Transforming Fablabs Into Steamlabs
The main goal of our project is to transform FabLabs into STEAMLabs. A FabLab is a workspace where students (and usually a much wider audience) are given the opportunity to use machines for the collective realization of a physical or digital (intermediate) product. Although the education is given within a FabLab, it focuses primarily on the use of the machines. This is obviously insufficient for kindergarten and primary schools, but it is important for the pupils of these schools that the machines are placed in context. Such a context can be created with additional learning activities, aimed among other things at designing concepts, exploring the machines and the possibilities to combine the products of the different machines. Because these STEAM-related learning activities are based on FabLabs, we make so-called STEAMLabs. In other words, a STEAMLab can be defined as a FabLab where the students focus not only on the realization of an (intermediate) product, but also on the entire cycle from an idea up to and including the realization of an end product.
Currently, each participating school focuses on a limited number of machines and / or techniques (that is, sometimes multiple techniques can be applied to one machine). This makes it impossible for them to offer a curriculum that takes into account all aspects of STEAM. With this project we offer these schools a platform to share their knowledge and experiences, so that they can broaden the application of their FabLab in such a way that these FabLabs can evolve into fully-fledged STEAMLabs.
In the first instance, knowledge sharing will take place between the participating teachers. Together with a number of selected students, they visit each other's schools. During each visit, experience is gained with the machine in the technology in which the school in question has built up a specialization. Because each school treats a different machine / technique, additional knowledge is continuously gained. Back home, the goal is to apply the newly discovered techniques. In some cases this means that the FabLab must be expanded with the necessary machines. As soon as these machines are available, internal knowledge sharing can take place. This means that the participating teachers can share their newly acquired knowledge and experiences with the other teachers of the school. This can be done through practical training or through the delivery of teaching materials (possibly translated from the school visited).
An additional goal of the project is to make STEAMLabs accessible to students of all ages. The teaching material of the different schools is currently not provided for this. Therefore attention will be paid to the expansion of this teaching material, so that different aspects of a certain technique can be discussed with students of different ages. It is obvious that the other schools may translate these teaching materials to prevent the wheel from being reinvented.
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