This course will provide a rich “making” environment, including access to diverse tools and materials from which students can develop and apply academic, aesthetic, technical and interpersonal skills by creating and building meaningful products appropriate to the middle school level.
The course has been developed with input from staff at O’Reilly Media. If possible, interns from Piner High School, the SRJC, and community mentors will help students with project design, tool and equipment use, digital media, computer programming and other specialized technical assistance.
“Make things you use in your everyday life and you develop a relationship with and a connection to the things around you.” ~ Mark Frauenfelder, founder of BoingBoing and editor-in-chief of Make Magazine.
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND DETAILED COURSE OUTLINE
The course will serve all students as a one semester course. It will be paired with other one semester electives at Comstock that serve to expose students to different creative and technicaldisciplines.
The educational premises that are the foundation for the course are:
The course has been developed with input from staff at O’Reilly Media. If possible, interns from Piner High School, the SRJC, and community mentors will help students with project design, tool and equipment use, digital media, computer programming and other specialized technical assistance.
“Make things you use in your everyday life and you develop a relationship with and a connection to the things around you.” ~ Mark Frauenfelder, founder of BoingBoing and editor-in-chief of Make Magazine.
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND DETAILED COURSE OUTLINE
The course will serve all students as a one semester course. It will be paired with other one semester electives at Comstock that serve to expose students to different creative and technicaldisciplines.
The educational premises that are the foundation for the course are:
- Making requires no prior experience or expertise
Making requires a minimal technical learning curve
Making attracts students to learning by drawing on internal excitement and curiousity
Makers are motivated by tangible, retainable outputs to share with others
There are multiple possible paths, and many exploratory routes, to a product
There are many workable configurations and many possible answers
The observable process of discovery is energizing
The intentional reflective process supports learning
Making provides a rich collaborative potential (with peers, teachers, community mentors)
Making teaches students skills they can generalize to other areas of life
Making teaches students specific technical and academic skills and knowledge
Soft failures and soft successes in the making process teach students to adapt, change and persevere.