“We had no budget for furniture, zero, none,” Luhtala said in an edWeb webinar. “I had this big empty space, but no furniture.” But, she found some old science tables in the district’s storage area and some unused stools to go with them. That was enough.
“Find the storage space for your district and see what’s available because chances are there’s stuff no one wants,” Luhtala said. “Those are conversations worth having. I encourage you to be bold.”
Luhtala also didn’t want to over-plan what would happen in the makerspace. She wanted it to develop naturally from student interests. So, she didn’t spend much money buying materials at the outset. She picked up a few things like basic craft supplies and Legos that other teachers had recommended, but she took her cues from the students.
“I really didn’t want to go beyond that because I wanted to see what the…
