Sylvia Libow Martinez's Blog, page 11

Thingmaker – the 3D printer from Mattel – an answer for maker education?

Mattel’s ThingMaker brings 3D printing to iconic ’60s toy

Seen the headlines? 3D printing is coming, faster cheaper, easier to manage… but is it better?

Anyone who is thinking about “making in education” has likely bought (or at least thought about) a 3D printer for their makerspace or classroom. In our book, Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, fabrication is one of the three “game changer” technologies that have the most potential for schools. But as anyone...

Compliance is not perseverance (the grit narrative)

Working hard on something you don’t care about or have a say in is not perseverance or “grit,” it’s compliance.

Thanks to Krissy Venosdale for the cool art! Check out her website for more maker goodies.

I said this last year at Constructing Modern Knowledge 2015. The idea that kids learn to persevere through frustration when they work on things they care about is a central tenet of the classroom maker movement. We talk about “mouth up vs. mouth down” frustration in our book, Invent To Learn:...

5 Popular Posts from 2015

Making in the classroom is a political stance– Most popular post of the year, and most viewed post on a single day. Girls & STEM: Making It Happen – resources Let’s stop lying to girls about STEM careers The Internet of Things Comes to the Classroom: Freedom or Surveillance Ahmed and his clock come to your school. What would happen?

2015 was an amazing year – here’s to 2016!

TalkingSTEM interview (part 2)

Part 2of an interview I did withKoshi Dhingra on her blog, TalkingSTEM:

Conversation with Author of “Invent To Learn”

KD: School leaders, interested in providing opportunities for students to participate in the maker movement, often feel that they need a large influx of funding or of time or of appropriately qualified faculty before they can do so. What would you say to them?

We wrote a chapter about this in Invent To Learn to help school leaders “make the case” for making in the classroom. I...

TalkingSTEM interview (part 1)

Part 1 of an interview I did withKoshi Dhingra on her blog, TalkingSTEM:

Conversation with Author of “Invent To Learn”

KD: How did you come to see the value of making, or inventing, as learning? A little about your background….

My degree is in electrical engineering and I worked in aerospace for many years on the research and development of the GPS satellite navigation system. In that job I saw that the work we were doing had little relation to the “scientific method” as taught in schools. In...

Tech support for innovative schools

I had the opportunity to be the closing keynote for CETPA, an organization of K-20 education technologyprofessionals in California. There were a lot of sessions about tech support, networks, and infrastructure, but it was great to see a lot of attention paid to the fact that education is the primary job of schools.

I shared some of the exciting new things happening in schools in California and around the world using technology and tools from the maker movement. But for those people who work h...

How to Course Correct STEM Education to Include Girls

This article appeared in the Fall 2015 edition of EdTech K-12 magazine and online on their website.

How to Course Correct STEM Education to Include Girls Introduce the real world and change the conversation.

In a perfect world, all people would have equal opportunity to achieve their professional goals. But the reality is not perfect for women in the workforce.

In many science, technology, engineering and math fields, especially in engineering and programming, women are underrepresente...

Putting Away the Books to Learn

Bright.com (the education section of Medium.com) has published an article called Putting Away the Books to Learnby Jackie Ashton.

It starts with the question: “The “maker” movement has swept across schools in California and beyond. Can it fundamentally change K-12 education?”

The article profiles several schools involved in “making” and quotes some folks, including me, about how “making” has the potential to change education. Most of my interview ended up on the cutting room floor, unfortunat...

The Maker Movement: What it Looks Like, Mindsets and Motivation

Marie Bjeredejust posted an interview with me called, The Maker Movement: What it Looks Like, Mindsets and Motivation, on the GettingSmart.com website. She’s a “Maker Mom” and blogs about her journey with her daughter to make things and learn!

“But even as I have to relinquish the power of being the all-knowing, all-capable, decision maker and leader, I get a very different and much more satisfying kind of power. It’s a super-power, really: the ability to learn with my daughter on the same le...

Making in education is not about tricking kids into learning

We don’t have to trick young people into learning. We don’t have to hide the spinach in a sugar cookie. Interesting, authentic learning experiences are empowering because young people master difficult things. The challenge for adults is not to remove or hide all the challenges, but to reveal the “hard fun” that exists in making sense of the world.