The "Making at School" Project: Planning Interdisciplinary Activities

Abstract

"Making" as a "do-it-yourself" and tinker mentality provides motivating and interdisciplinary ways to experiment and fosters transversal competences such as computational thinking skills. The joint innovation project "Making at School" (https://explore-making.ch; 10/2021 - 9/2023) of the Zurich University of Teacher Education (PHZH), the University of Zurich, and the CreativeLab Zurich is developing various interdisciplinary teacher training courses on Maker-Education for K12-teachers. In addition to a first basic module in spring 2022, advanced modules will be offered in autumn 2022, e.g., Digital Fabrication I (lasercutter, 3D printing) or BioTinkering. Preliminary cardboard and digital versions of a Making planning framework to support teachers in Making are already in development, evaluated, and will be improved using a design research approach together with teachers and (inter-)national experts.