The Maker culture in the activities of American Space Madrid
At the end of last year at the International Institute, a meeting was held with the professor and educational consultant Lorella Lamonaca under the title “Why Making Matters”. In it, he highlighted the importance that the social aspect of the library currently has as a community space and the spaces for “creative learning” within them in the United States.
This trend, which is also on the rise in Europe and Spain, has been developing for some time at the American Space Madrid through different activities. Through talks and projects for children and young people, it is intended to promote STEAM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics) and the "maker" culture.
Maker projects and activities at the ASM:
These projects began with the pioneering “GirlsTech”, focused on promoting STEM specifically among girls, and have continued with the successful “Technovation” and the more recent “Curiosity Machine Artificial Intelligence”.
Also asm programming organizes monthly meetings through the "Family Maker Club" and the "Maker Club" to learn about programming, robotics, 3D printing, electronics, creative crafts or scientific experimentation.
Musical creation workshops are also carried out through computer code (live coding) within "Computer Music Pioneers". Added to this are the highly demanded creation sessions with Lego pieces in the “MiniMakers” activity in collaboration with volunteers from the Fullbright program.
The activities are carried out mainly in Spanish to encourage any child to participate and are led by different experts who guide and teach them in a very dynamic workshop format.
Maker activities are not only carried out at the International Institute. Through the “American Cultural Bites: Makers Unite!” every month the ASM takes a robotics activity with Littlebits to different public libraries. In addition, through collaboration with La Casa del Lector, they are also being carried out in said institution.
Following the renovation of the library planned for this summer, we hope to be able to offer a permanent Maker space, which will give a new dimension to ASM's contribution to this stream of learning. We hope to become a benchmark in the city for this type of practice that is so common in the United States.
