment, those Albizia by man?
trees produce a lot of nitrogen as they're breaking Toni: I don't see a whole lot of manmade things
down, so they make excellent mulch. Once we cut that we repurpose.
them down or get rid of them, we figure out ways. Renato: You also mentioned fish, but fish, at least
Same thing with invasive fish. We turn them into some fish, you can eat. But instead, you use them
fish emulsion to use for fertilizer. Invasive marine for mulch?
plants, same thing. We turn them into fertilizer. Toni: There are aquarium fish that can't be eaten,
Renato: Oh, this is interesting. If I understand but have somehow escaped into the wild. Those
correctly, you first remove them from the fish, we fish out. We use them as fish emulsion for

Repurposed invasives
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138 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

fertilizer. But some we eat, for example, Tilapia, Toni: Well, if we had new materials, then we
which is an invasive species. The fish we can't eat, definitely wouldn't have the issues and the struggles
we usually turn into a fish emulsion that we can and challenges that my students had, because we
use to help with plant growth as fertilizer. could buy exactly what we needed from the very
Renato: Is this a practice that happens only within beginning. But I don't see any value or learning
a small group of people or is it widespread? in that, because then they're just rebuilding what
somebody else did versus trying to see if they can
Toni: Well, it happens for sure amongst the people create it based on the materials that they have
living on the coast, people who do a lot of fishing, available and resources that they have available to
so we're aware of basic stuff. The mountain people, them, and so I guess that I would prefer them to
they probably do different things than we do. Plus, do it this way versus buying everything that they
they don't have access to fish. need.
Renato: But they might do the same with the Renato: So you think there is some learning, some
vegetables? The invasive plants and all that? educational value, in the repurposing?
Toni: Maybe. Toni: There's nothing better, in my opinion, than
Renato: So perhaps it’s safe to say that it's kids having to figure out and solve a problem when
widespread, but with some variations according to they don't have access to something that they really
materials available? want.
Toni: Right. Renato: Do you think that they see it the same way?
Renato: In some places or cultures, recycled or Toni: Well, I don't think they see it initially, but I
repurposed items are seen as lesser or less valuable. think after they've solved the problem and got it to
Whereas in other cultures, it's the opposite, you're work, they do see the value in it.
being clever by repurposing something. How do Toni: I think, at the very beginning, they just think
you feel it is seen in your community? it's me making it harder for them.
Toni: Well, at least in our schools, there's not a Renato: Do they verbally express that? Do they
whole lot of that going on, and so I would say that's explicitly say that, or this is your impression?
more like a one in a million type of thing. Maybe
I'm just not aware of those things, but I don't see Toni: It's just my impression.
that much here in our community. But if someone Renato: Well, this has been super interesting. It's
does build those types of things, we do consider beautiful where you are, surrounded by nature, it
them to be very clever and creative. seems. Thank you so much for your time.
Renato: Okay, interesting. Sometimes, it varies, Toni: My pleasure. Thank you
too. Between kids and grownups. Kids might
see that as clever and grownups as just some
workarounds. Do you see any difference on that?
Toni: Well, I don't work a lot with adults, so I can't
really speak to that.
Renato: In terms of the choice to use new or
repurposed materials, you mentioned that it is
need-based.
Toni: Yes, it's completely financial.
If you don't have the money to buy it new, you better
figure out a way to make something work for you.
Renato: Okay, let me ask you a question about the
floating garden project. Do you think that would
be a better project if you could use new materials,
or materials that you bought specifically for that
purpose?
 Cultures of Reuse & Recycling 139
139

Interview: Upcycling an LED Racing Game

Interviewee: Federica Selleri
Interviewer: Sylvia Martinez

Federica is a Learning Designer at FabLab Valsamoggia and Astranoto srl, and a PhD candidate at the
University of Foggia

Sylvia: Please tell us about yourself. Sylvia: Could you describe the background of the
Federica: I am a Learning Designer and right now, makers? How old were they? Where did they come
a PhD candidate of learning sciences and digital from? Did they have a lot of experience?
technologies in a university here in Italy. And I'm Federica: The two makers of the LED Racer are
also the co-owner of Fab Lab Valsamoggia, which is young adults, one of them is an electrical engineer,
a local Fab Lab and makerspace in the hills between the other one is a mechanical designer. So, both of
Bologna and Modena, my hometown. And I'm also them have really strong technical backgrounds. It's
running a tech startup, called Astronauto, where I similar to the technical background of the other
design and develop courses and activities in local members of the FabLab, which is a small FabLab
schools for both children and adults. but with a lot of people from the engineering and
Sylvia: Wow, you're busy. physics world.

Federica: Yeah, maybe too much. Sylvia: Why did you choose to share this project
with us? Is this kind of project common in your Fab
Sylvia: So in your various roles, do you notice times Lab?
when people in your spaces recycle or repurpose
something into something else? Federica: I've chosen this particular project
because it perfectly merges two particular aspects
Federica: Yes. At the Fab Lab, we developed a of the FabLab movement: the reuse of technological
project called LED Racer. It's a race car track, but tools and the do-it-yourself, DIY ability of trying to
instead of using small toy cars, it is based on an use what we have at the FabLab as much as possible
LED strip, where the lights run along the strip by instead of buying new. So, it was similar of other
pressing a button as fast as possible. So, the faster projects in the way that we usually reuse stuff at
you press the button, the faster the light will run the FabLab.
on the strip, and win the race. It can handle four
players at a time. It was made by using a lot of Sylvia: Was it one among many similar projects, or
objects that were available at the lab, 3D printed was it more unusual?
stuff, wooden pieces, fake green grass, and a metal Federica: FabLab’s members always create personal
shelf as a container. projects in a very DIY way, using what they have
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at hand and occasionally buying additional parts. people always try to put them in projects. Almost
A lot of people bring in their old computers, always people look around the Fab Lab before
electronic devices, and scavenge parts to reuse. We buying something new.
also promote the reuse of older tools, maybe with Sylvia: Are there certain values in your community
a new purpose or just by using some of their parts. that align with reuse and recycling?
But this particular project was the very first one Federica: Sure, the Fab Lab movement stands for
fully related to the world of play. recycling and reusing. We also organize periodical
Sylvia: Why do you think they repurposed those Repair Cafés, public events where we help people
materials? Was it by choice or need? repair broken objects and small devices.
Federica: It was a combination of both choice In the wider community, meaning the local area
and need. They wanted to create a prototype by of our FabLab and even throughout all of Italy,
using stuff found in the lab, keeping it cheap I think that this is a common practice, especially
and affordable. Also, as a prototype, it has been among older people who reuse old stuff in their
modified over the years, adding other objects do-it-yourself projects. I know for many retired
found within the lab. But it was working, so a lot of people it is also a matter of economics, because
people played it, and it was really fun, actually. So, maybe they cannot afford to buy a lot of new
it’s pretty unique! expensive materials. But I also think that it is a
Sylvia: Do you notice these same materials used in matter of their past experiences, for example, if
other projects, too? they were young during the World War, where
there was a lack of resources. So, they have this
Frederica: Not really. The fake green grass was used kind of routine to always try to collect as much
to decorate the lounge area outside the lab, and the material as possible.
3D printed objects were samples and prototypes
of old projects. But I think that 3D printed objects Sylvia: Right, because you had to.
could be easily reused in other projects, even in a Federica: Yes, because you were forced to. So it's a
funny way, to show that plastics (even if it is made sort of a habit that they have maintained across the
from corn, like PLA) is not always so bad. years.
Sylvia: Are projects usually more serious, more Sylvia: And do you think that younger people
utilitarian? see reuse as something that's virtuous, that is
Federica: Yes, usually at the FabLab most projects connected with saving the world? Or are they just
are serious because of the way that people come saving money?
to the FabLab. They come because they need Federica: I think that young people think that older
something and they need help to build it, or they people do that just for saving money, not for saving
need other people to create a project together. the world.
For example, one of our associates created a But younger people think of themselves as saving
radio-controlled submarine. So, it was serious the world by collecting stuff, old stuff. And I
and purposeful. He needed a working submarine think also that younger people try to collect wider
because he wanted to explore a lake. The LED Racer variety of materials, where maybe older people
was made just for fun, to create a project that was try to collect specific type of materials. So I have
available for all the people that come to the FabLab an example. My grandfather always used to collect
to play. a lot, a lot of electronic stuff, like a lot of cables,
Sylvia: And did they use materials that were a huge number of cables, just to reuse at home,
available there for other projects? Is it typical that just for repairing stuff, and so on. In my personal
people use recycled materials like that? example, I also am a huge fan of collecting things
like used paper. I have a large collection of many
Federica: Yeah, it is quite usual, especially for types of used paper. But I would prefer to collect
technical stuff. I mean, as I said before, people different type of materials, not only paper, or only
usually reuse a lot of electronic cables, lamps, cables, or so on. I want to expand my horizons.
boards, circuits, and so on. Even old wooden pieces
from the laser cutter from the CNC machine, Sylvia: And do you have any younger students,
school-aged students come to your Fab Lab?
 Cultures of Reuse & Recycling 141
141

Federica: We have some of them, but it's really Federica: If you are able to show how reused or
rare, because our Fab Lab is not near the city, so repurposed materials can have meaning, can have
it requires a car to get there. Younger people do an importance, even in a simple project, then people
not have cars, so they can't come here, with a few will understand the importance of recycling and
exceptions. This summer I had a young high school repurposing. REMIDA is especially interesting,
student as an apprentice. She was 16 years old. because they also have a particular eye on beauty,
Every morning for the whole period of the appren- on harmony, this kind of thing. So you can see that
ticeship, I would pick up her in the city and we some reused materials or recycling materials are
would commute to the Fab Lab together. even more beautiful than new ones. And I think
I really would like to have more younger students, that it's not always a matter of variety or quantities.
but right now, because of the location of the Fab I mean, you can also have a significant experience
Lab, it is not possible. So, we are thinking about even with really few recycling materials.
moving closer to the city or even into the city. Sylvia: So you are saying that in using recycled
Sylvia: From the younger makers you've worked materials, you're helping people develop an eye
with, do you think they see recycling and that can look at something and see something
repurposing as important and good, or just cheap different? It's an actual skill, it's an actual talent
and free? that you can teach people to see the world in a
different way?
Federica: I think that depends on two factors. One
is the age of the children. And the other one is the Federica: Yes, I think that repurposing is
context in which they live. educational, because it helps children (and adults)
build their imaginations and break past traditional
I think that with younger ages, up to about 10 meanings. Just have an idea, and anything can
years old, it's easier to introduce recycled materials become something else, even the strangest tool or
without too many questions from them, because material.
it's just another material. And they always try to
play with all the materials they have around. With Sylvia: Do you have a sense of how people react to
older ages, so from about 12 years old and on, it projects made with recycled materials?
requires more reasoning. They have to think more Frederica: I think that depends a lot on how the
about what they are doing, and what they are projects are developed and documented: a certain
using. eye and sensibility are required to make reused
I think that it is possible for them to see the bigger materials capable of expressing their potential and
purpose of reusing materials, but you need to help beauty. Everything that has been used at least once
them think about it more. has a hidden story to tell.

It is also based on the context, because it depends if Sylvia: Are there other ways it is different from
their teachers or parents normally use repurposed using new materials?
or recycled materials. If they do, it becomes Frederica: In some cases, new materials could
normal. The example of REMIDA in Reggio Emilia be safer to use than reused materials, especially
is fundamental, because they always try to show within really complex and high-tech projects.
the beauty of recycling by simply providing a lot of But within the educational world, I think that
different materials and trying to explore them from reused materials are easier to use than new ones.
different points of view. And in this way, children There would be different motivations for different
from the very young age become comfortable with projects, of course, for example if it requires
using unusual materials and things that are not stability and safety or if it is just a prototype, or
made purposely as educational materials. the people involved already had experience with a
Sylvia: So as you say, REMIDA in Reggio Emilia is particular material.
very intentional about bringing recycled materials I think by understanding that you can use even an
in. So am I hearing you right? You think it's to old piece of wood instead a new one, you gain a lot
increase the number and variety of materials and of skill in how you can plan a project. You have more
give people access to more and different things, or options. You have to make intentional choices. You
is there more? don’t always immediately think it is better to use a
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brand new light or a brand new whatever. You can that they can use.
create marvelous stuff, marvelous projects, even by Maybe they don't have the ability to search for
reusing things that have been used at least once. recycled materials, because they don't know how
Sylvia: It also seems like there's a difference to use recycled materials, or they perceive new
between recycling something just because it's a materials as safer more stable, or if materials are
material and rethinking the form or function. If specifically designed for the project they might be
you take a plastic bottle and grind it up, and turn easier to use.
it into another plastic bottle, that is a very different Sylvia: You might have to test a used wire, because
project than taking a plastic bottle and making a it might be broken or burnt inside, but a new wire
bird feeder out of it. Those seem to be very different you might not have to worry about that. But if you
ways to think about recycling. learn to test things, it would work out for new or
Federica: Yes, because in the first case you used parts.
mentioned, the bottle remains a bottle. If you can Federica: That's why I think that in a place like
reuse a plastic bottle for water or whatever, you can the Fab Lab it's really important that younger
even fill that with soil, and you can make a plant people and older people work together on projects.
grow in it. But you can also cut the bottle, and then Everyone can share their experiences. It's what
you will have some materials, which is no longer a normally happens in our Fab Lab. You might see
bottle. It will be something else. So I think that it's someone with vast experience in mechanics or
proper to call that repurposing. engineering, but they are not capable of turning on
You create a new object. You give a new meaning to a computer. Maybe they are able to create complex
an object, in a new way. metal and wooden structures. And the younger
Sylvia: And do you think that the participants in makers always say, “Oh, how do you do that? Please
the LED Racer project saw it in that way, in that show me. I can show you how to use your computer
kind of depth? Or was it just, here's some stuff, in exchange.”
we're going to reuse it? It's a virtuous cycle.
Federica: I think they just needed those materials. Sylvia: So is there anything that you think is
They choose the fake green grass because we had a important to share about this project that we didn't
lot of it. touch on?
I think that that kind of consciousness and Federica: It’s not really related to recycling or
in-depth reasoning comes later. It comes from a lot repurposing, but one reason I chose to share
of experience working with reused materials. Not the LED Racer project is because this summer a
just occasionally, because you need something and young girl from high school apprenticed at the Fab
you just grab it. Lab and redesigned the LED Racer. She decided
Sylvia: They weren't making a commentary on to redesign it by 3D modeling new objects, and
the artificiality of outdoor spaces or something reusing materials as well. And she decided to give a
profound. Super Mario World aspect to the whole project. So
right now, we have a Super Mario LED Racer.
Federica: No.
Sylvia: They were, “Here's some grass, let's use it.”
Federica: Yeah, it was just to make it was nicer.
Sylvia: Do you think there's any difference in the
types of people who tend to use recycled materials
or not use recycled materials?
Federica: In my experience, older people use more
of the used materials.
I think that younger people tend to buy new things
more often than older people. I don't know why.
Maybe younger people have less experience than
the older people, so do not have a lot of examples
 Cultures of Reuse & Recycling 143
143

Sylvia: Interesting! Why do you think she chose to Sylvia: This was like an internship at the FabLab?
redo that project? Federica: Yeah. It's a free internship, because
Federica: She actually didn't really choose to redo in Italy, there is a law that in high school there
it. It was a proposal made by me and her teacher. is a mandatory internship in a local factory, an
In Italy, there is an apprenticeship project that association, or a company.
happens in high schools. Her teacher and I tried to Sylvia: Do you think that she was able to transfer
think of a project that would be more interesting the success of that project back to her schoolwork?
for her. The teacher said that she's really, really keen
on 3D modeling, 3D printing, and doing things Federica: I hope so. I mean, that internship lasted
with her hands. two months, June and July. But I don't know if
she said something to her classmates, or how is
We needed to redesign and fix the LED Racer, she doing in her classwork. I do know that she
because over the years it has been used a lot. People worked steadily for eight hours a day. She was very
in the Fab Lab like to play with it! But pieces were motivated.
broken, and the cables were not okay anymore. So
she redesigned the whole project by adding new Sylvia: A lot of people wonder if kids can learn
stuff, fixing the cables, reprogramming the board. academic kinds of things from hands-on
So although she didn't really choose the project, experiences.
she was very satisfied. Federica: It was really hands-on. She 3D modeled,
Sylvia: What kinds of things do you think she 3D printed, she colored all the pieces by hand, and
learned? glued them on the board. It was really, hands-on.
And she was also a girl with some cognitive issues,
Federica: She learned how to deal with a complex she has a sort of a dyslexia. I think that she had to
project. She was completely free to update and fix learn a lot of things with this project. I don't know
it in any way she wanted. She had to make a lot how to quantify what she learned, but I think so.
of decisions — how many pieces to model, where
to place them, the position of the LED strip, the She was also really curious about all the mechanical
colors, the identity, whatever she wanted. And stuff, and was able to figure out the instructions
then of course, she learned the technical skills — and processes.
how to 3D model a complex object, how to do the Sylvia: Hopefully, she'll be able to take some of that
3D printing, how to use a CNC machine. She also success back to school and other projects she works
learned how to present that, because she created a on.
website for her project. There was a lot to it. Federica: I hope so as well.
Sylvia: Do you think her teacher was satisfied?
Federica: They played together, so I think that they
were satisfied. And the girl won, so she was happy.
Maker and Makerspace Culture
 145

The culture of making and makerspaces is often mentioned when people talk about what
makes “making” special and important in an educational setting . Makerspaces are more
than a place where we keep high tech tools, they represent educational freedom, where
ideas become reality in a supportive community . They are a place where exploration is
allowed, without the finality of correct answers . This is unlike the traditional way school
is depicted, especially in media and popular culture, where learning is about memorizing
and tests, and school culture often is reduced to caricatures of jocks and mean girls, with
teachers who are either bullies or saviors .

Instead, in the following pages, the Fellows explore ways that ensure that making and
makerspaces are responsive to student needs and ideas . The role of teacher is reimagined
as one who facilitates this culture of respect and supports individuality and agency .

But what about curriculum, some would ask? We do not seek to “throw the baby out with
the bathwater” and just let students “discover” whatever they feel like . What we seek is
to reform the curriculum with real and relevant topics and projects that excite, challenge,
and yes, teach .

Seymour Papert saw the Logo programming language in this light, as a microworld
where mathematics was the language spoken . Thus, when kids “spoke” the computer in
mathematical terms, they would learn math as easily as a child in France learns to speak
French . The curriculum needs reform, yes, but we also need the processes and environments
where learning takes place naturally, and educators who can create these learning spaces
and places for all .
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Children’s Lived Experiences: An Integral Part of the

Makerspace
by Ridhi Aggarwal

People are the driving force of a makerspace in a

traditional rural community. Thus, what we do and
how we do both need to incorporate the cultural
and contextual aspect of the community. This
was the starting point of a recent set of activities
that were driving our curriculum at Ramdwari
Khojshala (makerspace). In the words of a parent,
the makerspace was a place where children go and
fix, repair, and break, and make things of use to the
community. This motivated us to ask community
members to make a list of things which needed
repairing in the community. We wanted to include
maker culture and traditional knowledge that
already existed in the community and build upon students to make careful observations of the bicycle
it. When we compiled the lists, we saw a few things to stimulate curiosity and set the stage for inquiry.
that appeared on all the lists were a bicycle, a hand To draw the picture, they needed to look closely at
pump, and an umbrella. its parts like nuts, bolts, rods, etc. After drawing
This was the starting point of our object-based the picture, they discussed what they observed
maker learning. People throughout history and and wrote about the parts, their purpose, and the
across cultures have been designing and making complexities of all of them coming together.
objects for everyday use, from hand fans to Observation led to exploration of the mechanism
telescopes. Objects can be practical or decorative, of the wheels and pedals and the children tried
simple or complex. Some are crafted by hand making it with paper and cardboard to explore
while others are manufactured by machine. Some how the movement happens. It intrigued them
can be made in a few minutes while others can be
built across generations. Usually, objects are made
for particular purposes although their use often
extends beyond their makers’ original intentions.
Even the simplest objects reflect the culture
and more importantly the context (social and
physical) in which they were created as well as the
contexts in which they continue to be used. A close
observation of these everyday objects not only
sparks students’ curiosity but leads to increasingly
complex thinking.
We started with a bicycle that children used
every day. They have seen the people around them
repair it as well. The first step was to encourage
 Maker and Makerspace Culture 147
147

as to how the parts were installed together so that amongst students. One said in her reflection that,
they move together as the bicycle moves. Children “if we could break various objects and understand
had many questions about this, so it gave us the their working, and then combine different parts of
opportunity to include one more task which we had different objects we might be able to make things
not planned, which was to completely take apart which we can’t afford, or make things we need
the bicycle and re-build it. They experienced some but don’t exist.” This reflection was the turning
real comprehension when they compared what point for other students talking about what they
they thought a part did with what it could actually wanted to make with the parts of the cycle, and a
do when they were re-assembling the parts. new beginning for the class. The next day the class
As we were trying to include the context went around the village looking for things which
of making culture, we shared some fun and were jugaad (a term used in India for things which
empowering stories about bicycles. The first story are repurposed or hacked, like an object used as a
was about cycling as a social movement for rural quick fix) and they made a list of objects to fix and
women in the Pudukkottai district of Tamil Nadu, problems to solve.
and the next was about an amphibious bicycle (a Two weeks into the makerspace session there
bicycle turning into a boat). were eight student projects using the bicycle in
These two stories sparked a good discussion ways that would be useful for the community.

Student Projects

1. One problem was riding the bicycle at night with no lights on the
village roads. Jasmeen thought if she could attach a light which
would glow when someone peddles the bicycle, this would solve
the problem. She made a prototype where she attached a motor,
a bulb, and some wires to the bicycle. The motor is attached with
the crank and when the force is applied to the pedal, the chain
wheel moves and in turn the motor moves which gives energy
to the bulb.

2. It is always a problem to cut grass or weeds on agricultural

fields. Nazia thought if she could attach a sharp blade to the
front hub of the bicycle, then she and others can easily cut the
small to medium size grass and weeds by steering the bicycle
towards them. This would take less time and effort and would
cut the grass from the roots easily.

3. Rabia made a model to cut the grass with a fan attached to a

rod and the rod attached to the front part of the bicycle. The same
fan-like structure is available already, but it runs on electricity, and
since there is an erratic supply of electricity in the village, Rabia
thought of making a design which can work with bicycle. The grass
is fodder, which after cutting can be given to livestock as food.
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148 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Student Projects (cont.)

4. Lakshmi, Jaid, and Raja made a bicycle-enabled

pesticide spraying machine. When you peddle the
wheel the pesticide from the tank comes out through
a sprinkler attached to the front part of the bicycle.
Through this attachment, one can save lot of time and
effort. There are pesticide spraying machines available
which run on batteries but buying and maintaining
them is a costly affair, so this solution is cost-effective.

5. One of our students attached a wiper through the

front part of the wheel. During rains when the drains
overflow, it becomes very difficult to ride a bicycle on
swampy roads. With this invention, when you are riding
the bicycle the sludge and the mud on the road could be
moved to the sides of the road allowing freer movement
of the bicycle. This could also prevent accidents due to
balancing issues.

6. Noor, Jahan, and Shabana attached a fan with gears

and levers to a bicycle. The attachment could help get
water for irrigation or drinking purposes. There are
engines already available that do this, but they run on
petrol or diesel which is costly and also adds pollution to
the environment.

7. Aafia and Sana thought of cleaning the village drains

with an accumulator and tank behind the bicycle. When
it rains, drains often clog with debris which leads to the
overflow of water and mud on the road, making roads
extremely slippery and highly prone to accidents. With
this innovation, the mud and sludge could be collected
in the collector and discharged into open spaces, helping
to clean the drains.

8. Naseem and Alisha made a bicycle-enabled water

pump. Instead of a handle, the pump rod is attached to
the crank of the bicycle. When one peddles, the crank
moves which moves the piston rod. When the piston
rod moves up and down it moves water more easily than
turning the handle by hand.
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In addition to making these prototypes, the The bicycle as an object offered a tactile
students did a survey of the number of bicycles in experience for students, which challenged them
the village and how many girls have a bicycle. They to carefully observe and conceptualize their
found that very few girls knew how to ride a bicycle thinking. While the teacher facilitates the session,
so they decided to start a bicycle club where girls the students construct meaning for themselves
would learn to ride and they could rent a bicycle for through their interactions with each other
purposes of mobility and emergencies. centered around the object (Hannan et al., 2013).
Things often do not go the way we plan them. As It represents a social constructivist approach
a teacher I admit that there were moments in this therefore in which the students develop their
project when my patience was put to the test, and I knowledge and understanding though interaction
wanted to get into the discussion and make a point with objects based on a prior understanding
to students. But after all these years as a teacher (Chatterjee & Hannan, 2016).
I understand that it’s not necessary that things go This approach enables the student to explore
perfectly to plan. If the general framework is going ideas, processes and events related to the object
as you planned then whatever way it goes is OK. and further gives them an opportunity to build
When things take their own path, especially if upon their ideas. Communities making culture
the path is guided by children, then the content is and inputs along with student interactions were
owned by them and the learning will be deep. As the key focus of the session. So, we can say that
teachers we come to our classrooms day after day the extent to which students are provided oppor-
with our burden of knowledge tucked under our tunities to interact and explore about disciplinary
arms or carried in our heads, but if we make this ideas as well as to build on others’ ideas and have
our identity then the atmosphere of the classroom others build on theirs provides a big opportunity
would be defined largely by our authority. We need for student empowerment. Further, we can say that
to see and face our own limitations and biases. the object not only focused on learning concepts
When a teacher says, “I don’t know… I am also or exploring ways of making and fabrication, it
learning” — that is when students respond freely, also was a way that could contribute to children’s
and knowledge or the lack of it is no longer a threat development of agency (the willingness to
to personal selfhood. Only when students and engage), their ownership over the content, and the
teachers are in a relationship of learning together development of positive identities as thinkers and
is there a release of creative energy. This was the learners.
essence of this lesson which resulted in student
agency and ownership of their learning. References
Chatterjee, H. J., & Hannan, L. (2016). Engaging
the Senses: Object-Based Learning in Higher
Education. Routledge.
Hannan, L., Duhs, R., & Chatterjee, H. (2013).
Object-Based Learning: A Powerful Pedagogy
for Higher Education. In A. Boddington, J.
Boys, & C. Speight (Eds.), Museums and higher
education working together: challenges and
opportunities (pp. 159-168). Routledge.

Bicycle fodder cutting machine

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Why Teach Maker Education?

by Lars Beck Johannsen

If you have been teaching in a maker-based setting Some teachers might want to assign projects
you probably know that it is a good learning that are more limited in the number of possible
experience for both students AND teachers. outcomes, thereby controlling what they would
You also know that there are a wide variety of need to learn in order to succeed. But this is far
challenges that both the teacher and the students less engaging and motivating for students than
meet on their journey into making. If you haven't following their own ideas for a project . On the way
started yet, I strongly urge you to take this journey! from idea to object there are a lot of challenges they
I think there are two main outcomes from will meet, especially when they lack experience.
taking on the challenge of maker education. If students are assigned a narrow, limited
1. Maker education allows the students to have project, they often have a feeling that, “This is too
a deeper learning experience. difficult for me.” If it is their own project idea or at
2. Maker education allows the teacher to learn least have a high degree of influence on what the
along with their students. project will be, it is more often a feeling of, “I need
to get this to work!” Often the students have a way
Let’s talk about the second one first because it is of surprising you and exceeding your expectations.
important to look at your own role as a teacher. As So, it turns out that changing your role as
a maker teacher you will be instructing students to teacher results in both outcomes: You give your
use the software, tools, and machines that are used students a deeper learning experience, and you
in a makerspace. This role is familiar to teachers. learn something along the way as well.
On the other hand, the students will follow their Here are some thoughts and observations I have
own ideas and bring them to life, which makes it a made along the way. This is not a complete list, but
meaningful project to the student, but challenges just some points for reflecting on your own practice
teachers because they are not in control of the (and a few tips).
outcome. The role is more one of facilitating
and guiding the student through their learning
experience.
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Student observations Reflections from my own practice

Students are used to getting assignments that Minimize instruction. In a makerspace you will
have a correct answer. Making open-ended need to instruct in the use of the machines or learn
assignments that are more complex and do not how to use CAD software to build something. My
have one correct answer is far more interesting, experience is that minimal instruction, meaning
but also frustrates students because they cannot “show don’t tell” combined with student peer-to-
rely on the teacher having the solution. The world peer learning is a good approach. Let us take the
is not like a textbook, and in that sense it prepares vinyl cutter as an example.
the student to be a part of the world outside of I start by quickly cutting a sticker and weeding
school. out the extra pieces, and put the sticker on
• When you do projects in “the real world” they something in the lab. This can be done in a minute.
automatically get complex. And now they know what the output and process
• Building something from scratch will give you a of the machines is. I have seldom met anyone that
lot of challenges along the way. understood it before they saw it. Just telling what it
• Prompts that are ambiguous will let the student does does not help.
be creative with their solution. The next step is to draw something that will
Students will not all be learning the exact same become a sticker in whatever CAD software you
thing. Every project has its own challenges that are using (Inkscape is a great open source tool).
calls for different knowledge from a variety of Students work at different tempos, and as soon as
traditional school subjects. It could be mathemat- a few are finished with a design, I show them how
ical tools that help them in their work, knowledge to set up the machine and cut. When the next little
about the materials they have chosen, rules from group is ready to do their design I will point to the
physics, challenges in coding a microcontroller, group before them, letting them show their fellow
etc. The list could go on forever. I have met a lot students how to do it. In this way they consolidate
of teachers who believe that students should all their knowledge by teaching it to their peers and it
learn the same things in order to pass their tests. I frees the teacher up from being the bottleneck of
believe that the knowledge acquired or constructed the process.
through a personal meaningful project is better Allow sufficient time. Time is one of the
internalized and sticks in the memory. And I also main challenges in working with projects in a
think that students will be able to fill in the gaps makerspace. It simply takes a lot of time — and it
they might have missed about a fact or two. should be allowed to take time.
I have seen students that don’t do well in a Build agency. Prior to making larger projects I
traditional class flourish with maker projects. usually let the students do some simpler projects
In my line of work, I often lead workshops or one to learn the basics of coding, CAD design, or using
day events with groups of students unknown to the machines (CAM). It often gives birth to new
me. Usually, their regular teacher informs me and more personal ideas that the student wants
beforehand that one or more students might not to make, which could turn into a bigger and more
behave well or do much work. Often, these students complex project.
actually do the opposite, and surprise the teacher This is where you loosen the control and let the
in a positive sense. They are the doers — they get class go in different directions alone or in small
things done, and they often have the most creative groups. If they have sufficient experience, they
and funny ideas. can use what they have learned to follow their own
ideas. To take control of your own learning process
is a powerful lesson that will benefit the student in
numerous ways.
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Try faded guidance. Whether it is students or This is not a complete list but gives a few reasons
adults I teach, I use faded guidance. I try to provide why you should implement maker education in
only the necessary help, ideally just enough to keep your life as a teacher. On a closing note, I would
the project in flow. Over time, the help provided by like to point out some things I don´t think should
me is lessened as the students’ knowledge grows. be your focus.
Maker education is not meant to evolve every
student idea into a startup company or raise
Relationships matter. An important part of this money with a Kickstarter campaign. It’s fine if that
is to establish a relationship with the student. happens, but I don’t see it as our goal as a school.
Knowing when to push and when to hug. My mission is one of enlightenment or Bildung as
Encouraging them to just try to do what they we say in Denmark. Understanding the technology
think is the right way, when they are uncertain, that surrounds us and being creative with it is also
otherwise they will tend to seek confirmation from a way of learning about the world, learning about
you even though they are 90% sure of what to do. STEAM subjects in a hands-on way, and practicing
This may be an obvious approach but, I still the art of wondering and asking questions.
sometimes fall in the trap and help too much,
especially if it is something I can fix in a second.
But I try to stay aware of it. Ongoing reflection of
your own practice will help you become a better
guide.
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Culture and Making: A Strong and Powerful Connection

by Federica Selleri

During conversations between FabLearn Fellows, The project started with the children and
the question often arises as to what is actually teacher looking at some examples of natural trans-
meant by the term cultural making? Is it an action formations related to both the plant and animal
linked to the culture of origin or is it centered in the worlds. The children chose to focus on the world of
human need to belong to something? Personally, insects, especially ants, and they drew the anthill,
I’m becoming more convinced that it is an innate the meadow, and the sky on sheets of paper. They
characteristic of human beings to build something then photographed their drawings with the tablet.
linked to a need or an idea. The following two Then, on another sheet of paper, they drew some
anecdotes reveal small demonstrations of this idea. ants, photographed them and used an app to cut
In October 2021 I started a new professional out the photos, crop the ants, resize them and
path as a digital atelierista, supporting the use insert them into the anthill they had drawn. This
of technology for teachers in children’s hospitals. became a playspace, using their fingers they made
We began to experiment with new uses of tech- the images of the ants move along the anthill,
nological tools, which allow children to escape telling their story.
the reality of their hospital rooms, simply using This is a valuable example of how, using simple
a tablet, sheets of paper, colors, and creativity. tools such as a tablet, paper, and colors you can
With the five-year-old children and their teacher build worlds in which to play and learn, even in a
we proposed a project based on transformations difficult context like the hospital, where it is not
of the natural environment, so that they could always possible to have many tools and spaces with
build worlds different from their daily hospital which to experiment.
experience.
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Another example happened at a workshop I Here, in my opinion, the unconventional cultural

led for the Fab Lab where I work. We designed a component of making emerges. The students were
creative coding activity for a group of university inspired by something close to them, something
students from different courses based on the idea that is part of their culture and their lives, and
of a wunderkammer, or “cabinet of curiosities.” Each they naturally used digital and other tools to make
small group could freely decide what to put in their it. The idea of building something from scratch,
box, building small objects and animating them starting from a cardboard box, didn’t scare them,
with lights and code, using Arduino microcontrol- it was an opportunity to experiment in a practical
lers, LEDs, motors, and recycled materials. way.
After a brief introduction on programming Culture is not defined by what others think,
the Arduinos, each group decided on an idea, and but what each person thinks. To allow people to
assigned roles for the members. Some were mainly think their own thoughts, the project must be
concerned with the construction and design open enough to ensure maximum freedom of
part of the object, while others were involved in exploration and experimentation. To me, this kind
programming and assembling the circuits. While of cultural making expands our thinking about
most of the groups decided to make a Christmas- what culture really means and what making really
themed box (despite the fact that Christmas was means as well.
more than a month away), one group decided to
make a miniature ‘80s disco, complete with lights,
music, and moving objects.
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Maker Culture: An Ally in Education and

Curriculum Reform
by Débora Garofalo

I have seen the power of maker culture to transform By introducing real-world problems to be solved,
education first-hand, both as a teacher in public such as transforming waste products into useful
schools in Brazil and in my work at the Department objects, students are engaged and empowered.
of Education on teacher training policy for the Through this approach, I have observed formerly
country. disengaged students rediscovering their passion
I have always regarded maker culture as a broad for learning, overcoming challenges related to race
framework that fosters innovation by encom- and ethnicity, and developing a newfound appreci-
passing various activities such as embroidery, ation for reading and writing.
sewing, programming, robotics, artificial intel- In Brazil, the work I have been involved in has
ligence, IoT (Internet of Things), and more. It become a public policy, providing students from
facilitates hands-on learning, interdisciplinary diverse social and economic backgrounds access to
connections, active methodologies, and investiga- robotics using scrap and recycled materials. Today,
tive approaches like STEAM. this movement is present in over 5,100 schools
The beauty of the maker culture lies in its ability in the State of São Paulo, promoting creativity
to shift students from a passive role to becoming and everyday problem-solving while teaching
the central protagonists of their learning journey. important lessons about electronics.
Over my seventeen years as a teacher, particularly However, I still grapple with significant
during the last six years as a technology educator, questions about how to ensure that maker
I have witnessed this transformation firsthand. culture reaches all students, particularly those
It has not only revolutionized teaching within attending public schools in Brazil. These schools
schools but has also had a profound impact on the often face challenges such as lack of trained
broader communities these schools are a part of. teachers, inadequate infrastructure, and limited
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connectivity. Of approximately 180,000 schools in Being a maker is more than just having access
the country, 45% lack basic sanitation, and these to tools and equipment; it is about fostering a
schools represent 81% of Brazilian students. It is attitude that thrives in the collaborative learning
crucial to extend the benefits of the maker culture environment within the classroom. Engaging in
to these students where it can make a substantial activities and experiential learning helps to create
difference in their educational experiences, a nurturing space and may transform into more
motivating them to become critical thinkers complex activities like computational thinking.
and creative learners. Such an approach entails Recently, I conducted a training session with
comprehensive education that involves solving teachers who created a low-cost mechanical hand.
real-world problems within the school and in the I was delighted by one particular teacher who went
broader community. back to his primary classroom and asked all the
While advanced technological resources are children to create mechanical hands, which they
valuable, it is imperative for us, as teachers, to did with great success. Witnessing such transfor-
take the initial steps toward an education that is mations is nothing short of magical.
relevant to the world we live in. We must focus on
developing skills and abilities and prioritize the Reimagining curriculum
needs of our students and fellow educators. Maker culture does not seek to replace the school
curriculum; rather, it encourages us to reimagine
Maker culture as a gateway to creativity it. For instance, in a history class focusing on
Teachers often have questions about how to Egypt, history lessons can combine with story-
incorporate the maker movement into their telling and computer science while creating games
practice. I believe the culture of the maker in the Scratch programming language. In a science
movement serves as a gateway to innovation, lesson addressing environmental issues, talking
inviting both students and educators to learn about recycling can serve as a starting point,
through hands-on experimentation. It fosters bridging other areas of knowledge such as material
youth empowerment by stimulating creativity, science, ecology, or the time it takes for materials
logical thinking, and problem-solving skills. By to decompose and adding the potential to solve
working with the maker universe, we can create a real problems in the community.
school environment that encourages active partic- By embracing maker culture as an ally, we can
ipation and enables students to tackle real-world make the school curriculum more engaging and
challenges. However, this requires school meaningful for students. It enables us to bridge
curriculum to be more flexible. theory and practice, ensuring a practical and
To engage with the maker culture, it is not immersive learning experience. By experiencing
always necessary to have a dedicated makerspace. learning in a diverse and collaborative manner, we
Simple reorganization of furniture and the foster true scientific thinking.
creation of stations with materials and tools might The benefits of incorporating the maker culture
be enough to encourage creativity. However, into the school curriculum are plentiful, including
it is worth noting that some schools do have the opportunity to revolutionize education,
designated spaces equipped with tools such as promote youth protagonism, and provide a
3D printers, laser cutters, and robotics supplies. meaningful education for all!
These may be augmented with activities such as
sewing, embroidery, woodworking, animation, 3D
modeling with clay, and other crafts.
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Makerland: Exploring the Connections Between

Makerspaces and Seymour Papert's Mathland
by Charles Pimentel

Introduction on polygons in a concrete way. Students modeled

Studies show that different factors may cause their objects using paper, pencil, ruler, compass,
students to have poor performance in mathematics. and protractor. These sketches were transferred to
But one accepted reason is a lack of connection the Adobe Illustrator vector graphics software. The
between the subject covered at school and the real final objective was the fabrication of the jewelry
world (Ziegler & Loos, 2017). using a laser cutter. Students created their unique
This article seeks to relate the use of jewelry with varied combinations of polygons,
mathematics in the makerspace with the metaphor which is squarely within the scope of the Plane
of “mathland” as presented by Seymour Papert Geometry curriculum.
in his book Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and
Powerful Ideas (1980), in which the author compares
learning math with the way a person learns French
when growing up in France. A mathland would be
a place where learning and using math naturally
would be as easy as learning French when growing
up in France.
Thus, inspired by the term coined by Papert,
this work presents the “makerland” metaphor,
combining the ways math is naturally used in
a makerspace while the students develop their
projects.
When educators proposed projects to support
the mathematics curriculum, there tends to
be two very different approaches. The first is
the development of projects that aim to teach
an explicit mathematics concept that meets
curriculum objectives. The second type of project Polygonal jewelry
is one that expects and requires students to use
mathematics to design and build something, However, for the final fabrication, the students did
however the “something” may not be directly not need to understand the mathematics concepts
related to a curricular goal. that were used when transferring the project to the
In some cases, a project might have both explicit laser cutter control software, nor the mathematical
and implicit objectives for the use of mathematics concepts that the laser cutter uses to control the
such as in this high school project called Polygonal final fabrication.
Jewelry. This is a normal part of using fabrication devices
in the makerspace. The software and the device do
Polygonal jewelry project the math for you. The question is: does the student
The objective of this project was to carry out a study learn some mathematical concepts in the use of
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makerspace resources during the modeling and often happens especially felicitously when it
production process or is it just an empirical use of is supported by construction of a more public
mathematics in order to be able to carry out his or sort ‘in the world’ [...]. Part of what I mean by
‘in the world’ is that the product can be shown,
her project?
discussed, examined, probed, and admired. It is
When using a laser cutter, for example, the rela-
out there.” (Papert, 1993, p. 142)
tionship between the speed of the equipment while
cutting a resource and the laser power to perform Papert also argues that technology is not merely
this cut, the definition of perimeter and area to a means to improve traditional education, but
be cut, the time to perform the cut, symmetry a powerful resource to promote emancipatory
relationships, relationships between variables and learning, making it possible to meet different
Cartesian coordinates, are usually applied auto- learning styles.
matically in the software. Niss and colleagues (2017) point out that
the widely recognized need for mathematics
courses to connect to the real-world has been the
basis of educational reforms in some countries.
Constructionism offers a framework to understand
a way to teach mathematics concepts through
technology projects and create pathways to needed
reforms in mathematics curriculum.
Thus, as the Logo language was created by
Papert's research group as a math microworld
where students and educators are learners and
Mathematics in the control panel of the laser cutter software everyone learns from their mistakes (Papert,
2020), the makerspace's prototyping resources
This type of implicit mathematics use might be provide a different kind of microworld for learning
dismissed as unimportant to the mathematics mathematics.
curriculum. However, I’d like to dispute that Maker-based learning teaches the student
and link this idea of implicit mathematics use how to deal with challenges and face unexpected
and learning in the makerspace to the concept of problems for which there is no pre-established
learning without being taught that Papert proposes explanation, thus acquiring the necessary skills
as a key component to his concept of mathland. to participate in the construction of new skills
(Gavassa, 2020). However, it is important to
Theoretical foundation
consider that if integration of makerspaces into
Seymour Papert’s mathland is connected to his
the school curricula can be accomplished, it
theory of learning called constructionism. The
should provide authentic and meaningful learning
theory is built on Piaget's theory of learning called
experiences (Fernandez et al., 2021).
constructivism. Constructionism posits that the
When it comes to mathematics education,
educational process happens more effectively when
Brazil has undergone significant reforms. In 2018,
students are co-authors of their own knowledge
the Brazilian Ministry of Education approved
and share it with their peers (Blikstein, 2008).
the Common National Curricula Base (BNCC in
Considering the great advance of new information
Portuguese), a document that defines the essential
and communication technologies, construc-
knowledge that all students have the right to learn.
tionism is a true learning theory for today’s world
In the field of Mathematics and its technologies,
and today’s youth.
the BNCC describes the discipline as:
In his book The Children's Machine: Rethinking
School in the Age of the Computer, Papert states that: “Human science, the result of the needs and
concerns of different cultures [...] and a living
“One of my central mathetic tenets is that the science, which contributes to solving scientific
construction that takes place ‘in the head’
 Maker and Makerspace Culture 159
159

and technological problems and to underpin study by observing the routine of students when
discoveries and constructions, including impacts modeling and producing their projects in the
on the world of work”. (Brasil, 2018, p. 267) makerspace.
In Brazilian reality, the discipline of mathematics The first questions in the questionnaire asked
is organized into five Thematic Units (TU). They how the students perceived the use of mathematics
are: concepts in the makerspace, and at which stage
of project development their use was noticed. In
• Numbers: Developing skills related to numerical
thinking and the meaning of operations. addition, it sought to identify which equipment
was the most important to students.
• Algebraic Thinking: Identifying the dependency
relationship between two quantities and solving The remaining questions were related to a
problems through equations and inequations. preliminary study, which identified the main
mathematics subjects used in the makerspace.
• Geometric Thinking: Interpreting and moving
a figure on the Cartesian plane, and identifying These subjects were organized by Thematic Units
isometric transformations and producing (except for Probability and Statistics, which was
enlargement and reduction of figures. removed from the scope of this work because their
use was not observed in a significant way).
• Quantities and Measures: Building and
expanding the notion of measure by studying The makerspace resources were the laser cutter,
different quantities, in addition to obtaining 3D Printer, and robotics and automation materials.
means for calculating areas of plane surfaces The low-tech resources consisted of tools such as
and the volume of some geometric solids. drills, scissors, and cutters, plus glue and other
supplies.
• Probability and Statistics: Building sample
space for equiprobable events, in addition to
Collected data and discussion
planning and carrying out sample research.
The responses collected revealed important
In addition, the BNCC includes Computational insights into the perception of students in the
Thinking in the scope of mathematics. makerspace about mathematical concepts.
Computational Thinking is an approach towards A large majority, 57.1%, indicated that the
the formulation of problems and their solutions most important equipment for their projects was
in a way that is similar to programming, yet can the laser cutter, followed by low-tech resources,
be applied in areas of knowledge that go beyond 3D printer, and finally robotics and automation.
Computer Science (Wing, 2011). This result aligns with what is observed in the
makerspace.
Methods An even larger majority, 76.1% said that they
While it is one thing to theorize about how math-
used mathematics in their projects very frequently
ematical ideas might be formed in the process of
or frequently. The rest stated that it is occasional
completing makerspace projects, another part of
or that they do not notice the use of mathematics
investigating this idea is to ask students themselves
at all.
if they are connecting their indirect exposure
The students responded to questions about
to mathematical ideas to the mathematics
mathematics use in the project stages: modeling
curriculum.
and production. They noted the greatest use of
In short, do the students recognize the
mathematics use in modeling and production,
mathematics of “makerland”?
61.9% of respondents said that for them math
To carry out this work, an exploratory study
is used in both stages, while 38.1% said that
was conducted with 21 students in a high school
mathematics is used only during modeling stage.
makerspace in Brazil. The goal was to clarify how
The following table shows which math concepts
students perceive mathematics concepts in the
students perceived being explored while using
use of equipment during the preparation of their
makerspace resources. It is important to note that
projects. A questionnaire was designed for this
these questions were asked about the Thematic
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Math concepts that students perceive being explored in the makerspace

Units (TU) from the Brazilian scope of the mathematical concepts is implicitly and naturally
mathematics discipline, but they can be adapted to explored is reflected in the projects created.
the educational realities of other countries. Whether the project is successfully carried out or
From these results, it can be seen that students not, it provides valuable feedback to the student
understand that Quantities and Measures are the regarding the utilization of mathematical concepts.
most often used TU in makerspace projects. This Mathematics serves as a fundamental element for
result points to the perception of the importance executing the proposed activities, encompassing
of this TU when dealing with material resources, both modeling and the setup of software and
which require calculations related to measurement machines for production.
units, figure areas, and solid volumes. The questionnaire provided some insight
Computational Thinking and Algebraic Thinking into student perceptions of mathematics in
were identified by the students as the next most the makerspace. Observations provide other
often used mathematical areas. The manipulation conclusions. In the makerspace, it was often
of variables and methodologies to break down observed that the work creates natural oppor-
problems were themes highlighted by the students. tunities to use mathematics vocabulary when
It was surprising that the Numbers Unit had students work on projects. We see students using
such a low indication since the use of elements mathematics terms without being formally taught,
and operations with rational numbers is the thus connecting with the idea of a makerland where
foundation for carrying out the projects. Perhaps students use the tools and materials and connect
the students thought that the concept of numbers to mathematics as naturally as when learning to
is more of an abstraction, whereas measurement speak French while living in France.
is real and practical. Or perhaps students felt that Further research might ask if the formal
number manipulation is so basic as to not really be disciplines and units of mathematics are useful
thought of as math. Whatever the reason, there is in describing the mathematical thinking that is
much to think about in these survey results. actually happening when making projects using
the tools found in a makerspace. We may need
Conclusions to expand our thinking about what mathematics
First, the study sought to analyze the resources actually means in the modern world.
available in makerspace, from equipment to The students identified the use of mathematics
software, and correlate the mathematics subjects concepts during the modeling and production
that students perceive are used. This is one of the processes and their perceptions aligned with what
contributions of this research. was identified in the preliminary study. The next
Subsequently, the application and analysis step of this study is to systematically organize these
of the questionnaire pointed to the relationship issues so that they can be explored in an objective
between the mathland metaphor and the proposal way when the student carries out projects in the
of a makerland where resources used in the makerspace, so that what is applied and learned
makerspace are microworlds and issues related to from the discipline, during the modeling and
mathematics are naturally explored. production process, can be evaluated. The result of
One indication that the application of this new research will be published in the future.
 Maker and Makerspace Culture 161
161

References
Blikstein, P. (2008). Travels in Troy with Freire:
Technology as an Agent for Emancipation. In
P. Noguera & C. A. Torres (Eds.), Social Justice
Education for Teachers: Paulo Freire and the
Possible Dream (pp. 205-244). Sense Publishers.
Brasil. (2018). Base Nacional Comum Curricular.
Brasília: Ministério da Educação
Fernandez, C., Hochgreb-Haegele, T., & Blikstein,
P. (2021). From “Playful Activities” to “Knowledge
Building”: A Case Study about a Teacher’s
Percpetions on the Role of Experiments.
Proceedings of the 15th International
Conference of the Learning Sciences-ICLS
2021.,
Gavassa, R. C. F. B. (2020). Educação maker: muito
mais que papel e cola. Tecnologias, Sociedade
e Conhecimento, 7(2), 33-48. doi.org/10.20396/
tsc.v7i2.14851
Niss, M., Bruder, R., Planas, N., Turner, R., &
Villa-Ochoa, J. A. (2017). Conceptualisation
of the role of competencies, knowing and
knowledge in mathematics education research.
Proceedings of the 13th International Congress
on Mathematical Education: ICME-13,
Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children,
Computers, and Powerful Ideas. Basic Books.
Papert, S. (1993). The Children's Machine:
Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer.
Basic Books.
Wing, J. (2011). Research Notebook: Computational
Thinking — What and Why. thelink, 6, 20-23.
Ziegler, G. M., & Loos, A. (2017). “What is
Mathematics?” and why we should ask, where
one should experience and learn that, and how
to teach it. Proceedings of the 13th International
Congress on Mathematical Education: ICME-13,
162
162 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Weekend Makercamps for Students

by Mathias Wunderlich

In January 2021 we had a strict lockdown in one former student participant became an adult
Germany due to COVID-19. This was a hard time and returned in a new role as a facilitator.
for students, parents, and for the school staff. We are hopeful that we can continue expanding
But, at our school it also was the time when we our events to accommodate more participants and
established our Weekend Makercamps for students even more schools. Every time we do this, we face
on a regular basis. very different situations and see unique student
Seeing kids were frustrated and sometimes projects. We learn from one event to the next and
isolated at home on one side, and our school hopefully get better in supporting the activities of
makerspace somewhat abandoned on the other interested maker kids.
side, we came up with the idea to make our own The idea for such events goes back well before the
“bubble” for a weekend. COVID-19 pandemic. Several times we announced
At the end of 2020 the first commercial plans for weekend or holiday activities with kids —
COVID-19 rapid tests became available in Germany, but for some reason just two or three smaller events
and our school decided to buy them long before took place. The idea is very simple, our makerspace
the tests became common in education. So we got with its terrific possibilities is present 24 hours a
the opportunity to organize the event safely. A lot day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The school is
of kids showed interest, but many of the parents heated anyway, has water and electricity, a kitchen,
were undecided if our plan was safe or not. Finally, cozy rooms, and even showers! Why leave all this
just three boys took part in the event which made it unused during weekends while a lot of kids are
easy to handle. So we had a start! It was big fun for sitting at home bored? If they enjoy a happy family
all of us, both for the students and for me as host weekend, fine! No need to disturb that with other
and facilitator. group activities, it’s just an offer for the students.
Over the past two years, we have repeated the In fact we saw several families who were very
event several times with an increasing number happy to support their kids by coming along for a
of participants. The organization became a bit while during the weekend, joining us in tinkering
more routine, and we were able to host both boys and making stuff, and bringing food to share.
and girls when some female teachers joined in to
support the overnight stay at the school. In Fall Student projects
2022 we visited maker friends in another FabLab According to the low floor/high ceiling principle we
about 150 km north of us over the weekend and have almost no formal requirements for students
shared our different experiences. We opened the to take part in a Weekend Makercamp. We only ask
weekends for kids from 5th grade on and saw that they have a project idea. We want to discourage
increased participation among girls. the idea that this is just a sleepaway pizza party.
At our most recent Makercamp, we had 16 That’s why we ask that they come prepared with an
students, exactly half of them girls, half boys. We idea for a project.
also added an “event within the event” for the first This can change as the weekend goes on. It’s
time. We opened the space for a special maker absolutely OK to join a different project, participate
activity for kids from 1st to 4th grade. Meanwhile, in multiple projects, to give up a project which gets
 Maker and Makerspace Culture 163
163

too difficult, even invent a completely new project The agenda — structured but flexible
during the weekend. Weekend Makercamps usually start Friday
We invest quite a time prior to the weekend to afternoon with a group meeting where all partic-
be sure the projects of the participants are roughly ipants present their planned projects, sometimes
matched to their abilities. They should be at least a by showing prepared materials (although that
little bit too hard to handle. If a kid’s choice seems to is not required). We make sure that all speakers
be too close to their comfort zone, we ask questions get enough time to present and that they have
and discuss the individual goals of the weekend. a friendly and supportive audience. Sometimes
This is a very valuable process, sometimes learners collaborations between projects start right here,
would like to make the tenth remix of a simple or participants get valuable suggestions from the
Scratch game, while others have really big ideas, group, and sometimes wild discussions generate
like they plan to build a real Mars rocket during crazy new project ideas.
one Saturday afternoon. The planning process After this start, the participants set up their
requires staff to provide guidance and consulting, individual workplaces. This is one of the most
with knowledge of the big picture and knowing the important differences between working in the
students from their daily school life. school makerspace during the week and taking
part in the Weekend Makercamp. Unlike the rushed
school schedule, Makercamp students have a lot
of uninterrupted time so they can persist in their
working process over many hours if they want. We
as hosts just ask them to respect the group agenda
for eating and reporting progress.
At our first Friday night dinner we check in with
all participants to make sure they have found a
place to start their work. We have found it valuable
that all participants — without any exceptions —
are present, to make their plans public and have a
voice within the group. Whatever develops during

Three very interested boys + one adult coach + one weekend = our very first Weekend Makercamp
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164 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

the weekend — which collaborations develop, Makercamp participants

which projects fail, or which get fame — it’s From the start, the offer to participate in a
meaningful to make the starting point visible in Makercamp was only shared with students of
order to see the progress within the next 48 hours. our school. Sometimes a best friend of a student
Saturday is a full work day, with students asked to participate, and we accommodated these
continuing work on their projects during the day. infrequent requests. At our school we work closely
We know that eating together is no longer with parents, so we know the students, but also
the common thing in many families any longer. their parents. And this is reciprocal — they know
We insist on doing so because we see this as an us, and they trust in what and how we do such
important way to promote collegiality and avoid projects. This is a low budget, cost-free, and strictly
the kids splitting into isolated groups. On Saturday, by choice activity. This creates a high level of
we have a nice and relaxed social encounter with a engagement by the parents and they help out with
pizza and movie night where all participants are resources like food and other support for the event.
asked to put the tools down and just enjoy. There is absolutely no connection between the
Sunday after lunch we ring the finish bell. All Makercamp and school tests, grades, or certifica-
participants are strongly invited to present their tions — the participation is really free, no strings
projects, completed or not.. Just like the starting attached. Challenges or issues a student may have
session, we try to provide a calm and supportive during the week play no role for the Weekend
atmosphere with plenty of time for all projects to Makercamp.
be seen and admired. Even failed projects can be All these conditions form a trustful, relaxed,
useful as a lesson learned, and should take place and fearless environment where participants can
within the presentation. After that we facilitate an really focus on creating things.
additional reflection session where all participants
are asked what they liked and what to improve next Rules and guidelines
time. Criticizing is highly welcome here, but we There are just a few hard rules of course — no
also ask for concrete suggestions for improvement. drugs, no alcohol, no tobacco, but this so far has
My favorite feedback from one of the “art girls” not been a problem. Other guidelines are the
was, ”Why isn’t there a Weekend Makercamp every subject of discussion with participants. These
weekend?“ tend to be things like no strong energy drinks,
All participants are responsible to tidy up their limiting sweets and sugar, no excessive gaming,
working spaces, to take or properly store their and getting a minimum amount of sleep. We see
projects, and to help with the cleaning. Parents these discussions as a part of the educational
usually help with the cleaning of the kitchen process, kids must have opportunities to test out
and sleeping rooms when they come to pick up their limits. In their families they may or may
their kids. So far these organizational processes not have particular rules but at the Weekend
were very smooth every time, there has been no Makercamp they have to follow the rules of this
need for big planning and formally distributing temporary setting and community. For some of
responsibilities. them this means extra limitations, for some it’s a
Above all, we strive for flexibility. The schedule rare opportunity for new experiences.
of the weekend is subject to negotiation with Our school is safe and comfortable, which
the group. We as facilitators give them room makes staying over the weekend easy to organize.
and allow a wide range of possibilities. We just We have a fenced school ground and we lock the
demand a minimal standard for participating doors during night time. We are located in a small
in group activities — eating together, reporting one-horse town with just about 20,000 people with
progress, and presentations. What we see is that no serious crime issues. In the building we have
this develops a unique “group feeling” in every several smaller classrooms with carpets, kids bring
single Makercamp — no matter the wide variety of their own camping mats and sleeping bags, some
participants creating extremely different projects. of them big cozy pillows or their favorite teddy
 Maker and Makerspace Culture 165
165

bear. We organize separate rooms for boys and appreciate their support in all forms. Some help
girls along one corridor, and adults sleep in small with material and food, some offer guidance to the
group rooms nearby. We take care that at least one kids, some act as parent taxis — but most of them
female and one male adult is present during the are grateful for the extra learning opportunities for
nights, so we are (hopefully) prepared for any kind their kids.
of incident. Interestingly, during school trips with
kids we have been seeing increasing homesickness, Working and learning
but in our Weekend Makercamps we have had just Most of the time we just let the students do what
one single case which was handled easily without they want. They need time to think, to discuss, to
involving the parents. try, to fail, and to start again. They don’t need an
We ask that students attend the entire advisor stepping in during every situation. They
weekend, we don’t want a continuing coming and must experience problems on their own. Ideally,
going as this may disturb the group processes. we as facilitators are just present as observers, to
Nevertheless we make individual exceptions when simply watch and later reflect on the process. In
kids have commitments to sports clubs or family fact we typically do not have one free minute to sit
obligations. The Makercamp is transparent in the back and watch. There are a thousand questions,
sense that parents are invited to come along and material demands, organizational issues,
see what (their) kids achieve during the weekend. sometimes quarreling, or frustration. Although
But we ask that they not disturb the atmosphere. we are not in our everyday teacher roles, we are
Most of our parents are familiar with this approach professionals and can handle all that. Our school
from our regular school — they are very welcome, takes a Montessori or maker approach, so we know
but ideally they should be largely invisible. We not to answer every simple question or help too

Weekend Makercamps are growing. More participants, more projects, more girls, more professional organization, more routines..
166
166 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

fast with an easy solution. Instead, a student’s these events over and over again.
question generates a counter question, the offer of As an educator, it’s interesting to observe the
a hidden clue, or an invitation to ask a peer. development that occurs during the weekend.
One of the most important advantages of the We see shy kids become empowered, interesting
Makercamp setting in comparison to the normal group dynamics, supportive social interactions,
school setting is time. During the week, everyone incredible project progress, and so much learning.
is in a permanent hurry — educators and students We are able to attend to our students and learn
alike. During school, moments to focus longer than more about them — much more than during the
half an hour on complex challenges are rare, if not week.
impossible. During Makercamps, students have The first weekend Makercamps attracted
this time. They have a real supportive environment exclusively tech nerds, mostly boys who haunt the
where ideas can grow, can be discussed without school makerspace during the week. Since then,
rush and urgency, can be seen from different points these weekend events attracted more girls, younger
of view, and sometimes can be instantly tested. students, and kids who are art enthusiasts. Last
Students can explore their ideas over hours and time we had six girls painting in the art room.
hours. Nowhere in formal educational contexts do They explored different techniques and completed
adolescents have this calm atmosphere, most of several creative pieces — without any intervention
the time they are pushed and pulled through the from adults.
obligations of their job as a student.
During our very first Makercamp I had an Other makercamps
experience which I had never before had in my Some of our students have started a small company
decades as a teacher. It was 10 pm on Friday, and delivering food and other goods by cargo bikes.
I was tired, planning the next day in my head. A second student company produces wooden
What I didn’t know was that three boys had a toys, furniture, and Montessori learning material
hidden supply of double caffeine cola and several for kindergartens and other local customers.
disgusting chips and sweets. At 11 pm I was nodding To support these entrepreneurs, we attended
off, but didn’t want to disturb their motivated and workshops at professional makerspaces in the
excited discussion about 3D modeling. During the cities of Hamburg to build a second cargo bike,
next three hours these teen boys dropped into a and in Hamm to build a CNC machine that our
real workflow! They were nice to each other, joking makerspace needed.
around and sharing a bunch of clever ideas, even While we went to these workshops with a set
as one of them dove deeply into 3D modeling using project goal in mind, the rest was very similar
Fusion360 for the first time. Only at 2 am I realized to the Weekend Makercamps — the same kids,
that this is them being their normal selves. They are working and learning in their spare time, and
not bored kids in a science class, they were in their social interaction. While we could have purchased
Friday night computer game mode where they the cargo bike and the CNC machine, we believe
usually play, discuss, joke and enjoy their lives. This the experience of building your own tools not only
time, they didn’t play computer games but learned creates ownership, but a deeper understanding of
new things! Without any intervention from adults! how they work and how to maintain them.
How cool is this, colleagues?
Funding
Shortly after that insight I decided to leave them
Often when it comes to Repair Cafés, tours to
and went to my camping mat for a sleep. I was
Maker Faires with kids, or Weekend Makercamps,
absolutely sure that nothing bad would happen,
there is a question about how this is funded. The
even without my presence. The next morning I
answer in our case is very easy, there is no funding!
found a bunch of complex aluminum pieces ready
My school supports the Weekend Makercamps
to mount and it was clear that the 3D models were
with supplies and infrastructure. We have our mini
far beyond my own capability. The experience of
school bus on hand for free, we have dry and safe
this night is one of my motivations for repeating
space, energy, water, sometimes a part of the food,
 Maker and Makerspace Culture 167
167

and we can use all the rooms, tools, and supplies, it’s beneficial to me as a person and as an educator.
so we don’t need a fee for supplies from the partic- And I enjoy these weekends as I am doing things
ipants or from other sources. If it is for a useful I like anyway – tinkering, creating, learning,
purpose, the material expenses are covered. exploring, and supporting people doing the same
The educators who participate in Weekend – exactly like professional athletes who like to run a
Makercamp are all volunteers, although we are triathlon over the weekend. On Sunday night after
allowed to take a half day off if we need it during a Weekend Makercamp, I’m full of new thoughts
the following week. People usually decide and act and experiences, and I start the next school week
responsibly for themselves and the team. enlightened and refreshed. I know that many
For me as initiator and organizer of such colleagues over the world act in the same manner,
activities it’s an honorary post. I do it by choice, and I would like to see Weekend Makercamps
without any salary. I’m paid relatively well in become a movement with real impact for the next
comparison to many other jobs around me. I feel generation, and for a better future for all of us.

We took part in two offsite makercamps at professional workshops to support growing student businesses.
Students built a DIY cargo bike and a CNC machine..
Projects in Depth
 169

The projects in this section give the reader a lot to think about, try, and adapt for one’s own
situation. In contrast to standard lesson plans, these projects are more fully described and
often feature interesting reflections and course corrections from the authors.
170 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Cultural Making: Storytelling through Kalamkari

by Safoura Seddighin

Fabinnov Digital Design and Fabrication Lab was than 100 historical buildings and structures. While
established in 2017, as part of the innovation zone maintaining the awareness about the history plays
of Isfahan University in the city of Isfahan, Iran. an important role in one’s identity, our youth are
The name was chosen to express our excitement for not interested in learning about the rich history
starting a new movement and inspired us to use and culture!
the term “nov” which means new in Farsi, as part What adds to the challenge is an educational
of the title. The Fabinnov mission is to serve both system that has invested in pure academic
adults and children by providing access to tools, achievement as the main path of success for
machines, and specialists from different fields students. This creates a strict, and impossible to
(electronics, robotics, mechatronics, polymers, challenge list of actions and accomplishments that
and education), to bring their ideas to life. parents want for their children to have success in
While the industrial section of the lab served life! Graduating with honors, passing the national
university students and startups that were entrance exam, and getting accepted to a desirable
interested in creating MVPs for their services and university and major leaves no room for any extra-
products, the educational section of Fabinnov curricular activities that do not meet the success
focused on serving schools (educators and agenda. As a result of such strict expectations,
children) and parents by providing meaningful and despite everyone’s concern about the gaps in
learning opportunities. our children’s knowledge of their identity, no one
Over the past seven years, Fabinnov has seems to be willing to invest in anything that would
supported summer camps, youth clubs, after change the situation. The parents know what they
school and enrichment programs, and an online want and schools can only do their best to keep the
platform for virtual learning during the COVID-19 parents happy and in case of the private schools,
pandemic. Fabinnov provides the materials keep the money flowing.
needed for each course delivered to the partici- STEAM education and making have been
pants’ doorsteps, and professional development giving us hope that we can meet this challenge and
workshops for educators, promoting hands-on create learning opportunities that connect to what
and project based learning through a wide variety matters and is real! Designing a unit that happens
of projects! to connect cultural elements with curricular topics
As a co- founder, learner, educator and program would be the closest the learning of a topic could
designer, one of the common complaints from the get to reality and life.
educators, parents and administrators was about One of my friends who is a literature teacher
the kids slowly departing from many of the cultural has been working with youth for some years to
values of Iran. While the problem of our youth and find ways to connect culture with their experience
their identities today is not solely limited to Iran, of learning literature. As part of his efforts, he
what makes this subject more worrisome in Iran, held his classes inside Isfahan historical buildings
is fading of a culture and history that goes back to twice a month. This experience is so different than
more than 3,000 years ago. what students did on an everyday basis, it opened
The city of Isfahan is known for having more whole new sets of topics to explore. When a poem
 Projects in Depth 171

was studied, there were history, architecture, and The final products come in many forms
social science units waiting to be explored. including curtains, cloths and table covers, etc.,
My friend’s attempts inspired us to explore the and different sizes and patterns as well.
intersection of identity and making for our youth Creating a unit based on making these stamps
club. Since we had access to a good selection of and printing patterns on fabric allows connections
machines including a laser cutter, CNC milling, to amazing topics such as history, math, geometry,
vinyl cutter, wood working and workshop tools, we the science of paint and fabric, and digital design
looked for the right physical product to make that and fabrication. The project can feed a classroom
was interesting to the students, and connected to centuries of knowledge, culture, and pride!
culture. In addition to that, as we were exploring In the lab, the students worked in groups to
the implementation of entrepreneurship for youth research different types of patterns, and learned
in some of the informal settings, having a final about the difference between natural and chemical
product seemed even more ideal. paints. They also got the chance to create their own
Kalamkari is the art of painting or printing on paint from natural materials to use along with the
fabric that has been practiced in the city of Isfahan paint provided for them. It was amazing to see
for more than 300 years. The art was perfected their innovative ways of combining the new and
during the Safavieh period in Iran, when most old patterns to create the designs to be digitally
men's and women's clothes were made from fabricated and turned into wooden stamps. The
Kalamkari fabrics. stamps were used to print patterns on fabric to
The high demand created a need for increased make products. The final products of the unit
speed in the production of the fabric, and the use of included items such as table covers and curtains.
wooden printing blocks to stamp the designs and These were put on display, advertised, and sold
motifs became common. These engraved patterns to the community members by the students
and the art of making these stamps became a themselves.
profession and the expertise was highly prized. This experience was an attempt to close the
These stamps, usually made of pear or hawthorn gap between the young generation and their
wood, are used to print up to four colors on the cultural identity. The sense of accomplishment
fabric. and confidence experienced by the students left
As patterns, fabric, and colors are selected, the no need to convince the students that this was
application of the wooden stamp on the fabric important. The student’s themselves drove the
creates beautiful pieces like music for eyes. process. Throughout their research and in each

Kalamkari block printing

172 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

phase of the process from creating the stamps to project uses code to create geometric patterns,
turning the patterns into the desired results, the including Islamic tile patterns, which are then 3D
students had many meetings with the art masters printed to press into ceramic tiles.
residing in the old bazaars of Isfahan. Those inter- It is so beautiful and inspiring to see other
actions created unforgettable memories for both educators designing projects that combine cultural
adults and children involved in the project. artifacts and expertise with modern digital
Although this unit has only been implemented technology. Seeing others doing similar things and
once so far, it has brought so many ideas and watching all the possible connections that making
generated much excitement in other schools and brings gives me hope and the passion to continue
educators in the district. this work. Fabinnov looks forward to benefiting
While I was working on writing this article, from such meaningful connections in the close
I received an email from Sylvia Martinez about future and in working with more educators and
a “Turtle Art Tiles Project” from a book called The parents across the country.
Invent to Learn Guide to Fun by Josh Burker. This

Kalamkari pattern painting

 Projects in Depth 173

Making in China or Made in China?

by Xiaoling Zhang

Living in Hong Kong is a consumer’s dream. to making more complex things, preferring to stay
A report from 2017 ranked Hongkongers’ in a comfortable cycle of downloading 3D objects
consumption habits among the unhealthiest in without ever designing them or laser cutting
the world. The excessive consumption of goods simple designs like keychains and nametags. For
indicates that one can literally buy whatever they me, the question remains: how does one make
can or even can’t imagine here, needed or not. But projects more meaningful which in turn involves
lately, after spending more time doing projects in longer and deeper learning experiences?
the makerspace, I’ve begun to see the world around
me through the lens of a maker and not just as a Making and craft culture rooted in
consumer. Chinese history
Tinkering with 3D printing and laser cutting, Long before “Made in China” became a well-known
as well as seeing the amazing work of my students label world-wide, Chinese had a rich history of
and fellow teachers, has changed my perceptions invention. From the compass (invented during
and my consumption habits. When I see an Han Dynasty, 206 BC – AD 220), to movable clay
interesting product in a shop, I now stop and think type printing from the Northern Song dynasty (960
about how it was made, and how I might try to – 1127), and the invention of gunpowder (invented
make something similar. during the Tang Dynasty 618 – 907), inventions
have advanced Chinese culture. The exquisite
What makes making worth it? craft-making culture and fabrication deeply rooted
If one can spend a few hundred Hong Kong dollars in our history has enriched people’s lives in China
to buy a cool designer product (about 1% of an and around the world. A vast body of evidence
average monthly income, so, quite affordable), confirms the importance and sophistication of
would one still want to make it? traditional science and technology in pre-modern
I often wonder if students think the same China (Needham, 1954–2003).
way after they become familiar with maker tools Inventions first seen in Hong Kong are also
and materials. Do they understand that there is rooted in Chinese culture yet at the same time
additional value to making? firmly planted in the modern world. Hong Kong
In the midst of developing not only a maker is not just a famous tourist destination, but it was
mindset, but a maker educator mindset, I also the home of the first modern millionaire from the
always pause and ponder: what learning goals am manufacturing industry. Hong Kong’s well-known
I trying to achieve? As an educator, of course there magnate Li Ka-shing owes his wealth to the plastic
is value in the act of creation to better understand flower business he started in the years after World
the process. War II.
I wrestle with these questions and also the Some of the most distinctive home-grown
implications of what Paulo Blikstein called, “the products such as mosaic tiles, big-character signs,
keychain syndrome” (Blikstein, 2013). He identified and neon lights have came to define a uniquely
a situation in makerspaces where students who are Hong Kong aesthetic, a combination of hand-made
successful at making simple things do not progress and manufactured.
174 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

their own learning, and using technologies to

externalize their ideas in sophisticated ways”
(Worsley & Blikstein, 2016).
Students rotate every half of the school year
so this course has now been offered four times,
allowing for iteration in the course design that is
shared here.

Course design and iterations

I named my course “The Chinese Fashion of Life.”
It was designed mainly for Grade 6 students. In the
first class, I asked my students to share their expec-
Neon Signs in Portland Street, Hong Kong.
Photo credit: See-ming Lee (CC BY-SA 4.0) tations of what they were going to learn in this
course based solely on the name. They guessed that
Manufacturing and consumerism it might be about Chinese traditional clothes or art
How did we lose sight of this maker mindset when appreciation. In a brief introduction, I explained
everything is “Made in China”? Recognition of that the title of the course would actually mean
Chinese crafts and artisanry has been drowned out Chinese style and ways of living. Students were
by the impression of low-quality mass production. asked to document things in their daily lives that
In this modern world, we always want everything show traits of Chinese culture. They immediately
to be quick and get the results immediately. But for came up with the porcelain plates they use,
learning, the process matters, because that’s when bamboo tea coasters, “good luck fish” decoration,
creativity has a chance to grow. Not being able to Chinese calligraphy, and painting decoration. They
create will create students who only know how to became more aware that their modern life is also
be a passive recipient. surrounded with a lot of local culture.
The design of the course was semi-open as this
Making in the Chinese classroom was its pilot stage. We wanted to leave flexibility
For learners, the meaning of what they are learning to adjust based on student reactions and their
matters. The aim of maker education should not be ideas of what they might be more interested in.
to just make something with modern technology, Below are two highlighted projects from each of
but to give learners an experience that has the the four iterations of the course: “The Chinese
potential to create deeper understanding of our way of leisure, playing, and games” and “Chinese
unique culture through making. traditional clothes.”
In 2021, our school launched a new course called
Haoxue. Haoxue in Chinese means “eager to learn.” First iteration (Sept to Dec 2021)
Haoxue courses are a half year long and a new The project “The Chinese way of leisure, playing,
group of students can take the class each semester. and games” was inspired by an online question,
It allows subject teachers to design curriculum “Would people be 100% devoted to their work/
based on their own interests and passion. study if there were no computer, video games, or
I found it a perfect chance to make it an TV shows?” Instinctively I would say “NO” because
extension of my Chinese language class. The leisure time is a crucial part of work-life balance.
goal was for students to experience the beauty But another question popped up in my mind.
and joy of Chinese culture through authentic, If there were no computer, video games, or TV
meaningful experiences that also supported the shows, what would we do? Do we still know how
normal language curriculum. I was inspired to and what to play? So, I decided to explore the
put into practice “a model in which students work answer with my students by learning from our
on personal or community-meaningful interdis- ancestors. We tried to make and play games of
ciplinary projects, often freed from a scripted arrow tossing, leaf battle, mini sandbags games,
curriculum, empowered to make choices about and Luban ring locking puzzles. Students created
 Projects in Depth 175

for generations. After many trials with 2D design

platforms, we decided to use Gravit, a web-based
design tool. Students came in with different levels
of previous experience with 2D CAD design, but
we felt Gravit would be a good tool to start with for
everyone. As a novice myself, I had several sessions
with Mr. Pang, our Fablearn liaison engineer
teacher, through video calls as well as bringing him
into the classroom to answer questions and help
students. Because of the limited time and unstable
learning environment during the COVID-19
period, we needed to complete this project quickly.
Therefore, we decided to make simple stickers and
keychains as these were the quickest and easiest to
laser cut.
We were soon faced with signs of students
developing the “keychain syndrome” as predicted by
Blikstein (2013), while literally making keychains.
With more time and without the disruption
of COVID-19 to consider, we would have likely
pursued other avenues, such as rubber stamps, but
Iteration 1: Students designed instructional posters and in the end, we decided to proceed with the keychain
invited peers to play the games . and a plain style of sticker.
Although some students said this was their most
their own “leaves” using recycled paper instead of
well-made and satisfactory product so far, I often
fallen leaves, reworked some of the rules for the
ponder if it could have been a more meaningful
sandbag games, and created instruction posters.
project that included more complex facilitation,
Afterwards, they invited another class to enjoy the
curriculum re-design, and other equipment rather
games with them.
than just making trivial objects like keychains.
The project “Chinese traditional clothes”
Bearing this in mind, I asked students if they
was based an essential part of Chinese culture,
would be interested in making their own games
the magnificent designs of apparel of different
(vessels for the arrow tossing game, sandbags, etc.
dynasties that have been shared and passed down
All the students answered yes.

Iteration 1: Fashion project designs

176 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Second iteration with a new group of students

(During a period of online instruction due to
COVID-19 . Jan . to June, 2022)
The Chinese games project asked students to
design their own arrow tossing game using Gravit.
To learn to use the online CAD program, Mr. Pang
created a study kit for students to practice the
basic techniques of 2D CAD design in Gravit. I
was getting more familiar with the software which
made it possible to facilitate students' learning by
giving them guidance and instructions in small
online groups.
However, online learning has its pros and cons.
In the post-project questionnaire, 70% of the
students found the biggest challenge was that they
were not familiar enough with the software, and
20% said their original ideas were too complicated
to realize in Gravit. 40% of the students said that
during online lessons, the whole process of asking
questions and getting answers took so much time
that they couldn't finish in time. Iteration 2: School uniform stickers
However, 90% of the students answered that
they would want to finish the design and laser cut This semester, the Chinese traditional clothes
their own product if more time was allowed. project was changed based on an inspiration of
my co-teacher Ms. Lin. We decided to introduce a
more authentic, modern approach — designing a
set of school uniforms with elements of traditional
Chinese clothing designs. As a bilingual school, a
modern Chinese uniform could represent school
spirit and perhaps could actually be turned into
reality one day!
In this project iteration, students used the UV
sticker printer machine and vinyl cutting machine.
With these simpler machines, the technology
barrier was lowered and the stickers better
represented student designs.
Students were excited to see their work made
into tangible products and thus were more engaged
in presenting the ideas behind their designs. In the
post-project questionnaire, 60% of the students
said they found the experience quite helpful in
understanding traditional clothes design, and
an additional 20% said it was very helpful. 100%
of the students said that they would like to make
authentic traditional clothes with fabric, if given
Iteration 2: Laser cut games
the opportunity.
 Projects in Depth 177

Third iteration with a new group of students technology problems out of the way, students were
after lockdown ended (Sept . – Dec 2022) more focused on the requirements that the design
The Chinese game project went back to “normal” would need to be related to Chinese culture.
conditions as students came back to the classroom The Chinese traditional clothes project was
post lockdowns. As I was now a lot more familiar divided into several smaller groups based on
with Gravit, it was easier and more efficient students’ interests: miniature traditional clothes,
to teach the students how to use the software, real traditional clothes, embroidery, and traditional
although I was much busier going around the clothes stickers.
classroom and helping them solve their problems.
We ran into technical problems when we found out Fourth iteration with another new group of
that the Gravit platform had changed its policies. students (Jan . – June 2023)
Students realized that in this modern world, I, like We are currently in our fourth iteration, with
them, am also learning these skills in real time so students designing an arrow tossing game as well
we can learn and help each other. Once we figured as hands-on projects such as sewing mini sandbags
out a way to continue, several students learned from upcycled clothes and filling them with expired
the new process very quickly, and with that new rice. One of our goals this semester is to minimize
expert knowledge helped others and made the the use of purchased materials in favor of using
whole process smoother than expected. With the second-hand and upcycled materials.

Iteration 3: Games incorporating “dragon boat racing” and “four Chinese ancient mythical beasts”
into the design of the arrow tossing game vessel

Iteration 3: Various Chinese clothes projects

178 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Student responses to the courses “The games seemed to be a bit boring at first glance, but I
Students really enjoyed the course. There were became more interested once we got started.”
students who came to the first class without “I learned how best to introduce the games to those who
knowing exactly what they were about to learn and don't know them. I also learned how to break down a
are now excited to ask, “What are we going to do project into smaller tasks and how to cooperate.”
today?” They got to experience and have a deeper
“I learned more about history.”
understanding of Chinese culture through the
process of making, instead of just being lectured. “The course was well-designed and very interesting. We
They had a chance to explore with their peers and had the chance to learn in groups, and through videos.
to discover things they previously thought they And we also got to try what ancient people played. It was
might not be good at. It has been a meaningful an authentic experience.”
experience for them to learn about Chinese culture
as well as the new technologies through 2D and 3D Conclusion
design as well as using the materials around them Designing and implementing these courses
in daily life. gave me new insight into the difference between
Here are some comments from our students: making and consuming. Students experienced
“I have learned that even without computer games, we a unique sense of ownership pf the projects and
can still play happily.” had “hard fun.” Hard fun is one of the “eight big
“The games were interesting and were very different from ideas” espoused by Dr. Seymour Papert when he
our current games.” documented a constructionist learning experience
(Stager, 2006).
“The meaningful part of the Chinese games was that we After finishing the half-year course, some
did our research and made posters and instructions so students would still come to me and ask if they
that I learned more about them.” could continue to laser cut their arrow tossing
“I think that ancient people were really smart. They vessel. Students often mention the experience
managed to use the simple materials around them to whenever they see me. They also told me that
make games.” although learning the 2D software was tough, the

Iteration 4: Projects in process

 Projects in Depth 179

final product meant more to them than just buying Notes

a similar toy because they put effort and their 1. zolimacitymag.com/hong-kong-industrial-
personal ideas into it. history-part-x-how-plastic-flowers-built-glob-
Hearing students articulate this in their own al-metropolis/
words made me feel like we are on the right track. 2. Now called Corel Vector cloud.gravit.io
We must allow students to have meaningful
making experiences, while avoiding, as best we References
can, the “keychain syndrome” which would reduce Blikstein, P. (2013). Digital Fabrication and
the process into a one-size-fits-all quick format. ‘Making’ in Education: The Democratization of
We should design projects that take several cycles Invention. In J. Walter-Herrmann & C. Büching
of redesign and connect the ideas and themes (Eds.), FabLabs: Of machines, makers and
with students’ lives, interests, passions, and inventors. Bielefeld: Transcript Publishers.
communities. We need to continue to put more Needham, J. (1954–2003). Science and Civilisation
emphasis on the process rather than the product, in China 7 vols. Cambridge University Press.
and to challenge students to realize how far they Stager, G. S. (2006). An Investigation of
went outside of their intellectual comfort zones. Constructionism in the Maine Youth Center
A last crucial point for us to remember is to let [Ph.D., The University of Melbourne].
students learn during the process how to work, Melbourne, Australia.
collaborate, and distribute their efforts (Worsley Worsley, M., & Blikstein, P. (2016). Children are
& Blikstein, 2016). Thus, I find myself moving in not hackers: Building a culture of powerful
the right direction and looking forward to more ideas, deep learning, and equity in the Maker
redesigning and exciting challenges to come. Movement. In K. Peppler, E. Halverson, & Y.
When we ask students to “make,” we are not B. Kafai (Eds.), Makeology: Makerspaces as
asking them to do “mass production” or simply learn learning environments (pp. 78-94). Routledge.
to use the cool tools. Instead, we are empowering
them to think and reflect by connecting clear
learning goals and then incorporating the tools to
facilitate their imagination and creation. I firmly
believe the cultural and historical perspectives of
the course added importance to the projects. Last
but not least, we must trust students by granting
them autonomy in their learning, which empowers
both students and teachers to reach their highest
potential.
180 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Robot Art
by Lars Beck Johannsen

I can´t think of Seymour Papert without picturing that it is art — and let us just say, abstract art —
turtle graphics — this little virtual turtle that and this frees the students from having to worry
turns your code into patterns and shapes. This is a about the robot drawing being something natural-
classic engaging activity that holds a lot of learning istic or pretty. Almost every time students will try
potential. For one thing it gives a tangible outcome to make the robot draw a square. But the difference
to programming, and it makes use of geometry in between coding something that is square in theory
a way that is challenging and lets you experiment and the actual outcome of the robot drawing the
with mathematics. square becomes very apparent. Move x, turn 90,
In his spirit I designed a workshop called Robot repeat 4 times sounds like it should make a square.
Art. The students are told that they will be making But real life is not perfect, and usually they don’t
art with a robot, by programming it to move build a lifting tool so it turns into something more
with a pen attached to it. I’ve run this workshop like this in these pictures.
with students ages 9–13. The extra element in
this workshop is an activity that is actually more
challenging than it sounds: building a pen tool for
the robot.
I have used two different types of robots, the
LEGO Spike and Cody Rocky. Both are capable of
having LEGO bricks attached to it. The students
were given access to different LEGO bricks, a
rubber band, and a pen. As you can see from the Sometimes students put a lot of effort into drawing
pictures there are a lot of different approaches to a specific shape. Here is a nice example of a group
this challenge, and I always get surprised by the of 10-year-old girls that made their robot draw a
ingenuity of some kids. But the students did not flower shape. The robot would start at the bottom,
stop there. Many of the robots became parts of go up and draw the flower and return - not an easy
stories that used the robot’s behavior as part of the task to get that accurate a result.
storytelling.
This was not planned for, but just evolved,
and made the whole lesson more engaging and
meaningful. One of my special needs students,
a 10-year-old, amazed me with his robot telling
and living out the passion of Jesus. It was about
Easter, the topic of a class discussion the day
before. His version would most likely be perceived
as blasphemous for the average Christian, but
nonetheless true to what he had been told.
The drawing process is at least as engaging as
the robot-building process. We tell the students
 Projects in Depth 181

It is important to share the work students do. Another option is to let the robots draw on
Making an exhibition with the drawings made by printouts. I save failed prints from the large
the robots is one way. I like to have the students format printer in our Fablab, which gives an extra
crop different areas, make them choose a part of dimension to the artwork and also a sustainable
work that they find interesting. I encourage the way to reuse the paper.
students to draw on top of the robots lines, putting Making art with robots is an engaging
their own imagination into the lines generated. It activity that develops storytelling, imagination,
is a way of having an analog conversation with the aesthetic senses, ingenuity and involves a lot of
digital output of the robot. programming.

Robot Art Gallery

182 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Biotinkering 101
by Lina Cannone

Our biggest challenge in this new century is to take an idea that seems abstract—
sustainable development — and turn it, too, into a daily reality for all the world's people.
—Kofi Annan

Over the years I have tried to work sustainably in concept that I repeat to myself from time to time:
fablabs and makerspaces. Last year I discovered Make it happen! Children learn even if they are not
the DIY Bio movement and became interested in taught.
creating activities for students. What is DIY Bio? With this phrase in my head, I went to
According to Wikipedia, it is “a growing biotech- school, knowing only what I found on the
nological social movement in which individuals, TheTechInteractive website: how to make algae
communities, and small organizations study strings that can be a substitute for petro-
biology and life science using the same methods as leum-based plastic.2 I was in the same condition as
traditional research institutions.” I searched online my students, in the full exploration phase with the
for some time but I hesitated in proposing this type willingness to learn with them.
of activity because the processes I found often used First, we prepared materials, using sodium
special tools and required specific knowledge. alginate to gel in distilled water and adding food
I took courage after discovering the activities coloring to taste. We prepared a calcium bath to
of Corinne Takara and her Nest Makerspace.1 turn the gel into strings and started this messy
Following her activities, I discovered that in experience.
addition to Biohacking (scientific experiments with
biological material, especially genes), there are also
options to engage in Biomaking and Biotinkering
(building or tinkering with biological materials).
Biotinkering was just what I was looking for to be
able to learn with my primary school students.
It was shortly after this that our first classroom
biotinkering experiment started and we produced
a bioplastic with sodium alginate and calcium
lactate. Both are safe, easy to find sustainable
materials. Sodium alginate is a material extracted
from the cell walls of brown algae and used in the Algae strings and bracelet made with algae strings
kitchen as a gelling agent, and calcium lactate is
used as a leavening and acidity regulator in pastry. The results were fascinating! Children started
It was around this time that Gary Stager was a trying to make shapes, but they were not well
guest in our FabLearn Fellow webinar. I have been defined until one of them thought of trying to
following his work for some time but I had never spread the alginate gel in a silicone mold, and
had the opportunity to meet him personally. He was it worked! It was wonderful to understand that
a great inspiration and insisted on a fundamental without any explanations and guided only by
 Projects in Depth 183

collaboration, curiosity, and creativity kids created Notes

wonderful works. We discovered later that this 1. nestmakerspace.weebly.com/
technique is used in molecular cooking for spheri- 2. thetechathome.org/algaestring
fication, for example, bubble tea!

Next Steps
In the next experiments we would like to:
• Try to incorporate objects into the bioplastic or
create a film that can be used for decoration
• Improve the conductivity of the bioplastic — we
have formulated a hypotheses that we might
use lemon juice or add salt to the water
• Create 3D printed customized molds to shape
the bioplastics
184 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Stitching Roots: Exploring Family History through

Biomaking, Coding, and Stitching
by Lina Cannone

My school is a primary school located in a peripheral kombucha leather, a flexible material that can be
neighborhood of Rome, Italy. The area is char- used like fabric. We then embroidered the leather
acterized by a constantly increasing population, with designs created in Turtlestitch.2
both from non-EU immigration and from internal The production of kombucha, like other bioma-
immigration of families who move to this area for terials, requires patience and care. Before using
work. There is a lack of structured opportunities or the material, children need to wait, observe, and
places to socialize. The origin of the inhabitants is understand whether the conditions are right to
heterogeneous and often there is no family support grow and harvest the material. This leads to a
network. As a periphery of the metropolis of Rome, twofold outcome: caring for something so that it
it attracts families, even multi-problematic ones, can develop, and scientific observation of variables
and commuters who travel in and out during the to assess the best conditions for growth and/or
day for work or study. production of the material.
In this context, I decided to experiment with After growing kombucha leather, we learned to
a path of self-production and biotinkering (as create a simple project in Turtlestitch. Turtlestitch
described in my article “Biotinkering 101” in this is a Logo-based block coding language that
volume) with the girls and boys in the fourth grade, outputs to an embroidery sewing machine. Using
one hour a week. Kids involved in the learning this web-based application, everyone can create an
activity didn’t have previous experience and one embroidery pattern to stitch.
of the first challenges was to find good materials
to use. They needed to be low-cost, easy to grow,
should not be frightening, and should stimulate
creativity and curiosity.
The material I selected is kombucha leather.
Kombucha is a fermented beverage enjoyed for its
unique flavor and powerful health benefits. The
fermentation process creates a SCOBY — a thick, Practicing with TurtleStitch
rubbery, cloudy mass.1 Drying the SCOBY creates
I asked them to create a little design that represents
their family, something that they view in their
home in a quilt or a blanket. As the kids’ families
are from different countries, they all have different
roots, creating a wide variety of patterns.
The project was not simple due to the kids’ age
but, helped by imported procedures that created
modular objects, we were able to complete the
project.
 Projects in Depth 185

At the end of the lessons, students shared what activity that did not turn out as well as the students
they did in a group, explaining what activities expected. I hope that the work started at school
they plan to do in the next lesson and analyzing will be a starting point for conversations at home
what they felt satisfied with. They compared their and with classmates. For the children, bringing
stitched kombucha leather patterns to others and home a product made entirely by them is the best
we noticed that in some way all the projects were way to get them involved and give them ideas to
similar even if different. They were a represen- perhaps reproduce the activity with their families
tation of individuals, united by deep but unique and raise awareness in the community about using
roots. A floral theme was the most common. sustainable products that are linked to their own
The first observation I can make about the culture.
experience is an increased awareness by students. Biotinkering is still a very new activity in
They have become more aware of the sustain- schools and for this reason, is still not well known.
ability of a biodegradable product instead of Thanks to the community of educators on social
products with a negative environmental impact. networks, I came into contact with pioneers in this
Another observation is that students became field who gave me many ideas and support. I was
aware of the time and effort needed to produce the able to ask for information, suggestions, and clar-
kombucha leather, with consequent attention to its ifications from people from all over the world and
consumption. I noticed a great deal of attention to I am sure that without a group of teachers with
minimizing waste because the children knew very the same goals and interests I would not have been
well the time it took to produce it. able to find the keys to make this experiment so
As a teacher, I can say that this was an enriching successful. I hope that this article can be a starting
experience. It is not easy to manage biotinkering point for other teachers who are looking for more
activities at the organizational level because you sustainable experimentation linked to the culture
often need a heat source for the production of and the territory in which they live.
bioplastics, with consequent challenges related In the future, I hope to expand the trial to more
to the safety of students. You may need to set up girls and boys. Tinkering and making have taken
special spaces for the culture of materials such as off in Italy in recent years and many educators
kombucha so they are out of the way of day to day have embraced its potential. The commitment is to
classroom activity. On the other hand, it’s great be able to support the emergence and contribute
to experiment and learn with my students. As is to the construction of a local community around
the case every time I offer tinkering activities, I the themes of constructionism and pedagogy as a
also challenged myself on my ability to facilitate practice of freedom.
group work and to handle frustration with an

Coded patterns stitched on kombucha leather using a programmable embroidery machine

186 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Cherokee Language Syllabary Using 3D Design

in Tinkercad
by Josh Ajima

The purpose of this article is to present an Converting non-roman character sets into a
approach to incorporating indigenous languages library of 3D glyphs allows students to easily create
into the teaching of 3D printing design. This their name in their language of choice. The UN
work is theoretical in that I do not teach or work Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
with students studying the Cherokee language or recognizes the right to languages as an inherent
culture. Rather the Cherokee font is intended to be right for indigenous peoples.1 Furthermore, the
representative of non-Roman character sets not United Nation recognizes language rights as the
currently incorporated into 3D design tools. direct application of basic human rights such as
Frequently, the first 3D printing design freedom of expression.
challenge presented to students in design software I’ve saved a Tinkercad project for the Cherokee
such as Tinkercad is to customize an object with Language Syllabary.2 You can make a copy of this
their name. Creating a name tag keychain famil- design to use for your own projects. Each character
iarizes students with navigating the 3D design represents a syllable in the Cherokee language.
environment and basic tasks such as adding, Creating design aids such as the Cherokee
moving, and resizing geometric primitives. A Language Syllabary in programs such as Tinkercad
library of capital letters enables students to easily works to promote and normalize these rights in
add each letter to their project. When the design the 3D design world.
is 3D printed the student leaves with a personal-
ized object connecting the student to the digital
fabrication process.
 Projects in Depth 187

In creating the Cherokee Language Syllabary for Notes

Tinkercad, I referenced the Unicode Standard 1. social.desa.un.org/issues/indige-
Version 13.0 Cherokee documentation for nous-peoples/united-nations-declara-
organization.3 tion-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples
The font file used was Plantagenet Cherokee as 2. tinkercad.com/things/j3LfzeEOhm8
packaged in MacOS 10.15.7, designed by Ross Mills 3. unicode.org/charts/PDF/U13A0.pdf
of Tiro Typeworks. Another font option is Noto 4. fonts.google.com/noto#sans-cher
Sans Cherokee.4

Converting Cherokee Font to Tinkercad Workflow

• Open Illustrator document 200mm x 200mm
• Insert Text- Change font to Plantagenet Cherokee
• Type –> Glyph
• Insert Character
• Type –> Change to Outline
• Resize character to 150mm x 150mm
• Center character on artboard
• Save file as SVG -SVG Profiles: SVG 1.1
-CSS Properties: Presentation Attributes
-Decimal Places: 3
-File name = (Unicode Standard Number)
-CHEROKEE-LETTER-(Letter Name)
• Open Tinkercad file
• Import
-Center on: Art
-Dimensions: Length: 11.44mm
-Change height of character to 4 mm
188 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Making Puppets Come Alive

by Ridhi Aggarwal

Activity objective In our reflection circle at the end of this

Students will observe the movement of animals, session, it came out that we have certain ideas of
insects, and birds around us and make a puppet of each animal in our minds due to what we have
that animal, insect, or bird with similar movement. read or seen in pictures — but the movements of
a particular animal only comes with observation
Origin of this activity and spending time with them. Two of the children
Our learning center puts on puppet shows in had cows at their houses and they were able to get
government schools. Our students are a part of the sitting postures right as they had spent time
the volunteer team who make puppets and also with them.
perform in the shows. In previous years we had We discussed the importance of observation
done many shows based on animal stories and had and we decided that we should each observe
made many puppet animals, but their movement an animal and then see how it changes our
was limited to only neck and mouth movement. perspective. But then the question was which
We had not tried to do anything more complex, but animal? So, to decide on the criteria someone said
the children decided that the time between school that since we have to make puppets eventually, we
sessions would be a good time to explore this idea should choose animals whose puppets we haven’t
which we have been pondering over for a long made before. But someone else suggested that we
time. So, this is how I asked the students to plan a should only choose animals which we had made
session on the movement of animals. earlier as it would give us better movement in our
current shows. The conversation went on for some
Sessions
time, and then one boy suggested that why don’t
This activity lasted five sessions with 11 children
we make a measurement criteria? That sounded
mostly in grades 9–11.
interesting, so everyone decided that they would
Session 1: observe an animal that is not bigger than their
To get the momentum going we did a little exercise hands. After this session they all took two days to
where all of us had to think of an animal and act observe an animal, insect, or bird.
out its movements and others had to guess. I gave
everyone a duppata (a long scarf) and they had to
manipulate it to suggest the movement of an
animal. Doing movements with their own bodies
was easy and it was easy to guess, but there was a
lot of thinking when trying to move the duppata
and many struggled in the beginning to depict an
animal. Then one girl made a caterpillar with the
duppata and this gave everyone the impetus to
start trying various things.
 Projects in Depth 189

Session 2: Session 3:
Everyone came back with a sketch and a video of This session started with everyone excited to share
the animal they had observed to show the group. their research. I asked them to share in groups that
They all had observations and discoveries to share. would explore one movement which their animal,
One girl said that she observed for the first time insect, or bird makes. So after much discussion
how a bee keeps rotating in place and it looked like they chose their groups, three groups of three
the earth rotating. children and one group of two.
Another boy said he had never imagined that 1. Wings of a bee
a ladybug had such big wings and it was amazing 2. Wings of a ladybug
how it folds its wings inside its upper body.
3. Neck of a bulbul bird
4. Ant leg movement for walking and carrying
food
When they were in their groups, I asked them to
think about two things: first what materials they
would need for that movement and second that
it’s just exploration and not a final puppet that
we are making so we should really explore a few
mechanisms. I also joined the ant leg group.
They discussed for about 15 minutes and then
went to collect some materials for their group. They
explored the materials for some time and then we
This discussion went in many directions but all came together to share what we had done.
then someone said that because snakes slither it In the sharing, the bee group was making wings
would be easy for them to go inside their holes. with paper only, while the ladybug group was using
And this was the right time for me to pop in with paper and thread. We came to the conclusion that
a question, so I asked them, “What do you think we were not pushing ourselves, but were going
affects the movement of animals? What are the back to mechanisms which we already knew, and
reasons that they move in a specific way?” This this would not give us the exact movement of the
discussion brought a lot of ideas about habitat, animal. So, we needed to focus on the movement
adaptation, and the limbs, muscles, and structure and then think about the mechanisms. A question
of the animals. Everyone got curious about this and also came up that how do we know about new
wanted to research a bit about their animals and
see if there was a link between their movements
and their habitats, so they decided to read a few
articles and come for the next session the next day.
At the end of the session in the circle of
reflection we discussed that every animal or
human movement has a purpose. Someone shared
that there is a reason why we walk on two legs and
why some animals walk on four legs, and some
don’t have legs — every structure is there to suit
the climate and the environment of that person or
animal. One child shared that we often comment
on someone’s skin color but that is also a reaction
to the environment they live in, and this was an
interesting angle about how we all are different
because we ought to be.
190 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

mechanisms to try, and a student suggested that folds and open it by pulling one end of the paper
we had not done any toy or object takeaparts for just like a beak of a bird would move if made from
many days, which used to give us some ideas. paper. This was working well but they were not very
This was important feedback for me as I had not convinced that it would work when attached to the
done many exploratory sessions. So, we all decided body.
that we would have one such session every month. The bulbul bird group worked with some paper
at first and tried getting the movement with
Session 4:
only crumpled paper but then they felt it was
This session began with everyone trying different
just waving, and did not look like what they had
options for the movement.
observed. They had noticed a sudden motion of the
The bee group tried making wings with a
neck to check if someone is coming, where the bird
cardboard using an L shaped movement with a
moves its neck 180 degrees and then also moves
hinge, but it was not going sideways. Then they used
it front and back. They took inspiration from the
cardboard to try attaching a P and reversed P shape
bee group’s rectangle hinged P shapes and built
with four hinges on four corners of a rectangle but
the same thing with some setha sticks (thick sticks
this was giving them one-sided movement.
from a plant) and attached a rubber band to pull it.
While I thought that it was a good movement
They tried it and it worked well.
they were not satisfied. They mentioned that bee
The ant leg group couldn’t meet as both
wings move up and down but also have a rotation
members weren’t able to come for the sessions,
movement which was not getting achieved by this
so I tried some options with wire and cloth but it
mechanism. They also realized that they wings of
did not work very smoothly as coordinating all the
a bee are very tiny in comparison to its body so if
wires together was difficult.
they used cardboard it would be too bulky.
So, at the end of this session one group was able
The ladybug group had a lot of difficulty as they
to get the movement they wanted. This motivated
had to fold the wings and then build a mechanism
the others to work on their movements again the
to open them to full size. They tried doing it with
next day. The bird group also thought that they
cloth, but the folding part was not very smooth.
would now install a face and try to move the puppet.
They had a tough time thinking about options as
One thing which came from the reflection from
cardboard was out of question as the wings had to
all of them was that the observation and research
fold in a delicate manner and the wings were thin
pushed their thinking. Getting one movement
too. Finally, one of the team members thought
with so much detail was so intriguing that now
of origami as an option and they tried to make
they wanted their puppets to be even more alive.
 Projects in Depth 191
Session 5:
The exploration continued and every group got
some of their movements working. They each made
a quick body to see if the attachments worked with
the body or not.
The bee team used transparent thin plastic bags
over a wire frame to make the wings. They got the
wings attached and moving up and down, but
there was an imbalance between the two wings and
the rotational movement didn’t work.
The ladybug group was able to use their
origami idea and make transparent paper wings
that opened automatically when the top part was
opened.
When the bird group attached cloth to the body
of the bird, they realized that the head was too
close to the body, so they used a syringe to increase
the length of the neck.

Reflections
After our five building sessions were over, we and details just like we observed and explored the
sat together and reflected on how much we movements of the bird.
learned from each other, both from our own team The project raised a lot of questions about how
members and from other teams. We discussed how things move, such as how the bee has such thin,
observation gave us the eye for details and how we small wings but carries nectar? The children had
needed time for trial and exploration through the lots of questions and things they were interested
whole process. in exploring further.
This is not the end of the larger work of putting At the end I felt that the whole process gave
on a puppet show as they will have the opportunity me so much insight as a teacher, puppeteer, and
to continue work on their designs and make a as a maker. I emerged from this project thinking
puppet with which they will perform. One of the that when we have real things which add to our
children compared it to dance, as in dance we own work or knowledge, children enthusiastically
move our bodies and we have to learn the rhythm explore and find solutions for their problems.
192 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Imagine Anything: 3D Design without a 3D Printer

by Lars Beck Johannsen

This past year I was invited to different schools to The next step is exporting the model. This is often
lead sessions with their students to do 3D modeling. a bit tricky for some students, because a lot of the
There would not be enough time to 3D print the Danish pupils use tablets or smartphones and
models, but I’ve been successfully using a virtual therefore have little or no knowledge about file
tool called CoSpaces in these sessions.1 CoSpaces handling. But there are always some who get it
is a kid-friendly webspace for 3D creation and quickly or know a bit already and they help the rest.
coding. These kids make 3D models that are filled One thing that I learned throughout this
with story and emotion. Why not bring them to life process is that the orientation of the model can be
through code and a virtual environment? important for the later work in CoSpaces.
The exported file needs to be an OBJ file since it
Start with a story has colors, which STL files don't have. You can even
It usually starts with a story or a theme the class have semi-transparent parts in your design.
has been working with. I introduce Tinkercad, and If you group shapes in Tinkercad they will get
a short 5 to 10 minute introduction to modeling. the same color. Ungroup to get the colors back or
I practice this introduction to make it as short as lock the shapes in place instead of grouping them.
possible, only showing the essential basics. The rest
they will discover and share among each other as
they model. The sharing and helping is important,
and I make a point to emphasize it during the
introduction. After about half an hour, we pause
the session and share tips & tricks in front of the
class by the different students who discovered
something.

Make a model
Don't group objects Ungroup to get colors back

Workplane direction with arrow when exporting OBJ Workplane direction (from side) when exporting OBJ
 Projects in Depth 193

Make a scene and to be interactive. Bringing your models to

When the model is exported it is time to import it life and building a story, a game or whatever you
into CoSpace. Danish schools have a special access can imagine is really engaging. You can even
to CoSpaces to ensure GDPR rules. But it is free have multiple scenes to create more complicated
to set up a teacher account and make a class code stories. You can shift between scenes by creating
so students can use the teachers class code to join interactive objects, so that clicking on it switches
their class. In the free version, you are limited to to another scene.
the basic coding blocks and do not have the option You can share your work as a 3D environment
to code with Python. for others to explore, show it as an AR through a
Students can collaborate in a CoSpace or work smartphone, or experience it through a VR headset.
alone. I usually do not have more than 4 students in It is always a good sign when the students
one space, because the individual scene is not that do not want their usual breaks during the day. I
big. You could have multiple scenes, but that might usually make this a one-day event that lasts 3–4
get a little complicated. A scene in CoSpace is a hours, but it can be done in shorter periods of time
space to put your 3D models. A scene can have an spread over a few days just as well.
environment, additional 3D objects and always has
a camera, which represents the initial viewpoint of Example projects
the user. Here are some examples of what different age
groups can do. In these groups, there are usually
Bring the story to life a few students who have tried a bit of Tinkercad
Once you get your model imported into the scene, beforehand, but that is not always the case, and it
the fun begins! You can code your model to move is not a necessity for success.

8–9 year-olds collaborated on building houses to create a scene . This works well with a theme, for example, around
Christmas it was Santa’s Village, where they used the premade models to bring the scene to life . Another class made a
village on a distant planet inhabited by aliens of their own design .
Students discussed what their own city would look like. What different buildings did they think a city should have? Should
it have shops, public buildings, government, leisure, housing, etc .? Each student then chose a building to model .

Cafe 2nd grade

Zoo 2nd grade

IT department 2nd grade School 2nd grade

194 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

A class of 11-year-olds had read a lyrical novel about a bird and they were assigned to model their own bird and make it
interactive in the CoSpace . The bird would either recite a part of the story or show text when clicked on . Of course, they
wanted their bird to fly around as well! This was done by setting up a path that the model followed. It was at this point that
we discovered that the orientation in the export from Tinkercad is important. Otherwise, it would fly sideways or backwards.

Bird projects 5th grade

Bird project code 5th grade Bird project with visible path 5th grade

Several classes of 13-year-olds spent a week making their own projects. Some of them wanted to show a different way
of using their school’s cantina using CoSpaces while others designed a whole new school . Many of them had modeled
beforehand and had made some really good models they wanted to print . But they did not have experience in 3D printing,
so it would have been really difficult to do, time consuming, and not a good way to present their work.

School redesign 7th grade New cantina 7th grade

Use the best tool for the job Notes

3D printing is still a slow production method and 1. CoSpaces - cospaces.io/edu/
on many occasions, it is not necessarily the best
tool for the assignment given. As a teacher you
should always give thought to which tools you
have students use. Sometimes the pencil is more
powerful than drawing with a mouse. The best
tool is the one that supports learning and gives
students creative agency over their work.
 Projects in Depth 195

GoGo Board in Brazil: The Engine of Digital Inclusion

by Charles Pimentel

The GoGo Board is an open-source electronic board Papert proposed ways that education could be more
developed for schools for robotics, environmental active and meaningful, yet this has not happened
sensing and the Internet of Things (IoT).1 Using the in many schools. But the technological advances of
GoGo Board for low-cost science, computer science, the last few decades, combined with a networked
and robotics experimentation has the potential to and connected society, show that we can no longer
democratize STEM education in public and private wait for such ideas to be put into practice.
K12 schools in Brazil and around the world. This is especially true for academic subjects
related to STEM careers. Classes that are purely
theoretical discourage students and make the lack
of interest even greater.
A possible way for education in Brazil to be
redirected is through the introduction of new
technologies in the classroom, through hands-on
experiments and creative activities. We can have
students participate in real research, or explore
student entrepreneurship opportunities. We can
explore their interests. In STEM areas, for example,
robotics, automation, programming, digital
games and the inclusion of Artificial Intelligence
GoGo Board 6
(an increasingly ubiquitous technology in society),
are means to attract interest and develop the
Background potential of young people who are in school and,
Brazilian schools are looking for ways to promote in the future, will join the workforce in these areas
active and meaningful learning activities to meet that are so important for the development of the
the needs of the current generation of students. country.
In the last century, when information did not
travel so quickly, most young people only had access The challenge of Digital Inclusion
to knowledge at school through their teachers. However, some educational institutions, as well
Current K–12 students, most of them born in the as some educators, face another challenge: Digital
21st century, are digital natives who have access to Inclusion.
real-time information in the palm of their hands Digital Inclusion is the process of democra-
through their mobile devices. tizing access to technologies (Freire, 2004), but
So we must consider that when teaching and some educators and school managers think that
learning activities do not take this change seriously this access is only possible through expensive
it results in a lack of interest in school as a relevant resources, such as robotics and electronics kits
place in students’ lives. from large companies, which makes it unfeasible,
In the last century, researchers and educators for most Brazilian schools.
such as John Dewey, Paulo Freire, and Seymour Many Brazilian educators have sought to
196 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

overcome these difficulties. The work of the the computer-based programming environment2
Brazilian teacher and FabLearn Fellow Débora but also on the device’s integrated screen.
Garofalo, in the State of São Paulo, stands out. Ms. Even before the automation and robotics project
Garofalo popularized the inclusion of technology is developed, the user can try out the electronic
in public schools in São Paulo through the Robotics circuits, even actuators and sensors that will be
with Scrap Project (Garofalo, 2019). Using electronic used in the project, without necessarily having to
waste and recyclable materials from around the create a circuit and program the resources.
school where she worked, she awakened in Brazil
a change in the mindset of educators and school
managers who previously understood that Digital
Inclusion was only done with a lot of money.

Digital Inclusion with the GoGo board

Another project that supports Digital Inclusion is
the development of the low-cost robotics kit GoGo
Board, a project developed by the Transformative
Learning Technologies Lab (TLTL), coordinated by GoGo board block-based programming environment
Professor Paulo Blikstein, at Columbia University
in the United States, and the Learning Inventions
Lab (LIL), coordinated by Professor Arnan
Sipitakiat, at Chiang Mai University, Thailand.

“The GoGo board allows computer programs

to interact with the physical world . The GoGo Dashboard in the programming environment and on the
board shares its fundamental functionalities integrated screen
with other devices in the programmable brick
family . Users can connect various sensors and
actuators to the board and write programs to
Case studies
read the sensor data and control the behavior Two case studies from Brazil provide evidence of
of various physical objects using motors, small the usefulness of the GoGo board to implement
lamps, LEDs, and relays .” (Sipitakiat & Blikstein robotics, automation, and programming, using
et al . 2003) the STEM approach. The first is with high school
students in a private educational institution, and
The GoGo Board is an open-source electronic board the second is in a Brazilian public middle school.
for robotics, environmental sensing and IoT. The
current version, GoGo Board 6, can be understood Case Study 1 – Polo Educacional Sesc STEM Club
as the union between the BBC micro:bit, Lego EV3, Polo Educacional Sesc is a high school in Rio de
and Arduino and, even with all these characteris- Janeiro, Brazil, that promotes free and quality
tics, is financially accessible. education for students, preferably from public
If any educator wants to develop activities schools and low-income families. Polo is a
focused on Science, Engineering or Mathematics, place where innovative educational actions are
GoGo is a technological resource that easily allows developed, with the aim that these innovations
people who have never built or programmed robots can be replicated in other educational institu-
to develop meaningful projects. tions, through technical cooperation and teacher
training.
Designed for learning programming At Polo, I participated in the implementation of
and electronics a mathematics course where the curriculum is fully
The GoGo board was designed to support both taught with hands-on GoGo Board projects. This
learning programming and electronics. The class was developed through a partnership with the
programming dashboard is available not only in TLTL group at Columbia University in the US.
 Projects in Depth 197

For this course, the traditional classroom is During these activities, the visual/block
transformed into a space for innovation. Students programming language used by the GoGo Board 6
have low-tech tools and recyclable materials at is being explored, and students are encouraged to
their disposal, in addition to scissors, box cutters, implement logic, loops, and mathematics, and to
glue, tape, and clamps, among other resources. use sensors in their projects.
These materials can be connected to actuators STEM Club participant Nicolly Figueiredo, a
that respond to sensors, all programmed by the student participating in the classes with the GoGo
students with the GoGo 6 Board. 6, said, “My first programming experience was
with GoGo Board, which increased my interest in
robotics a lot. Especially for those who are starting
in this field, it is important to have a simple,
dynamic, and interesting tool that can be used
for multiple projects.” A video of Nicolly speaking
about the GoGo 6 board is on YouTube.3

Case 2 – Computer Lab of a public school in the

Municipality of Tanguá – Summer Course
The second case study focused on the transforma-
tion of a computer lab into a space for innovation in
a public middle school located in a small Brazilian
municipality, Tanguá using the GoGo 6.
Most Brazilian K–12 schools have computer
labs, which are used as the main means of
Currently, the course includes 13 students. It is a
introducing technology into the school curriculum.
mixed-grade class, with five 10th year students,
The computer labs are spaces with computers
five 11th year students and three 12th year students.
connected to the internet, organized in rows,
For the first month, students are incentivized
where instructors teach students how to use an
to explore the board and its features. Thus, after
operating system, browse the internet, create and
three weeks of work, the young people are already
send messages and e-mail, in addition to covering
programming the board, its actuators, and sensors.
topics related to word processing, image editing,
Next, the students were introduced to two
spreadsheets, and presentations.
classic robotics projects: a traffic light with LEDs
However, with the popularization of personal
that responds to traffic, and an autonomous car
computers and mobile devices, skills such as word
programmed to avoid obstacles, lighting up LEDs
processing, image editing, and video editing have
when identifying them.
become common, especially among young people

Traffic light Autonomous car

198 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

who are currently in K–12 education schools. participation of 10 students from the last year of
Thus, although computer labs maintain their middle school, 6 girls and 4 boys, in addition to 3
importance, the democratization of technological volunteer teachers who, for the first time, guided
resources points to the need for these rooms to students in maker education projects.
expand to include other, more relevant topics such The activity was organized into three three-hour
as computational thinking and robotics. meetings. In the first meeting, the students were
Based on this reflection, we planned a workshop introduced to block programming through the
called Educational Robotics in Tanguá, with middle Code.org platform. In this way, the students were
school students from a municipal public school led to understand, through playful activities, how
using the GoGo Board. to use blocks of logic and loops of repetition. It
Tanguá is a small rural Brazilian municipality, is important to highlight that the recreational
located 70 km from the city of Rio de Janeiro. The feature of Code.org activities are powerful ways to
municipality has 35 thousand inhabitants and is generate student engagement.
known as the capital of oranges. Many families At this same meeting the students tried out
have small fruit plantations, which contribute to the GoGo Board actuators and sensors through its
their livelihood. dashboard. As mentioned above, the dashboard
Through a partnership between the Tanguá is an important feature of the GoGo Board 6, as
Municipal Department of Education, the Federal it allows students to recognize the functions of
University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and TLTL, for actuators and sensors, without having to create an
three days, a computer lab was transformed into a electronic circuit or write code.
space for innovation and creativity using the GoGo In the second meeting, the students assembled
Board as the educational robotics resource. and programed a car that would move when
For this activity, recyclable materials and triggered by the gesture sensor (a feature
low-tech tools were made available. integrated in the GoGo 6). Programming the DC
The activity was carried out with the motors and the sensor was a challenging activity,

Tanguá workshop

Meeting 1 - Introducing GoGo 6 Meeting 2 - Car guided by gestures Meeting 3 - Automated house
 Projects in Depth 199

but the students were engaged with the project about employability and new professions.
and were successful. Philosophy and computing teachers can use GoGo
At the third meeting the challenge was to projects to explore issues, for example, of ethics in
automate a house. Proximity sensors, light obtaining and using data.
sensors, LEDs, and servo and DC motors were These are practices and initiatives that faculty,
made available and used in the students’ projects. not just from STEM areas, can take ownership of
At the end of each meeting, the educators who because of the ease of use of the GoGo board.
participated in the activity reported how easy
it was to guide students in the use of the GoGo Special Thanks: I would like to thank Professor
Board. The fact that, they experienced immediate Érika Soares, English teacher in the Municipality
success with the GoGo in activities with students of Tanguá, Isaac D`Césares, Analyst of Educational
in the Summer Course became the first step for Technologies at Polo Educacional Sesc and Walter
the municipality of Tanguá, through its Municipal Akio, researcher at TLTL, for their invaluable
Department of Education, to implement robotics contribution in reviewing this article.
and programming classes in the curriculum.
The report of Professor Érica Soares, one of the Notes
educators of the municipal school system, who 1. gogoboard.org
participated as a counselor in the Summer Course, 2. code.gogoboard.org
stands out. She said that: 3. youtube.com/watch?v=182RLkwgiKg
“From the observation in the Summer Course
and feedback from the students, I can say References:
that the GoGo 6 is extremely accessible, from Freire, I. M. (2004). O desafio da inclusão digital.
acquisition to use.”
Transinformação, 16, 189-194.
Garofalo, D. D. (2019). Robótica com sucata. Revista
Conclusion Brasileira de Pós-Graduação, 15(34), 1-21.
These two case studies demonstrated the ease of Pimentel, C., Castro, B. B., Rodrigues, E. G.,
implementation of GoGo with Brazilian students Almeida, G. H. A., Schaedler, L. S., & Pereira,
from middle and high school, both in the public M. A. (2018). Programação Visual em Blocos
and private schools. e Letramento Digital: Uma Investigação
The small learning curve required allowed Realizada por Meio de Um Programa de
both students and educators to feel confident Iniciação Científica na Educação Básica. In
about developing robotics, automation and III Congresso sobre Tecnologias na Educação
programming projects for the teaching of science (Ctrl+ e), Fortaleza, Brasil.
and mathematics. Sipitakiat, A., Blikstein, P., Cavallo, D. P., Camargo,
As we move on with this project, some A., & Alves, R. D. D. L. (2003). A placa GoGo:
innovative features of the GoGo 6 will be explored, robótica de baixo custo, programável e recon-
such as IoT and the Data Laboratory (DataLab). The figurável. XIV SBIE: Simpósio Brasileiro de
DataLab, in particular, is one of the new features of Informática na Educação, 73-92.
the board that will contribute to interdisciplinary
classes, as this resource allows a wide variety of
data collection that will be useful in many subject
areas.
Thus, the possibility of integrating curricular
subjects is expanded through projects with GoGo
6. For example, history and sociology educators can
use the resource to discuss technological advances
and their impacts on society, in the discussion
200 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Ideas about America: Making in History Class

with Fabric Collage
by Heather Allen Pang

This project started out as a fun activity for online

learning when we went into the fall semester
of 2020, starting fully remote. Our school had
students pick up bags of supplies, and I wanted to
be able to have some fun crafty projects to stimulate
historical thinking and provide all the materials to
students. Using recycled materials from FabMo,
a local non-profit that rescues fabrics and other
materials from design showrooms and sells them
to teachers and crafters, I put together bags for
each student with a random range of fabric and
paper materials.

Version 1.0
The prompt was both simple and complicated:

“Using the fabric and other recycled materials

(and the envelope), you will create a collage that
represents something you want to say about
the United States (today or historically or both).
You may not add any additional materials other
than glue (or other fastening materials) to the
materials you have been given. Use the envelope
as the BASE for your artwork. Your message may
be political, cultural, historical, or symbolic,
but it should include some of the ideas from
your alphabet chart, your freewriting, or your
homework brainstorming.”

The alphabet chart, the freewriting, and the brain-

storming had included simpler versions of the
prompt: What do you think about when you think
about US history? or that “my drawing won’t be good enough.” With
Although remote learning ended, I have kept fabric collage, I have yet to find any students who
the project because I have found students not are already familiar with the format, or who come
only enjoy the novel art form and working with to the project with any pre-conceived notions
a new material seems freeing to some. When I about who is good at it and who is not. When they
have done projects that involve other forms of art, don’t assume they are ”bad” at it, they let their
especially drawing, I have noticed some students imagination fly.
go into the work thinking that they “can’t draw” Over the last few years, I have changed the
 Projects in Depth 201

warmup and the brainstorming, but I have kept of the United States. Students were eager to get
the limitation of using only the materials from the going, and less worried about not being able to do it.
bag. Sometimes limitations are great for creativity. Sometimes students wonder why we are doing
so much “art stuff” and not learning more history.
Version 2.0 As I listened to a group of students brainstorm for
This year I followed my normal plan for the first their fabric collages, I again heard the evidence
version, but in the second semester, I revisited the for deep historical thinking in their design work.
project. The instructions stayed the same, but the One student wondered how to show statistics
materials were much freer. I put out all the fabric about immigration in their fabric collage. Another
scraps, and they picked their own after they did answered by suggesting a bar graph made out of
some design brainstorming. gray felt. A third observed that the different colors
Students had almost a full year of American should be meaningful, they should represent
History to think about. We had studied the something the student wanted to say.
Constitution, read Stamped from the Beginning by As I moved to the next table, I reflected that
Ibram X. Kindi and Jason Reynolds, and done this little snipit of conversation confirms how
deep dives into topics students chose for National deep the thinking can be, when students engage
History Day. We also spent some time thinking in meaningful “art stuff” through making in the
about other ways to think about symbols, current history classroom. The conversations I listened in
events, and protest movements. The second set of on included deep historical thinking, analysis, and
collages showed that more detailed understanding creativity.
202 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Found Object Puppetry

by Ridhi Aggarwal

Art expresses the soul of human civilization as does the availability of cardboard is restricted to urban
making. In today’s ever-evolving environment areas. The facilitator asked the students, “Are there
it is important for the fields of art and making any objects around us which can help in making
education to continue defining and redefining puppets differently?” This was the beginning of
their versatility and malleability in the education exploration with found objects.
of children. As per Marshall (2014), art integration Artists want to use materials that have
should be framed as a trans-disciplinary paradigm interesting properties and “listen” to what the
which meets the current needs of education. In material is saying. The learners started to explore
this article I discuss how the art of puppetry acts with materials such as paper, bamboo, corn-leaves,
as an integrated tool for exploratory making. The sticks, and rice husks to make puppets. They
hybrid nature of puppetry provides many opportu- combined these with found objects like brooms,
nities for merging of various disciplines, learning buckets, tires, spoons, shoes, clothes, etc.
styles, and pedagogies to create a comprehensive Gosden (2005) argues in his essay “What do
learning experience. In addition, puppetry is a Objects Want?” that objects have agency and can
natural bridge to play, imagination, experimenta- be “socially powerful.” The kinds of questions the
tion, storytelling, and collaboration. puppeteer might ask of material might include:
“What does it want?” “Which way does it want to
Found object puppetry go?” “What story does it want to tell?”
Found object puppetry uses everyday objects to The learners explored materiality of paper from
build puppets and create a story around them. various sources — paper from their old notebooks,
These examples are from primary and upper textbooks, newspapers, and other sources. They
primary classrooms. tried to crumple, wet, soak, dry, make some marks,
One of the roles of the puppeteer is to listen to and change the texture of paper. During this
and work with the materiality of things. Objects exploration they reached a point where they actually
inform us, which involves more than merely discovered the process of making paper-mache
hearing the imaginary voices of things. Listening puppets. While they were making puppets for the
to a thing involves holding it and turning it this Savitribai Phule show using this technique, they
way and that — an exploration of its unique found out that there is an issue with respect to
materiality. Learning to explore the materiality weight and density of the puppet, so they mixed
of things and see things with fresh eyes is also an paper pulp with husks and mud from the pond to
important aspect of a makerspace. make it heavier to bring stability into the puppet.
The upper primary school learners started the The size, shape, texture, weight, age, and density
project by exploring cardboard as material for of matter can dictate the flow of movement that
making puppets. But, as they were making puppets gives each character life on stage. In this unit, the
for a show about Savitribai Phule (an Indian learners were also given perspective about how
social reformer, teacher, and poet), the students paper puppets can be animated, when the facilita-
discovered that cardboard is not an exciting tors showed students the work of some artists of
material to work with. It is monotonous and lacks the Little Angel Theatre group as examples.
interesting properties that engage learners. Also,
 Projects in Depth 203

In another example with Grade 5 students, development is nurtured by connecting with the
while exploring a theme around re-purposing, the outer world, using and building vocabulary in
learners were asked to bring one object to class context.
which they thought might have the potential to be Through such experiences, the puppeteer
re-purposed. They were given the task to transform can create a puppet character that is a metaphor
their objects into a person and represent a whole for human experience. The performer also steps
person metaphorically. So, they had to think about into a new reality, looks around, explores what
personality, occupation, and their role in the this new reality looks like, moves on, and makes
family as they explored their object. The learners connections on the way which are extremely
used old shoes, pliers, suitcases, bottles, and hasia creative and imaginative. The learners move into
(a small scythe) to put on a puppet show about the a powerful micro-world of imagination and form
life story of the object. The learners also identified a micro-identity while performing the show. This
the designed injustices in the objects, for example, enhances the power of thinking both for primary
the chappals (sandals) of all females had heels and upper primary learners.
so the chappal represented the discomfort that Two observations came from this experience.
women have when they walk for long time, and One is that the integration of art and making in
metaphorically represented gender inequality. found object puppetry requires close observation
This also initiated a discussion on equality and that supports both art and making education.
discrimination. The second is that there needs to be time spent
This experience had a huge impact on the on iterations of the puppets to develop a deeper
learners, and on Teachers Day the learners understanding of how small changes can impact
presented a puppet show “Mr Phunsuk Lal ki the ability to tell a story. Found object puppetry
Bagia,” a story of a grumpy old man who has to provides multiple opportunities for facilitators to
make peace with a mole that invades his garden. design explorations that provide excellent stimulus
They made Phunsuk Lal using shoes and wool and for imagination and learning.
the mole was made of scissors and hasia.
The materiality and expressiveness of puppets References
offers a range of entry points to inquiries from Gosden, C. (2005). What do objects want? Journal
practical to metaphorical, even to something as of archaeological method and theory, 12, 193-211.
complex as designed injustices of objects and their Marshall, J. (2014). Transdisciplinarity and Art
politics. It not only serves as a tool for building Integration: Toward a New
imagination and creativity, but also serves in Understanding of Art-Based Learning across the
building decision-making competencies like which Curriculum. Studies in Art Education, 55(2),
object to use, how to use it, and so on. Language 104-127.
204 MEANINGFUL MAKING 3

Mole Day in the Makerspace

by Josh Ajima

Happy Mole Day! the actual science and mathematics behind the
Mole day is an unofficial holiday celebrated on mole as a unit. I wanted to make something that
October 23rd between 6:02 am and 6:02 pm. The helped me learn more about the mole. I wanted to
time and date are based on Avogadro’s number, celebrate Mole Day in the Makerspace!
6.02×10^23, which is the number of atoms/ The first thing I wondered was, what does
molecules in one mole of a substance. A mole is a mole of something look like? There is lots of
one of the seven base units of the International aluminum stock available in my makerspace so
System of Units (SI) that defines the amount of a that seemed like a good starting point. The atomic
substance. mass of aluminum is 26.981539 u. This means
Mole Day and Pi Day are staples of STEM school 1 mole of aluminum has a mass of 26.981539 grams
culture that add fun and festivity into the school according to the formula atomic mass * molar
day. STEM educators love a good pun so of course constant (1 g/mol) * moles (mol) = mass (g). Then
Mole Day is filled with images, jokes and activities it was a simple matter of machining down a block
related to the small mammal. However, I was of aluminum to a rough size, weighing and then
feeling like a Mole Day Scrooge because I didn’t filing and sanding until hitting the target mass.
want to join in on school activities like making a And just like that we have a Mole of Aluminum!
decorative stuffed mole. I realized that if I was going I upped the level by using a small CNC machine
to make something, I wanted it to be connected to to engrave a mole icon and the atomic symbol of
aluminum.
 Projects in Depth 205

Increasing the challenge When creating bodies in Fusion 360, students can
This could be a challenge for an engineering student select a physical material, including a range of
— fabricate a one mole object out of aluminum or metals. Once the body is made, students can look
mild steel. I used mass to determine the amount at the properties of the objects to see the mass
of material, but students could also make their and volume of the object. This can make for an
object by calculating the volume of one mole of the interesting exploration as students create objects
material. of different materials. In the images below, the
An activity like this is a great way to take an bodies modeled are one mole of aluminum, gold,
abstract concept and bring it to a human scale titanium, and steel.
object that students can design and fabricate.
Of course, distance learning makes this activity Now you too can celebrate Mole Day in
impossible but CAD tools like Fusion 360 give your makerspace.
a virtual option for exploring mole concepts in
human scale dimensions.