STEAM Makers
Fostering Creativity and Innovation in the Elementary Classroom
- Jacie Maslyk - Crafton Elementary School (Pittsburgh, PA)
Build the essential 4—creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking!
Go beyond theory and find out how to systematically integrate STEAM and Makerspaces that prepare students for real-world experiences. This engaging resource outlines step-by-step processes to help anyone start their STEAM and Maker journey. Charts, checklists, web links, student stories and teacher challenges help you make meaningful subject area connections and tap your students’ natural curiosity.
District and school leaders will learn to:
- Develop dedicated makerspaces
- Integrate STEAM and Making into daily practice
- Differentiate instruction for all learners
- Promote a growth and design culture
- Create a STEAM Maker network
- Align with core standards and The Next Generation Science Standards
Get students to think more creatively and collaboratively and see them become more engaged in learning that’s both challenging and fun. This go-to-guide shows you how!
"More than ever before, schools are being called on to create cultures of innovation, moving to learning that is personalized, relevant, and full of rigorous and authentic opportunities for all students. STEAM Makers provides invaluable insight into the necessary shifts in instructional pedagogy needed to create learning environments and opportunities that are future ready.”
Thomas C. Murray
Future Ready Schools, Alliance for Excellent Education
"This book will make you want to be better for kids. With compelling examples, provocative questions, and a pragmatic roadmap, STEAM Makers cuts through the jargon and offers readers a vision of the future of education. Jacie Maslyk masterfully empowers readers to be dreamers and change-makers."
Dr. Brad Gustafson
Elementary Principal, Digital Innovation in Learning Award (DILA) winner
STEAM Makers provides concrete evidence that the STEAM Maker movement will help our schools engage students in the lost art of learning through invention.
STEAM Makers connects the creativity of makers to the innovation of STEAM in the everyday classroom. This book is an excellent guide and resource for teachers and administrators to begin building making spaces in their own classrooms, school buildings, and school districts.
If your school is at the entry point of knowing that you need to begin providing opportunities for STEM education, but are unsure of how to begin, STEAM Makers will quickly become your “go to” source. The author has done an amazing job of providing a mentor text that is written in a style that addresses the beginning questions of why to make time for this when faced with many demands for student improvement, as well as realistic step-by-step guidance on how to implement.
The reader begins to feel that he or she is in the room talking with the author about STEAM, and because of this, it is hard to put down. While this is essential, the author also provides numerous resource options to continue to pick the text up as you undergo the implementation of STEAM in your school or classroom. This will not be a book that just sits on your shelf.
You will feel empowered and ready to provide these opportunities to your students after reading STEAM Makers.
STEAM Makers presents a crucial topic for educators who want to ensure that their students are prepared not to simply do well on tests, but to be active participants in our rapidly changing economy. This book is a must-read for those who believe STEAM and Making are important, but may be overwhelmed by how to infuse this focus into their school culture. Upon completing this book, teachers will be prepared to open the minds of their students, increase critical thinking and motivation with even their most challenging students, and increase parent and community involvement in schools in a spectacular way.
"More than ever before, schools are being called on to create cultures of innovation, moving from the industrial era one-size-fits-all, teacher-centric approach which remained prevalent in America’s schools for over a century, to learning that is personalized, relevant, and full of rigorous and authentic opportunities for all students. STEAM Makers provides invaluable insight into the necessary shifts in instructional pedagogy needed to create learning environments and opportunities that are future ready.”
"This book will make you want to be better for kids. With compelling examples, provocative questions, and a pragmatic roadmap, STEAM Makers cuts through the jargon and offers readers a vision of the future of education. Jacie Maslyk masterfully empowers readers to be dreamers and change-makers."
Maslyk’s book provides insight into several fascinatingly different ways that the STEAM Maker movement has manifested itself in schools in Pittsburgh and the surrounding area. In addition, we learn the author's inside story about how the STEAM Maker movement has developed over time in her school. Each instantiation of the STEAM Maker movement described in this book represent a unique and creative way that schools are helping today's students learn and do math, science, engineering, art, and technology. For any one interested in this kind of education, this book is a must-read.
