Giving Compass' Take:

• Lake Forest Country Day School (LFCDS) in Chicago houses a STEAM program for its students to create makerspaces that produce innovative projects. 

• How can donors support makerspaces in elementary and middle schools? What are the benefits of starting so early?

• Here are four ways to ignite your school's makerspace. 


We pulled up to a building, which looked like a storefront from the outside. As we entered, anxiety set in—at least for me. The inside had a factory aesthetic, with old furniture strewn about and folding tables arranged in the center of the room. One of our mantras is “anywhere can be a makerspace,” so I started repeating those words in my mind but it didn’t help, I was distressed. Then I looked around the room and realized that my students had a different view. They saw endless possibilities.

Immediately, my students bolted into action and the redesign began. In under an hour, nine students transformed a dilapidated room into a functioning makerspace with stations that would support the children living in Pillars Community Health-Constance Morris House (CMH), a domestic-violence shelter located in the Chicagoland area.

Perhaps the most unique part of this experience? It wasn’t arranged through an academic class or a school club. In fact, the event took place on a Saturday. This project was part of our student-led mobile innovation program and after three months of planning, we were finally ready to set up shop.

Located 30 miles north of Chicago, Lake Forest Country Day School (LFCDS) is an independent school that serves students from pre-k through eighth grade. In 2016, we opened a state-of-the-art, 2,800 square foot innovation space to support our STEAM and innovation program. Our vision was to create community both within and beyond the walls of the space.

Since opening the space, we’ve seen some remarkable independent projects develop. We’ve seen students build drones, create video games and use CAD software to design items that were more complex than anything they were doing with our curriculum at the time, and the process was even more impressive than the product. We wanted to give our students a platform to discuss their work and to teach others.

Read the full article about makerspaces by Greg McDonough at EdSurge.