Make For All Announces 40 Commitments to Expand Maker-Centered Learning to More Than 264,000 Students
Make For All, a national coalition of leading organizations focused on broadening access to maker-centered learning opportunities for students is announcing 40 new partnerships, collaborations and initiatives. These commitments are new, specific and actionable goals that will serve more than 264,000 students in over 100 communities across the U.S. over the next two years. The nearly 250 organizations and partners making commitments include community colleges, universities, K-12 schools, makerspaces, companies, non-profit organizations, museums and libraries. The catalog of Make For All commitments can be found here.
Maker-centered learning empowers students to develop their own agency and enables them to understand how they can have a positive impact on the world around them through building, tinkering and design. Through making experiences, students develop critical thinking and problem solving skills, have the opportunity to cultivate their creativity and curiosity and engage in meaningful, hands-on, interdisciplinary learning at the intersection of STEM, arts and design.
This year’s call for commitments for maker-centered learning focused on five themes which directly address the challenges of COVID-19 and systemic racism:
Reimagining learning spaces: Creating experiences for all students to make outside of the classroom or makerspace regardless of resources available.
Problem solving for community resilience: Enabling all young people to solve problems in their local communities through maker-centered learning.
Anti-racism and inclusion: Addressing the lack of support for young people of color in maker-centered learning by fostering opportunities and environments that are culturally relevant, inclusive and equitable.
Professional development for educators: Developing engaging opportunities for educators to grow their skills in maker education in ways that support their curriculum needs.
Mentorship: Growing all students’ interests in making by creating more role models and a network of support and encouragement.
Joe Rosenbaum, Project Director of United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley describes, “United Way's BoSTEM is committed to supporting maker-centered learning both in the city of Boston and across the nation because we know hands-on learning is a primary lever to inspiring students to enter STEAM careers. Together with our partners we have developed multiple maker-centric programs, activities and events to keep kids engaged during the pandemic and beyond.”
To bring together these commitment makers and showcase their work, Citizen Schools will be hosting the Make For All Commitments Celebration, a virtual event on May 13th which will feature an inspiring keynote by Monsi Roman, who leads NASA’s Centennial Challenges program. Participants will also have the opportunity to hear from incredible student makers and maker educators.
Commitments being announced today include:
North Carolina Central University Fab Lab is partnering with the Durham Housing Authority to further engage students in hands-on STEM and making in two affordable housing communities along the Fayetteville Street Corridor, engaging more than 150 students in housing communities in Spring 2021.
The Columbia Memorial Space Center will launch a Maker Mentor program in Summer 2021. The program aims to connect 50 diverse local community college graduates and makers to middle and high school youth in community-based K-12 schools and out-of-school organizations. In addition, the Space Center, in collaboration with the Downey City Library will open its first makerspace in 2021.
WhyMaker will work with 4,000 educators in 2021-2022 to provide maker education professional development opportunities focused on creating opportunities for 200,000 students to engage in making and STEM education, regardless of their learning situation. WhyMaker will collaborate with nonprofit organizations, schools and teachers associations as part of this effort.
Navajo Technical University, a technical-vocational Tribal University, is piloting a Computer Science for All program called Let’s Talk Code (LTC): Broadening Computing Education among Native Americans by Blending Code with Nature, Art and Culture. In 2021, LTC will motivate and inspire 500 Navajo middle and high school students to see the cultural origins of coding by learning the historical applications to topics such as astronomy, rug making, and pottery.
MICRO DIY is a new initiative for builders of all ages to curate their own museum using materials from their homes. This free, open source online guide encourages students to think critically about the world and dive deeper into issues that interest them. Through partnerships with schools, extracurricular programs, and community organizations, and with support from Schmidt Futures and other mission-driven foundations, MICRO DIY will catalyze the creation of 5,000+ museums through 2021.
Commitment maker and Executive Director of STE(AM) Truck, Jason Martin describes, “Too often youth live in zip codes that lack access to maker spaces and innovative STEM learning activities that promote the mindsets needed to thrive in the 21st century. That's why we built STE(A)M Truck, a growing fleet of mobile innovation labs that drive where we are needed the most and create temporary maker villages so students, and their teachers, can get their hands dirty and make things together. If we build the capacity of every neighborhood to continue to do this work on their own before we drive away, we can eliminate opportunity gaps and transform teaching and learning.”
About Make For All and Citizen Schools
Make For All is led by national non-profit, Citizen Schools, with support from Schmidt Futures, Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, and Arconic Foundation in collaboration with an advisory council that includes Digital Promise, Maker Ed, Makers for Change, the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship, Nation of Makers and Reimagine America’s Schools. Citizen Schools is proud to be leading a coalition of organizations across the U.S. that provides all students the opportunity to engage in making.
For over 25 years, Citizen Schools has been a pioneer in educational equity. They have provided hands-on learning experiences that ignite curiosity, build confidence, and expand horizons for over 50,000 middle school students in underrepresented communities. Together with their partners, including 25,000 career mentors, they have exposed students to new ideas and connections.