Media Center
MakerSpace
The Library Media Center encourages “making” by establishing and providing makerspaces that emphasize learning-through-doing in a social environment. Making is an effective tool that helps young people build 21st Century skills and inspires them to focus on STEAM careers (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics). By providing such hands-on experiences, time, and space for making, students pursue opportunities to learn through trial and error, exploration, innovation, questioning, practical application, and collaboration.
The makerspace program at Saint Patrick Catholic School is designed to prepare all students to think critically, master challenges, and participate constructively as citizens in an interdependent global society. Built upon the foundation of constructivism, educational makerspaces are learner-centered and facilitate cooperative and participatory learning. Various tools and materials inspire students to tinker, create, and invent which leads to better thinking through better questioning. Such inspiration allows for endless possibilities to emerge. Makerspaces encourage students to create tangible artifacts while appealing to a variety of learning styles and skills. Fostering curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, makerspaces build student confidence while embracing natural collaboration. Ultimately, the outcome of educational makerspaces leads to determination, creative problem solving, and preparation for real-world challenges.
At Saint Patrick Catholic School, we are committed to empowering the individual with knowledge and strengthening the community through the exchange of ideas. As our mission states (in part), “every domain on the ‘Grad at Grad’ calls upon the student’s ability to research, evaluate, and use information for problem solving.” The Library Media Center is “fundamental to providing students with the resources and practice to acquire the lifelong characteristics, abilities, and skills” to be active and engaged learners and producers in the global economy. Educational makerspaces at Saint Patrick Catholic School inspire deeper learning, support student growth, and initiate students’ inquiry for the development of knowledge and critical thinking processes.
