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5 Tips for Building a Maker Culture of Equity and Inclusion

Getting Smart Apr 1, 2018
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
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5 Tips for Building a Maker Culture of Equity and Inclusion-giving compass
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Giving Compass’ Take:

• Promoting a ‘maker education’ means encouraging students to make, build and create in order to enhance opportunities and strengthen creativity. Below are five suggestions for how to cultivate an inclusive ‘maker education.’

• How can philanthropy help this movement? Do you believe that receiving a ‘maker education’ will influence children’s’ interest in STEM?

• Read about a school in Napa that encompasses inclusion and creativity through project-based learning. 


3-D printers, CNC routers, and expensive tools are common when people refer to a makerspace. Making is not only limited to a makerspace, but is boundless and impartial to the imagination of all learners. According to The Maker Education Initiative, a nonprofit launched in 2012, maker education is a way to create more opportunities for young people to make, and by making, build confidence, foster creativity, and spark interest in science, technology, engineering, math, and the arts.

When students have an environment that is inclusive, they are more confident and creative – they create a love of learning and unexpected ideas happen – and we need new ideas.But, to unlock every student’s potential, every student must have access to high-quality science, technology, engineering, math, and art initiatives. Rather than giving in to the temptation to focus on buying one 3-D printer for a makerspace, though, I’d suggest thinking through how these 5 Tips for Building a Maker Culture of Equity and Inclusion might work in your environment.

  • Involve All Stakeholders. Making is intergenerational. It has been around forever and everyone is a maker, so why not tap into all stakeholders in the community.
  • Choose Tools Based on Pedagogical Goals.  Let students lead the process of learning through curiosity and discovery.
  • Make Learning Culturally and Age Relevant. As educators, we often complicate things by thinking about what children want instead of asking them and listening.
  • Empower All Learners–Including Adults. Learning is most meaningful when people are active participants in the learning process; however, learning cannot be forced upon someone.
  • Not Evaluate, Appreciate. When implementing a maker culture, remember, questions are more powerful than the answers.

Read the full article about maker culture by Justin Aglio at Getting Smart. 

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Education is a complex topic, and others found these selections from the Impact Giving archive from Giving Compass to be good resources.

  • This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
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    LeBron James School is Using an Evidence-Based Approach

    Giving Compass' Take: • The Lebron James I Promise School is utilizing a whole-family intervention approach that provides extra workforce training development, GED programs, job placement services and a food bank serving all types of family needs.  • How will Lebron James school impact the surrounding community in Akron?  • Read more about the benefits of LeBron James I Promise School.  The goals of the LeBron James Family Foundation’s new school in Akron, Ohio, extend beyond educating at-risk third and fourth graders. The school is a bold, public experiment in whole-family community intervention, and it is rooted in strong evidence and a proven model. The “I Promise” ethos runs throughout the school’s mission. Students promise to work hard and complete school. Teachers promise to love the community’s students and families. James and Akron Public Schools promise every student free uniforms, meals, and a bicycle. James’s foundation will pay students’ tuition to the University of Akron after they graduate from high school. But I Promise’s designers recognize that to create an upwardly mobile community, what happens outside the classroom can be just as important as what happens during school hours.  The school’s dual-generation education strategy provides wraparound services for families, including a food bank, GED programs, and job placement services for parents, managed by two full-time employees. It also eases the burden of finding child care by offering longer school days and school years. Parents seeking to improve their job prospects through education and training often run up against scheduling conflicts and child care challenges. Urban Institute research finds that local workforce systems help parents overcome these boundaries to improved earnings, employment, and job stability. Parents in family-focused programs, encouraged by their children’s success, may pursue more credentials and obtain better jobs and improve their parenting skills and certification and education levels. I Promise’s family-centered model draws from other successful community collaboratives. Philanthropy, nonprofits, the public school system, teachers, parents, and students all play a role in supporting a shared goal: building cradle-to-career solutions in communities to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. Read the full article about LeBron James school by Patrick Spauster at Urban Institute


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