Making teaches crucial skills that are largely missing from the traditional education model. The ability to push through failure and innovate, for example. The use of cross-disciplinary knowledge to solve real problems. The pursuit of learning as a means to self-fulfillment.

" "Making opens the door to their own curiosity, their own sense of discovery and exploration," " said Dale Dougherty, founder of Make magazine and the driving force behind the maker movement. " "It's about developing an experimental mindset. Makers are a community of experimenters who try things. Some don't work, but they keep going." "

In some schools, making is completely reinventing how learning is done. In others, it serves as a valuable supplement to more traditional modes of instruction. Wherever you fall on that spectrum, there are plenty of options for incorporating making into your school or classroom.

Here are some resources for getting started:

1. The maker movement: A learning revolution

The maker movement has the potential to revolutionize education as we know it. Invent to Learn authors Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager explore this potential from top to bottom, including how making overlaps with established pedagogies, how it aligns with the ISTE Standards and what game-changing technologies are helping students become powerful makers.

2. Cultivating makers

Education is not a preparation for life, it's life itself — and making is a universal language for lifelong learning, Dougherty said. In this EdTekTalk from ISTE 2014, he delves into the value of making in education.

3. Create a school makerspace in 3 simple steps

What makes a makerspace? How do you start one in your school or community? Dougherty and other educators share their tips and insights on getting your makerspace up and running.

4. Inexpensive making in the classroom

Every classroom can have a makerspace, and it doesn't have to cost a lot of money. Curriculum director Stephanie Grimes shares tips for creating a makerspace on the cheap.

5. The why behind 3D printing

3D printing may not solve all our problems, but it can empower students to engineer innovative solutions to real-life problems and help others in a powerfully tangible way. In this video, maker education expert Sylvia Martinez shares the vast learning potential of 3D printing.

6. Making and learning with real artifacts

Students learning about STEM or history can get hands-on with real historic and cultural artifacts from the Smithsonian Institution. Discover how students can use digitized 3D models from the museum's collection to measure, explore, adapt and create.