Over the last two weeks, the learning commons has added a new section to the leisure area of the learning commons called the makerspace, it is a group of activities used to engage the mind.

“I’m very excited,” Library Media Specialist Angie Davis said. “We just started putting it together and students are already jumping all over it. We have a lot of different options that I feel the kids like doing.”

It includes different activities like cards, chess, checkers, puzzles, circuit boards, rubix cubes and board games. They also plan on adding a lego wall soon. All of this comes out of the Learning Commons budget.

“It makes it more inviting for students to come in here and it definitely looks better,” Learning Commons Para Debb McDonald said.

The makerspace idea had been circulating throughout the library community and after attending the Missouri Association of School Librarians spring conference, Library Media Specialist Tara Willen and Davis decided to try it out.

“We had heard some librarians teaching crafts in their makerspaces and we didn’t think that was our job,” Davis said. “Then, we went to the conference and saw Michelle Luhtala, a fellow high school librarian, speak about how makerspaces should be critical thinking spaces, and we thought ‘Exactly!’. That influenced us the most.”

Makerspaces are designed to give students the opportunity to try self-directed critical thinking in the form of activities. Anything that makes someone try to think and understand is a form of critical thinking, according to Davis.

“I like the dominoes and the other games, because it allows for you to do something interesting when you’re waiting or by yourself,” freshman Jake Willmann said. “Otherwise, I would just be sitting here doing nothing.”