The best professional conference experiences I have had are ones that involve interactions with students. At the MACUL Conference in Grand Rapids I had the opportunity to meet Jennifer Bond and her students from Walled Lake at their hallway booth who demonstrated some remarkably cool creations. I was so impressed with their enthusiasm and excitement. It made me want to join right in and make stuff.
I promptly dropped my existing plans and joined a session at MACUL run by Jennifer and Mary Wever which gave me the opportunity to put myself in touch with my makerself. The biggest take-away for me was the importance of micromaking, or enabling students to create things in small time-frames that help them demonstrate their understanding in a variety of content areas using a wide range of materials. I left feeling challenged and inspired.
Thank you, Jennifer, Mary and your amazing students!
Jennifer Bond's students' enthusiasm and engineering prowess caught my attention at MACUL
My new friend Rachel and I worked togetehr to make this "martian apartment" was something we made in less than 10 minutes. A good reminder of the possibilities for applying makerspace principles across the content area.