Participate and share: Poster 
The purpose of this poster presentation is to inform and inspire educators to implement a makerspace in their school or classroom that incorporates a compassionate element by offering students the opportunity to iterate, design, and make things that are donated to nonprofits. Participants will learn how to acquire and maintain materials which are appropriate for the space and will be able to identify a number of nonprofit partnership opportunities that expose students to a variety of real world issues that people and animals face and offer students concrete ways to assist in solving or alleviating the suffering from those problems. Participants will also develop an understanding of the mental and physical health benefits of offering these types of opportunities to students as part of their school day and the difference in can make in their capacity to seek and create change as productive adults in the future.
Content and Activities: The audience will learn how implementing a compassionate making program in their school or classroom can benefit students academically, socially, and physically. Suggestions and methods for acquiring materials and area setup and operation will be shared, and the audience will have an opportunity to view and handle some of the creations of our space. Most importantly, participants will learn a wide variety of options for projects that serve a wide variety of skill levels and help students to learn about and empathize with a wide range of people with needs and lives potentially very unlike their own. Participants will leave with immediately actionable ideas for how to get started in their own communities and understand how this type of activity can improve their relationship with their school community and community at large.
Time: As an intended poster presentation, actual engagement time will be spent mostly on project types and previews with the poster providing the more basic information (and a link to more information). If it were an EdTalk or Interactive session, time would include: Impetus, Benefits, Basics: 10 minutes, Space, Methods and Materials: 20 minutes, Project ideas and methods, Nonprofit partnerships, community impacts: 30 minutes (with an interactive session participants would brainstorm issues in their home community to address and we would discuss project ideas related to those issues).
Process: Peer-to-Peer interaction
This generalized article about the benefits of volunteering makes many points that are applicable to the model of bringing it to a school setting, including how important it can be to helping a person to maintain physical and mental health: https://www.wcsu.edu/community-engagement/benefits-of-volunteering/
This brief overview outlines the many benefits of students having access to a makerspace: https://www.invent.org/blog/trends-stem/benefits-makerspace
Return
Trips and Tours