The Maker Manager Program: Nurturing a Maker Mindset

This week, 1st Maker Space had the pleasure of sponsoring Sylvia Martinez’s session “Making the Future” at the 2020 Indiana Connected Educators Conference. Martinez and co-author, Dr. Gary Stager, wrote Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering and Engineering in the Classroom, and if you have not yet read it, it is one of the most timeless books in the maker movement.

1st Maker Space has always been focused on developing the maker mindset. About a year ago, my team partnered with Tony Schloss, a maker educator from New York, to write a course that would help maker managers develop a maker mindset. How do you spread your passion for making to those around you? How do you inspire the maker mindset? 

Now more than ever, the maker mindset is essential for our students and educators alike. We need innovators to create unique solutions for PPE, educators to develop engaging on-line teaching and learning solutions, and scientists to produce a vaccine that will bring us out of this pandemic. How do you teach students to be creative?

Our Maker Manager Program is a cohort of Maker Managers, STEM teachers, and district leaders looking to develop a culture of making in their district. This 9-month course meets once a month and is a blend of synchronous and asynchronous learning around the topics of makerspace safety, maker curricular design and theory (PBL, inquiry-based learning), tools and equipment, assessment, and creating a culture of making and innovation throughout your school building or district. All topics discussed will be applied throughout the year, and the course culminates in a Maker Manager Certification from 1st Maker Space.

Interested in learning more? Fill out this form to get started!. More information is available at 1stmakerspace.com/PD.  

During her session, Martinez quoted Piaget who said:, “Knowledge is a consequence of experience.” This is true for educators as well as students. Our Maker Manager Program is a great way for you to gain knowledge that will magnify your ability to develop a maker mindset among your students and colleagues.