Are we on the verge of a maker-powered manufacturing renaissance?

From creativity and expression to job training and entrepreneurship, maker learning is what you make of it.

Since 2011, the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh’s MAKESHOP has been a well-established destination for families interested in projects as wide-ranging as circuitry, woodworking, stop-motion animation, and operating looms. Now, thanks to $200,000 in grants from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and Chevron, the museum is extending its reach into neighboring West Virginia.

Making is about more than creating objects, learning STEM principles, or how to code; it is also about understanding the process, thinking critically about oneself and the role that one’s values and assumptions can have on the objects one makes, and the effect that one’s creations might have on others

History shows us that technology does not always play out in classrooms the way one might predict. But every year, the New Media Consortium gives divining edtech’s future a valiant shot. NMC recently released the preliminary results of its annual Horizon Report, which explores how emerging technologies and trends are intersecting with education, and how lingering challenges will be addressed. This year, makerspaces made it onto the list as an innovation that will be adopted into the mainstream in “one year or less" along with cloud computing, mobile learning and BYOD.

Seems everyone is a cheerleader for the maker movement these days, from President Obama to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Who isn’t in favor of more self-directed, hands-on learning projects; cupcake cars; or kids working with old-fashioned looms? That’s why—for a lot of maker-oriented folks browsing the internet late last January—Debbie Chachra’s “Why I Am Not a […]

Layer by layer, 3-D printing is creating a whole new avenue for educators to bring hands-on making and STEM skills into the classroom.

How do maker projects jibe with the requirements of the new Common Core?

Pittsburgh’s Mozilla Maker Party was one of thousands of parties held around the globe this summer teaching web literacy to average citizens through hands-on maker projects.

Google and MAKE Magazine’s Maker Camp invite students to explore the world via virtual field trips and hands-on projects.

In discussions of how to build the future STEM workforce, modern manufacturing jobs usually don’t make the short list. Here’s why they should.

How do we teach our kids to persevere in the face of failure?

The Maker Education Initiative is coming to Pittsburgh this summer. And along with 3D technology, robots, and rideables, these techie mentors aim to give kids more than just great summer memories.

As kids head back school this fall, educators and researchers are teaming up to figure out what kids learn from tinkering, and how it may help prepare them for the future.

For kids participating in Maker Camp, summer camp is about to get an update: creating robotic birds, chilling with NASA astronauts, and getting dramatically fewer mosquito bites. But some say kids still need time in the summer to unplug.

In Pittsburgh, a building boom of new 21st century digital learning spaces for students of all ages.

A partnership funded by the federal government hopes to create a thousand makerspaces in public high schools by 2016.

How one young maker is taking her education into her own hands and gaining national attention. Check out Sylvia’s Super Awesome Maker Show.

New “fab labs” give today’s students the chance to tinker with high-tech tools and 3D printers. Some say they are preparing today’s students for the next economic revolution.

Museum professionals from around the country gather in Pittsburgh this week to explore the future of children’s museums in the 21st century. The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh's MAKESHOP, where kids and adults can experiment with the latest physical and digital tools, is one exciting model. Lisa Brahms, the museum’s director of learning and research, explains.

“You can’t flunk at a museum,” says Jane Werner. The executive director of the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh sees museums as labs that can inspire the next generation of artists, scientists, engineers and their teachers.

Makers, educators, and educational researchers are collaborating to better understand the role of making in teaching and learning.

Making is more than a hobby. The DIY movement that bridges hacking and inventing is also a discipline for innovation, and a learning methodology that more and more educators are using with students of all ages.

SparkTruck, an “educational build-mobile” is traveling across the country bringing unforgettable experiences to kids across the country, with stops in Pittsburgh September 12 - 15