My fourth interview was with Mrs. Wilcox on how she has her students use problem solving throughout library time. Mrs. Wilcox talks about how her school became STEM certified which created an urgency to look at things that were out there for library appropriate lessons. She has a makerspace that she has had for years which the students love to look at and create things out of paper and blocks. When I asked her how does she EXPLORE in her library, she answered MAKERSPACE is my exploration and Book Journeys.
I was very excited to hear about book journeys. She said they take a book and normally is a non fiction book and explore the area it is describing in the book. It could be somewhere hot like California or somewhere in the Mid West. They use mapping skills, data skills such as look up crops and food eaten there. She tends to use this as a three week lesson for students to journey through the book, read the book and do some research with these. She used one during Christmas time like this Sara J Creation one to tell the story of the gingerbread man. She was able to make cards and they researched cookie dough and how to make gingerbread cookies. She used this with a fiction book.
Within this project they had to self assess themselves about making a recipe and creating toppings for the gingerbread. They had to come up with ways to make their gingerbread different she said.
Exploring through her makerspace as a student she says, helps students with inquiry and knowledge. Many times students work in groups and have to listen to each other before they can begin to find a solution.
I enjoyed her makerspace and her ideas and want to use some of them in my library one day.
