( CNN ) -- When 60,000 tinkerers arrive at the New York Hall of Science this weekend for World Maker Faire New York , kids will see original action figures designed on a 3-D printer , homemade race cars , robots and a sewing machine turned into a music box . Teachers will see a chance to reimagine U.S. science education . Parents should see a chance to replace the usual after-school and summer routines with activities that captivate kids in positive ways . I see a way to get kids to choose tinkering over TV . Based on 16 years of hearing pitches about the next great thing in education , what jumps out is that demand from young people -- not the education industry 's desire to supply something -- is driving the maker movement . High-profile Maker Faire events are the leading edge . A layer or two beneath , in church basements , children 's museums and public libraries dubbed `` makerspaces '' -- part high-tech shop class and part Google hangout -- kids are showing up . It is this demand from kids like Raven Hoston-Turner , who was `` super bored '' before her uncle told her about the Mt . Elliott Makerspace in Detroit , that is fueling the maker movement . The New York Hall of Science is part of network of disruptive leaders figuring out how to take this burst of maker interest and use it to improve science education . In a new book , `` Design Make Play : Growing the Next Generation of STEM Innovators , '' editors Margaret Honey and David Kanter of the Hall of Science describe how traditional classroom approaches have suffocated science . Schools caught up in the standardized testing sweepstakes tend to reduce classroom time for science . When schools do teach science , too often they are `` telling students about science '' -- and drilling for memorization -- instead of engaging them . Elementary students receive science education for less than three hours a week . These same kids are watching TV nearly 30 hours per week . One way to activate student learning , as professor Sugata Mitra has shown through his famous Hole-in-the-Wall experiments , is to give kids the right resources and some motivating content and then get out of the way . As with Mitra 's notion of `` minimally invasive education , '' young people are taking it upon themselves to decide what to make . Preteens such as Quin Etnyre and Sylvia Todd are delivering classes and producing online shows for peers and adults who want to produce things with their own hands . Thanks to innovative Pittsburgh foundations that launched the Kids + Creativity Network in 2007 , the region is aligning science instruction in schools with the kinds of activities kids are doing on their own time . The aim was to set learning on fire , says Greg Behr , executive director of Pittsburgh 's Grable Foundation . Instead of picking off one or two strong projects to support , Grable invested in building a network . Now , more than 100 groups are pulling in the same direction . Jane Werner , executive director of the Children 's Museum of Pittsburgh , built out a 3,000-square-foot makerspace , what it calls MakeSHOP , and is creating an additional 5,000-square-foot MakeSHOP for kids age 10 and up . `` Museums can be labs for education reform , '' Werner says . `` No one can fail at a museum . Why not experiment with education reform at a museum ? '' The Elizabeth Forward School District , south of Pittsburgh , is integrating the maker movement into the core of its education mission . The district is `` remaking education , '' transforming traditional classrooms and the library into interactive digital learning labs . `` It helped me learn more , actually , '' says Alyssa , a junior . This is what Dale Dougherty , one of the maker movement 's founding fathers , wanted all along . `` What I 'm really interested in is an alternative way of engaging kids and getting them into science and technology , '' Dougherty said . Dougherty is CEO of Maker Media , founder of MAKE magazine , Maker Faire and the Maker Education Initiative . This summer , the Maker Education Initiative launched Maker Corps , embedding 106 college students and young professionals from science and technology fields in 34 summer youth programs across the country , including the Pittsburgh children 's museum . The initiative expects to have 1,000 corps members working with kids by 2015 . In 2007 , at the same time the Kids + Creativity Network emerged , a Carnegie Foundation commission set in motion an education reform movement that included 26 states working together on Next Generation Science Standards . State by state , education officials are now deciding whether to adopt the standards . The question hanging out there is whether the maker movement can help U.S. students move up the international rankings of science and math performance . `` Everyone is crossing their fingers and hoping there is this connection to be made , '' says Kanter . `` Even though it 's hard to prove , we need to prove it . '' The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Bare .
John Bare says New York 's Maker Faire highlights opportunity for education . He says teaching science to kids can be reimagined by teaching how to make things . He argues that it 's a way to get kids to choose tinkering over watching television . Bare : The maker movement is pioneering innovation in education in small and big ways .