In the more than a decade that she’s been an educator, Britney Ayala has helped young people organize to solve contemporary problems and imagine a world beyond their current environment. That mission continues at Center City Public Charter School (PCS) – NoMa Campus, where, despite students’ enthusiasm for learning, Ayala said she and other teachers at times struggle to convey math and science concepts during in-class activities.
That’s why, for Ayala and other teachers at the school’s campuses across the District, the newly launched Makerspace at Center City PCS has the potential to enhance their teaching pedagogy and increase students’ fervor for STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics).
Throughout much of this school year, the 20,000 square foot facility will serve as a one-stop shop for interactive, hands-on instruction that covers the gamut, including: 3D printing, music production, textiles and fashion, coding and woodworking.
“At school, it’s tough to have 22 scissors that actually work or glue that actually works or the right size paper,” Ayala told The Informer. “Everything I need is right here in this one space. It’s tough to get out with [the] kindergarten [classes] all the time with just two teachers and 22 different personalities, but this space is for them. It was built for them, with them in mind.”
Earlier this year, as Center City PCS wrapped up another school year, Ayala and her students toured what would eventually become their own Makerspace.
During their visit, Ayala and her kindergarteners learned about electrical polarity and spoke with Makerspace teaching staff about how energy flows through a battery. They then saw the concept unfold in real time as they used alligator clips and copper wire to connect a disassembled toy to a battery pack that powered the toy with the flick of a switch.
That lesson sparked some discussion among students about similarities between powering the toy and turning on the lights before entering a room. After walking through Makerspace at Center City PCS, Ayala made note of how students could better understand academic jargon, as presented in real world situations and processes.
“The fact that I can sit down and have them do and create whatever is on their mind is amazing,” Ayala told The Informer. “I have a couple [of students] that want to be artists. They can go upstairs and learn something about soundproofing. They can learn about the different textiles… in the textiles and fashion room. I have a lot of kids that want to learn how to sew, that want to learn about home economics. This is the space for them.”
The Makerspace at Center City PCS: An Inside Look
During the latter part of September, hundreds of students, teachers, community members and local officials converged on Makerspace at Center City PCS for a grand opening celebration where revelers learned about new interactive space while perusing food trucks, vibing to live music, and navigating an obstacle course.
A makerspace, also known as a hackerspace or a hackerhub, is often stationed in libraries, universities and community centers as an environment for innovation, collaboration and skills building. These environments merge digital and analog technologies while providing ample opportunity for small group activities, the practice of a craft, and mastery of complex academic concepts.
“The ethos of maker-centered learning is that students see the design world as an accessible arena where they can see how things work and see opportunities or have the agency to make changes in the systems or the way things are designed,” said Sarah Chung, manager of Maker Learning at Center City PCS. “We want to inspire kids to see projects we do here and feel like [they] can go home and do this after [they] leave.”
Earlier this year, Chung, a curriculum developer with years of experience starting and managing makerspaces, prepared an activity for students learning in the BUILD Lab portion of Makerspace at Center City PCS. She described the activity as reminiscent of a simpler, less digitized, time that required more use of the senses. She also called it one of several examples at the Makerspace where students bridge the gap between their imagination and reality.
“These were toys that…we picked up and then our teachers helped take them apart and mount…onto these wooden boards, hammer in some nails, and they soldered the wires on,” Chung said. “The whole thing about maker-centered learning is there’s some risk involved. It kind of makes the learning more interesting [because] you’re interacting with a real phenomenon instead of just reading about it.”
In the BUILD Lab, a space dedicated to 3D art, design and engineering, students get to see how scientific processes unfold under what some would consider the most mundane, ubiquitous situations.
“Making that connection to the real world is also a foundation of maker education,” Chung told The Informer. “Even though we introduce the [science] vocabulary, we let them describe their own experience and validate that. It’s literally [about] what [they’re] seeing and experiencing. It makes it more approachable or relatable.”
The Makerspace at Center City PCS is also composed of the MAKER Lab, a general crafting space, as well as the STITCH Lab, where students focus on textile and fiber arts, sewing and fashion design. In the CODE Lab, students practice programming and coding while, in the MEDIA Lab, they practice media and art production.
Earlier this year, a fifth grade cohort produced a podcast on which they reflected on their state of being as young people. Under the tutelage of Ricky Saravia-Garcia, those entering the MEDIA Lab will also get to practice sound engineering, the likes of which is executed by rapper BigXthaPlug and other contemporary artists who sample old-school music.
Saravia-Garcia, a maker educator specializing in instructional technology, told The Informer that students visiting the Makerspace at Center City PCS will gain greater clarity about the hours that go into producing digital content.
“The work behind it is very important because you get to see how you can start from scratch and what you created in the end,” Saravia-Garcia said. “That’s one of the most missing pieces that people don’t really appreciate— this layer of creativity to finish [from] where you started.”
As digital content creation enjoys a boom, Saravia-Garcia expressed his hope that District students could corner the market to provide a unique perspective.
“A podcast is very powerful nowadays,” Saravia-Garcia told The Informer. “A lot of people listen to it, tune in to it on their way to work, just driving around or just doing anything on a daily basis. The whole game plan here is for students to be able to learn how to make one from scratch, and whatever ideas or information they want to put out on the world, that they’re able to put that out there and expose themselves.”
A Public Charter School CEO Looks to the Future
Center City PCS serves students from pre-kindergarten to 8th grade on campuses located in Brightwood, Capitol Hill, Congress Heights, NoMa, Petworth and Shaw. Makerspace at Center City PCS, located on 18th Street in Northeast, is equidistant from each campus.
“We wanted some equity in terms of how much time it took to get kids here,” said Russ Williams, president and CEO of Center City PCS. “We were trying to look within a reasonable radius of where [students] were to try to be somewhat central to all of the different schools in the city.”
Williams, in his 13th year at the helm of Center City PCS, said Makerspace at Center City PCS was a project four years in the making. As he recounted, administrators’ search for an open space ended when they found and renovated what used to be Blaydes Lock and Security. The location and open floor plan, Williams told The Informer, proved ideal for the hands-on academic experience that school leadership wanted to create.
“We’ve upgraded our curriculum at our campuses, but…when you’re trying to do STEAM concepts in smaller schools or older buildings, there are limitations,” Williams said. “If we want to make real interesting science available to our kids, what do we have to do? If we were also sending our kids to Maryland and Virginia to go to Makerspace, why do we not have one here?”
As a federal government furloughs and a shutdown compel the Bowser administration’s focus on sports, entertainment and technology as catalysts of economic growth, Williams said he’s focused, now more than ever, on improving students’ math and science proficiency.
He pointed out, however, that only could be done across the city with one interactive space.
“We’re going to increase the number of students in D.C. that are choosing STEAM as careers and we’ve got to improve the science education that we’re providing to our kids across the board,” Williams said. “This is one step in that direction but…there’s a hundred thousand public school students in D.C. public charter.”