Makerspace at Mt. Vernon High School enhances hands-on learning

0
353

Daily Reporter staff reports

FORTVILLE — Mt. Vernon High School recently introduced a maker space room in its continued support of STEM initiatives to benefit the high school students and staff. As a collaborative work space providing creative, hands-on ways to encourage students to design, experiment, build and invent, the maker space is used for classes in agriculture, art, world language, family and consumer sciences, math, technology, business, social studies, JAG, English, and science. Students can use the space to create a visual complements for book reports, science displays or any other classroom projects.

MVHS is part of a select group of schools who have a maker space, and is one of the schools with the highest number of high-tech resources. More than 1,000 students go through the maker space room for help with problem-solving, collaboration, and help with their critical thinking skills.

Jennifer Sherbak’s English 9 Honors class worked on a maker space project that consisted of making scribble bots as a response to their most recent read, “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley. A scribble bot is a machine made of many parts that moves and draws independently, which is reflective of the creation from “Frankenstein.”

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]

Sherbak was first introduced to scribble bots last spring, when she attended an Indiana Humanities workshop entitled “Electrifying Education: Teaching Science with ‘Frankenstein.’” Workshop attendees participated in discussions regarding how to make scribble bots, and how to answer pressing questions connected to the novel such as: What is life? Why do we create? And what are our responsibilities as creators, scientists, and engineers? The purpose of such a project is to help students apply STEM to their collaborative discussions on “Frankenstein” and their language arts education.

Additional examples of projects pursued through the maker space include: 3D printing, laser cutting, dye sublimating, drill pressing, vinyl cutting and soldering.

MVHS principal Greg Roach expressed his desire to potentially create maker space nights by opening the maker space up for community use.

“I would like to expand the maker space to give Mt. Vernon families opportunities to use their own imagination to create their own items,” Roach said.