Project Make Summer Camp was introduced during the summer 2012 at Comstock Middle School. Students in grades 7 & 8 were encouraged to enroll in order to participate in hands-on, technical education that promotes problem-solving and real-world applications. Interest in the camp was high, with students engaged in creative, project-based learning with a practical engineering focus.
Given the success of the camp and the interest of the students, Comstock has been able to continue this program during the school year with an elective "Maker Class".This elective is a precursor to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math ) focus at our feeder high school, Piner High School, which also has a Project Make elective.
Our Project Make elective is led by our Art Teacher, Dawn Thomas. She adds artistic and aesthetic influences to the work: adding an "A" into STEM to create a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) focus for our school going forward. This is compatible with our other electives that combine technology and the arts: Digital Storytelling, Performing Arts and our After School Programs as well. Middle School is the time for students to explore their capabilties to help them decide on a direction for their future.
The Project Make curriculum (both Camp and Course) is an outgrowth of the Maker movement associated with the
work of Dale Dougherty of O’Reilly Media in Sebastopol, CA. The Maker movement is a growing worldwide collective of people of all ages and backgrounds who are using simple and complex equipment, materials and technologies to find solutions to real-world problems as well as communicating their ideas, processes and findings with one another through various media.
Given the success of the camp and the interest of the students, Comstock has been able to continue this program during the school year with an elective "Maker Class".This elective is a precursor to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math ) focus at our feeder high school, Piner High School, which also has a Project Make elective.
Our Project Make elective is led by our Art Teacher, Dawn Thomas. She adds artistic and aesthetic influences to the work: adding an "A" into STEM to create a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) focus for our school going forward. This is compatible with our other electives that combine technology and the arts: Digital Storytelling, Performing Arts and our After School Programs as well. Middle School is the time for students to explore their capabilties to help them decide on a direction for their future.
The Project Make curriculum (both Camp and Course) is an outgrowth of the Maker movement associated with the
work of Dale Dougherty of O’Reilly Media in Sebastopol, CA. The Maker movement is a growing worldwide collective of people of all ages and backgrounds who are using simple and complex equipment, materials and technologies to find solutions to real-world problems as well as communicating their ideas, processes and findings with one another through various media.