The Children's Museum's Maker Educator Boot Camp MAKESHOP was developed through years of experience and research. Participants:
- work in individual and group settings for both hands-on activities and discussions
- attend four process-focused workshops designed to give both practical and theoretical insight into different forms of making
- use both MAKESHOP’s Principles of Practice and other research tools to delve deeply into the learning that happens through making
- use visioning tools designed by the Museum's Learning and Research department to inform institutional direction as it relates to making
Teachers, librarians, and administrators are encouraged to attend MAKESHOP to guide implementations outside of the Museum. The Children's Museum aims to create and sustain effective makerspaces and related programs for learning through its Making+Learning program, a cooperative agreement between the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The project is supported by thought partners from the Exploratorium, the Chicago Public Library, North Carolina State University Libraries, and the Maker Education Initiative.
Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, in partnership with New York Hall of Science, conducted a three-year design-based study of family participation in museum-based makerspaces with the goal of reliably designing physical, social, and spatial tools to support meaningful family participation in museum-based makerspaces that employ a deep understanding of productive patterns of family participation and their associated learning outcomes in these spaces based on empirical research, learning literature, and practitioner experience.
Future research can expand upon the impact of museum-based makerspaces on formal education spaces and how concepts from museum-based education can be brought into the classroom.