MAKERSPACE IN MIDDLE SCHOOL

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December 21, 2020

For information on enrollment and registration at Notre Dame, please visit the admissions section of our website here.

Students in Notre Dame Middle School create fully functional furniture and arcade games for their unit finale.

Notre Dame Middle School makerspace classes over the past several years have resulted in numerous projects, including 3D-printed emblems, "Houseboards," props for plays, hats for the homeless, Rube Goldberg machines, iPhone holders and a special collaborative project with the lower school that resulted in stuffed plushie animals inspired by Picasso.

For the last project of the semester, Lauren Zajdel's makerspace class went big. As in furniture/arcade game big, where students created and built furniture and games manufactured out of everyday objects and materials.

Zajdel said that students specifically were assigned the task of making cardboard, life-sized pieces of furniture or other objects that would also be functional. Each small group interpreted this differently. Some wanted to actually build a piece of furniture to sit on and others wanted to build an arcade game that would be fully interactive.

"These projects, which took about six weeks to build, were guided by the design process," said Zajdel, who also teaches visual art in the middle school. "In addition, groups were given a $50 budget to purchase supplies needed for their designs."

Zajdel added that the students concluded the unit with a PowerPoint presentation reflecting on what they learned, the struggles they faced, and how they overcame them.

"The kids continue to amaze me with their creativity," she said.

For information on enrollment and registration at Notre Dame, please visit the admissions section of our website here.

Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org

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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. Notre Dame Preparatory School enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower schools enroll students in pre-kindergarten through grade eight. All three schools are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the National Association of Independent Schools. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school’s home page at www.ndpma.org.