Project Zero Perspectives: Making, Thinking, Understanding

Educational initiatives that emphasize making, design and tinkering are becoming increasingly popular in K-12 education. Through afterschool programs, technology classes and integrated maker classes, new pedagogies are aimed at encouraging young people to “learn to make” and “make to learn.” In this course, researchers from Project Zero and collaborating practitioners will present the teaching and learning opportunities offered by maker-centered experiences. Participants will engage in a series of hands-on activities with the goals of cultivating observation skills and encouraging critical analysis of the made dimensions of our world. Presenters will draw on Project Zero’s Agency by Design project, which is conducting research through interviews, site visits and action research with partnering prek-12 schools in Oakland, CA.