3D Printers and Library Maker Space

I believe that creativity is central to learning.  Most of us learn best when we are able to apply what we know in a meaningful, hands-on way.  That is why I have been researching and scheming to find a way to bring a maker space to our school library.  Our most exciting and memorable projects this year have been when the students were creating - making up their own games, creating towns out of LEGOs for the beebots to navigate, writing their own songs.  I want to see more of this and so do our students.

Next week - March 10-17, Donor's Choose is sponsoring a Friends and Family week to promote teachers' projects to a wider audience.  I have posted a project to acquire a 3D printer for our school's maker space.  You can donate to the project here - http://www.donorschoose.org/wgslibrary.  If you give $20 next week and use the code INSPIRE on the payment page, your donation will be doubled and counted toward our goal of getting 25 people to donate $20 by the end of the week.  When we reach that goal, Donor's Choose will match us with $1,000.  With both the INSPIRE and Family and Friends promotion matching, we can turn $500 of real donations into $2,000!  If we get 50 people to donate $20, Donor's Choose will match us with $3,000!

Even though I hate to ask for money from anyone, this is just too good of an opportunity to pass up for our students.  

For anyone who thinks that elementary students are too young to make meaningful use of a 3D printer, a quick Google search will return several examples of young students doing just that:  Kris Swanson's students in Florida, Chicago's Glenview's Glen Grove Elementary students, and this Makerbot Curriculum highlighting the many lesson plans and activities young students can do using the 3D printer.