Hilary Stouder troubleshooting the paper circuit with a student to make an LED light up using copper tape and a battery.

PIERCETON — Pierceton Elementary School’s Learning Commons features a Makerspace. A makerspace is an area designed to allow for ‘makers’ of any kind to gather, collaborate and be creative.  Pierceton Elementary’s goal of their makerspace is to allow students to have an area in the building that works as an extension of their classroom.  In this area, the intention is to encourage: free thinking, free choice and free exploration. Students can connect and collaborate with others through STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities and work on perseverance.

Teacher-librarian Hilary Stouder, technology teacher Abby Spurlin and technology coach Brittany Hamm are working together to expand and grow the makerspace concept at PES. They are currently attending monthly trainings through Region 8 in Fort Wayne to learn about new ideas to incorporate and fine tune the vision for the space.

This month the focus is paper circuits. Paper projects bring science, engineering, and art to life. Students in Mrs. Clutter’s fourth grade class are taking what they learned in science about electricity and applying it at a whole new level in the makerspace. Students learned about creating simple and parallel circuits with copper tape, Chibi LED lights, and batteries. They will go on to create a project using the circuit they create to light a house that they design.

This project truly allows students to collaborate, while troubleshooting problems together as they go along. Perseverance is at the heart of these projects, as students continue trying and adjusting until they are able to get their circuit to light the LED light.