What makes RHS Library Makerspace unique?

Recently I was asked what is unique about my makerspace. The answer is simple.. my students are the heartbeat of our library makerspace and they are helping to invent and change the RHS Library Makerspace into their own unique place to create.

From the video:

Our makerspace at Ryan High School is as diverse as our community. Our students love it for many different reasons. Last week, we had a class in here completing maker challenges in different stations and individual students (not in that class) started joining in! At lunch even more students came to sew LED bracelets, create games in Scratch, or create music in our creative media soundbooth.

This is my second makerspace to set up in a library and something I’ve found really special here at Ryan is that our students are really are embracing the makerspace as a community. As a teacher librarian, what I love more than anything, is seeing my students empowered by gaining a new skill and then turning around to teach it to someone else. One of my students was talking about this phenomenon and said, “It might seem awkward at first, but then you realize you can come to the library to make stuff, mess around, and ask other students to help  you make something.”

Since we have more than just books, my students feel like the library is fun and they can learn new things and gain knowledge. They tell me they enjoy learning through experience rather than just learning from books!

This last week, one of my English teachers brought her students in to prep them for an Invention literacy research project.  What is Invention Literacy? Jay Silver, one of the inventors of Makey Makey, defines Invention literacy as being able to understand how the world works.  One of my main goals in our library is to help our students realize that they can make their own version of something- even many different types of somethings.  This is important because we want our kids to be curious about the way the worlds, because they will have a hand in creating it. We should ALL create our world.

Another important aspect of becoming fluent in invention literacy is that we can empower our students to gain creative confidence…AND that is what I WANT. I want my students to believe that they can have an idea and find a way to make it come to life.  As Jay puts it, these teens can “change the world we live in.”