Building a Nation of Makers

West Philadelphia isn’t the easiest place to be a kid.

In addition to the typical academic challenges facing students - from social to test scores - West Philly students face obstacles such as safety, quality housing, health care and more. Keeping kids engaged in class is not trivial but the Workshop School seems to have come up with a solution.

Philadelphia’s Workshop School is emerging as one of America’s bright examples of the potential for “maker learning,” which engages student’s creativity, channels their passions, and empowers them to design and produce solutions to real-world challenges. Workshop School students don’t spend their time in desks in rows, they spend their time doing things such as building fuel efficient cars, designing modular post-disaster homes or energy efficient lighting systems.  In so doing, West Philly students aren’t just engaged in class, they’re developing critical 21st skills, like design-thinking, collaboration, and persistence. The Workshop School provides a compelling model not just for students in West Philadelphia, but for students everywhere. Here are a few reasons why.

First, making is a really good way for students to learn complex material.

It should come as no surprise that making can be intrinsically motivating. Unfortunately, bored kids are a big problem for our education system. One Gallup poll asked high school students to pick three words from a list of adjectives to describe their experience in school. The two most popular words were “bored” and “tired.” By providing more interesting, student-driven, real-world-relevant learning experiences, making allows students to get involved with and inspired by their schoolwork. And maker learning isn’t just engaging, it’s effective.  Studies indicate that we remember about 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, and 90% of what we do.

Maker learning experiences can also trigger breakthrough moments for students - moments that can spark and propel lifelong senses of wonder, curiosity, and agency. Tracing the trajectory of his learning pathway, Steve Jobs said that, “[Heathkits] gave one an understanding of what was inside a finished product and how it worked...But maybe even more importantly it gave one the sense that one could build the things that one saw around oneself in the universe.”

Second, America needs more makers.

As President Obama declared, “Makers and builders and doers — of all ages and backgrounds — have pushed our country forward, developing creative solutions to important challenges and proving that ordinary Americans are capable of achieving the extraordinary when they have access to the resources they need.”  Importantly, the Kauffman Foundation issued a report concluding that without startups, there would have been no net job growth in the U.S. economy from 1977 to 2010.

Maker learning invokes precisely the traits that America needs to thrive in the 21st century. When students are designing and making things - particularly when working to solve a real-world challenge - they’re incorporating virtues that are valued by the global economy. Maker learning traits like creativity, design-thinking, persistence, and a growth mindset can be hard to measure, and, these skills can be better predictors of postsecondary and career success than some traditional assessments. And, these skills aren’t just great for students, they’re exactly what our country needs to innovate and educate and to sustain a healthy economy.

Third, making can help us strengthen our ailing STEM pipeline.

America’s STEM pipeline is leaky. In the U.S., only 1% of college undergraduates receive degrees in science, compared to 38% in South Korea, 47% in France, 50% in China, and 67% in Singapore. Worse yet, our STEM pipeline is hemorrhaging highly talented minority and female students, who continue to be dramatically underrepresented in STEM fields.

Making has the potential to get more students interested earlier - and to help close the yawning participation gaps - in STEM. Because making incorporates hands-on, creative pursuits, a wider range of students can get inspired and engaged at multiple levels.

These are three reasons why, in response to President Obama’s Nation of Makers Initiative, Digital Promise and Maker Ed launched the Maker Promise, a collaborative campaign to equip more schools with the resources and support they need to provide quality making experiences to their students.

Maker Promise challenged school leaders around the country to sign a concrete commitment to:

• (1) Dedicate a space for making in their school or community;
• (2) Designate a champion of making, who will be in charge of developing the school’s approach to maker education; and
• (3) Display what students make, by hosting or participating in a showcase event.

This week, in honor of the National Week of Making, we’re thrilled to announce that  1,443 schools from all 50 states have signed the Maker Promise! We are inspired and exhilarated by these early results, and pledge to support schools with information, tools and resources for making. Also, we are eager to elevate the stories of the remarkable educators and students in places like the Workshop School, who are using making to enhance students’ learning journeys. We want many more American students to have the inspiration, motivation, and ability to be makers of things, not just consumers of things.

We hope you’ll join us.