MONTICELLO, Ill. (WAND) — Monticello Middle School is creating a safe space for students to push past boundaries and explore new interests. The school's unique program, Makerspace, is using STEM education to help students develop essential problem-solving skills to use in the future.
8th grader, Scarlett Mccleary, told WAND News, "I am a very expressive person, and I like to do little knits and crafts all the time so when I heard our school had makers space, I was like sign me up."
Makerspace is giving students a chance to express themselves while learning new concepts. The students helped decide what challenges they wanted to set for themselves during the school year, and every month the students take part in a different challenge.
6th grade science teacher and STEM coordinator, Jenna Bolen, said, "We have a monthly challenge that they can take part in otherwise they can come and create something that they would like out of various materials."
In October, the students set a goal to be able to build their own functional fishing poles. In order to determine if they passed the challenge the students established a set of guidelines that they had to meet.
Bolen said, "They said it should cast 10 feet and should be able to hold a half pound fish, and you need to be able to reel in what you catch and so we decided instead of just making the poles, we wanted to come and actually test them out."
The students were excited to show off their hard work as they reeled in their catch of the day. Many of the students were able to quickly start catching fish — showing they were successful in building their fishing pole, but Bolen says one of the most important skills she hopes her students walk away with is problem solving skills.
"I just hope that they can come to makerspace and find a place they can be truly creative and maybe solve a problem that they didn't think they would be able to do."
Bolen's attitude is paying off for her students. Many of the students showing that as they are getting ready to head to high school, like Mccleary they are ready to face any challenges that lie ahead of them.
Mccleary said, "You work through those problems so like trial and failure, but it really gives you hope that everything is going to work out."
Any student at Monticello Middle School is able to take part in Makerspace during their study hall.
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