Computing, Engineering, and Makers Innovation Creation Lab
Band of Gypsys
Beginning in 2010, I had started visiting a variety of schools and institutions that were offering various forms of “makers” courses, clubs, or had created makers workstations within their schools. While the trend was to place small makerspaces in a library or as a workstation with a 3D printer in a classroom, I wanted to establish a true Makers Innovation Lab. We possessed large preexisting, unused spaces across the first floor of the building, which provided wonderful potential for eventually housing a fully functional makers lab.
However, I was not interested in trends. I was also not interested in competing with other schools. For years, I endured “motivational” speeches that always seemed to circle back to us competing with other college preparatory schools. I found this mantra anything but motivational. I wanted our school to move beyond trends and to set the standard. I wanted other schools to compete with us. In 2011, I arranged for us to visit Niles West High School (just north of Chicago) with some of my fellow science teachers and administrators. We visited the campus to observe Niles West’s STEM Lab and adjoining makers lab fabrication space. The visit provided us data in terms of lab design, space, and the layout for a functional design/fabrication hub.
Consequently, we had two large adjoining rooms in the middle of the building near the student cafeteria that were highly visible and in a high traffic area. My goal was to repurpose those two spaces and a smaller classroom area into STEAM hubs. I knew I wanted aquaponics, robotics, makers lab, and sound engineering but I was not certain where each of those spaces would best fit in each of the former shop rooms. It was also not clear what program initiative we could afford to roll out first. I knew pioneering each of these innovative learning spaces would revolutionize our curricular offerings and revitalize teaching and learning at the school for decades to come. Creating STEAM hubs throughout the school was a priority goal in my capacity as an instructional leader.
We were considering establishing either an aquaponics lab facility next door to a multiuse STEAM lab or an aquaponics lab facility next door to a makers research lab. The issues associated with implementing the makers lab primarily included costs and concerns regarding existing computer science instructional capacity. Establishing a makers lab would require additional time for talent acquisition, budgeting, and designing curriculum.
Articulation and Assemblage
Fortunately, I had begun collaborating with Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago in 2006 for a variety of projects when I was working in Englewood as an instructional coach for science. The relationship I established with IIT continued after transitioning into my position as assistant principal at Lane Tech. I continued collaborating with IIT throughout the years and my science department chair served as a steward for the school, shepherding relationships with a variety of STEM departments with IIT to nurture partnerships.
We shared ideas with IIT with respect to aquaponics, makers lab, robotics, and a multiuse lab space for STEAM learning. In 2011, IIT created and shared with us a variety of designs and floor plans for the aquaponics lab placed aside a multiuse STEAM lab. We were able to collaborate with IIT’s Department of Architecture and they came out to the school to tour the eleven spaces we wanted to eventually convert into a variety of innovative STEAM learning hubs. After reviewing the spaces, one of their architecture professors and an architecture student created a model for lab designs as well as a presentation with recommendations.
Based on the consultation, it was decided the aquaponics lab would be best served if it was placed next to a multiuse lab space to begin transforming the available classroom learning environments and curricular offerings. The rationale included balcony space, electrical needs, ventilation, and proximity to the basement Considerations also included freight elevator accessibility and location of the loading dock.
Visiting other schools, learning what other organizations were doing, and consulting and partnering with IIT provided valuable insight with respect to what was possible. As an instructional leader, I learned the value of considering alternative perspectives for improved decision-making. I learned how to lead through discovery and improvisation. I learned how to make my vision come to fruition to make possibilities realities.
It became obvious that a makers lab would be better located in a different space that was originally used as a foundry lab three decades earlier but had been converted into a staff cafeteria that was receiving virtually no use. That particular space possessed a balcony that was configured differently compared to the other areas (the balcony was more square than the other rooms). That particular space also had an additional room below the balcony that could be converted to house the makerspace’s louder carvers and laser cutters.
In the Weightlessness of Pixelated Space
In 2012, our computer science program was shut down and discontinued due to low enrollment. Our computer science curricular offerings had become stagnant and severely antiquated. Prior to being shut down, students enrolled in computer science were actually taking one semester of Word and a second semester of Excel for CS credit. Students demonstrated frustration with both the lack of curricular relevance and lack of rigor. As a result, outside of AP Computer Science, the electives offered were irrelevant and non-sustainable in terms of student enrollment and applicability.
We spent a full year revisioning computer science course offerings and creating a foundation for ensuring future course offerings would remain relevant and sustainable. As an instructional leader, I made certain to empower our new computer science department chair, Dan Law, by providing resources and the academic freedom to imagine new, innovative, meaningful curricula to excite all learners to enroll in our unique course offerings. Dan was intrinsically motivated to create and tirelessly worked in developing new, exciting, cutting edge computer science course offerings and collaborated with administrators and colleagues alike. We partnered with internal and external stakeholders to develop curriculum and recruited new staff to deliver curricular to our students. We were able to begin reoffering computer science in 2013 with updated, relevant courses such as OS Apps Development and Android Design, Human Interactive Design, Introduction to AI, Web Development, and coding. We also partnered with University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) in developing Computer Science curricula for our students. As a result, we were able to offer a joint UIC-Lane Tech Computer Science course for dual credit.
New course offerings included: Computer Programming for utilizing algorithmic problem-solving techniques for transitioning from consumers of technology to makers of technology; Elements of Computing Systems (which was the school’s first Computer Engineering course!); Exploring Computer Science for reviewing concepts related to human-computer interaction, problem-solving, web development, and robotics; Media Computation for creating expressive media by manipulating computational materials (like images and sound files) for computation; Software Design Android Apps (Software App I) for focusing on developing and bringing Google Android apps to market; and Web Development for introducing students to the programming and design skills needed to create modern interactive “Web 2.0” websites and applications.
A Favored Souvenir
As a result of being able to re-establish computer science in 2013, we were in a unique position to not only completely revamp course offerings, but to also hire new staff with skills to deliver up-to-date computer science core content. One of our new hires, Jeff Solin, was especially imaginative, creative and an incredible joy to work with.
At the beginning of the 2013 school year, Jeff requested we order a 3-D printer and scanner so he could set up a small makerspace in his computer science classroom. During the next day’s Staff Institute Day, I saw one of my assistant principals, Damir Ara, as well as Jeff, as we were all breaking for lunch. I asked Damir and Jeff if they wanted to take a walk over to one of our nearby vendors to pick up sandwiches for lunch. Before we left, Damir and I walked Jeff through the old teachers’ lunchroom, which was going unused, and was identified a couple of years earlier as a potential space for a makers lab with IIT.
The lunchroom space originally served the school as a foundry shop classroom some 60 years earlier before being closed and made into a staff lunchroom. As we walked the space, I asked Jeff what he thought about creating an actual makers lab as a fully functional research space for innovative, fabrication curricular content. Jeff was blown away, as he had asked for supplies but was now being offered a production facility.
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Jeff expressed concerns about the costs. We would be starting from scratch and it would be expensive. He also had questions about what course code we would utilize because nothing like this existed in the entire city (there was no code for makers lab or space, so it would be impossible to offer). I shared with Jeff that if he committed to designing curriculum with our computer science department chair for developing innovative course content to support students for decades to come, I would budget accordingly over the next year. I also committed to spearheading efforts with external stakeholders to raise funds to provide the facility space, also for decades to come.
Makers ICL printing station
Makers ICL printing
During my tenure as principal, that conversation and that day – walking the space and then walking to lunch and hearing the excitement and ideas shared between Damir and Jeff – remains one of my fondest memories. Damir had worked with incessant dedication in terms of recruiting computer science staff to revitalize our computer science program. I was extremely impressed with his work ethic and genuine excitement for improving teaching and learning. We were rolling out course-after-course in one creative, innovative learning space after the other, and he was always at my side. He was steadily supportive and energized to improve the school, and like me, it was for all learners. We were also creating content that existed nowhere else in a district of 550 schools, and our partnership was more a band of brothers than fellow administrators or colleagues.
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Breaking the Code
I was able to commit to these projects as a result of me being in a unique position as principal at Lane Tech College Prep. I was able to create and retire curricular offerings to serve students while also responsibly utilizing a budget of $23 million for retaining staff and establishing meaningful course content. A budget of that amount is virtually unheard of for a principal in any school district.
Additionally, and in many ways most importantly, I had a friend whom I worked with years earlier when I was a district area instructional coach who I was now able to work directly in creating course codes. As a result, I was able to bypass the bureaucratic red tape of requesting the creation of course codes. Had I not been able to do so, we would have never received course codes for robotics, aquaponics, makers lab, sound engineering, or any of the new computer science courses we were rolling out.
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The inert magnitude of bureaucratic red tape from central office was seemingly insurmountable for one course, let alone the three-dozen or more course codes we began creating in 2011. I did not share any of this with Jeff, because had I done so, I would have also had to delve into a prolonged discussion regarding how it is sometimes better to ask for forgiveness than permission. There was constant turnover in terms of district and regional (area and network) leadership. There was also an inordinate number of middle management positions and personnel that created a listless bureaucracy for school leaders. Given our specific situation, we were revitalizing curriculum for one of the largest schools in the state and nation, and course codes would likely not have been issued for many, many years, and we were already 13 years into the 21st century! I always try to remember this whenever I am about to state, “We are developing 21st century teaching and learning for blah, blah blah…” We have been well into the 21st century for a number of years. I was also not prepared to wait until the 22nd century for three-dozen or more course codes for the innovative content we were exploring and developing.
Dancing Days
After a full year of curricular and budgetary planning, we opened the district’s first and only Human Computer Interaction Innovation Creation Lab (ICL Makerspace) housed in a 4,000 square foot facility. The ICL Makers Space is a convergence of design, computer science, and art. It is an area of contagious learning, and an arena for students to design, prototype, and engineer innovative products for the world around them. The space serves to provide all students of all backgrounds a forum to explore the design process, and develop ideas for statements for solving problems. The space also serves as a hub for interdisciplinary teaching and learning throughout the learning organization.
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Students working in Makers ICL
Carvey promo video
