Working at Canadian School as IT Integration Specialist was one of the most enriching challenges of my career. The school is well known for its Innovation Center, a makerspace designed as a hub of creativity and experimentation. Like many makerspaces worldwide, its purpose was to integrate science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics into hands-on projects that connected directly with students’ learning. The center was divided into areas for carpentry, sewing and textiles, 3D printing, electronics, digital arts, and collaborative design. It was not just a classroom—it was a space to prototype ideas, solve problems, and connect multiple subjects through creativity.
My responsibility was to design and propose STEAM projects that teachers could implement within this space, making sure the Innovation Center became a bridge between different subjects and a laboratory for imagination. Some of the projects included building water filters, making gifts for Mother’s and Father’s Day using carpentry tools like hammers, creating paper clocks to learn about time, and even experimenting with Apple applications such as GarageBand to compose music. These activities were not about isolated skills but about connecting science and creativity with daily life, ensuring that students—from kindergarten through high school—could engage with concepts in ways that felt meaningful and fun.
At first, I leaned on my instinct as an educator: starting with theory and then moving to practice. But with children, that quickly proved ineffective. Unlike older adults—who prefer to begin by recovering their personal experiences and then linking them to theoretical concepts—children need questions that spark curiosity right away. I learned that the best entry points were questions like What is time? Can it be measured? Why do we measure it? Once curiosity was lit, practice became the natural next step, and theory followed smoothly as a way to explain what they had already explored.
I also paid close attention to how boys and girls engaged with the projects. Boys tended to gravitate more quickly toward mechanical processes, while girls often showed stronger interest in social rules, collaboration, and roles within the team. Yet both groups shared common passions: they loved painting and drawing, and they were equally motivated by gamification. Earning points became a universal driver of excitement, which showed me that gamification was not just a tool but a language children understood instinctively.
Through methodologies like project-based learning, teamwork, and hands-on challenges, the Innovation Center turned abstract concepts into shared experiences. The clock project was no longer about memorizing dates, but about building paper mechanisms and questioning how humans have measured time across history. The water filter activity was not just chemistry—it was problem-solving with a real-world application. Even simple projects like carpentry gifts became moments of pride, where children experienced the satisfaction of making something with their own hands.
Looking back, this role gave me more than technical practice: it gave me perspective. I realized that teaching children requires not only communication and emotional skills, but also the humility to adapt methods constantly. It also helped me see my own professional identity more clearly. What excites me most is not executing every activity, but designing the projects—creating frameworks where teachers and students can connect knowledge with creativity.
STEAM in basic education is not just about forming future engineers. It is about opening the door to creativity, collaboration, and confidence. At Canadian School, I learned that a makerspace is not defined by its tools, but by the opportunities it creates for students to explore, question, and build. And I discovered that my own path lies in designing those opportunities—because education must be as dynamic as the learners themselves.