Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom

Review

"The Maker Movement in schools now has a bible." - Larry Magid, Technology Columnist, Huffington Post "Learning is often confused with education. Martinez and Stager clearly describe 'learning learning' through engagement, design and building. The best way to understand circles is to reinvent the wheel." - Nicholas Negroponte, Founder MIT Media Lab & One Laptop Per Child "Educators will be hard pressed to find a more essential, important book for making sense of not just the exciting, game-changing "maker" technologies that are currently exploding around us, but of the absolutely powerful learning opportunities they present for our students as well. Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager are a teacher's perfect guides into this fast growing, innovative world of creative problem solving and construction using an array of new, innovative computing devices, many of which fit in our pockets. Even more, Invent To Learn creates a required new context for modern learning, and it offers an accessible roadmap for re-imagining schools, classrooms, and personal practice. It's a must read for those wanting to remain relevant in their student's learning lives." - Will Richardson, Author of Why School? How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere "Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering and Engineering is the most important book of the 21st century for anyone interested in children and learning. The title says it all. Children learn best by making things whether physical or virtual. The authors highlight antecedents to this burgeoning new movement. Martinez and Stager describe making and tinkering as part of a long intellectual tradition and mention contributions of diverse luminaries such as Leonardo, Piaget, and Papert. This guidebook offers insights and suggestions as to how to bring making, tinkering, and engineering into learners' lives through classroom and out-of-school settings. Ideas and resources for implementing the ideas are clearly articulated. This beautifully written book opens up an exciting and stimulating educational adventure." - Cynthia Solomon, Ed.D. Co-inventor of the Logo programming language and author of Computer Environments for Children: A Reflection on Theories of Learning and Education "Sylvia and Gary have created a dynamic masterwork that engages readers from the opening sentence to the last. The craft of making things becomes a philosophical cornerstone to a true education, as this book makes abundantly clear. Rather than rant against the status quo, this book shows both why the transformation of education is essential, and presents specific strategies to make these changes. In many parts of the world, education has lost its way, and this book provides a map back to the educational experiences that are both tremendously effective and a great deal of fun as well." - David Thornburg, Ph.D., Director, Thornburg Center "Invent to Learn is filled with inspiration and practical ideas that I cannot wait to share with colleagues. Gary and Sylvia have provided not only the rational and history, but also practical how-tos in a thoughtful book perfect for teachers, parents and administrators. I expect the number of maker spaces to grow as this book makes them feel much more accessible to all teachers and schools. You will finish the book inspired to make programming, invention and making a reality." - Shelly Luke-Willie, Elementary School Principal, Chadwick International School - Songdo, South Korea. "A lucid guide to create and shape new and exciting learning environments for all, where digital devices are the learners' technology, the constructing tools to make, to invent, to understand... The maker movement flows gracefully to the classroom." - Leda Milena Muñoz García, Ph.D., Director of Fundación Omar Dengo (Costa Rica's Computers in Schools NGO)

About the Author

Sylvia works in schools around the world to bring the power of authentic learning into classrooms, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) subjects. Sylvia speaks, writes, and advocates for student-centered project-based learning, gender equity in STEM, computer programming, and life-long learning. Sylvia is the principal advisor to the NSF-funded Stanford University FabLearn Fellows program.Gary is one of the world's leading experts and advocates for computer programming, robotics and learning-by-doing in classrooms. In 1990, Dr. Stager led professional development in the world's first laptop schools and played a major role in the early days of online education. In addition to being a popular keynote speaker at some of the world's most prestigious education conferences, Gary is a journalist, teacher educator, consultant, professor, software developer, and school STEM. Director. An elementary teacher by training, he has taught students from preschool through doctoral studies. Gary is the founder of the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute for educators.