I have written about Makerspaces and Maker mindset pretty frequently, but there is a related concept called Breakerspace. Breakerspace refers to a space/time in which students are encouraged to explore and investigate the inner workings of various technology/
There is a particular student who is struggling quite a bit this year- he often walks out of his classrooms when he is experiencing anger, distress or frustration. We believe strongly that libraries can be sanctuaries, especially for students who struggle emotionally and socially, so we try to work with those students (and their teachers and paraeducators); it's better to have the students come to the library than to roam around unattended.
The student who came in today wandered around for a few minutes before going back into the Makerspace area. I have an old film projector which was a prop for the Escape Room we held last month (more on that in a future post).
When I went back to check on him, he was fiddling around with it, and he said "I wish I could take this apart, so I could see how it works inside."
Since it's my own film projector, and I know it doesn't work, I went and got a couple screwdrivers from our tool drawer. He was pretty surprised that I was so willing to let him take the thing apart, but I really didn't mind.
We unscrewed panels, looked at the gears inside, I noticed that the film reel is maked Eastman Kodak Rochester, NY so I told him that my mom used to work for Kodak and Rochester is my home city. . .
We got to talking about old film and old movies, so I showed him the Georges Melies picture "Trip to the Moon", which he was familiar with already because he's seen the movie Hugo. . .
I was glad that this student was enjoying himself, and that he was engaging with me, and hopefully getting something out of it.
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