Chapter 1
Resources mentioned in Chapter 1 – History
- The Children’s Machine: Rethinking School In The Age Of The Computer – In 1993, Seymour Papert looked back on the first decade of computers in schools and predicted what what might lie ahead in this still relevant and accessible book.
- Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop-from Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication – Neil Gershenfeld’s prescient blueprint for the personal fabrication revolution.
- Instructables – A DIY online community that allows you to explore and upload creations. Owned by Autodesk. Look for the educator portal for curated resources sorted by grade levels and subjects.
- Make Magazine Projects – Projects in electronics, craft, science, art, robots, and many more categories in all ranges of challenge.
- How Stuff Works – Diagrams, videos, and podcast explanations of how things work. Originally this site mostly featured machines and technology, it now encompasses a wider array of health, lifestyle, culture, and other possibly inappropriate categories.
- Sylvia’s Super Awesome Maker Show – YouTube star Super-awesome Sylvia and her father produce a whimsical video show showing how to build fun electronic projects.
- Geek Dad & Geek Mom – Chris Anderson started the “Geek Dad” blog on Wired magazine in 2007 but has since passed it on to a team of writers. The site features product reviews and project ideas for families.
- Howtoons – Comic strip stories and project kits to inspire building, designing, engineering and inventing. (Web archive only)
- Unbored: The Essential Field Guide to Serious Fun – A book with a zillion high and low-tech project ideas with suggestions for amusing yourself. Also, Unbored Games and Unbored Adventures.
- 62 Projects to Make with a Dead Computer: (And Other Discarded Electronics) – Computer hacking takes on a whole new meaning when you’re going at it with a screwdriver and hammer.
- Geek Dad: Awesomely Geeky Projects and Activities for Dads and Kids to Share – The Geek Dad series features books of cool family projects, science experiments, and more.
- Geek Mom: Projects, Tips, and Adventures for Moms and Their 21st-Century Families – More fun projects for families to build together.
- 50 Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do and Why) – Gever Tulley’s self-explanatory classic on messing-about in the real world with real stuff, just like real kids.
- Make Magazine – A print and online magazine for inventors and tinkerers of all ages.
- HackSpace Magazine – Although published in partnership with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, this magazine offers open source projects for a wide variety of physical computing and fabrication projects. All issues can be downloaded for free.
- Maker Faire – See and share inventions around the world at one of hundreds of Maker Faires and Mini Maker Faires around the world.
- Fab Foundation – MIT Center for Bits and Atoms support site for the international network of fab(rication) labs.
- FabLearn – FabLearn is a network of researchers and K-12 educators working to bring constructionist learning to education.
- Sugru – Miraculous shapeable air-cured rubber, because “the future needs fixing!“
- DailyPapert – Archive of articles and multimedia of Seymour Papert curated by Gary Stager.
- Mindstorms: Children, Computers, And Powerful Ideas – Constructionism explained as the way people naturally learn. In it, Papert explores how learning to program computers and gain mastery over them can influence how children learn everything else.
- The Children’s Machine: Rethinking School In The Age Of The Computer – Looking back on the first decade of computers in schools and what lies ahead.
- The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap – How parents can understand computers as thinking and learning partners for their children.
- What’s the Big Idea? Toward a Pedagogy of Idea Power – One of Papert’s strongest and most recent papers.
- Climbing to Understanding: Lessons from an Experimental Learning Environment for Adjudicated Youth – By David Cavallo, Seymour Papert, and Gary Stager.
- Reggio Children – The international resource for educators interested in the Reggio Emilia approach.
- Reggio Children Books & DVDs – Official distributor of Reggio Children’s resources.
- The Hundred Languages of Children – The definitive book on the Reggio Emilia Approach edited by Carolyn Edwards, Lella Gandini, and George Forman.
- Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) – The National Research Council, the National Science Teachers Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Achieve released the Next Generation Science Standards to modernize science teaching and learning in US schools.
- Recontextualizing the Makerspace: Culturally Responsive Education – Nettrice Gaskins argues for a redefinition of technology and technological processes that include engagements by groups underrepresented in the DIY/makerspace/hacker culture movement.
- Scaling in FabLearn Denmark – Two reports from a consortium of schools participating in FabLearn Denmark document the progress of a large scale implementation of making and digital fabrication labs across Denmark. There is good research and conclusions about curriculum, assessment, and professional development.
- Designing Reality: How to Survive and Thrive in the Third Digital Revolution – Neil Gershenfeld and his two brothers forecast a world where fabrication technology looks like a universal replicator straight out of Star Trek. They disagree, however, on whether this will democratize fabrication, creating self-sufficient cities and the ability to make (almost) anything, or whether it will lead to massive inequality.
- DIYbio – Do-It-Yourself Biology community and resources.
- BioBuilder – Synthetic biology curriculum and resources for middle and high school classrooms. BioBuilderClub offers support for high school teams participating in an annual project exhibition.
- bio.maker.lab – High school activities and labs using the bio.maker.lab, a low cost mobile device used in synthetic biology experiments.