March is International Ideas Month! Idea generation is an important skill for students. Maker education and design thinking (both aspects of making) nurture ideas in students! Students of any age can participate in making through short challenges, projects, or built-in maker opportunities—all of which allow students to generate ideas.
If you would like to introduce making in your classroom during International Ideas Month, here are a few ideas to get started. Picture books are a great place to start to introduce idea generation and making! Read What Do You Do with an Idea? aloud in class, then try out some activities centered around the book. Give students a maker challenge, then take them on an ideation/creation expedition to help them generate ideas to solve the challenge. These quick activities will introduce making and are sure to generate lots of new ideas for you and your students!
Ready to take it a little further? Implement Maker Mondays! It’s a great way to kick off International Ideas Month and to implement structured making in your classroom or library. You can also implement the IDEAS Maker Program, which has full instructions and activities for 12 weeks of making. Just like the name suggests, it’s all about the ideas!
Students can generate ideas in many ways. They can try webbing with an easy-to-use tool like Popplet or using paper. Ideation in making is a process that students will use to generate ideas during maker projects. Brainstorming can be done as a group using a program like IdeaBoardz or on their own using a worksheet. Try out bad idea generation for a fun activity.
However you choose to do it, try out maker activities to turn your students into super idea generators! As always, check out TeachesFirst resources and blog posts for more great ideas for your classroom. Happy making during International Ideas Month!
I loved reading about your emphasis on maker education and its positive impact on students! My school recently began a “Drop Everything and STEAM” program this past school year. Once each month, all students in the school would simultaneously collaborate with classmates to complete a challenge. Students would begin by generating ideas through discussion, as well as writing and drawing on brainstorming organizers. Then, students were provided with specific materials to construct and test their solution. My students were thrilled to participate in this each month, and it was lovely to see the different solutions they came up with!