Make! An Hour of Exploration

–by Alison Clare–

“Playrooms and games, animals and plants, wood and nails must take their place side-by-side with books and words.” — Angelo Patri

The Elementary School and Middle School are making a conscious effort to advocate for tinkering, making, engineering, and designing to be included in the daily lives of our students. We are doing this not just because it’s fun—although it is—we are doing this because tinkering, making, engineering, and designing are powerful ways to learn. Students become problem solvers, critical thinkers, and incredibly empowered to learn when they have opportunities to work on projects that are similar to the projects they encountered during Make! An Hour of Exploration. 

Make! An Hour of Exploration was an after-school event for RIS students and their favorite adults to come to school, have fun, and build something together. ES teachers, MS teachers, and Science Lab assistants collaborated to design activities for students from ages 2 through 13 that would allow them to make and explore. Many MS students also designed exploration stations for the younger children to discover. 

There were about 20 exploration stations spread between the MS and ES breezeways and courtyard! Students and families got to discover the properties of physics as they built rocket launchers and balloon-powered cars. Students were experimenting with chemistry and exploring mathematical inequalities through art. They were solving engineering problems through building and creating mazes. Most importantly, our RIS students, families, and teachers were smiling and laughing while working together to learn, grow, and make!