Now is the time to get involve in the making!
Please look at the RI Community Map to see where your closest makerspace is in relation to your house, work, and/or school. If a makerspace is not nearby, would you be interested in starting one? If so, look at the available information on this website to get started! |
In 2009, President Barak Obama launched the Educate to Innovate initiative whose mission was to provide students at every level with the skills in STEM education.
And then just 5 years later in 2014, both President Obama and the American Library Association (ALA) publically announced their support of makerspaces in the school and library settings with the official Day of Making, which included the first ever White House Maker Faire and over 125 libraries committed to the maker movement. By having this federal and national backing, makerspaces have exponentially risen in popularity throughout the country, increased in the amount of locations in libraries, and brought the maker movement to the forefront of the nation's mind. That state of Rhode Island currently has around 7 school libraries, 6 public libraries, 6 schools, and 10 organizations and businesses, and this number is currently growing. And hopefully with your support, we will have more makerspaces! |
3 Top Reasons to Create a Library Makerspace
Reason OneMakerspaces provide students exposure to design thinking and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) in a fun and interactive way. These spaces focus on problem & project based learning (PBL) in a collaborative environment and foster exploration and innovation without the fear of failure.
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Reason TwoMakerspaces help students to meet multiple standards of learning, e.g. CCSS, ISTE, AASL, etc., and aid them in their path to becoming 21st century learners. Makerspaces are supported by not only the White House, the American Library Association, and Rhode Island's Governor Gina Raimondo, but many others institutions of learning.
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Reason ThreeGovernor Raimondo is currently trying to revitalize our economy and create a thriving technology hub in RI, it needs to be our mission to come together to create learning environments for our current and future generations to fill those positions and to be makers! And school libraries are the perfect environment to facilitate this learning.
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This website was created by Allison Marie Barker for Media Smart Libraries & the 2016 SLRI Annual Conference.
Allison Barker is a current GSLIS student at URI in the School Library Media Program. Allison has been interested in the maker culture and STEAM learning since her undergraduate career. For the past year, she has been thoroughly investigating and exploring the scholarly and professional literature surrounding libraries and makerspaces. Along with her academic endeavors, she has been working as a graduate assistant for Media Smart Libraries, an IMLS grant-funded project designed to advance the digital and media literacy competencies for children, teens, families, and librarians in Rhode Island.
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All images on this website are from the Public Domain unless stated otherwise