Makerspace is a growing trend in school libraries and for good reason. According to Baker and Alexander (2018) makerspace activities are intended to engage students in open-ended exploration and learning. This allows students to think outside the box as well as exploring subjects and ideas that are interesting to them. There are many types of makerspaces ranging from STEM activities to arts and crafts or even simple building stations with Legos. These activities are not only used in the library but are expanded into the classrooms. Teachers and Librarians are working together to make learning hands on and multidisciplinary by allowing students to take their makerspace skills and apply them to other content areas. Another way that makerspaces can be used to impact student learning is to align it to the career pathways that students take in high school. This gives students an opportunity to explore various career paths at a young age to see what most interests them. Lastly, makerspace activities are beneficial to the learning of our ELL students. According to Murphy (2018) makerspaces can promote social interactions and support students who have limited English proficiency. Giving ELL students a way to demonstrate what they know by doing gives them confidence and evens the playing field with their peers. Overall makerspace is a welcome addition to the school library and benefits the students learning in many ways. "By providing access to a well managed makerspace collection, school librarians clearly connect academic knowledge and deeper understanding with this space and its resources" (Robertson, 2019 p. 13).
References
Robertson, N.D. (2019, November/December). Expanding School Library Collections: The
Makerspace Edition. Knowledge Quest, 48(2), 8-14. ERIC.
Baker, S., Alexander, B. (2018, May/June). A Major Making Undertaking. Knowledge Quest,
40(5), 64-69. ERIC.
Murphy, P.H. (2018, March/April). School Libraries Addressing the Needs of ELL Students.
Knowledge Quest, 46(4), 60-65. ERIC.
Freeman, A., Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Davis, A., and Hall Giesinger, C. (2017).
MC/CoSN Horizon Report: 2017 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
