K-12 Makerspaces transcend a fixed or cookie-cutter definition as many of these spaces incorporate different elements of lab, workshop and class environments based on age-appropriateness. By design, makerspaces are unique unto themselves and should reflect the maker culture and skills of the people who created and directly participate in the space. What all makerspaces do share in common is the facilitation of project-based learning. These learning spaces are equipped with a variety of hands-on materials, tools and resources designed for student engagement and collaboration, to make lots of different things.

Maker culture often called the Maker Movement, has helped bring back hands-on curriculum resources and tools eliminated by many public schools in the United States over the past 35 years. Through budget cuts and an academic philosophy that making skills did not prepare students for college, learning spaces such as wood and metal shops, home economics, art and music studios were dismantled. Since the 1980's, the only systematic K-12 replacement for all these tools, was the advancement of personal computers coming into classrooms and the advent of the whole class computer lab. Even today, many computer labs are patterned like traditional 20th-century classrooms in rows of desks and chairs, with all students doing the same activity.

Now and in the coming years, we will see computer labs replaced with very eclectic makerspaces to match common core standards executed through an integrated studies hands-on curriculum. Makerspaces help us get back to the future- using something old, like all kinds of raw materials, with using something new, like all kinds of digital software and hardware. Bringing all these elements together, students learn by doing and increase their ability to understand concepts and the world at large.

It is common sense to recognize the need for specific labs like a high school chemistry lab to be standardized and setup for safety and function. However, there are different types of labs that need a transformation as the curriculum becomes more interdisciplinary. The STEAM curriculum movement of integrating Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math is a leading example within the United States. Someday, someone will include Language Arts and Social Studies in a 'new and improved' acronym so we can just move beyond a reform funding label to the transformative holy grail of Integrated Studies.