Responsibility, Creativity, and Respect

By Kayla Zinsmeyer

Thanks to our Maker Space, we have had many opportunities to learn about things that are not typical for an eighth grade. You don’t hear about many eighth graders learning about topics like prosthetics, photography, 3D printing and really anything else they have an interest in, especially in a class that isn’t an elective and moves at your own pace. The Maker Space lets you learn in a way that is close to 100% hands-on about things you are actually interested in.

And while these are all great parts of the Maker Space, it’s not what I want to talk to you about. Because while the Maker Space does teach us a lot about a variety of topics, there are three things that the Maker Space is teaching me that I didn’t expect to learn; Responsibility, Creativity, and Respect.

Responsibility:

As you probably know, the class is broken up into modules based on your interests. This is what allows us to have so much control over what we’re learning about, and the pace that we get it done. Modules enable us to have almost complete control over how we spend our time is PLTW. Of course, there are deadlines every 2 weeks; otherwise nothing would ever get done. Depending on how productive your group was in class, these deadlines could either be no problem, or be very stressful. Like with any class, the harder you work the easier the project will be. What makes PLTW different is it is up to you to make the deadlines on time. While it is nice to be able to control what you get out of the class, you have to have a good sense of responsibility in order to succeed.

Creativity:

Creativity is definitely something you learn from being in PLTW and the Maker Space. It is very difficult to complete modules if you aren’t good at problem solving. For example, with the Engineering module, we had to make a bridge made out of glue, string, and toothpicks that could sustain as much weight as possible. This challenge was actually one of the hardest for my group, simply because we could not figure out what the best design was that could still fit into all the requirements. Since then, we have learned from our mistakes and can do modules with similar challenges with little to no problem.

Respect:

                Out of all the good traits we have learned from working in the Maker Space, I think respect is the most important. Intel and several other organizations were kind enough to donate money to help us create our Maker Space. Because of their generosity, we were able to create a place that encourages learning things that we might not get the chance to otherwise. This is why it is especially important to respect the Maker Space. We want the products of Intel’s donation to be around for as many ARS students as possible, and the best way to do that is take care of the space as best we can.