IWS Reflection - Sophia Rowen

“Making Deeper Learners” by Bevan et al., 2018 

I love the Innovation Workshop, and, no matter the activity, I am always drawn to it. This is because it is a space that allows guests to “develop, apply, and make visible their thinking and understanding”. 

I think the Making and Tinkering Framework that was created by educators from the Exploratorium and Lighthouse Community Schools is a useful tool for Sparks to use to see if makers and tinkerers are activating a dimension or “engagement level”. For example, the Initiative and Intentionality dimension lists actively participating, setting one’s own goal, taking intellectual and creative risks, adjusting goals based on physical feedback and evidenceas the indicators for that dimension. I believe that Sparks can use this framework in an organic way and witness these indicators if some things change in the IWS. My fellow MAPS have suggested some of these changes in their own blog posts. 

Angela: having two Sparks in the IWS on weekends and busy days, so more learning dimensions are activated and thus more deeper learning. 

It is hard to maintain the space and attend to all guests. I find that trying to engage with all kinds of guests results in me telling them and showing them how to do things instead of them doing it for themselves. I don’t want to do their project for them, because I want them to engage initiatively and intentionally. 

Juliana and Destiny- both talked about how they would like to see IWS activities that combine both making and tinkering. This would provide opportunities for learning for guests of all ages. 

Now that the IWS has been revamped and includes the cozy corner, I think we could incorporate more maker activities there in which younger guests can explore different kinds of materials. The rest of the IWS space could be used for a mix of tinkering and making activities. 

Samantha Brown- is very good at documenting her experiences here at MOXI and she notes that she has a few ideas for improving some facilitation strategies in the IWS. I would very much like to hear those ideas and have a discussion in MAPS class about everyone else’s experiences in the IWS. 

Sam Shaw- posed some thoughtful questions about parent intervention in the IWS. Specifically, he asks, Is there a way to make the goals of the IWS more clear to adults entering the room, so as to make certain learning outcomes more likely with their buy-in?

I have been thinking about this recently and I haven’t been able to put it more simply into words like Sam did. My first thought is to prime the parent and child either at the entrance of MOXI or at the entrance of the IWS. We could demonstrate something that underlines the importance of active and self-directed learning, and tell them that this sometimes looks like “failing”. 

After reading this article, I have a much deeper understanding of the importance of materials and how it relates to more opportunities in engineering and design. If guests are able to develop an “affinity for the nature of the materials” they are working with then they could have more meaningful experiences and thus deeper learning. This is something that I can bring with me into the IWS when we are working with unfamiliar materials like leather and felt. 

- Sophia Rowen