The Makerspace as a Catalyst for Community Building and Innovative Pedagogies Beyond Stem

Abstract

The presence of makerspaces, that have been implemented with the idea of advancing science education in a city in Northeastern Brazil, have also catalyzed new connections between teachers, and integration of other disciplines into the makerspaces while spreading innovative pedagogies in lessons beyond STEM disciplines. The goal of this paper is to illustrate the development of a collaboration process between a makerspace and a Portuguese teacher who co-designed a learning sequence related to text types such as narrative, descriptive, expository and argumentative writing, for students to learn, in the makerspace, with their hands-on and minds-in. This paper also highlights the challenges of implementation as well as the takeaways and learnings from this process, that most of all helped teachers realize the potential of co-designing and using new spaces and resources to create environments where learning goals are achieved while maker- and student-centered learning is present.