What is a “Maker” and are you one?

We have begun to identify and purchase items for the Pop-Up Maker Space!

Here is a sample of what we are looking forward to getting started with soon!

Circuit Scribes

for our interactive notebooking projects.
Circuit Scribes

circuit scribes kit

circuit drawing pens

These pens allow you to draw the circuits you need.

Makey Makey

Makey makey

Makey Makey Box

Here are some of the items we are acquiring for our mobile setup:

Folding Aluminum Tables

Large Aluminum Folding Table

Large Folding Table

We also got one of these folding shelves. This will allow us to display projects and offers another surface to work on.

Folding shelves and table.

We are hoping to get a few of these kind of things to store and carry all of the various supplies and equipment we will be using.

Tool Cart possibility

Or This:

cool cart

or this open:
What is a Maker and are you one?

Now that we are beginning to meet in our smaller Maker Rings we are beginning to think about what we are going to make! We are in the fortunate position to be able to purchase the supplies we need to do our ‘Making”, with thanks to the LRNG Challenge Grant.

We have been talking to the kids for several weeks now about the project, look
and we keep telling them we will be designing a “Maker Space”. They haven’t all seemed to understand what we mean. We realized we needed to spend some time exploring the concept of “Making” and what it means to each of us and the group as a whole.

Lately some of the kids have been talking about what they are thinking of making, and adults and mentors are giving lots of positive feedback for those ideas. This in turn is encouraging other kids to think about what they would realistically like to create, and ideas are beginning to sprout.

We asked students to watch this video, from 2011 Toronto Mini-Maker Faire.

It shows many of the projects from the Faire, and in the video Makers talk about their work and what it means. Our hope is that this video helps clarify what is meant when we say “Makers”, and that it inspires some new ideas for our own Making projects.

And it did! We asked students to watch the video when they were home on a school snowday, and when they returned to school they were starting to burst with project ideas.

We also compiled a list of Maker Resources at our own website. This consists of Maker Space inventory lists, suggestions, outlines, etc. We invited students to look at these resources and refer back to them when necessary.

I am a Maker