Professional Development Workshops

reDiscover Center offers professional development workshops on tinkering, art, and sustainability for PreK-12 educators. Our educator workshop modules range from setting up learning spaces that inspire a maker mindset to working with upcycled materials to safety training on specific hand and power tools. These workshops can be customized to your setting, including schools, museums, libraries, and parent groups.

Workshop participants use open-ended materials in hands-on activities. Each workshop includes discussion of the topic, demonstration of teaching techniques, an opportunity to try activities, and resources for further self-directed learning.

Creative Reuse Materials for Art and STEM

Explore creative reuse materials for their art and STEM possibilities. Learn how to acquire and manage collections of "loose parts" of myriad materials, from nuts and bolts to seed pods to industrial carpet offcuts. Through a series of hands-on activities, practice age-appropriate activities that use creative reuse materials, including engineering challenges and collage and sculptural prompts. Teachers return to their classrooms with a starter kit of creative reuse materials sourced from reDiscover's 2,000 sf warehouse. PreK, K-2, 3-5

From Maker to STEM

Maximize the STEM learning impact of your existing maker-based lessons and classroom resources, from Magnatiles to Tiny House Competitions. Maker projects, hands-on, iterative, exploratory, object-oriented, are found in many classrooms. Use the intense student engagement that maker education provides as a vehicle for teaching fundamental concepts in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This hands-on workshop includes grade-level discussions of STEM concepts to teach using maker education, live analysis of maker activities, and guided discussion of how to deepen STEM learning of your existing maker-based lessons. PreK, K-2, 3-5, 6-8

Cardboard in the Classroom

Inspire children's creativity through construction and tinkering activities using cardboard and recycled materials. This workshop covers age-differentiated tools for cutting and forming cardboard, suggested prompts and activities to expand cardboard construction from material exploration to project building, and suggested systems for collecting and managing recycled materials to provide a neat and inviting activity that draws in student interest. PreK, K-2, 3-5

Cardboard Construction for Design Thinking

Learn how to support design thinking projects and maker education through cardboard construction. Used for 3D brainstorming, prototyping, and as a functional material, cardboard should be part of every makerspace. This workshop goes into tools and techniques for beginner-to-intermediate student cardboard makers, and a discussion of how skills-building and projects spiral upward towards maker competency.  3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Woodworking for Early Childhood Education

Get your students working with real tools and real wood. This workshop reviews recommended tools for ages 3-7 for woodworking and tinkering. Hands-on activities give educators familiarity with safe tool use, followed by a discussion of how to safely introduce tools like hand-powered drills, hammers, and saws to preschool and K-2 classrooms. PreK, K-2

Woodworking for Upper Elementary and Middle School age Students

Get your students working with real tools and real wood. This workshop reviews recommended woodworking tools, construction techniques, suggested projects, and integration into STEAM, ELA, and Visual Arts curriculums for grades 3-8. Hands-on activities give educators familiarity with safe tool use, followed by a discussion of how to safely introduce tools like cordless drills and saws into classrooms or dedicated makerspaces. 3-5, 6-8

Hands-On Safety Training

Teachers and administrators gain the confidence to safely bring real tools into the classroom or makerspace. We help teachers with different skill levels become comfortable with a common toolset. Learn how to promote a culture of tool safety that becomes your classroom's norm.

Learn the basics of safely handling small tools, clamps, and electric drills for woodworking in the makerspace or the classroom. Teachers will gain confidence to assist makerspace specialists in supervising the full range of woodworking tools provided. This program will help teachers identify the anatomy of a tool, its uses and potential abuses, operation and applications as well as the hazards. The module provides extensive practical hands on experience. Teachers will develop increased comfort and confidence with tools in general. The module includes discussion and demonstration of the proper supervision levels and training required for kids of varying ages, abilities, and temperaments. If time allows, discussion will include how to integrate tool use into classroom activities beyond the makerspace and suggestions for extending existing curricular activities with woodworking tools, applied to wood and other materials. 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Custom Workshops

Work with reDiscover's facilitators to design a one-off or series of custom workshops on the maker and materials topics of your choice. reDiscover's expertise in creative reuse materials, loose parts, adventure play, project-based learning, woodworking, tool safety, makerspaces, and related topics.