More Than a Maker Studio

What children learn when an idea has to become something real.

By Melanie Henson, Principal

What happens when children have an idea and have to figure out how to make it work?

That’s one of the things I’m most excited to see as we open our new Maker Studio and make Maker an integral part of our Upper Elementary program.

We’ve been looking forward to this project for a long time. A lot of careful planning came together as the new building went up this summer, and we put just as much thought into what would happen inside it.

Of course, the new room and equipment are exciting. But they’re really there to support the more important part: what children learn through making.

When students take an idea from beginning to end, they have to plan, make decisions, collaborate, use tools safely, encounter problems they didn’t anticipate, and figure out what to do when the first idea doesn’t work. Along the way, they often discover something about themselves too.

Why Maker in Elementary School?

Programs like this are often associated with middle and high school. We’re excited to begin this work earlier and make it part of the regular school day for students in grades 2–5.

Children at this age are increasingly ready to take more ownership of an idea from beginning to end. They can plan more independently, use increasingly sophisticated tools safely, work through setbacks, and tackle more complex design and engineering challenges.

It’s also an age when interests and strengths start surfacing in interesting ways.

One child may discover an eye for design. Another loves precision. Another becomes fascinated with electronics or figuring out why something failed. Sometimes a child approaches a problem in a way none of us expected.

Children need different kinds of experiences to discover different parts of themselves.

If we want children to develop their strengths, interests, voice, and ultimately their fullest potential, they need opportunities to try things they may not already know they enjoy or are good at. Maker gives us another place for that discovery to happen.

+ What a Maker Challenge Really Looks Like

A Maker challenge typically begins with a problem or question rather than instructions telling students exactly what to build.

Students ask questions, brainstorm, sketch, choose materials, create a plan, and begin.

Then something inevitably changes. A structure isn’t stable. A material behaves differently than expected. Two ideas compete. A measurement is off. The first solution simply doesn’t work.

Students test, revise, seek feedback, solve problems, and try again. Teachers ask questions and give guidance, but they also know when to give students enough time to work through a problem themselves.

At the end, we want students thinking beyond Did it work?

Where did I get stuck? What did I try? What changed from my original idea? What did I learn? What would I do differently next time?

The finished product matters. But so does everything children learned while getting there.

A Program We’ve Been Building Together

We’re also very happy to have Brie and Agustin teaching together and leading the Maker program.

Before coming to WHPS, they developed a Maker program at another area school where it became an important part of the student experience. When that school was unable to fully reopen following the fires, Brie and Agustin joined us last year and began piloting Maker through our after-school program.

That gave us something we really valued: time.

Rather than simply bringing over an existing program, they spent the year getting to know WHPS, working with our team, trying things with our students, and refining the curriculum together.

What we’re launching this year draws on their experience while also reflecting how we already think about learning here: inquiry before answers, increasing student ownership, reflection alongside achievement, and opportunities to share work with a real audience.

+ Process, Product & a Real Audience

Much like Writing Workshop, where students eventually publish and share their work with an authentic audience, Maker projects will include opportunities for families to come into the studio, see what students created, and explore the process behind it.

Alongside a finished project, you might see early sketches, photographs, changed plans, problems students encountered, things they tried, and reflections on what they learned.

The finished project tells one part of the story. We want children to be able to tell the rest.

Discovering What You Like and What You’re Good At

This is probably the part of Maker I’m most interested in watching.

Children can’t know they enjoy engineering if they’ve never engineered something. They may not know they have an eye for design until they’re given something to design. And a child may discover that they really enjoy the process of troubleshooting something that refuses to work.

Not every child is going to love every part of Maker, and we don’t expect them to.

That’s part of the value too.

As children have more experiences, they develop a clearer sense of what interests them, what comes naturally, what doesn’t, and what they might want to explore further. Sometimes what they tell us surprises us. Sometimes what we observe surprises them.

+ Inside the New Maker Studio

The studio was designed to give students increasing independence as their skills develop.

Children will work with a wide range of materials, technologies, and age-appropriate tools, with explicit instruction in how to use them safely and responsibly. As they become more capable, the tools and projects can become more sophisticated too.

The indoor-outdoor design gives us flexibility for projects that need more room or different materials, and we thought carefully about practical details like access to technology, power, tools, storage, and work surfaces.

We’re excited to finally put all of that planning into use.

+ Maker Beyond Grades 2–5

Maker is now part of the regular school day for grades 2–5, and our after-school Maker program is available to students in TK–5, taught by Brie and Agustin in the same studio.

Naturally, the challenges and tools evolve with children’s ages and readiness, but the basic process is similar: wonder, plan, create, test, adjust, and try again.

Come See It

Elementary families will have a special opportunity to visit the new Maker Studio during Back-to-School Night on Thursday, September 3.

From 4:00–4:30 p.m., come explore the studio, meet Brie and Agustin, ask questions, and get a feel for what students will be doing there.

We’ve spent a lot of time imagining this program, planning the space, and thinking about how it can become a meaningful part of our students’ experience at WHPS.

Now we’re ready to see what the children do with it.

Melanie Henson

Principal