Jan. 24 was “crazy hair day” for students at Riley Avenue Elementary School. But for Tracy Martin’s third grade class, it was also their day that month to play in their library’s makerspace.
This month’s theme was winter. Students took a seat at several stations in front of what most would consider regular child toys, tasked with building using what was in front of them. Students made snowflakes out of K’nex and Brainflakes — two types of construction toys — and built shelters for plastic animal figurines using wood blocks and magnetic tiles.
Other books sit on the shelves of the library alluding to other elementary makerspace activities, using egg cartons, strings, straws, rubber bands. It seems like a typical arts and crafts session.
But educators see something more than just blocks and bricks. They see the future architects, engineers and…
