Community Maker Spaces

Up until last week I had never heard about Maker Spaces and since learning about them and seeing how they can benefit and inspire young minds it occurred to me that these spaces should be made available to students at school to access at recess just like they would any other club or sport. However, when I thought about how to create a space like this in my own school, a school tha has very high needs, a significant number of behavioural concerns as well as a large student populaion, several obstacles came to mind. First off, how do we promote such a space so as to ensure studens are coming for the right reasons and not just to play or socialize? For studens like myself, who never know where to start, how do we set them on the right track? Most significantly, how do we fund a space like this that would require resources and tools not typically available in a school for students to access? Is it feasible to share costs with community agencies and rather than making the space available to students during the school day, making it available to all youth in the evenings and weekends to come and collaborate and share ideas?

Maker Spaces appear to be a valuable asset when it comes to collaborative inquiry and allows students the opportunity to explore their creative ideas and network with others who may share the same interest or be abe to further develop on their ideas, however it seems that the idea and existence of maker spaces is typically reserved for older students and thus it is my intent and goal to create a space for our young minds to embark on the journey on invention.