STEAM & the Maker Mentality for School-age Youth
April 16, 2015
Are you looking for ways to engage school-age children in hands-on learning experiences at your library? Curious about injecting the maker mentality into your current programs and services? In this webinar, we’ll explore the philosophy behind STEAM and maker activities for youth before delving into a range of program ideas that can be applied at any library, regardless of space or budget. We’ll also identify some go-to resources to allow any library to start offering dynamic STEAM and maker activities with minimal fuss.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn the philosophies behind the STEAM and maker movements
- Understand how STEAM and maker activities contribute to dynamic informal learning
- Create STEAM programs and activities for school-age youth
- Apply the maker mentality to programs and services for school-age youth
- Identify key resources to aid in programming development and planning
Presenter
Amy Koester
Amy Koester is Youth & Family Program Coordinator at Skokie Public Library, where she oversees youth programming and selects fiction for ages 0–18. Amy has written about STEAM and making in youth librarianship for the ALSC Blog, School Library Journal, Children and Libraries, and LibrarySparks. She has also presented webinars, online classes, trainings and conference sessions on the topic at both state and national events. Amy shares library programs and professional musings on her blog, The Show Me Librarian.
Moderator
Janet Nelson
Janet is the former Director of Library Engagement and Solutions at Demco. She managed and developed relationships with key industry leaders to understand changing library trends and services.
Wow! Thank you SO MUCH for this great webinar!
We’ve been so busy I didn’t have a chance to watch this until today, but I learned that some of the things we’re busy with are STEAM activities! We celebrated Dia de los Ninos and one of our Library Board members has taught art in elementary schools for years and she ASKED if we would let her come up with some projects! We did everything from decorating skulls with markers or chalk, and cutting out paper banners, to painting chairs and puzzle pieces that became our bulletin board, and they all related to learning about other cultures! I’ll try to send you pictures Amy.
I have to say this is the best webinar I have seen and I am excited to try many of your ideas. I already ordered some of the books you mentioned and will be going onto the blogs. Also I will be sharing it with our Young Adult Librarian….she does a monthly activity with our Youth Council and was just saying she was running out of ideas…..this will be a huge help to her!
Thank you again! Sincerely, Crystal Bilyeu,, Cedar City, Utah
Glad you liked the webinar. Feel free to let us know if there are other subjects that may be helpful to you.