Notetaking in the makerspace/engineering room

[John Baglio]

Hi Folks,

This is a question I have struggled with for a long time.  How do you (do you at all?) have students take notes in the engineering/makerspace classroom?  I only have students 2 days/wk so I bias all my class time toward hands-on independent work time for kids to work on their projects.  I have found that middle schoolers, in particular, often don't even have the impulse to write anything down so there is a lot of prompting and build up for them to even write anything down.  I also give a lot of handouts.

I am a avid note taker and I would love for kids to realize that notes are a tool for THEM, not something to please the teacher.  I will often teach kids from 7th all the way to 12th grade.  In my imagination, I would love students to look back through the years in their engineering notebooks and create a text for their work.  That hasn't happened, but maybe it is a totally unrealistic expectation.

I would love to hear how other teachers address this same challenge.  Would be happy to have this conversation with anyone who is interested.

Best,

John

John Baglio (he/him)

A proud member of the FIC union

Middle and Upper School Engineering and Science Teacher

Ethical Culture Fieldston School

Bronx, NY USA

(718) 329-7300 ext. 3383

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In engineering as in life...

 Be Creative.   Be Adaptable.  Work Together.

[Adam Singer]

I once got great advice from Casey Shea in reference to his working with high school students: he found the sweet spot in documentation and reflection writing to be 2-3 times per project.

Adam Singer (he/him)

Technology / Maker Educator

Maker Tech Lab

Davidson Middle School

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[John Baglio]

Great insight. Thank you!

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A proud member of the FIC Union

John Baglio
pronouns: he/him

Middle and Upper School Engineering and Science Teacher

(718) 329-7300 ext. 3383

To book a meeting :https://baglio.youcanbook.me/

Website: http://bit.ly/mrbaglio

In engineering as in life...

Be Creative.  Be Adaptable.  Stick Together.

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[JD Pirtle]

The system I’ve used for the last 13 years is to give 5.5 x 8.5” sketchbooks out to each student, keeping them in the classroom by group in milk crates. We have a rotating classroom job to hand them out at the beginning of class and take them up at the end. Everything we do starts in those sketchbooks, even writing code. Any time they run into problems or need to work something out, we go back to the sketchbooks. They plan, take notes, sketch schematics, pseudocode….everything in those sketchbooks. Keeping in the classroom means they get used and not lost, and the best part is the sketchbooks end up completely filled by the end of the year when I send them home (some kids even start on a second one). Previously I would let them take them to and from class, but I always found them half filled in hallways and lost on the playground and keeping track of it is a lot to ask of most kids.

We talk a lot in class about how humans have been drawing by hand for thousands of years but composing on a keyboard for decades, and the value of leveraging that innate ability. 

JD

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[Robert Gilson]

Hi John,

You are absolutely correct about the challenge of using a journal. My inclination the past few years has been to use it mostly to explore the empathy phase of the design cycle. I’ll post a scenario, or a branding change, or something related to design, and then have kids reflect on that for the first few minutes of class. Students who come in late miss that window, lose points on their journals, and so it can sometimes help to get them to get to class on time.

It’s really hard to get them to get creative with the journals with the limitations many students have with their drawing skills, whether it be artwork or even just accurate line drawings.

But sometimes I’ll have them conduct interviews with each other and record the answers in their journal. 

👊🏼 Rob

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[Mark Loundy]

Ditto the practice of in-room notebooks.

I did a couple of summer fellowships at Lockheed Martin a few years ago. Nearly every engineer there kept a hardbound notebook with them.

Mark Loundy (He, Him, His)

Instructional Technology Specialist
Google Gemini Certified Educator
Ignited Fellow x 5
Silicon Valley

[Daven Gee]

For our students using iPads we ask them to visually document their in progress work on a regular basis, and to bring those images/videos into a BookCreator journal that they add to all semester long. Making really lends itself to visual documentation, and allows students to demo/explain their work while doing it. They’re also expected to write something each day. And these journals are part of their overall course rubric/assessment. BookCreator now has an online version that allows for easier access for teachers. Highly recommend this app!

Daven Gee

[Rob van Nood]

Could you say a little more about what the goals of the notetaking are?  And when you say notetaking does that include sketching, idea generation, ongoing thoughts, reflection, ahas, etc?

 

I also don’t have students a lot (my tinkering class is just an hour a week for nine weeks) so I have to really figure out what I want the students to walk away with each session and where I want their time to be spent.  I have had them use Unrulr to do their documentation.  When they come in first thing they always write a goal for the session and then do a brief reflection of how things went.  Then they scan that and upload any pictures or videos they took that day.  In Unrulr you can take each individual “moment” and stich it together with all the other moments for an end of semester “journey” that they can then share out with a link.  I have those links shared with families and their advising team.  I find it to be a pretty effective way for them to record things and go back and reflect.  If I had more time I would want them to have some kind of notebook.  But for the time I have them its not realistic. 

 

In any case Unrulr is a cool tool to test out.

Rob

 

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Rob van Nood

Educational Technologist

Catlin Gabel School

 

Office: 503-297-1894

catlin.edu

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John Baglio (he/him)

 Be Creative.   Be Adaptable.  Work Together.

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[Mark Loundy]

I’ve always approached school makerspaces with “why” being the most important consideration. What is the space supporting? In the space at my former school, a K-5 elementary, it was an integrated support facility for the Project Based Learning happening in the classrooms. It was an extension of the classrooms much as is a campus library.

Mark Loundy (He, Him, His)

Instructional Technology Specialist
Google Gemini Certified Educator
Ignited Fellow x 5
Silicon Valley

On Feb 26, 2026, at 11:13, Rob van Nood <vann...@catlin.edu> wrote:

Could you say a little more about what the goals of the notetaking are?  And when you say notetaking does that include sketching, idea generation, ongoing thoughts, reflection, ahas, etc?

 

I also don’t have students a lot (my tinkering class is just an hour a week for nine weeks) so I have to really figure out what I want the students to walk away with each session and where I want their time to be spent.  I have had them use Unrulr to do their documentation.  When they come in first thing they always write a goal for the session and then do a brief reflection of how things went.  Then they scan that and upload any pictures or videos they took that day.  In Unrulr you can take each individual “moment” and stich it together with all the other moments for an end of semester “journey” that they can then share out with a link.  I have those links shared with families and their advising team.  I find it to be a pretty effective way for them to record things and go back and reflect.  If I had more time I would want them to have some kind of notebook.  But for the time I have them its not realistic. 

 

In any case Unrulr is a cool tool to test out.

Rob

 

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