COLONIE – New this year, there are six Innovation Spaces, each with a dedicated teacher, at the new Shaker Middle School: the Makerspace, Coding and Robotics, Simulations, Humanities, Health and Wellness, and Clean Tech.
Sixth graders do each one for six weeks. The labs are constantly evolving.
“They have to learn how to work together. They have to learn to be advocates for themselves, to speak their mind, but also to be good listeners,” said teacher Catara Vinson-Westbrook. “They have to learn cooperation, how to negotiate, how to compromise. They also have to learn how to problem-solve.”
Students are challenged to be creative thinkers and develop skills they never knew they had.
“It’s a lot of fun because it’s a break from doing all the math and stuff, but it also helps you understand. Because you’re kind of plugging in what you learned from math and science and ELA…
