Opening Minds with 3D Printing

We have been on a year-long mission to load our media center with MakerSpace tools and technology. While that may seem non-traditional to some, I think it is the future of libraries. We get validation for our decisions everyday when we see the kids' faces and hear their questions.

The other day, we had a 3D print going and a few kids passed by. Immediately, they asked, "What is that?" As I started explaining what it is and what it does, their eyes popped open. "You mean, you printed a dog? What else can you print?" I told them they could print anything that they could imagine and design. They were quiet for a bit. "You mean, anything?" they asked. "Yep!" I told them. 

The whole idea behind the media center here at Lely Elementary is to get kids to think, imagine, and wonder about ideas they may not have thought of yet. We want to open their minds, through their reading, through our conversations, and through the technology that we are bringing into the library. Once their minds open up to new possibilities, they can think about things they had never considered before. Since every person thinks differently, we are accessing some thinking that no one has ever done before. Each child had genius, and when every child sees that there are many more possibilities than they had thought, then those kiddos can apply their genius differently than they did before. This is the mission of our media center at Lely Elementary. 

We will continue to load our media center with ways for kids to think and imagine. The more robust our environment is, the more kids' minds can be opened and the more of their genius we can access. This symbiotic relationship between materials and thinking will snowball into some amazing successes for us this year.