strongly recommended by Bethany Thornton

Inspiring. Filled with practical examples, links to resources and vendors, and solid advice. ( )

ITL is a quality book on the maker movement. I should say that I had a basic knowledge of the maker ideas before picking up this book. I had taught in schools that had worked to implement makerspaces and carry those concepts into basic instruction, but we didn't have the power of a staff that could carry it through. This book has a lot of good ideas for educators and staff who need to know how to follow through and implement ideas. The concept of seeing beta mode as an opportunity - and that each learning opportunity is a beta test is something that will stick with me.

I read the book for the purpose of understanding making for a public library as part of a MLIS course. Truth be told, I don't think it's all that appropriate for public libraries, but for classrooms and school libraries, this book will help a lot, and there are a plethora of tools and websites mentioned to move your projects forward and engage audiences.

The fact that programming and fabrication are becoming mainstays in making and something that young learners are engaged with means you should pick this book up. To shape the environment you need a good understanding of the options that exist. ITL will give you that knowledge and then some.

nonfiction; STEM lesson plans. Lots of stuff in here--will have to come back to after I've got more of a handle on all the things I want to do ( )

Invent to Learn attempts to motivate, inspire and encourage K-12 teachers to include more "making" in the classroom. I'm an electrical engineering professor, and all of the classes I teach have intense hands-on components to them. Every class has a lab once a week where students are expected to build things. Two of my classes have design projects in which the students come up with a problem to solve, and then build a solution using what they've learned in class. (The only reason my third class doesn't have a design project component is that I've only taught it once so far and haven't integrated one in to the curriculum yet!)

What I see on the higher-education side of the spectrum is students who are afraid to play around with computers, who don't want to press all of the buttons on the oscilloscope to see what they do, and who are generally afraid of making mistakes. I try to get them out of that mindset, but I can't imagine what they could do if they hadn't spent the previous 13 years of their lives engaged in rote instruction rather than creative tinkering and exploration. I purposely don't tell students in one of my classes what to do as a design project. I don't even give them ideas. I have found that I am never able to come with ideas half as cool as the things my students think up. In that, I totally agree with the authors that it is imperative not to limit the creativity of students, whatever their age. However, I have found that a lot of guidance and support is required in between project idea and successful execution. That's where I see my role as a professor, and this more-or-less meshes up with the viewpoints of the authors of this book.

The "Less Us, More Them" ideas in this book explain how students should be taking the central role, not teachers. I have always jokingly called this principle "outsourcing" in that I outsource the effort to my students, whereas I am always there as a facilitator and (hopefully) knowledgeable helper if the need arises to use me. My students, as indicated above, have always shown themselves to solve problems with a unique mindset and in different ways than I would. Giving students too much instruction limits their ability to solve problems in unique ways. I couldn't agree more with the author's viewpoints on this.

Students, especially engineering students, and especially in higher ed, hate memorizing, they hate "learning" things "because they have to" or because "the teacher said so." Without the ability to really see how their ideas can help improve the world around them, or heck, even just to blink some LEDs and look cool, students will not be motivated to create the technology of the future.

I hope that K-12 educators will be empowered by books like this to add more creativity, tinkering and experimentation to the classroom. I would love to live in a world where my students aren't afraid of the open-ended-ness of design projects and didn't feel that they had to cling to me for support in every step they take along the way to becoming an engineer. Lots of interesting ideas are given for projects that would be suitable for classrooms, and most of them need not be terribly expensive. ( )