Toward the end of the 2000s, researchers and educators started to consider the use of digital fabrication in education. In 2008 Stanford University launched the FabLab@School project, and started building FabLabs in K-12 schools around the world. In 2009 the MC2STEM High School in Ohio (USA) opened its first digital fabrication lab. In 2011 the Maker Media launched the MakerSpace project with DARPA funding. In 2011 and 2012 alone countless museums, schools, community centers, and libraries announced plans to build digital fabrication and ‘making’ facilities—it became mainstream. Despite this resurgence of fabrication labs and “making” in formal and informal settings, the ideas behind this movement are at least a century old. Digital fabrication and “making” are based on three theoretical and pedagogical pillars: experiential education, constructionism, and critical pedagogy.

The article by Maria Xanthoudaki provides a comprehensive overview of the concept of STEAM education, its origins, and its potential benefits. Xanthoudaki begins by tracing the history of the term STEAM, which emerged in the United States in the early 2010s as a way to emphasize the importance of the arts in STEM education. She then discusses the different interpretations of STEAM, which range from seeing the arts as a way to make STEM more accessible to students to viewing the arts as essential partners in STEM learning.

The constructionist movement in European education is a pedagogical approach that emphasizes the role of learners in creating their own knowledge and understanding through active engagement with materials, ideas and people.

Constructivism is a theory of learning that suggests that individuals construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world through their experiences and interactions with it. This theory has been influential in the field of education and has had a particularly...

By Mike Hobbiss Unsurprisingly, teachers are very interested in the brain, and excited about the potential for psychology and neuroscience evidence to be used in improving what they do (see for example the responses to this survey). It’s a shame, then, that so little...

3rd Free-ED Webinar Registration: https://bit.ly/HybridWebinar3 STEAM education with innovative methods and digital tools supporting hybrid education. The host institution: Johannes Kepler University, Linz 16th February 2022 17.00 - 20. 00 EET/ 16.00 - 19. 00 CET...

Piaget and Papert are both constructivists in that they view children as the builders of their own cognitive tools, as well as of their external realities. For them, knowledge and the world are both constructed and constantly reconstructed through personal experience....

In this week's Future Positive podcats, XPRIZE’s own Neama Dadkhahnikoo sits down with A.I. entrepreneur Anita Schjøll Brede to ask her all about her experience as a thought leader and woman in A.I., her tenacity to identify problems and her incredible ability to...

Here are some scientists that your kids and students might like to meet. Feel free to print this poster for your classrooms and at home (no commercial use allowed, please. ) The high-res version is HERE. To see my other free posters, visit my boutique and click on...

Abstract Purpose Globally, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary learning in schools has become an increasingly popular and growing area of interest for educational reform. This prompts discussions about Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics...