Meaningful Making 2

Meaningful Making:
Projects and Inspirations for Fab Labs + Makerspaces
volume
2
Edited by Paulo Blikstein, Sylvia Libow Martinez, Heather Allen Pang, and Kevin Jarrett
CONSTRUCTING MODERN KNOWLEDGE PRESS

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Edited by Paulo Blikstein, Sylvia Martinez, Heather Allen Pang, and Kevin Jarrett
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EDU039000 EDUCATION / Computers & Technology
EDU029030 EDUCATION / Teaching Methods & Materials / Science & Technology
Contents
About the FabLearn Fellows Initiative. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48
About the FabLearn Labs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii Rube Goldberg, YouTube, and the Archimedes Screw:
About this book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Hidden Drivers of Pedagogic Transactions
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix by Sarah Alfonso Emerson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50
Caution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Hey, Kids—Follow the Directions!

by Aaron Vanderwerff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Meet the Contributing FabLearn Fellows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Maker Teacher in the Classroom: What Should I Do
Foreword by Paulo Blikstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii (and Not Do) for Students?
by Heather Allen Pang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Trendy, Educational, or Creative? Solve the Robotics
Find Your Zero Things: Diversity, Opportunity, and 3D Printing Kit Dilemma!
by Josh Ajima . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 by Angela Sofia Lombardo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Real Tools, Real Life, Real Learning Building Knowledge and Relationships through Building
by David Hann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Toys for Others
Makerspace of My Childhood by Erin Riley with Nathan Holbert and
by Jaymes Dec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Sawaros Thanapornsangsuth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Where Art Education Meets Maker Education Lesson Plan: MLK March on Washington Artifact
by Erin Riley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 by Josh Ajima . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68
Let’s Not Make Making Too Complicated Constructionism for Science Literacy
by Mark Schreiber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 by Christa Flores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70
Designing Learning Spaces for Constructionism and Engineering Starting from Scratch
Learner Autonomy by Alphonse Habyarimana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
by Christa Flores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Middle School Sewing Elective, Version 2
Giving as a Core Value in Makerspaces by Heather Allen Pang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
by Josh Ajima . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Why I Teach SolidWorks CAD to Young Children
Design Reviews: Constructionism Conversations about by Sarah Alfonso Emerson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Public Entities Mystery Artifact Lesson
by Susan Klimczak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 by Josh Ajima . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80
Making inside the Magic Circle Engaging Classroom Teachers in Making
by Sam Phillips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 by Angie O’Malley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82
Making Art with Digital Technology Not the End: Reflections on a Year of History and Making
by Erin Riley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 by Heather Allen Pang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Strategies to Foster Creativity in Classrooms The Kepler Tech Lab’s Girls in STEM Initiative
by Cassia Fernandez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 by Alphonse Habyarimana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84
Brainstorming: Makerspace AI Decolonizing STEMM: Reclaiming Indigenous Knowledge
by Josh Ajima . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 and Practices with Felt Monsters and Ceremonial Masks
by Reina Sofia Cabezas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Convincing Yourself and Others: “PUSH ME!” Teaching Paper Electronics to a Crowd with a
Why Bring Making into the Classroom? . . . .92 Switch Sampler
by Susan Klimczak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Experimenting: The Power of Hands-On Learning
by Koff i Dodji Honou . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94 Tiny Adventures in Affordable Physical Computing
by Susan Klimczak, in collaboration with George Swallow
Confessions of a Maker Educator
and James Salvatore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
by Angie O’Malley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96
Easy Electronic Circuits with a Vinyl Cutter
Funds of Knowledge
by Per-Ivar Kloen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140
by Aaron Vanderwerff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98
3D Printing with Primary Students
Cheikh Anta Diop Fab Lab Academy
by Angie O’Malley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144
by Koff i Dodji Honou . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100
Toy Hacking for Accessibility
Megachanges and Programming Curricula
by Angie O’Malley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
by Cassia Fernandez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Wood Block Phone Charger Workshop in Uganda
Local Partnerships Empower Educators and Student Leaders
by Juliet Wanyiri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
in Rwanda
by Alphonse Habyarimana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Project Snapshots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148
Maker Education and the STEM Monster
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
by Christa Flores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104
Electric Pop-Up Cards
Constructionism 800 Meters above Sea Level
by Jaymes Dec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
by Nalin Tutiyaphuengprasert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108
Reverse Engineering
Projects to Explore in Depth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 by Sarah Alfonso Emerson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Desktop CNC: Linoleum Stamp Rube Goldberg Chain-Reaction Machines
by Josh Ajima . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 by Sarah Alfonso Emerson, Cassia Fernandez, Angela Sofia Lombardo
with Giulio Bonanome and Alphonse Habyarimana . . . . . . . . . . .158
3D-Printed Lithophane
by Josh Ajima . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Sunbeam T-Shirts
by Per-Ivar Kloen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .160
Making the Buttons
by Josh Ajima . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Tons of Stuff
by Mathias Wunderlich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Make Your Own Low-Cost Computer with a Raspberry Pi
and Recycled Materials Upcycling Packaging
by Koff i Dodji Honou . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 by Mathias Wunderlich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Animatronics: Making STEAM Move Signs That Matter
by Sarah Alfonso Emerson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120 by Mathias Wunderlich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Making Hope Happen Mini Makers: Food-Grade Paint
by Sarah Alfonso Emerson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 by Christa Flores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Helping Young Students in the Developing World Mini Makers: Houses
Explore Electronics by Christa Flores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
by Alphonse Habyarimana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Biomimicry
Creative (and Squishy) Circuits by Angie O’Malley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
by Alphonse Habyarimana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 School Post Office
Trebuchet Making: STEM in Action by Angie O’Malley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
by Alphonse Habyarimana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Makey Makey Crafty Controllers
Connecting Children around the World with the by Angela Sof ia Lombardo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
“Emotions Chair”
by Susan Klimczak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Hard(ware) Fun Quick Cuts: A Flash Film Festival
by Angela Sof ia Lombardo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 by Sam Phillips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .190
Bristle Bot Maze Paper Bits
by Angie O’Malley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 by Per-Ivar Kloen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Glow Golf PLA Melts
by Angie O’Malley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 by Erin Riley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Board Game: Missing Pieces Provocation Cardboard Fashion Show
by Sam Phillips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 by Per-Ivar Kloen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Laser-Cut/Engraved Pins Hack Your Classmate
by Sarah Alfonso Emerson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 by Per-Ivar Kloen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Tracing Images for 2D and 3D Design Shadow Tinkering
by Sarah Alfonso Emerson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 by Angela Sofia Lombardo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Robot Storytelling The Cucumber Slicer
by Nico Janik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 by Mario Parade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Using Low-Resolution Prototyping to Learn Design and Escape Room Design
Solve Problems by Justin Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
by Kevin Jarrett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Write It Do It
Group Puzzle Frame by Justin Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
by Heather Allen Pang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Algorithmic Art
Build-tionary by Jaymes Dec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
by Sam Phillips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Prosthetic Hand Design
Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Role-Playing Games by Jaymes Dec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
by Sam Phillips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Programmable Pinball Machine
Solar Bobble by Cassia Fernandez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201
by Susan Klimczak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180
Marbling Plywood for Laser-Cut Parts
Laser-Cut and Makey Makey Game of Operation by Erin Riley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
by Sarah Alfonso Emerson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Pixel Art
First-Hand Sewing Project: Stuffed Animal or Smiley Face by Erin Riley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203
by Heather Allen Pang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Material Exploration in Mold Making
Interactive Body Systems Exhibition by Erin Riley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
by Jaymes Dec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Contact Mic Synthesizer
Locker Mirrors by Daniel Schermele . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .205
by Jaymes Dec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Office Supply Flair
Talking Historical Quilt by Dan Schermele . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
by Mark Schreiber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Repair Café in the School Makerspace
Customized Rubber Stamps by Mathias Wunderlich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .207
by Mathias Wunderlich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Recycling and Upcycling Furniture for Your Makerspace
Earthquake Engineering by Mathias Wunderlich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
by Jaymes Dec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
3D Maps
Dia de los Muertos Laser-Cut Calavera Art by Mathias Wunderlich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
by Sarah Alfonso Emerson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Turnery for Kids
Tinkering with Spinners by Mathias Wunderlich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210
by Cassia Fernandez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Round, Arched Rain Roof
by Mario Parade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Microf ilms and Microstills
by Erin Riley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Creating Physical Interfaces to Minecraft with a Raspberry Pi
by Kevin Jarrett and Trevor Shaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Cardboard Chair Challenge
by Wojciech Karcz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Animating a Model of Myself in Scratch
by Alphonse Habyarimana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Make History
by Per-Ivar Kloen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Liver It Up!
by Per-Ivar Kloen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Creative Capacity Building
Introduction to Physical Programming
Creative Robotics
by Angela Lombardo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Spaghetti Tower
by Angela Sofia Lombardo and Giulio Bonanome . . . . . . . . 221
Glitch Art—Happy Accident or Controlled Chaos?
by Anne Bown-Crawford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .222
Above/Below
Fashion Design with Circuits
Tin Puzzles
by Erin Riley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .225
viii MEANINGFUL MAKING: Projects and Inspirations for Fab Labs + Makerspaces
About the FabLearn Fellows Initiative $ How can we generate an open-source set of
The FabLearn Fellows program was created constructionist curricular materials well adapted
and housed at Paulo Blikstein’s Transformative for makerspaces and fabrication labs in educa-
Learning Technologies Laboratory (TLTL), tional settings?
an academic research group within Stanford $ How are teachers adapting their own curriculum
University’s Graduate School of Education from in the face of these new “making” technologies,
2008 to 2018. It is now housed at Teachers and how can they be better supported? What
College, Columbia University. challenges do teachers face when trying to
The Fellows program brings together experi- adopt project-based, constructionist, digital
enced educators from all over the world to con- fabrication activities in their classrooms and
tribute to research about constructionist learning, after-school programs?
maker education, and digital fabrication in schools $ How are schools approaching teacher develop-
to create an open-source library of curricula and ment, parental/community involvement, and
best practices. To date, there have been two cohorts issues around traditional assessment?
of FabLearn Fellows, a diverse group of thirty-eight
educators and makers. Many Fellows from the About the FabLearn Labs
first cohort have continued to contribute to the FabLearn Labs (formerly known as FabLab@
FabLearn program as Senior FabLearn Fellows. School labs) are physical makerspaces in K–12
Together the Fellows represent sixteen countries, schools developed by TLTL and managed in collab-
including fourteen states in the United States, and oration with US and international partners. While
work with students from a wide variety of demo- today there are a growing number of fabrication
graphics at public and independent schools, com- labs in school settings, in 2009 FabLab@School
munity organizations, museums, and nonprofits. was the first such program designed from the
The FabLearn Fellows program was created as ground up specifically to serve grades 6–12.
part of a larger project sponsored by the National There are currently FabLearn Lab installations
Science Foundation entitled “Infusing Learning on the Columbia University campus (US), and
Sciences Research into Digital Fabrication in in East Palo Alto (US), Palo Alto (US), Moscow
Education and the Makers’ Movement” (NSF Award (Russia), Bangkok (Thailand), Barcelona (Spain),
1349163, Division of Information & Intelligent Melbourne (Australia), Sobral (Brazil), and Espoo
Systems). Some Fellows have been supported (Finland), with partner labs in many other cities.
by the Lemann Foundation (Brazil) and the The intellectual roots of FabLearn extend back to
Suksapattana Foundation (Thailand). the work of Seymour Papert, a pioneer in the field
of educational technologies, and his collaborators
FabLearn Fellow Goals at the MIT Media Lab. Papert and his colleagues
Despite the recent popularity of the maker developed Logo, a programming language designed
movement and fabrication labs in education, most for children and the first systems for educational
teachers work in isolation, cut off from other prac- robotics. Papert’s constructionist perspective (a
titioners doing similar projects and disconnected belief that children learn most effectively when
from learning sciences researchers. One of the they build artifacts and share with peers) is at the
main objectives of the FabLearn Fellows program heart of the FabLearn program. A second important
is to bring researchers and practitioners together component is the work of Paulo Freire, a Brazilian
to help bridge these gaps, learn from each other’s scholar who was a pioneer in highlighting the
experiences, share these lessons with their local importance of culture, equity, and social justice
community, and together create educational in education.
materials for the rest of the teaching community. The original Fab Lab was conceived in the early
Through this project, we hope to answer four 2000s in the Media Lab at MIT by Neil Gershenfeld
major questions: (in collaboration with Bakhtiar Mitkak) as a creative
$ How can we scale up maker education without space for university students. Within five years
losing its transformative power? the concept had been transplanted successfully
ix
to community centers and entrepreneurial centers FabLearn Fellows project principal investigator:
around the globe under the banner of the Fab Foun- Dr. Paulo Blikstein, Associate Professor of
dation. In this book, the spaces that are affiliated Learning Technologies & Design, Teachers
with the Fab Foundation are called Fab Labs, while College, Columbia University
those not associated are called fab labs, fablabs,
FabLearn Fellows principal advisor:
makerspaces, or their own unique name based on
Sylvia Libow Martinez, coauthor of Invent to Learn:
the preference of the organization and author.
Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom,
Paulo Blikstein was a student at the MIT Media
and president, Constructing Modern Knowledge
Lab when the very first Fab Labs were being created.
He began researching digital fabrication in educa- Special thanks:
tion in 2004 as part of his doctoral work, created the Diana Garcia (FabLearn executive director);
FabLearn Lab concept when he joined the Stanford Claire Rosenbaum, Tatiana Hochgreb-Haegele,
faculty in 2008, and designed the first-ever digital Alicja Żenczykowska, Livia Macedo, and
fabrication lab at a school of education. Blikstein Jonathan Pang (FabLearn program managers);
is currently an associate professor of Communica- Tamar Fuhrmann (FabLearn research lead);
tion, Media & Learning Technologies & Design at Janet Kolodner and Christopher Hoadley (NSF
Teachers College, Columbia University. former program managers); and the students
and postdocs at the TLTL
About this book
This book is a compilation of some of the work Transformative Learning Technologies Laboratory
of the FabLearn Fellows and Senior FabLearn The Transformative Learning Technologies
Fellows. Included are articles about making Laboratory (TLTL) is a multidisciplinary research
and fabrication in many different learning spaces, group creating and investigating new technologies
ideas for projects, reflections, curriculum integra- for project-based STEM education. Within the
tion strategies, and much more. Many of the realm of digital fabrication in schools, the TLTL
articles and projects include resources for conducts research and disseminates findings
additional reading and exploration, and every through four main programs: FabLearn Labs
Fab-Learn Fellow has a page on the FabLearn (educational makerspaces in K–12 schools devel-
website (fablearn.org) where more projects, oped in collaboration with US and international
details, and contact information can be found. partners, formerly known as the FabLab@School
project), FabLearn conferences, FabLearn training
Acknowledgements classes, and the FabLearn Fellows program.
Contributing FabLearn Fellow Authors:
Josh Ajima, Sarah Alfonso Emerson, Anne Constructing Modern Knowledge Press
Bown-Crawford, Justin Brown, Reina Sofia Constructing Modern Knowledge (CMK) Press
Cabezas, Jaymes Dec, Koff i Dodji Honou, Cassia is a publishing company dedicated to producing
Fernandez, Christa Flores, Alphonse Habyarimana, books supporting modern learner-centered
David Hann, Nico Janik, Kevin Jarrett, Wojciech approaches to education.
Karcz, Susan Klimczak, Per-Ivar Kloen, Angela
Sofia Lombardo, Angie O’Malley, Heather Allen
Caution
Some of these projects call for tools and materials
Pang, Mario Parade, Sam Phillips, Erin Riley,
that can be dangerous if used improperly. Always
Daniel Schermele, Mark Schreiber, Nalin
follow manufacturer’s guidelines and safety rules,
Tutiyaphuengprasert, Aaron Vanderwerff,
and use common sense.
Juliet Wanyiri, and Mathias Wunderlich
Editors: Paulo Blikstein, Sylvia Libow Martinez,

Heather Allen Pang, and Kevin Jarrett
Editorial guidance and section introductions:
Sylvia Libow Martinez and Heather Allen Pang
x MEANINGFUL MAKING: Projects and Inspirations for Fab Labs + Makerspaces
Meet the Contributing FabLearn Fellows
Josh Ajima Anne Bown-Crawford

Josh Ajima is the instructional facilitator for Anne Bown-Crawford is the executive director of
Technology and Makerspace at the Academies the California Arts Council. With nearly forty years
of Loudoun in Loudoun County, Virginia, United as a teacher at the secondary level, she is a champion
States. He was awarded the VSTE Innovative for arts education in California, United States,
Educator of the Year award in 2017 for his work serving as administrator for numerous exemplary
integrating maker education into the content area. arts programs. Bown-Crawford is the founding
He has a passion for digital fabrication and has won director of the Arcata Arts Institute and the Inno-
the FormLabs 3D Design Awards for Top Educa- vation Design Institute, programs within Northern
tional Model and served as a reviewer for Make: Humboldt Union High School District, as well as the
magazine. Ajima shares his work on making in the former Fine Arts department chair at Arcata High
classroom on his blog (designmaketeach.com) and School. She is a founder of the Create CA Leadership
YouTube channel (youtube.com/designmaketeach). Council, a statewide organization with a mission
He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the to rethink and create an educational environment
University of Virginia. for all California students featuring arts education
as a central part of the solution to the crisis in our
schools. Bown-Crawford is a new media studio
artist, a freelance graphic designer, and an Adobe
Education Leader. Bown-Crawford holds a master
of arts in education from UC Berkeley, a bachelor of
fine arts in design from Northern Illinois University,
and was an MFA Design candidate at the California
Sarah Alfonso Emerson College of Arts. Bown-Crawford is a member of the
Sarah Alfonso Emerson is a cofounder of the National Art Education Association and the California
iSTEAM Lab at Bing Wong Elementary School, a Art Education Association.
public school in San Bernardino, California, United
States. The iSTEAM Lab was founded to inspire
students to imagine, innovate, and engage in build-
ing hope for their futures. Emerson is the school’s
STEAM program facilitator, primarily teaching
mechanical engineering, manufacturing, product
innovation, entrepreneurship, and animatronics to
students in kindergarten through sixth grade. She
also collaborates with her colleagues at the elementary
level as well as the secondary and postsecondary levels
and community partners to design and implement
cross-curricular units in which students explore
careers in various STEAM industries. Emerson is
currently a certification writer for Linked Learning
at the elementary level. She holds a bachelor’s degree
in Chicano studies, a master’s degree in education,
and a GATE certificate from the University of Cali-
fornia, Riverside.
Meet the FabLearn Fellows xi
Justin Brown Jaymes Dec

Justin Brown graduated from TCU with degrees in Jaymes Dec is the Fab Lab coordinator at the Mary-
music, political science, and psychology as well as mount School of New York in New York City, United
his teaching degree from Chaminade University in States, an all-girls independent school serving
Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. Coming from six students in pre-K through high school. Dec, who has
generations of educators, he has planned to work in taught makers of all grade levels from kindergarten
education policy since the age of ten. Before entering to graduate school, currently works primarily with
the classroom full-time, Mr. Brown worked as a middle school students. In addition to his compul-
jazz and classical bassist with many internationally sory technology course, which covers programming,
acclaimed artists. He currently serves as the CTE design, and fabrication, he supports teachers in other
coordinator and lead advisor to 20+ STEM and grades who are integrating design elements into
citizenship-based programs at Kealakehe High their curriculum. The Marymount School program
School in Kailua-Kona. Under his direction, the is a member of MIT’s Fab Lab network. In 2013, Dec,
Kealakehe Robotics/STEM program has grown into concerned that Fab Labs and makerspaces were
one of the most prestigious and comprehensive disproportionately the domain of wealthy schools,
programs in the state, winning over one hundred cofounded the NYC Makery, a public makerspace
awards and over a dozen international qualifications. for children and families. Dec is the president of the
He has worked extensively with the West Hawaii Nerdy Derby, a “no rules” model-car building and
Complex and State Curriculum office on expanding racing competition. He is a graduate of the Inter-
educational robotics as well as the design thinking active Telecommunications Program at New York
model. He is a HI Hope Street Group Fellow, ASCD University. He recently joined the faculty at Columbia
Emerging Leader, and coordinator of the Kealakehe University’s Teachers College.
STEM Academy.
Koffi Dodji Honou

Reina Sofia Cabezas Fab Lab manager at Defko Ak Niep Lab (Dakar,
Reina Sofia Cabezas came to the San Francisco Bay Senegal), Honou is passionate about ICT, digital
Area, California, United States from Nicaragua as a fabrication, and the maker movement. He developed
political refugee like many of her current students valuable knowledge in Fab Lab implementation,
and their families. Sharing that experience of struggle management, and optimization in West Africa.
and resistance and designing learning opportunities Winner of several international awards with
that help them shape their own counternarratives is WoeLab, the very first Fab Lab implemented in
in itself an act of resistance. As a sixth-grade maker Togo, Dodji Honou is now specializing in a Fab
educator at Epic Charter Academy in the heart of Lab’s pedagogical potential in teaching and learning
Oakland’s Fruitvale district, Cabezas feels lucky to subjects such as physics, engineering, robotics, art,
be part of a Design and Engineering department that mechanics, and electronics. Dodji Honou believes
values honoring those past and present legacies: that the international and African maker move-
explicitly making ethnic studies a pillar through ments can greatly contribute to reshaping and
which we create curriculum. She is a mother of two improving the teaching and learning experience
beautifully creative teenage men, and she pours her in African education systems through the promo-
heart, mind, and spirit into teaching and learning tion of “learning-by-doing” or “hands-on-learning”
toward an empathetic and compassionate world, methods and philosophy.
and helping them reclaim their space and duty to
defend land and life.
xii MEANINGFUL MAKING: Projects and Inspirations for Fab Labs + Makerspaces
Cassia Fernandez Alphonse Habyarimana

Cassia Fernandez is a researcher and educator inter- Alphonse Habyarimana is the manager and developer
ested in exploring meaningful and experimental of Kepler Tech Lab, a social innovation center and
ways of teaching coding, electronics, and science for STEM Laboratory based in Kigali, Rwanda, with
children. She holds a bachelor’s degree in physics the aim of improving and providing hands-on
and completed a master’s degree in electrical engi- learning experiences to middle school and high
neering, designing physical computing activities school students and accelerating innovation
based on a tinkering approach to foster students’ through human-centered design, workshops, out-
creative thinking and creative confidence. Currently reaches, and advising. Habyarimana holds a bach-
she works as a project coordinator for the FabLearn elor of arts in management and associate of arts in
Program in Brazil, focusing on science curriculum general studies, both with a business concentration,
design and teacher professional development, from Southern New Hampshire University. He is
and at the Interdisciplinary Center for Interactive also a member of International Development Inno-
Technologies at the University of São Paulo. She vation Network, a program led by Massachusetts
has experience in teaching coding to elementary Institute of Technology’s D-Lab, which empowers
and middle school students and created a low-cost a diverse, global network of innovators to design,
physical computing tool kit that has been used in develop, and disseminate technologies to improve
Brazilian schools and in her academic research. the lives of people living in poverty.
Christa Flores David Hann

Christa Flores began her career as a science educa- David Hann teaches eighth-grade math and six-/
tor for grades K–8 in 2001. Inspired by the maker seventh-/eighth-grade design and technology at
movement in education in the spring of 2012, she Donview Middle Health & Wellness Academy,
cofounded the Hillbrook School iLab, a classroom a public school in Toronto, Canada. He was the
designed for material and digital making in Los first teacher to pilot a 3D printing program in a
Gatos, California, United States. Flores is currently Toronto middle school, complementing his existing
the STEMlab manager for the Asheville Museum of Design & Technology program in a wood/metal
Science in North Carolina, where she designs expe- shop. In 2014 and 2015, Hann and several colleagues
riences that foster STEM literacy with an emphasis collaborated to have eighth-grade students build
on material science, design thinking, working in pinball machines using Makey Makey and Scratch
collaborative teams, sharing work, and entrepre- for a cross-curricular final project (covering math,
neurialism. Flores graduated from the University English, science, history, and geography). He has
of California, San Diego, with a degree in biological presented this project at conferences and Maker
anthropology; spent time doing research through Faires, including the 2015 World Maker Faire in
the New York Consortium of Evolutionary Prima- New York. Hann is one of the cofounders of the
tology; and obtained a master’s degree in secondary MakerEdTO group, which organizes a summer maker
science education from Teachers College, Columbia conference for Toronto/Ontario teachers and facil-
University. Flores is the author of the book Making itates the development of educators’ maker skills
Science: Reimagining STEM Education in Middle School and professional network. He holds two bachelor’s
and Beyond and has published various articles on the degrees from the University of Toronto, one in edu-
subject of making in science. cation, the other in history and philosophy, and has
additional qualifications as a design and technology
specialist teacher.
Meet the FabLearn Fellows xiii
Nico Janik Wojciech Karcz

Nico Janik is the Makerspace/Engineering coordina- Wojciech Karcz has a background in materials
tor for the Ravenswood City School District (RCSD), science and engineering from Warsaw University of
a public school district with seven campuses serving Technology in Poland. He works as a local FabLearn
low-income students of color from transitional program coordinator in Copernicus Science Centre
kindergarten through eighth grade, in East Palo Alto in Warsaw. Besides building the first educational
and eastern Menlo Park, California, United States. A Fab Lab in Warsaw, he also develops a whole range
team of dedicated STEM-oriented people have been of maker activities and hands-on workshops for
working since 2013 to build the makerspace pro- students. Karcz is an active member of the maker
gram at RCSD from one pilot program in an empty movement in Poland. He organizes a variety of
classroom, to having equipped and staffed maker- different events like Arduino/Genuino Day, Maker
spaces at all of its seven school sites. Janik’s work in- Show, and hackathons/make-a-thons in order to
cludes helping a team of site tinkerers (makerspace encourage others to make and tinker. In his spare
staff), tinker teachers, and classroom teachers bring time, he makes things, teaches art students how to
making to their students. She is also lucky to still be use new technologies, and brews craft beer at home.
able to occasionally make thing with kids! Before
becoming a classroom teacher, she worked profes-
sionally as a mechanical engineer, most notably at
IDEO Product Development, OddzOn Products, and
Hasbro Toys. She holds a multiple-subject teaching
credential. She also holds bachelor’s degrees in both
mechanical engineering and environmental studies
from the University of California at Santa Barba- Susan Klimczak
ra, and a master’s degree in engineering/product Susan Klimczak is an education organizer at the
design from Stanford University. South End Technology Center @ Tent City’s Learn 2
Teach, Teach 2 Learn program in Boston, Massa-
chusetts, United States. Each year, the institution’s
three-dozen teenage teachers learn, build, and teach
six different technology modules. Together they
reach more than eight hundred children at more
than twenty-five Boston community organizations
through a series of summer camps. Fab Lab 001, the
Kevin Jarrett first Fab Lab outside of the MIT Center for Bits and
Kevin Jarrett is a teacher educator, author, speaker, Atoms, is located at the Center. Klimczak has also
and STEM/maker education consultant in New Jersey, done academic research for the Ford Foundation,
United States. Jarrett is grounded in the belief that National Science Foundation, and the MIT Media
giving students the opportunity to imagine and Lab, among others. She is a research affiliate with
create original solutions to real-world problems the MIT Media Lab Lifelong Kindergarten Group.
helps them develop the skills, dispositions, and She holds a master’s degree in education from
adaptable mindset needed to survive and thrive in Harvard University, a master’s in environmental
an uncertain future. Jarrett spent fourteen years education from Lesley University, and a bachelor of
in public education before transitioning into a science in electrical engineering from University
consulting role, where he now devotes 100 percent of Maryland College Park.
of his time to helping schools embrace maker-
centered educational programs that support
hands-on, minds-on learning experiences. In
addition to his experiences with making education
and professional development, Jarrett is a Google
Certified Innovator and Trainer, and a cofounder
of the Edcamp movement. He has a master’s and
bachelor’s degrees in business administration.
xiv MEANINGFUL MAKING: Projects and Inspirations for Fab Labs + Makerspaces
Per-Ivar Kloen Angie O’Malley

Per-Ivar Kloen has been trained as a biology/science Angie O’Malley is a STEAM specialist at Brighton
teacher. He teaches at High School De Populier in School, a preschool through eighth-grade private
The Hague, The Netherlands. Inspired by an early school in Mountlake Terrace, Washington, United
issue of the magazine Make:, Kloen and his col- States. She began as a technology instructor and
leagues started to organize monthly maker eve- worked to develop a comprehensive, integrated
nings for teachers and friends. After a few of those STEAM program for elementary and middle school
events, he realized that this kind of making had students. O’Malley helped plan and design the
much potential in schools. They explored the end- school’s new STEAM lab, where she holds weekly
less possibilities of the maker movement in a wide classes, before-school programs, and summer
variety of projects, inside and outside formal schools. camps. She received an undergraduate degree
Kloen was appointed as Educational Pioneer of from Linfield College and a master’s of arts in
2014 in The Netherlands. The flagship project is an teaching from Seattle Pacific University.
after-school program in which the students have
the freedom to make whatever they want to make
in a great makerspace. The students love this way
of working, and they are creating amazing things.
Kloen is also an active member of the National
Platform Maker Education, working to get making
back into Dutch schools by organizing working ses-
sions, delivering speeches all over The Netherlands, Heather Allen Pang
and hosting workshops. Heather Allen Pang teaches history to eighth graders
at Castilleja School, a grade 6–12 private school in
Palo Alto, California, United States. She herself
is a graduate of the all-girls school (class of 1984)
and also serves as the school archivist. Castilleja’s
Bourn Idea Lab is very closely associated with
Stanford University’s Transformative Learning
Technology Lab. Before joining the faculty at
Angela Sofia Lombardo Castilleja, Pang taught at the University of California,
Angela Sofia Lombardo is a constructivist psychol- Davis; Santa Rosa Junior College; and American
ogist (Italian Constructivist Society (SCI)) and River College. She holds a bachelor’s degree in
project manager of the educational area for Fab Lab European history from Wesleyan University;
Bologna in Italy. Fab Lab Bologna is one of the most a master of arts in teaching in European and
prolific Fab Labs in Italy, working in prototyping, American history from University of California,
peer mentoring, codesigning school makerspaces Davis; and a doctorate in American history from
and maker education curricula with schools of every University of California, Davis.
level, and also running after-school tech labs in
more than ten schools in the Bologna area. Lombardo
is cofounder and president of ProgrammaBol, a
nonprofit organization with the aim to spread in
Bologna the message that everyone can be active
and creative with digital technologies. One
of the most important actions of ProgrammaBol
is to organize “CoderDojo Bologna.” CoderDojo is
a worldwide movement of free, volunteer-led,
community-based programming clubs helping kids
from eight to eighteen to express their creativity
through digital technologies.
Meet the FabLearn Fellows xv
Mario Parade Daniel Schermele

Mario Parade is the founder of Fab Lab Potsdam and Daniel Schermele is a maker teaching artist at
Science Shop Potsdam in Germany and has been the DreamYard Project, a nonprofit serving the Bronx
Fab Lab manager since 2012. Mario’s specialties are community in New York City, New York, United
citizen science and repair cafés. He runs workshops States. He piloted and now teaches maker classes at
with students and young people at the Fab Lab and DreamYard Prep High School and at the DreamYard
nearby schools. Art Center. His classes integrate a combination of
constructivist learning, and social emotional and
social justice pedagogy, focusing on projects that
foster students’ maker identities, build empathy,
and encourage collaboration. Schermele’s curric-
ulum integrates art and music while also drawing
connections to scientific, historical, and political
concepts. He enjoys collaboration with other teachers
Samuel Phillips and customizing his curriculum to meet individual
Sam Phillips is the manager and lead instructor learning needs. Schermele holds a master’s in social
at MetaMedia, a digital media lab and hangout work from Columbia University with a focus on
space open exclusively to middle-school youth at social entrepreneurship and program design.
the McGaw YMCA in Evanston, Illinois, United
States. At MetaMedia, he oversees curriculum
development across multiple modes of making,
including audio and video production, video
games, papercraft, circuitry, and digital fabrica-
tion. Prior to MetaMedia, Phillips was a video and
animation teaching artist at Street-Level Youth
Media and Marwen in Chicago, and taught sixth- Mark Schreiber
grade writing and technology at Nashville Prep Mark Schreiber is a consultant working with schools
Charter School. Phillips holds a bachelor’s degree on integrating maker education with existing curric-
in cinema studies from Oberlin College. ulum based on twenty years of experience teaching
design and engineering. Formerly the director of
innovation and design at the American School in
Tokyo, Japan, he focused on integrating making
into all subjects and training staff in design and
fabrication. He holds a bachelor of arts in technology
education and industrial technology, and a master’s
in construction, technology, and engineering
Erin Riley education from Colorado State University. He is a
Erin Riley is the Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Jackson member of MIT’s international Fab Lab network.
Director of the Engineering and Design Lab at In addition to his work in education, he is the
Greenwich Academy in Connecticut, United States, owner of DesignCase Consulting where he helps
where she teaches classes and facilitates projects corporations embed more innovation into their
with faculty at the intersection of art, design, company culture. Mark currently lives in Fort
and engineering. Additionally, she teaches a Collins, Colorado, United States.
studio course in creative technologies at Columbia
Teachers College in the Department of Art and Art
Education. During the summer, Riley works with
middle school–aged students on integrated art and
science projects at REACHPrep, an educational
access organization for underserved students. She
holds a master of fine arts from Maryland Institute
College of Art.
XVI MEANINGFUL MAKING: Projects and Inspirations for Fab Labs + Makerspaces VOLUME 2
Nalin Tutiyaphuengprasert Juliet Wanyiri

Nalin Tutiyaphuengprasert is cofounder and senior Juliet Wanyiri is the founder of Foondi Workshops
vice provost of Darunsikkhalai School for Innovative in Nairobi, Kenya, which runs collaborative design
Learning (DSIL) in Bangkok, Thailand. She has been workshops. She is an electrical engineer and is an
involved in the application of constructionism in organizer and alumna of the International Devel-
Thailand both in formal and informal education opment Design Summit (IDDS), an annual design
since 2001 as a teacher in project-based learning and and innovation summit organized by MIT’s design
a school administrator responsible for academic and lab. Wanyiri is a member of the 2016 IDIN Work-
international affairs. Tutiyaphuengprasert was a shop Fellowship program. Prior to this, she was the
cofounder of DSIL, the first Fab Lab and the first director of Gearbox makerspace. She was also part
FabLearn Lab in Thailand. She is currently working of the engineering team behind BRCK.
as an interaction designer, a trainer for teachers,
and director of the upcoming social enterprise proj-
ect to scale up constructionism and digital fabrica-
tion for learning in Thailand. Tutiyaphuengprasert
has a bachelor’s in cinematography and master’s
degree in business administration. She also received
a master’s degree from Stanford Graduate School of
Education in learning, design, and technology. Mathias Wunderlich
Mathias Wunderlich is a teacher at the Freie Aktive
Schule Wuelfrath (FASW) in Germany near
Düsseldorf. This is a private school with deep roots in
the pedagogy of Maria Montessori as well as Rebeca
and Mauricio Wild. The school offers students the
opportunity to work, invent, and tinker whenever
they want. It gives students maximum freedom of
Aaron Vanderwerff choice for what they want to learn, when, with which
As the director of learning of MakerEd, Vanderwerff classmates, and in which chronology. Wunderlich
is responsible for content development and delivery runs a dedicated makerspace there, with all kind of
to educators and trainers. He manages the design tools and material for crafting, making, electronics,
and content behind MakerEd’s work, including and more. He initiated the first repair café in a
resources, workshops, and programs. Throughout German school, which takes place once each month
his sixteen years as a public educator, Vanderwerff and is open to the public. With different groups of
has been passionate about making and inquiry, students, the school periodically takes part in Maker
believing that learner-centered, hands-on education Faires, science nights, and competitions.
can revolutionize our educational system. Prior
to working at MakerEd he was the director of the
Lighthouse Creativity Lab in Oakland, California,
United States, where he collaborated with teachers to
turn learning over to students throughout the school
day. Vanderwerff started the Creativity Lab program
in 2010, growing it from a high school elective to the
K–12 program it is today. He also supports educators
through Designing Making Experiences workshops,
the AbD Oakland Fellowship, and teaching a course
on designing equitable groupwork in the Stanford
Teacher Education Program. He taught high school
science and robotics in the San Francisco Bay Area
for over ten years. Vanderwerff lives in Oakland with
his wife and daughter, who love to make things.
XVIII MEANINGFUL MAKING: Projects and Inspirations for Fab Labs + Makerspaces VOLUME 2
FOREWORD
Beyond Mindsets, Cultures, Brands, and Clichés:
A Possible Future for Equitable Maker Education
Paulo Blikstein, Associate Professor, Columbia University
Evolutionary biologists agree that the capacity to $ highly dependent on previous knowledge
learn highly complex new skills is what allowed and preexisting mental models/schemata;
our species to build civilizations in just a few $ tightly connected to our sensory experience
thousand years. Sophisticated learning is what of reality; and
enabled our survival in ever-changing natural $ related to the symbols and media we use
environments, so we did not have to wait a few to represent and make sense of these reali-
million years for evolution to rewire our brains. ties, so the quality and affordances of those
This process is so powerful that in just two years media matter.
a baby can learn how to walk, use tools, speak at
While the previous theories were relatively
least one language, and create refined theories
intuitive to grasp, the new ones were fuzzy,
about the world.
complex, and in constant evolution. There were
Still, for our civilizations to develop further,
no easy analogies or shortcuts—just like quantum
learning had to be somehow organized and regi-
mechanics is harder to explain than Newtonian
mented. We have gone through many models and
physics. This complexity created problems for
settled for the one inspired by the industrial revolu-
the translation of research findings into school
tion, based on direct instruction, mass production,
settings and their implementation in large
uniformization, and obsessive technocratic control.
systems. While the “instructionist” model was
Admittedly, this model had its merits: it made
straightforward for policy makers to understand
education possible at scale, and it brought basic
with easy metaphors (such as knowledge traveling
literacy to hundreds of millions of people. However,
from person to person just like bits flow between
it was based on theories of human cognition that
computers, or information being “broadcast” by
were mostly incorrect or incomplete and was
teachers and “absorbed” by students), the idea of
thus incompatible with how our brains evolved
construction of knowledge was not as simple.
to learn. As soon as we needed children to learn
This new constructivist model—which was
more complex skills and content, this “instruc-
sometimes also called progressive, experiential,
tionist” model showed its inefficiencies, requiring
active, or hands-on learning—was initially a very
extrinsic motivation, tireless repetition, and copi-
hard sell. The theory was complex and had lots
ous amounts of time to learn even basic content.
of gaps (and flaws), the research was laborious,
Scholars such as Dewey, Papert, Piaget, Vygotsky,
implementations were expensive, and the educa-
and Freire began to give us components of a new
tional methods stemming from it were ahead of
(socio-) constructivist model, whereby learning is:
their time. But despite all that, a heroic gener-
$ social and contextualized;
ation of researchers insisted on building new
$ more about reconstruction than direct
foundations for a different approach to learning
transmission of information, so students
and education.
will never get a copy of what is in the
teacher’s brain;
FOREWORD xix
Constructionism many supporters. It was as if ministers of educa-

The theoretical foundations of the FabLearn com- tion and policy makers suddenly “got it”—though
munity are based on those new theories of learn- many could not grasp the concept of progressive
ing, and one in particular: constructionism. It is education, most understood why children needed
the legacy of Seymour Papert and his many collab- to learn different things in the 21st century.
orators, who gave us a twist on the constructivist And they soon realized that those skills were
model. Papert wrote in 1991 an excellent definition not learnable in the old drill-and-kill ways, so they
of constructionism that the “maker movement” turned to progressive educators for inspiration—
would revisit in the 2000s: “Constructionism constructivists and constructionists in particular.
shares constructivism’s connotation of learning as The results are everywhere: there are thousands
building knowledge of makerspaces in
structures. It then The primary theoretical foundation of the schools around the
adds the idea that this world; computer
happens especially FabLearn community is Seymour Papert’s science, engineer-
felicitously in a con- ing, and design are
text where the learner
theory of learning, CONSTRUCTIONISM. becoming part of
is engaged in constructing a public entity.” national standards; there is a growing popularity
In the best tradition of Dewey, Piaget, and of project-based learning, and a renewed interest
Freire, constructionism has, at its heart, a desire in Papert, Freire, Dewey, and Piaget. In this sense,
not to revise but to invert traditional instruction. progressive education—and especially construc-
One of the main avenues to accomplish that is to tionism—have won the battle of the minds.
change how we approach construction in schools, But we are still in the thick of our everyday,
which is usually a second-rate activity merely com- down-to-earth battles in our schools, districts, and
plementing the “real learning” that happens in cities. The revolution is far from over, and there
theoretical lectures. Constructionists see the are many areas that still require our attention.
making of those public objects, programs, and
inventions as first-rate activities that should be Coexisting with the existing system to
an integral part of the school day. But they also create sustainability
advocate that meaningful making cannot happen Some education reformers believe that we need
without a coordinated effort of minds and hands: to get rid of school and replace it with something
there can’t be making without sensemaking. very different. Incremental change will get us
Fast forward to the first decade of the 21st nowhere, they say. But given the sheer scale of
century. The world’s once-industrial economy had the educational system, with millions of students
evolved into a multifaceted, globalized, complex and teachers, we need to think about both radical
network of products and services for which the change and what teachers will do next week (or as
labor demands are radically different. But the Papert said, both the “Someday” and the “Monday”).
changes went deeper than just the labor market. The tools we have today offer the possibility of
As the world became more diverse, we realized creating quite different learning environments
we need to learn how to deal with it. The need for even within the current system. Makerspaces are
social and educational equity became crucial. We perhaps the best example. Twenty years ago, the
came to accept that all voices needed to be heard most radical space you could build in a school was a
and respected, especially those of traditionally computer lab. Granted, you could do wonderful
excluded groups. Deep changes to civic participa- Logo work there, but it was just one type of tool.
tion and human relationships all pointed to the Compare that to what you can do today in a
need for new skills and competencies, many of makerspace (in addition to programming)—there
which more recently received the designation is so much more that can be achieved, and there
of “21st-century skills.” Interestingly, this new are multiple ways to tie in with the school curric-
designation became very popular and gained ulum, in STEM, Arts, and Humanities. It is also
XX MEANINGFUL MAKING: Projects and Inspirations for Fab Labs + Makerspaces VOLUME 2
much easier to convince parents, principals, and recently I realized that it is hurting the commu-
teachers of the need to redesign curricula and have nity in other ways. For instance, Leah Buechley’s
many types of learning experiences during the epic FabLearn 2013 keynote pointed out that Make:
school day. magazine covers overwhelmingly portray a maker
Thus, working “within” the system is not as ter- movement dominated by affluent white males.
rible as it used to be, and we have the opportunity This is the problem: “maker” was invented as a brand,
to improve the lives of many children right now— not as an educational concept. It was invented by very
not in 30 years. The path to sustainability includes well-meaning publishers to describe a conference
finding creative, ambitious ways to coexist within and a magazine in the Silicon Valley, but it was not
the current system while always pushing for more meant to be a pedagogy, an educational project,
audacious changes. or a theory of learning. The term make is culturally
insensitive because many populations associate
Making the terminology more precise “making your own stuff ” (food, household object)
Nomenclature sounds trivial, but it is not. We have with poverty and exploitation. It is only in affluent
far too many names for similar things: project-based parts of the world that making your own cheese,
learning, maker education, student-centered education, soap, or furniture is associated with emancipation
discovery learning, hands-on learning, STE(A)M and liberation. In most places, to “make” those
education, etc. This is very confusing for everyone things is a painful and undesirable chore. It is also
and makes it impossible to distinguish the peda- a gendered term. Many years ago, I remember a
gogical principles behind each approach. I believe female high school student who told me that she
that constructionist learning is an appropriate felt offended by the term maker because she saw
designation of theory of learning that underlies herself as a person who was first and foremost
the maker movement. First, constructionism has interested in helping people through making
a formal definition, and it has a clear historical things but not as a “maker” who just creates
link to constructivism—so we know its basic ideas, physical things for their own sake. She felt that
theoretical commitments, and principles. How- being seen as a “maker” was uncomfortable.
ever, learning theory is not the same as classroom The term make is also generating an excessive
practice. The problem with a term like hands-on number of useless conference panels about what
learning is that it can have so many interpretations “making” actually is (Is coding part of making?
that it is barely useful. Not everyone has to use the What is the difference between a fab lab and a
same words to describe what happens in class- makerspace? Does a makerspace need a 3D printer?).
rooms or other learning spaces. But we should be There are just too many books, manifestos, and
able to distinguish and discuss choices in how peo- definitions, as if we were trying to decipher an
ple decide to teach based on what we believe about obscure and complex term created by a philosopher
learning. This nomenclature work is a task for the in ancient Greece—when in reality it was just
whole community. We need to find spaces and invented 10 years ago. This is self-inflicted pain.
places to have honest, nontrivial exchanges and “Make” is not a pedagogy, a mindset, a way
even debate. The more preci- of thinking, or a revolution—
sion in our descriptions of MAKE is not a pedagogy or it is a brand. It is useful in that
maker activities, the more we it helps us communicate with
can talk about and improve
a mindset—it is a BRAND. the external world, but it should
them. But without precise language, we will end not be the way we think about ourselves. We
up in an educational Babel in which no progress need to move beyond the clichés, such as the
can be made. trivial discussion of mindset, the superficial
treatment of social-emotional competencies, the
Rethink our use of the term making overly simplistic celebration of “making mistakes”
I used to be an enthusiast for the term maker without debugging, or demanding “grit” with-
because it seemed to unify our community. But out students having personal ownership of their
FOREWORD xxi
work. The so-called “maker culture,” as we know status quo, multinational publishing companies,
it, is a collage of often US-centric, gendered, and and overhyped entrepreneurs? But I remember the
culturally insensitive practices with no theoretical early days of makerspaces and fab labs in schools,
cohesion and often contradictory ideas. Of course, just a few years ago. People would look down on
those discussions constructionist educa-
were a crucial start, The so-called “MAKER CULTURE,” as we tors and on the maker
and we need to be education community
appreciative of all know it, is a collage of often US-centric, as a bunch of absent-
the amazing work gendered, and culturally insensitive minded idealists who
that was done and did not know how the
the fearless leaders practices with no theoretical cohesion real world worked. I
that dared to create
a new movement.
and often contradictory ideas. should have gotten a
cent for each person
It was a great and bold start, but we need to move who said, “Logo did not work; this will not either,”
beyond these initial definitions and keep revisiting “It will not scale,” and “Teachers cannot do it.” But
them as complex, evolving intellectual constructs the community kept working hard, being creative,
and not as brands or clichés. and creating alternative views of what education
Thus, we should go back to the learning theories could be. And this made me believe that this time
we care about and start placing maker education there is a way to survive and thrive. We might have
in there instead of reinventing wheels. If we accept to put aside our own idealized views of how things
that constructionist learning is the learning theory work and understand that overnight changes in
to base a future on, we must now get to work on education are hard—and that even Papert was
what that means for classroom practice. a bit too optimistic (and sometimes mistaken)
about it. A more productive path might be, indeed,
Transformative learning is up to us to create multiple models of implementation,
In the famous “Gears of My Childhood” preface assessment, and curriculum construction;
to Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful document inspiring narratives of success or failure;
Ideas, Papert states what he has always considered and do rigorous research on the learning that
“the fundamental fact about learning: anything happens. With enough of these models and proofs
is easy if you can assimilate it to your collection of existence, it will be increasingly attractive for
of models. If you can’t, anything can be painfully new teachers to join, new districts to embrace the
difficult.” Education needs a collection of models ideas, and ultimately whole school systems to try
demonstrating the impact of implementing con- to incorporate making and constructionism into
structionist ideas in school. Maybe then they will their curriculum.
not anymore be painfully hard to implement but a Maybe, after all, the revolution will not happen
lot easier. This book is a collection of such models, overnight but one school at a time. But until then
written by visionary educators who took on the it is our job to build those models, tell these stories,
job of bringing constructionism to their schools; do the research, document the work, and tell the
building labs; and creating activities, toolkits, and world about the incredible things students can
curricula. They understand that we are at a cross- do when they are empowered to build, think,
roads, where yet again two different philosophies and create.
of education battle: on one hand, the proponents After all, as Freire said, transforming the world
of mass-produced instructionism now powered by is our “ontological vocation,” it is the call to be the
internet tools, and on the other, the advocates of the most fully human; it is what being Homo sapiens is
highly personal forms of learning that come from all about. Schools have denied this to children for
making, building, and creating one’s own theories. too long. What a time to be alive—it is objectively
At first, it seems like a lost fight. What can a few within our reach to change that.
innovative teachers do against the power of the
Learning
Learning 3
The first section of this book is a collection of articles about how Seymour Papert’s theory
of learning, constructionism, combines with the modern tools and technologies of the
maker movement to create new opportunities for learning. The FabLearn Fellows offer
their views on various topics from the nature of learning to creating environments for
children that foster deeper understandings and connections with powerful ideas. By
placing these big ideas in real contexts of classrooms and other learning spaces, theory
comes alive and vision becomes action.
4 MEANINGFUL MAKING: Projects and Inspirations for Fab Labs + Makerspaces, Vol. 2
Find Your Zero Things:

Diversity, Opportunity, and 3D Printing
by Josh Ajima
Zero Things is a call to action for students, educa-

tors, and makers to design and share 3D models
that celebrate diversity, social justice, and equality.
Even with over two million things, searches of
popular 3D printing repository Thingiverse often
find zero relevant models for topics related to
identity, heritage, and culture. Each empty search
is an opportunity for students to make a difference
in the world.
Three things about me that might give you
some context for this project are that I’m a high
school technology resource teacher, which means
I help teachers integrate technology into the Zero results for Martin Luther King? Is this possible?
classroom. I’m a 3D printing fanatic—I love 3D
printing. I identify as hapa, which means “half” in So, I went onto a 3D printing repository called
Hawaiian—I’m half Japanese and half Caucasian. Thingiverse to search for something to down-
In 2014 I was walking by the library in my load and 3D print. I searched for “Martin Luther
high school, and there was a glass cabinet with King,” and I found zero things. And of course I
a Martin Luther King Jr. display, and I thought, searched for different permutations—“Martin
“Hey! I should 3D print something for that display Luther King Jr” and “MLK”—and I didn’t find
cabinet—it looks a little sparse. I’m going to find anything. Hmmm . . . it seemed like a great oppor-
something and 3D print it.” tunity for me to post some designs. So I found a
Lithophane 3D-printed MLK. Now there is one thing.

Learning 5
public-domain image of Martin Luther King Jr. words—but wasn’t able to find anything. Hmmm
I went to a Thingiverse Customizer and turned it . . . this seemed odd. I thought maybe the search
into a lithophane, which is an object that reveals a function on Thingiverse was broken. I searched
picture when you shine a light through it. I went for “Yoda” and found 269 results. Zero things for
to the Google SketchUp Warehouse, and I found black history; 269 results for 3D-printable Yodas.
a low-poly model, converted that to an STL file for The next month was Women’s History
3D printing, and uploaded both of those models Month, and again I searched—for “women’s his-
to Thingiverse. tory”—and I found zero things. [Just a word of
The next month was Black History Month, so I warning: If you search for “women” or “females”
wanted to 3D print something. I did a search, and on some 3D printing repositories, you’re going
I found zero things. I searched for “black history,” to find a lot of things that are not suitable for
“African American history”—a lot of different key- working with children.]
More search results.

We can do something about this!
Imagine telling kids, “Hey! We have these I worked with the ELL teachers, and we took
new 3D printers! They are super exciting! You this as an opportunity for students to take a
should go and find something to download and Sharpie and just draw some designs on paper.
3D print,” and for a student to find zero things We digitized them and put them in Thingi-
that represent their interests, their identity, their verse and then 3D printed them. In one case,
heritage or culture . . . ? It feels like they will be the design says Guanaco, which is a nickname
unable to find anything relevant to them. for Salvadorans, and this student wrote, “I am
In my school we have a lot of English language proud to be Salvadoran.” We didn’t do this with
learner (ELL) students from El Salvador, Honduras, just one kid; we did this with a lot of the designs
and Guatemala, so when National Hispanic Heri- from this ELL class. Not all of them were able to
tage Month came around, I searched for “His- be digitized in a format that you could 3D print,
panic” and “Latina” and “Latino,” and I found but we were able to upload a number of those
zero things to 3D print. designs and publish them on Thingiverse.
Student Designs
Learning 7
Not only did we publish the student designs,

we found that there were a lot of designs that
were just hard to find searching for “Hispanic”
and “Latino,” so we curated a Hispanic and Latino
Heritage and Culture collection. We searched. We
did some research and found a number of these
models and assembled them into a collection.
Thingiverse found out about this, and they put
this collection on the front page of Thingiverse—
which I’m told is the only collection curated by
someone who is not a Thingiverse employee to
appear on the front page of Thingiverse.
Hispanic and Latino Heritage and Culture collection on Thingiverse
It’s such a big deal to have a collection or

model featured. When the Hidden Figures model
first came out, there were tens or hundreds
of views and then, after it was featured on the
front page, it went up to thousands of views,
and then when it came off the front page, that
number of views just dropped off the face of
the Earth.
Hidden Figures tribute lithophane space capsule design viewership soars

after being on the front page of Thingaverse
Maybe your zero things result has nothing to a geometry teacher and your zero things has to
do with identity, heritage, and culture. Maybe do with nets of a cube. The Virginia Standards of
your zero things is something like the Chesapeake Learning had questions about which of these nets
Bay watershed. I helped develop a model for an of a cube actually fold up to form a cube shape.
Earth science teacher who wanted students to We developed and designed 3D models where
understand why water from New York ends up some of them folded up into the correct shape
in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Maybe you are and some of them didn’t.
Find your own Zero Things

Learning 9
It is not just about creating these models or

designs—it’s about making it so that people can
actually find them. It’s about making sure they
have the correct keywords. It’s about all these
modern digital information skills. It’s about
publishing research to give people some context
about the model and what it represents.
Share your zero things with the world
So, what I learned from this project and this For all of this I wish for you and your students
work is that zero things can become one thing, the excitement and frustration, the joy and the
and one thing can become many things, and despair, but most of all the opportunity of find-
that students can have an opportunity to add ing your zero things.
knowledge to the world with digital designs.
Digital citizens adding knowledge to the world

Real Tools, Real Life, Real Learning
by David Hann
Don’t run with scissors task for a young child that we adults easily take
There is a lot of discussion in the FabLearn com- for granted. This task works as a prerequisite for
munity about tools—not only new tools like 3D ironing since it also has safety considerations.
printers and CNC machines but also about find- The iron is smaller than a standard iron, so it’s not
ing great hand and power tools for children. As too heavy for a child’s smaller body frame, and the
I have been pondering tool use in the classroom, heat setting is restricted to lower temperatures to
I have come to several conclusions: avoid serious burns. However, it is still an iron; it
$ʠ Tools need to be sized appropriately will make creases in the clothes that the children
for children. iron, and it can still cause burns.
$ʠ Tools need to be of good quality to do the Many people would insist the iron be locked
actual work one might expect them to do. away for fear of children hurting themselves.
$ʠ Children need to have access to tools when Instead, in this program when the teacher deter-
they are ready to use them. mines that a child is ready, the child is taught how
$ʠ D
ʠ ifferent children are ready for different to use this tool safely and properly—in a matter-
tools at different ages. of-fact, no-nonsense way, the same way as when
$ʠ T
ʠ eachers need to recognize children’s needs learning how to use a pair of scissors. My daugh-
and skills and match them to the right tool at ter came home one day and described the process
the right time with the right safety protocols. of ironing to me. She noted specifically how one
We do a disservice to children who say “I’m hand went on the iron and the other hand went
ready for real tools” when adults feel the need to behind her back. She explained that this was so
chide them saying “No, you’re not.” This mindset you don’t burn yourself. She talked about how
needs to change—to a response that sounds like you couldn’t leave the iron lying down and how
“Okay. How can we make that happen safely?” the cord needed to be out of the way to prevent
There are, of course, inherent risks involved tripping. I was obviously intensely proud!
with any tool use (“Don’t run with scissors” is a Built to last, built for real work
common refrain in the classroom after all), but My sons are both older and have gone through the
instead of avoiding risk altogether, we should same program as my daughter: ironing, cleaning
teach children to manage the risks safely, and by glass cups, cutting fruit for a snack with properly
doing so allow children to enjoy rich, meaningful sharp knives, etc. This past summer they wanted
making experiences. their backyard playground renewed, so I ordered
Skills training for safety two yards of cedar mulch and we watched
My three-year-old daughter is in a Montessori- excitedly as the dump truck came and deposited
based program that lives this philosophy. She a pile on our driveway. I informed the boys they
recently learned how to iron clothes using a real needed to help me do the work since it was too
iron. In the program, learning to iron happens much for me to do by myself and it was their
after a child has demonstrated mastery of “how project, so they eagerly pitched in. They watched
to make toast.” This is a complex and meaningful me grab an adult-sized rake, shovel, broom, and
Learning 11
wheelbarrow. They mimicked my preparations, chop saw with children as young as grade 1—with
getting out their mini-wheelbarrow and their one-on-one supervision. It’s no surprise that an
child-sized tools: rakes, shovels, and brooms. article titled “The Most Innovative Schools in
As I watched my sons working, I got to thinking America” described Brightworks as “the school
about the tools they were using. So many plastic that teaches dangerously.” 1
toys are given to children so they can “imagine” Here is a brilliant excerpt from the Brightworks
doing the real work of an adult. While imagination blog on the subject of tool use with young children:
is wonderful and important, developing children “Real, ‘grown-up’ tools empower kids, and expand
who will engage in meaningful work is crucial their boundaries of what’s possible. At the heart of
as well. Yet while my boys were doing this real our shop are power drills—an ‘additive’ tool—and
work of moving two yards of mulch 50 feet into our chop saw–a ‘subtractive’ tool. It’s a simple,
our backyard, their tools were failing them. The powerful combination that will allow your kids to
plastic shovel broke in half, the metal shovel blade build bigger, bolder, better projects.” 2
came off the shaft, and the tines on the metal rake There is a thirteen-year-old student at my mid-
started to bend. While these tools were designed dle school who knows more about small engines
to look real—and they were certainly appropriately then I do. Yet when he comes to school, we give
sized for my children—they apparently weren’t him and all his classmates textbook pen-and-paper
designed to fully handle real work. assignments and occasionally projects involving
“jinx wood” (1 ✕ 1 cm) and a glue gun. He told me
Trust me that he thinks the challenge projects we typically
I’ve been working to renovate my basement. One give are kind of ridiculous. He is looking for
day while I was working, I looked over and saw meaningful real-world experience. Playing with
that one of my then-four-year-old sons had put syringes, tubes, and bits of wood is not relevant to
on his (real) goggles, hard hat, and ear protectors him; he’d rather dismantle the engine of his riding
and was running extra drywall screws into the lawn mower because the gear shifter isn’t working,
wall with my impact driver. My easily distractible or build an oil-change stand for his motor bike.
little guy was completely absorbed with his work, Coincidentally, where did he learn to embrace
screwing them in along the line I had drawn ear- tinkering and hands-on learning? Not from school
lier. Although he struggled a bit with the weight but from his father, a tradesperson. Thankfully
of the tool—the impact driver is pretty heavy, not we have a fab lab in my school that I oversee, so he
a child-appropriate size and weight like the iron does get some opportunities for things he finds
mentioned earlier—he worked with diligence meaningful. However, the overall school system’s
and care. With his actions, he was saying “Trust inflexibility and lack of trust in him and his abili-
me, Dad.” ties sends an implicit message that we don’t value
We need to trust our students when they em- the things he does. Sadly this is doing more to
bark on activities that may push us past our own chase students like him away from school at a time
comfort zones. Anyone would express concern when we should be drawing them in.
to a child about to try something risky, but if
the child’s response is “Trust me—I can do this,” It’s not the kids—it’s us:
then we should do the right thing and get out Adjusting our attitudes as educators
of the way (that is, after we double-check their Many activities often considered unsafe are not
safety equipment). actually beyond children’s physical or mental
Not only do we need to trust children, we need capabilities; they are unsafe because we don’t have
to trust teachers who know their students and enough adults and enough time to properly super-
who work with each of them individually. I’m vise and train children who are ready for them. By
reminded of my visit with Gever Tulley at Bright- extension, it’s actually unsafe because we don’t set
works, a school in San Francisco, California, where our expectations high enough. It comes down to
I was very impressed to learn that they use the our preexisting mindset. It’s like I tell my students
in my fab lab: “The MOST dangerous tool is actu- all kinds of authentic learning experiences using
ally the one you think is SAFE!” If we start with the all sorts of real tools in appropriate circumstances.
premise that children are developmentally unable I’m grateful that students in my school have the
to work with tools, then we limit their opportuni- opportunity to use a variety of real tools, but this
ties for no reason other than the ease of blanket option should be open to children at every school,
prohibitions. Instead of facilitating the taking of and not just at select schools.
calculated risks, we don’t trust teachers’ judgment,
and we are guided solely by fear of liability. Notes
Unfortunately the other key piece here beyond 1. thisisinsider.com/the-most-innovative
adjusting attitudes is staffing and funding. In his -schools-in-america-2016-4#brightworks
fascinating book on the history and trajectory of -school-san-francisco-ca-the-school-that
manual work and hands-on education, Matthew -teaches-dangerously-2
Crawford argues in Shop Class as Soulcraft that 2. sfbrightworks.org/2013/12/how-to-use-a
what school boards wanted in the 1990s and 2000s -chop-saw-with-five-year-olds
was fewer adults in the room. As a result, shop
classes were closed since the class sizes were much
smaller, and students were put in front of comput-
ers in labs that could hold much larger classes.
What results in classrooms more often than
not are projects that many students do not find
challenging and see no value in doing. Children
get very good at reading our implicit messages
and the message we often send around tools:
$ʠ “We don’t trust you.”
$ʠ “You’re not here to learn; you are just here to
be supervised.”
Granted, some amazing and forward-thinking
teachers in Ontario and all over are getting started
with hand tools and real materials in kindergarten
and grade 1. The problem is that by the time these
students reach the end of middle school, they may
have been using the same tools for eight years, and
by then many of them are long past ready to move
on to greater challenges.
No wonder some of our students are discour-
aged, disengaged, and acting out.
The solution in my mind is simple (though ad-
mittedly the implementation would be complex):
get rid of age-based “batching” (as Sir Ken Rob-
inson calls it) and move to a more personalized
skills-based focus. For students who are ready,
bring out the real tools and let them get to work.
For those who are not, provide different, “scaf-
folded” projects (perhaps using predetermined
kits) to allow them to develop skills and learn at
their own pace.
I’m not saying that any child should use any
tool but that we must remain open to facilitating
Learning 13
Makerspace of My Childhood
by Jaymes Dec
Note: This article is a reflection on Seymour Papert’s seemed to contain older items, foreign detritus
classic introduction to Mindstorms, “Gears of from our parents’ childhoods. Reaching these
My Childhood” archaic items was dangerous. The shelves were
freestanding, and we had to climb them to reach
Even at the age of seven, I had a makerspace.
the upper levels. More than once, a whole shelving
The cellar of our family home in suburban New
unit tipped over on a small child, spilling ancient
Jersey was dark in corners, and the cement floor
report cards and faded sepia photographs all over
was cold year-round. But the combination of
the concrete.
semi-discarded machines, random material
One entire shelving unit, closest to the stair-
selection, and my father’s heavy tools turned
case, was filled with my father’s tools. This was
this underground cavern into my own proto–
my favorite of all the shelves. I knew I was not
fab lab, a place where I was free to imagine and
supposed to play with these adult toys, but there
explore by making things, where I could tinker
was something magnetic about them—their heft
and create, a place where I could learn at my
and their power. On the lower shelves was one
own pace and study in my own way.
large box of nails and one large box of screws.
My workshop was huge, encompassing the
I loved to bang those nails with a hammer into
entire footprint of the largest house in the neigh-
scrap two-by-fours at wild angles, bending
borhood. A generic wooden staircase descended
them haphazardly. Then I would use the pry
into the middle of the room, splitting it into four
bar on the hammer to slowly remove the nails.
main sections. The left side of the wall facing the
I loved the squeaking sound that would make.
base of the stairs was lined with the hot water
Some of the longer nails were harder to pry out.
tank and furnace that warmed the water for our
I remember discovering that a small block of
house. Mysterious noises would emanate from
material between the claw and the wood would
this area of the basement. Sometimes my brothers
help pull out those more difficult nails—one of
would cruelly turn off the switch at the top of the
my first discoveries of a simple machine.
stairs, and the only light in the room would be
On one of those shelves just above my head,
the flickering blue glow of the furnace reflecting
my dad kept a few huge 12-volt batteries. I have
on the shiny concrete floor.
no idea what they were for, but I’ll never forget
Turning right to face the front of the house,
when one fell on my big toe while I was trying
one long windowless wall was lined floor to ceil-
to climb up and pull it down off its perch. I
ing with steel shelves. These muscle rack units
lost my toenail soon afterwards. I used to love
were stacked with junk and treasures packed
those batteries. They were so different from
into boxes and old luggage. There did not seem
the wimpy batteries that powered my toys and
to be any order to what was in each container.
remote controls. They had conical springs for
It was up to me and my brothers to find out.
power and ground. I remember playing with
The lower shelves were filled with boxes of our
those giants and how I discovered that placing a
old toys and broken sports equipment. This
nail across the two metal springs would produce
discarded bric-a-brac became raw materials for
sparks. My early experiments with electricity
make-believe and fantasy. The upper shelves
were fueled by a dangerous level of unbridled about the prospect of disassembling the old TV,
curiosity. I would connect my toys to those big an ancient black-and-white box. I was convinced
boxy batteries and observe the effects. Sometimes that if I could take the television apart, I could
my poor toys would make crazy sped-up noises, or figure out how to source all the individual parts,
popping sounds and smoke. I was circuit bending but smaller, and build my own handheld televi-
from a young age. Often the toys would stop work- sion set. Of course, once I took that box apart,
ing afterwards. I saw how complex the system inside really
I lost interest in those batteries once I discov- was. I kept breaking that TV down into smaller
ered the power of alternating current. In fact, and smaller parts until every single screw was
my favorite toy growing up was an old electrical removed and the giant glass cathode ray tube
power cord that had been pulled out of a lamp. I stood menacing but alone. It was not until years
don’t remember where I found it—maybe in one later, in graduate school, when I learned that the
of those boxes on the shelves, or more likely I cut capacitors inside a television set hold enough
it off a lamp myself. I used to run tests where current to kill an adult.
I’d send 120 volts of alternating current through Not all of my explorations in the basement
various materials and observe the results. My were as dangerous as the electricity experiments.
favorite objects to observe were metal bolts; they Most of my time in this makerspace was spent
would get white hot. I could pick them up with playing and inventing with safer materials. One
pliers and burn hexagonal holes in paper or plastic. winter, I decided to build a snow bike. In the
Now that I know a bit more about electricity, I basement I had all of the supplies and tools that
realize my experiments could have caused some I needed. The bicycle that I learned how to ride
serious accidents. But I learned more about on was small but heavy—my sister’s old pink-
the principles of nature by getting electrocuted and-white trainer with tassels on the handle-
through that damn lamp cord than I ever could bars. I studded the solid rubber back tire with
have in a classroom. screws spaced around the entire circumference.
In fact, I learned plenty of real lessons in I attached a short child-sized ski with C-clamps
that basement that I never could have learned cuffed around the bindings and the rim of the
in school. In school the counselors and psy- front tire. I’ll never forget the satisfaction that
chologists were saying that I had an attention I felt as I rode that pink bike around the snow-
deficit—that I had a hard time paying attention covered streets of the neighborhood. It might
to the task at hand. In classes where we had to have been the first time I made a real working
sit row by row for forty-five minutes at a time prototype of one of my inventions.
listening to a teacher talk about science or math, When I was twelve years old, my family
I was dreaming of doing science and math in the moved to another town, another house—a house
basement. And as soon as I got home, I would without a basement. Into my teens I continued
forget about that two-page worksheet that I was to fail classes at school. My parents sent me away
supposed to fill out for homework and get right to a very traditional boarding school. My love of
to work on blueprints for my latest creation. In doing math and science in the basement faded.
school I felt like a failure, but in the basement I I was forced to fill out vocabulary worksheets
was a designer, an engineer, and an inventor. In and study for mathematics quizzes.
the basement, I would take stuff apart and put It wasn’t until years later, after college, when
stuff back together. I was always trying to figure Alan Alda appeared on PBS touring around the
out how things worked. I would make things and MIT Fab Lab, that I recalled the joys of making
often break things. in that basement. The fantastic machines that I
When Dad brought home a brand-new Sony saw in that lab at MIT were way more advanced
Trinitron TV, everyone in the family was excited than any hammer, battery, or lamp cord, but I
about the huge curved glass and those giant red, recognized a playfulness and creativity that had
blue, and green pixels. But I was more excited disappeared from my life as I left childhood.
Learning 15
In search of that feeling, I went back to

school, and I learned how to use those fancy
digital fabrication tools that I had recently seen
on TV. I learned how to program a computer and
build machines that sense and respond to the
physical world. I learned more in two years of
graduate school than I learned in all of my years
of primary schooling combined. I rediscovered
learning by making.
In New York City, where I live now, most kids
don’t have basements or garages, so I’ve been
teaching in fab labs and starting makerspaces
for kids. I’ve become obsessed with the idea
that school should be more like my childhood
basement, a place where students are allowed to
explore and experiment, to tinker, to make, and
to discover principles of nature all on their own.
Where Art Education Meets Maker Education
by Erin Riley
Making knows no boundary between discrete

disciplines in education. As innovation programs
facilitate skill sharing and as makerspaces and
fab labs become more common in schools, art
programs can access exciting new tools for
self-expression and design.
At the recent National Art Education Associ-
ation (NAEA) Conference in Chicago, the vol-
ume of STEAM and makerspace sessions was a
testament to the growing knowledge base and
enthusiasm for new technologies and materials
available to young artists through digital fabri-
cation and making. This is no surprise; there are
many parallels between the characteristics of
making and art education. Student art with electronics
Student centered Design is a common thread

Maker education and choice-based art studios put Design weaves through fields of art, design, and
students in charge of their ideas and creative pro- engineering. The elements and principles of de-
cess. Learning environments rooted in Teaching sign,2 design thinking,3 and engineering design
for Artistic Behavior (TAB) 1 and constructionism process4 are frameworks used by artists, design-
are hubs for student-centered work. ers, and engineers to inform their practice.
Meaningful Making and building use materials that employ
Students enjoy being engaged in processes that the hands, and it is inherently STEAM
have an impact outside of themselves and that Manipulating materials is spatial (math), under-
have personal meaning. Design challenges that standing materials is science, and making with
look outside the individual to solve problems en- materials brings the physical language of STEM
courage the development of empathy. Art making into the world to communicate an idea.
engages students to self-reflect and bring mean-
ing through creation of an expressive object. Failure is a necessary part of the process
Turning “mistakes into art” or working through
Sharing culture an iterative cycle to improve an idea are neces-
The culture of makerspaces and fab labs promotes sary and provide opportunities for learning.
sharing in the interest of advancing ideas. Designs
from websites Thingiverse and Instructables are
modified and reshared like an appropriated remix
for others to build on.
Learning 17
Celebrate the commonalities and let Likewise, possibilities for 3D design and
your makerspace/fab lab add to your fabrication include 3D CAD and scanning for
art program the 3D printer and building 3D models from
If you are fortunate enough to have a makerspace/ laser-cut flat material or generating 3D positives
fab lab at your school, allow it to introduce new for mold making.3
possibilities for your art program.
2D/3D design and digital fabrication

Students using 2D vector-design programs in the
studio can fabricate their designs in the fab lab
using the laser cutter, CNC router, or vinyl cutter.
The list of objects for art that can be generated
includes printmaking plates, screen-printing
stencils, CNC-milled flat pieces for sculpture,
and laser-cut paper designs. The possibilities
are endless.
Row 1: Vinyl-cut stencils, laser-cut wood and paper prints.

Row 2: Scanned drawings fabricated on the laser cutter.
Row 3: Laser-cut cars.
Row 1: 3D model and print in sections.

Row 2: 3D model and cardboard slice model, animal box with living hinge.
Row 3: Scan and 3D prints.
Row 4: Mold making with metal.
Electronics
Simple electronics can add beauty and meaning
to a work of art. Paper circuits and e-textiles bring
together technology and craft.
Deconstructed book with LED stickers
Circuit within book
Hand-enameled card with paper circuit 3D-deconstructed book with LED stickers
Programming and microcontrollers

Using programs like TurtleArt and Processing
can empower students to use creative computa-
tion to generate 2D designs. Likewise, 3D forms
can be animated, and interactive art can be pro-
duced through the use of simple electronics and
controller boards in artwork.
Radial designs on a WaterColorBot
TurtleArt designs Laser-cut gingerbread

Learning 19
Alternative photography Art and design education meets maker

Bringing together the education, and at the intersection
wonder of electronics are possibilities
with long-exposure The art studio is a rich place for student growth
photography is magical. as students master the tools and language for
The traditional process art and design and craft objects that hold mean-
of cyanotype can be ing. With the building of STEAM programs in
modernized with stencils schools, creative disciplines merge and art pro-
generated with the laser grams gain access to an even wider set of tools
or vinyl cutter. Long-exposure photo
with LEDs and materials, further expanding the options
and creative potential for young artists.
Notes
1. teachingforartisticbehavior.org
2. nwsa-2dart.blogspot.com/2012/08
/elements-and-principles-of-design.html
3. ideo.com/post/design-thinking-for-educators
4. eie.org/overview/engineering-design-process
Cyanotype using vinyl-cut stencils
Artwork using low-tech materials
Recycle-pile leather sketchbook covers Bookbinding
Recycle pile Drawing in an upcycled sketchbook Student focusing on detail work

Let’s Not Make Making Too Complicated
by Mark Schreiber
My kids make stuff. They’re not geeks, they’re I can now precisely laser cut with the click of a
girls. Sure, they know how to make an LED light button; I can 3D print previously impossible-
up, run a laser-cutter job, yep. Yet, even with all of to-mill parts; I can code (formerly called pro-
this, their go-to material is still paper and tape— gramming) a new app and hook it back up to
lots of tape. the physical world in ways I could only dream of
when I was a kid. But the fact is that I did dream.
I think we may be making making I did create. I did build very unsafe tree house
too complex. forts out of reclaimed wood and rusty nails—
For years I taught a middle school technology even before reclaimed was a hip term.
class, and I had my students memorize my pre- So let’s not take the dreaming out of making.
ferred definition of technology: “a man-made object Let’s not make making feel so complicated that
that solves a problem.” Yes, a computer is tech- our students feel that they aren’t geeky enough to
nology. Yes, a 3D printer is an amazing piece of try it. Instead let’s create.
technology. However, a toothbrush is technology Here are some projects that my kids have
too. And so is tape. And paper, lots of paper. Our made. Most captions include what I think students
students’ projects don’t have to flash or be flashy learned in the process. So let’s not be scared of
all the time. They just need to solve a problem and complex makes—of failing. Instead let’s get kids
get our kids learning by doing, by creating. making. These are projects that my girls came up
Now don’t get me a wrong—it definitely is an with using only their imagination and, yes, a lot
exciting time if you are a self-proclaimed maker. of tape.
Paper bridges Flying critters. The kids used a balloon and found the proper weight to make their critters fly.
They also started to lighten the load over the days to keep the critter flying as the helium
balloon started to lose lift.
Learning 21
More precision paper-sushi crafting skills
Sushi-go-’round. What can I say—they

love sushi!
Pet City. Need houses for your plastic kitties? Come on over—we have a
whole neighborhood!
Paper and tape. The basement makerspace needs a little bit of cleaning It’s not a box—it’s a mindset!
up, but it’s all worth it to me!
Designing Learning Spaces for

Constructionism and Learner Autonomy
by Christa Flores
Every learner Trusting kids

deserves a space A kid should lose autonomy only as a last resort,
to go every day such as when they may inadvertently harm
that will expose themselves. Let’s face it, most of us have read
them to the beauty Lord of the Flies, so constructive autonomy still
of the world has an adult in the room to monitor emotional
and the intrepid and physical safety. Adults also have a need for
explorer that they autonomy but not at the expense of safety. Most
truly are. How can of us choose to live in a society with law and law
learning spaces enforcement rather than none. Practicing con-
cultivate this goal structionism in the school setting, therefore, is
while encourag- a balance of safety and responsibility that adults
Student learning how to drill safely
ing constructive and children agree upon for the system to work.
autonomy in the youngest of learners? Two spaces This builds an essential foundation of trust that
that I have had the pleasure of visiting have shed must prevail over any excitement around any
some light on that question. The first stop was particular tool. I believe Gever Tulley, author
San Francisco, California’s Brightworks and the of Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your
second the Beam Center in Brooklyn, New York. Children Do), is definitely onto something when
he states that autonomy has to feel like just the
What is constructive autonomy? right amount of scary to feel genuine.
The ability to work on passionate projects with My visits with Tulley at Brightworks in San
very little adult or mentor guidance is a sweet spot Francisco taught me a lot about the “language”
in all creative pursuits. When working in a state of trusting kids. Offering true autonomy to a
of constructive autonomy, we get lost in the flow student might sound a little like this: “Hey I see
of joyful work. Time slips away effortlessly. We that you can handle this. I trust you. You are
may even forget to eat or rest. Unfortunately, this competent, and even if you make mistakes, I
kind of passionate flow is not cultivated in our expect you to learn from them.” The act of show-
current school system. While school schedules are ing a child how to safely use a cordless power
regular, predictable, and easily managed (just the tool involves allowing children to experience the
characteristics you would want in an industrial kinetic feedback of holding tools and manipulat-
production line), when students seek out autono- ing materials. Sometimes it just means sitting
my in this system, it can be perceived as a negative with learners until the excitement of turning on
or behavioral issue. Thanks to the work being done a noisy or powerful tool dissipates to the point
in makerspaces now found in libraries, schools, of boredom. Tool training can be followed by the
urban enrichment programs, and museums, con- adult turning their back to the new tool user as
structive autonomy is no longer the exception to a sign of trust rather than disinterest. Turning
the rule. In this article I will describe three com- your back shows the learner that they are now
ponents that allow for constructive autonomy for the master of their own work and safety. While
young learners when using a makerspace. the adult is still present in case of an emergency,
Learning 23
the right and responsibility for bodily safety is all learners that include providing building and
ultimately in the hands of the tool user. scientific tools (microscopes, hand lenses, etc.)
Note: Triggers on power tools can be hard as well as computers, how-to books, and inspira-
work for small hands, and if using the trigger dis- tional natural artifacts.
tracts young brains from their real work, then the A makerspace should feel like a shared home
tool may be too difficult or unsafe for their size. away from home for learners. Something as
High-voltage plug-in power tools should always simple as cleaning up and returning tools to
be monitored by an adult with younger users. their proper home can give a sense of ownership
to a makerspace visitor. When visiting the Beam
Access and inspiration Center in Brooklyn, even brooms were on display
Designing spaces for constructionism and as a sign of shared stewardship.
autonomy begins with allowing all users equal
access to tools and materials. This is best Design experiences
accomplished by having clearly labeled areas I was fortunate to visit the Beam Center in Brook-
for tools to be taken from and returned. I have lyn on a day when their week-long summer camp
seen lots of great versions of creating access for was just beginning a new session. The theme for
Hand-drawn labels let artists, makers, and inventors seek out and discover.
Tools and inspirational materials together
Tracing the shapes of tools à la Julia Child helps everyone return tools where they belong for
the next user.
Make cleanup easy after a productive and messy day of

making, with protocols and well-labeled tool storage
using visual as well as text signage for nonreaders.
the week was color, a very fitting topic for learning machine was simple enough for any age level to
about scientific principles, art techniques, and construct and challenged summer schoolers to
stewardship for a shared makerspace. Many of the learn a range of tool use and makerspace protocol,
Beam Center’s summer workshops are targeted setting norms for activity in the workshop the
for a mixed age group of six to thirteen, allowing remainder of the week.
young mentors to work with younger or less- What I loved about this workshop is how
experienced learners, lending a sense of summer campers were exposed to the world of
authority and helpfulness. making tools for the purpose of making art, a
The workshop I witnessed was designed by message about being a maker, artist, and scientist
artist and all-around Beam Center superstar that is very empowering. Tools used during this
Tim Fite. The project of the day was to make a project included measurement tools, cordless
painting machine from a plank of wood, two drills, screws, and rubber bands. Once made,
screws, and a rubber band. The rubber band the paint machines were an open-ended tool for
works as a surface to apply paint. When pulled little makers to use over and over at home. Using
and released with differing force or direction, only four materials—a wood plank, two screws, a
the vibration smacks and splatters paint onto a rubber band, and art paper—you can create the
piece of paper, creating unique prints worthy of conditions for creativity, focus, and individual-
a modern art museum exhibit. The design of the ized learning.
“Mr. Tim” begins his introduction on screen printing with an informal discussion with learners about what happens when you mix color.
(left)
Getting to know your tool takes patience
and practice. This one tool helps learners
as young as six practice focus and iteration,
and self-reflect on process.
(right)
Step-by-step instructions for making the
paint machine
Learning 25
Giving as a Core Value in Makerspaces
by Josh Ajima
Whenever I go to a conference or a maker event,

I bring gifts—a small topo map of Virginia for
the FabLearn conference, makerspace starter
kits and business card flashlights for education
conferences, or personalized gifts for fellow makers
at Maker Faire. I’m lucky to have access to a maker-
space filled with shiny tools. The purpose of all
these tools is to make things that fill a need for
other people.
Educational makerspaces are for learning.
Giving is a powerful framework for maker educa-
tion, teaching students to be producers instead
of consumers, makers instead of takers.
It is no mistake that the Stanford d.school
uses gift giving as one of its Design Project Zero
activity themes.1 It is no accident that the most Student-made gifts during Maker Club
popular makerspace stories are makers gifting
3D-printed prosthetics.2
In my school, part of our mission is to help
students live a life of significance. When I help
my advisory students with goal setting, the most
difficult one is always the service goal. What can
you do to help other people? Students struggle
with this question. Making gifts is one way to
help students develop an answer.
Service learning entwined with the concepts
of empathy and giving can be seen in Manchester,
Massachusetts’ Brookwood School’s 3D Design
Problem Bank Project.3
Educational makerspaces also provide gifts Kevin Jarrett had some nice examples in his Twitter feed.
to students:
$ʠ Gift of access
$ʠ Gift of making
Notes
$ʠ Gift of empowerment
1. dschool.stanford.edu/use-our-methods
$ʠ Gift of knowledge
/design-project-zero-a-90-minute-experience
$ʠ Gift of confidence
2. enablingthefuture.org
$ʠ Gift of self-discovery
3. designproblembank.weebly.com
Giving and making go together in many ways.
Design Reviews:
Constructionism Conversations about Public Entities
by Susan Klimczak
“Learning . . . happens especially felicitously in a context where the learner is consciously engaged
in constructing a public entity.” —Seymour Papert (1991)
“Papert is interested in how learners engage in a conversation with [their own or other people’s]
artifacts, and how these conversations boost self-directed learning, and ultimately facilitate the
construction of new knowledge.” —Edith Ackermann (2001)
When people ask me to explain Seymour Papert’s 1. Project design review for generating simple
constructionism, I say that constructionism is project ideas
“learning by making.” However, much learning 2. Group design review to evaluate initial ideas
by making is unexpected and often unique to the for bigger projects
learner; it can’t always be predicted by a syllabus. 3. Peer review of rapid prototypes
For the most learning to happen, makers must 4. Formal community design review for proof-
have many opportunities to discover and name of-concept prototypes
what they are learning. As educators, we can pro- 5. Final community design review of full-model
vide youth with thoughtfully structured opportuni- prototypes: Project Expo
ties to engage in conversation about their projects
during the making process in order to: Project design review for generating
$ʠ Explain why and what they are making simple project ideas
$ʠ Develop skills at giving and receiving feedback You are planning a short, simple activity that
$ʠ Increase their creative confidence takes only a couple of hours, such as building a
$ʠ Discuss their process including research, paper circuit, laser cutting a backpack tag, cre-
successes, and challenges along the way ating a Makey Makey game controller, or coding
$ʠ Generate ideas about how to make the a simple Scratch animation. Even for relatively
project better short and simple project activities, conversations
help youth explore ideas.
Whether for a simple short—or an elabo-
At L2TT2L, youth sketch their ideas with pencil
rately long—maker project, our Learn 2 Teach,
and paper and present those ideas to their peers.
Teach 2 Learn (L2TT2L) community has found
Drawing and verbally explaining their ideas, then
that design reviews are one way to provide
presenting them to peers for even short feedback,
these opportunities. Carefully facilitated and
helps young people develop creative confidence
strategically timed design reviews can dramat-
ically improve youths’ learning as well as the
quality and success of projects. Our experience
is that they harness the collective imagination,
the collective knowledge, and the collective skills
of our youth (and community).
Over the past fifteen years of thinking together,
teenage youth teachers and college mentors have
developed five different kinds of design reviews:
Feedback helps youth make ideas more concrete.
Learning 27
and a clearer direction that can dramatically Mentors meet with each group to have a
improve the quality of the projects. conversation about how the group’s project idea
Starting to move ideas out of the brain to the could be improved to demonstrate more of the
physical act of putting pencil to paper (even if great project characteristics from the best youth
it is just words and scribbles) helps youth make projects in the past.
their ideas more concrete. Our evidence comes
from experience, but there must be some neuro- Prototypes: Breaking up bigger projects
science explanation. Sharing their ideas with At Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn, we use a series of
peers and talking about them—even briefly— prototypes for long-term projects that might be
helps to identify challenges and opportunities built over a span of three to six weeks. Prototypes
for simplifying or adding to their designs. are a way to test ideas in the physical world. A
great resource for learning about prototypes and
Group design review to evaluate initial how they are used in business innovation settings
ideas for bigger projects is a set of slides developed by the UK Nesta Foun-
When small groups design and build bigger proj- dation.1 Here is an adapted version of the Founda-
ects that are to be worked on for several weeks, tion’s definition:
conversations about how the project demonstrates Prototyping is an approach to developing, testing,
the characteristics of past successful projects can and improving ideas at an early stage. . . . It is a way
be inspiring. of project and team working that allows you to
It’s empowering to have the youth themselves experiment, evaluate, learn, refine, and adapt . . .
think about and generate metrics for great
projects. We had a group of youth and mentors Prototyping:
$ʠ Involves relevant people at an early stage
research and name the characteristics of ten years
$ʠ Develops ideas with the people who will help
of the most successful and satisfying L2TT2L proj-
ects. The youth turned those characteristics into a you find the answers
$ʠ Makes ideas tangible and tests them
poster of “project metrics.”
$ʠ Refines those ideas
$ʠ Informs and improves any [plan] for change
The only thing I would add is that prototyping

activities should be designed to engage a real
sense of playfulness that fosters “falling in love.”
As Sherry Turkle said at a recent symposium on
Seymour Papert,2 falling in love with learning,
ideas, materials, and projects are the most im-
portant gauges for the success of maker activities.
At L2TT2L, we structure design review
conversations for bigger projects around three
kinds of prototypes: rapid prototype, proof-of-
concept prototype, and a full-model prototype.
A rapid prototype is a quick (thirty-minute)
building exercise using craft materials that
communicates the idea for a project. A proof-
of-concept prototype is a partial model built
(typically over several days) to demonstrate that
the big mechanical and electronic ideas that will
be used in the model are doable. A full-model
prototype is a working model of the project
Students generated this poster of metrics by which to (typically created over many weeks).
evaluate projects.
The next three design reviews involve these summarize their feedback orally. However, the
three kinds of prototypes. written sticky notes from all the groups are col-
lected and given to the maker group. In this way,
Peer review of rapid prototypes we can get through the design review in sixty to
We find it helpful to give the young people an eighty minutes.
opportunity to “think with their hands” and make A facilitator (at L2TT2L this is a college mentor)
a rapid prototype for bigger project ideas. I like makes the process run smoothly by:
these thoughts about rapid prototypes and their $ʠ Introducing each maker group
relationship to creativity from Tom and David $ʠ Being sure maker groups answer all questions
Kelley’s book Creative Confidence: Unleashing the and pass prototype around room
Creative Potential within Us All: $ʠ Facilitating sticky note peer group feedback
The reason for [rapid] prototyping is experi- brainstorm

mentation—the act of creating forces you to ask $ʠ Facilitating sticky note peer group feedback
questions and make choices. It also gives you from three groups
something you can show to and talk about with $ʠ Giving all the peer group sticky notes to each
other people. . . . [A] prototype is just an embodi- maker group

ment of your idea. . . . $ʠ Having a timekeeper and someone to collect the
Some failure is unavoidable. . . . The best kinds of peer group feedback sticky notes is also helpful
failures are quick, cheap, and early, leaving you in keeping the design review running smoothly.
plenty of time and resources to learn from the
experiment and iterate your ideas. . . . Creativity
requires cycling lots of ideas.
The rapid prototype design review process
Guidelines for rapid prototyping After the design review, give the maker groups
After rapid prototyping, we have an informal time to have further conversation to discuss and
peer design review with facilitated questions to document the feedback that they have received.
answer, as summarized in the guide. Questions that might guide such conversations
We typically have thirty-six teen youth who are include What different kinds of feedback did the rapid
working in small maker groups on seven or eight prototype receive? What changes to the project might
projects, so this design review needs to be carefully be considered based on the feedback?
facilitated to be effective and timely. Each small At L2TT2L, we have youth document their
maker group presents its project for three to five entire engineering design process on a project
minutes. Then the other peer groups have three blog that they keep. This is also where they post
to four minutes to come up with feedback that the insights from their feedback and conversa-
they record on sticky notes. Several of the groups tions. This approach to feedback helps youth to
Learning 29
develop competence in analyzing and critiquing Maker groups design Kickstarter-style

projects. It also gives each maker group inter- presentations for the formal design review. To
esting guidance and ideas that will help the prepare youth, we introduce the idea of crowd-
group improve its project during the next steps funding and show examples of inspiring Kick-
of the engineering design process. starter sites (for instance, we often show youth
the Makey Makey Kickstarter because they use
Formal community design review for Makey Makeys).
proof-of-concept prototypes The idea of Kickstarter-style campaigns is
After rapid prototyping of larger projects, maker evocative because crowdfunded inventions—
groups spend one or two days creating the next- and, we hope, the projects that our youth design
level proof-of-concept prototype. A proof-of-concept and build—are created for real people and
prototype is a partial prototype that is constructed are designed to be used in the real world. The
to test and demonstrate that the most important high-energy, quick presentation format and
parts of the electronics, coding, and mechanical questions that Kickstarter videos ask seem to be
systems in the design are practical and doable. exactly right for our youth: “Tell us who you are.
Tell us the story behind your project. Where’d
you get the idea? What stage is it at now? How
are you feeling about it?”
A design guide is provided for maker group
presentations. Maker groups are encouraged to
incorporate slides or posters as visual aids.
Characteristics of proof-of-concept prototypes

Typically youth use prototyping kits such
as littleBits (a kit with magnetized electronic
components that snap together) or Grove kits
(a shield that fits on top of a microcontroller
development board that allows components like Project presentation requirements
servo motors and LCD screens to be “plugged in” For the formal design review session, we gather
and coded without the complication of wiring) a diverse panel of community members from out-
to create a simplified model of the electronics side the L2TT2L program. By diverse we mean that
and coding. they vary in their work fields and also by gender
Laser cutters and cardboard are typically used and culture. For instance, we may recruit an en-
for prototyping mechanical parts of the proposed gineering professional and a university professor
project to prove that they are buildable. but also seek out people with no engineering or
These proof-of-concept prototypes are pre- technology backgrounds. We have invited com-
sented at a more formal design review where munity organizers, businesspeople, local teachers,
representatives from the community serve on a trade union workers, and politicians. The diverse
panel that offers feedback.
perspectives from the panel offer a wonderful

variety of ideas, suggestions, and questions that
are useful for the youth as they improve their
final design plans, technical tools, approaches,
and potential uses of the projects.
We set up a table for our design review panel
with paper tents with their names and roles,
paper and pencils for notes, and even some
water to give the design review a professional
and formal touch. We also provide them with
some suggestions for the kind of feedback that
would be useful for the maker groups.
Formal design review process
Again, it is important to provide time for maker

groups to discuss the feedback from the formal
design review. These are some questions that they
could discuss: What types of feedback about the
social, technical, and artistic aspects of the project
were given? How should the project be changed to
respond to the feedback? Our maker groups doc-
ument these conversations and plans for project
Suggestions to guide panelists when providing
feedback to student designers changes on their project blog.
The formal design review is structured with Final community design review of
a facilitator for the agenda, timekeeper for full-model prototypes: Project Expo
presentation and panel feedback, and recorder Each year, we hold a Community Project Expo
to collect panelist notes and record verbal and at which maker groups display their full-model
written feedback on a Google Doc. prototype projects. We have a potluck lunch and
Reviewers are asked to provide feedback invite family and friends as well as local commu-
around the following considerations: nity folks—including technology and engineering
$ʠ What did you notice about presenting style, professionals, educators, and businesspeople.
project, proof-of-concept prototype? There is also a sort of final design review embed-
$ʠ How did presenters show they were serious, ded in our Project Expo each year.
prepared, and capable of doing a good job? Each maker group sets up a “booth” with
$ʠ What puzzled you or surprised you about its project and a poster that guides the viewer
the project? through the engineering design process, using
$ʠ What questions do you have for the group? our youth-generated engineering design process
$ʠ What suggestions do you have for the project? infographic as a guide. The maker group posters
$ʠ Do you know of any resources (people, guides, are very much modeled after conference posters
etc.) that could help in their making journey? but much more modest, of course.
Learning 31
to thirty times to different folks. By the time the

Project Expo is over, youth are really articulate
about what they have learned and accomplished.
Youth are often so busy trying to finish their
projects and poster before the Project Expo that
their project documentation blog entries grow
quite thin in the last week of project building.
To address this problem, L2TT2L will add a doc-
umentation and discussion day after the Project
Expo so that learning can be better documented.
Some concluding thoughts about Papert’s

public entities, Ackermann’s making
conversation, and design reviews
Seymour Papert’s constructionism pedagogy is
the most powerful approach to maker education
that I (and so many others) have used. His insis-
tence that maker projects become “public entities”
is often quoted. Edith Ackermann (2001) says that
one way to construct public entities is to focus on
The L2TT2L engineering design process providing opportunities for meaningful conver-
The maker groups receive serious feedback sation that help youth construct new knowledge.
by using a more informal design review process. These conversations allow makers to create more
We ask community members, friends, and fam- robust internal mental models of how technology,
ily to sit with the maker groups, their project engineering, and coding work in the world.
posters, and projects and give them meaningful Yet even as a maker educator and experien-
feedback and evaluation of their projects. tial educator for over 30 years, I still find myself
longing for more writing and focus on those
concrete practices that help makers construct
their projects as “public entities” and that sug-
gest forms of conversation that move makers
forward in constructing new knowledge. This
article suggests the practice of design reviews as
just one such strategy.
Acknowledgements
What is Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn? L2TT2L
is a program at the South End Technology Cen-
ter @ Tent City in Boston, Massachusetts.3 Each
year, we hire thirty-six teen youth teachers who
represent Boston’s diversity in genders, family
cultures, schools, neighborhoods, and spectrum
of thriving in schooling. Our goal is to create a
Maker group posters resemble their academic
critical mass of Boston youth engaged in the cre-
conference counterparts. ative possibilities of technology and engineering.
Each April to August, youth teachers learn six dif-
We find that a very large percentage of the
ferent technology and engineering modules and
youth’s learning comes on this day when they
build projects that solve a community issue. Then
have to explain their process and project twenty
they go out and teach what they have learned to

more than six hundred Boston elementary and
middle school youth in twenty-five community
organizations in the neighborhoods most in need
of education resources.
To The Noun Project 4 for its collection of very cool

and useful icons. The icons used for the diagrams
in this article were created by Daniela Baptista,
Gregor Cresnar, Philippo Gianesi, Delwar Hossain,
Gregor Cresnar, Jaap Knevel, Ghan Knoon Lay,
Michael Rojas Olivia Stoian, and Unlimiticon.
To Dr. Brian Gravel of Tufts University for invalu-

able feedback and suggestions.
To Eva Kerr, longtime South End Technology

Center @ Tent City volunteer, for her faithful
eagle-eye editing.
Notes
1. nesta.org.uk/sites/default/files/prototyping
_framework.pdf
2. media.mit.edu/videos/seymour-2017-01-26
3. fablabs.io/labs/southendtechnologycenter
4. thenounproject.com
References
Ackermann, E. (2001). Piaget’s constructivism,
Papert’s constructionism: What’s the difference.
Future of Learning Group Publication, 5(3), 438.
Papert, S., & Harel, I. (1991). Situating construc-
tionism. Constructionism, 36(2), 1–11.
Learning 33
Making inside the Magic Circle
by Sam Phillips
“I like to think of play as the art of world-making, and that play is about inventing invented
realities. It is about creating a world, physical or virtual, inhabiting that world, and then
eventually becoming inhabited by it.” —Edith Ackermann
Setting the Scene of mind that leads players to deep immersion,

We’re sitting at a kindergarten lunch table, munching increased motivation to overcome challenges,
on snack crackers and carrot sticks—when all of a sud- and a willingness to adopt new rules and roles.
den Kumbalayo, the evil sorcerer with fat warts on his I think about the magic circle often in my teach-
nose, bursts into the laboratory and we all transform ing practice, which from the outside may barely
into Pusheen kittens in an attempt to escape. In the resemble “teaching” at all. Since becoming a
real world, we’re small and struggle with things like FabLearn Fellow, I have worked in two non-
peeling clementines, but in Kumbalayo’s laboratory, traditional learning spaces: (1) MetaMedia, a
we can have any power we want—the ability to shape- free, drop-in digital media lab designed for
shift, to hypnotize, to sneak around like a ninja—and middle-school students in Evanston, Illinois,
“there’s always a way to escape” (as Dustin reminds us and (2) Brightworks, a K–12 private school in
often). In the real world, I am the only adult—every- San Francisco, California, where kids learn by
one else is five or six years old—but today in the game making projects based on thematic units (called
world, I am a Pusheen kitten and I am hiding behind arcs). In both environments, I have spent a por-
a rack of jelly donuts. Sometimes I am the storyteller, tion of my work time playing games with kids
but today I am waiting for Lilah the Donut Princess to (an enormous privilege) and observing how their
save me. A bell rings and we all turn back to humans. play sessions influence their project work. I’ve
The laboratory fades away and we start packing up noticed that role-playing games help establish
our lunches and wiping down tables. a whimsical, child-generated narrative context
in which physical, social, and digital tinkering
“Can we continue after school?” Lilah asks. emerge and flourish. Because these tinkering
“Of course,” I say. “Bring your wand.” experiences are embedded within a dramatic
narrative story, they have the power to create
Role-playing games as petri dish for indelible emotional memories for children.
whimsical tinkering
Every time you play a game, you enter a magic A culture of choosing your own adventure
circle, “a temporary world inside the ordinary At Brightworks, children are afforded a lot of
world dedicated to the performance of playing” choice in how they navigate their school day. They
according to Wikipedia. The circle is both a co-construct classroom curricula with their teach-
concrete boundary—a playground, a card table, a ers (called collaborators). They choose the format
basketball court, a computer screen—and a state and focus of their capstone projects. They are
given independent design time each day to dig into
personal areas of interest. Brightworks students Physical tinkering: Toward a tangible

enjoy role-playing games, which tend to involve game world
character creation and open-world exploration. Sometimes during play sessions, children will
This year at Brightworks, there are two primary make physical artifacts to enhance their story-
cohorts of children who play collaborative role- telling. Sometimes the artifacts are two-dimen-
playing games during school: sional representations such as character sketches,
1. LARPers (live-action role-players) primarily maps of the world, and diagrams. Other times the
consist of older middle school and high artifacts are three dimensional: props, costume
school students who schedule outdoor play pieces, or environmental spaces that mirror the
sessions during the all-school recess block. game world.
One high school student is the “game master”
and is responsible for planning the narrative,
codifying the rules, and directing the game
each session. The “game master” establishes
a scenario (e.g., “The players are on a ship
sailing to a nearby town and are attacked by
orc-pirates”), which the players then physically
act out using costumes and props. Characters
and narratives are developed over multiple
play sessions.
2. Text Adventurers primarily consist of younger
students (five- to eight-year-olds) who initiate
games during moments of down time (e.g.,
walking from school to the park, over lunch,
after school). Games require one “storyteller”
who guides players through a story and offers
them choices along the way (e.g., “Kumbalayo
bursts into the lab. Do you [Choice A] or A sidewalk chalk adventure in progress
[Choice B]?”). Characters and narratives rarely During one outdoor play session, the Text
develop beyond single play sessions, although Adventurers traced the outline of a boat in chalk
storytellers tend to remix each other’s themes on the blacktop to the (not-quite) scale of an
and scenarios. actual boat. They could climb inside of it with
their bodies and be rocked overboard during
shipwreck. With just a line on the floor, they
were all able to know how it felt to be squished
into a tiny vessel and were naturally compelled
to wonder, “What if we made our boat a little bit
bigger?” During an indoor session, they used a set
of color-changing LEDs to conjure the lighting of
a lush forest, topped a couple of life-size Lincoln
Logs with a green blanket for trees, and cued up
Howard Shore’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship
of the Ring score so that they too could walk bare-
foot around The Shire.
The LARPers also make physical artifacts: hel-
A tangible game world mets, shields, and weapons—all from duct tape,
foam, and other scraps. These props are more pre-
cious and permanent. The older kids take turns
Learning 35
toting their cargo to the park each day in a giant $ʠ Every component of the game has to be
barrel. They repair them when they get bruised. predetermined by the storyteller or game
They develop regulations around how to care for master, which means that nothing can
them and become irritated when rules are broken. happen by chance.
The LARPers store their artifacts in a public place,
which allows them to become incorporated into
the Text Adventurers play sessions as well.
Social tinkering: Rules, roles, rituals,

and agreements
Role-playing games at Brightworks don’t come

from a box. There are no instructions to refer-
ence or online forums to consult for advice. The
children’s habits of play are as much a construction
as the props and costumes that they physically
build, and they constantly tweak these structures
depending on the dynamics of each session.
Often before play, the Text Adventurers reset
their group agreements: How do we take turns play-
ing? How long can a person’s turn be? Can anything
happen during a turn? Are we each in charge of our own
character, or are some of us sharing characters? How
many players can the storyteller handle today? They Interactive game designed in Twine
tend to need the help of an adult to facilitate this
In some instances, LARPers and Text Adven-
conversation, resolve disagreements, and ensure
turers use digital tools to overcome these barriers.
that everyone’s ideas are heard.
For example, a LARPer, feeling constrained by the
The LARPers, on the other hand, are entirely
linearity of a notebook, charted his game’s plot
self-organized and document their systems in a
using Twine,1 a free web-based tool for coding
binder carried around by the game master. They
interactive fiction. Some Text Adventurers have
think deeply about how the game is perceived by
adapted their games into sharable Scratch proj-
others, how they share space on the playground,
ects, creating animated avatars that they can con-
and how new players join their game. For many
trol on the screen. During one play session, Text
of the LARPers, the game is more than a pastime.
Adventurers programmed a micro:bit to become
It’s an identity that they proudly adopt.
a random number generator, which determined
Digital tinkering: Computer as power-up the success of their move. Similarly, a LARPer has
There are common limitations in both styles experimented with prototyping spells that can be
of role-playing games: cast from player to player using RFID tags embed-
$ʠ Games can’t be played in exactly the same ded in cloth satchels.
way twice. This digital form of tinkering, unlike the pre-
$ʠ Game progress can be easily forgotten or vious two, typically happens outside of the play
misremembered. sessions. If I’m trying to nudge a Text Adventurer
programmers to incorporate physical materials

into their projects. During my visit, I play tested
a game by Nicky Case called Frog Wars, where
players flick origami frogs over projections of
buzzing flies to score points. That same program
was then transformed into a game called Tub
Wars after Nicky brought new materials onto the
table. The physical materials, which included a
baking sheet filled with water and bathtubs made
from plastic cups, inspired a whole new theme
and style of play. There was no latency between
playing the original game, imagining a way to
remix the game, and playing the remix.
Students using software to tell their stories For the foreseeable future, the Dynamicland
toward Scratch, I might suggest we try to adapt technology is only available to people who have
one of their role-playing game stories into a digi- access to its headquarters in Oakland, but it
tal project. For some children, this is an excellent represents one potential solution for integrating
provocation and they slide into programming digital tinkering into physical play. In the mean-
with gusto, but even in that ideal circumstance, time, as we wait for the technology to catch up,
their whole bodily approach changes. They go it’s important that we nurture playful maker-
from standing to sitting, from being aware of the space environments so that children see tools
physical environment to staring at a screen, from as direct extensions of their imaginations and
creating in concert with others to working mostly as vehicles to help tell stories, share visions, and
alone, from rapidly erecting imaginary worlds make magic.
to slowly crafting sprites, from authoring with
their hands and mouths to feeling limited by the
Notes
keyboard and mouse.
1. twinery.org
2. dynamicland.org
Reference
Ackermann, E. (2010, April 30). Playful inventions
and explorations: What’s to be learned from
kids? [Video file]. Retrieved from youtube.com
Student-created interactive games that blend physical
/watch?v=l3jI19vR5bI
and electronic components
Is there a way to prepare the environment so that
this shift doesn’t happen and children can engage in
digital tinkering while maintaining their play?
Last week, I visited Dynamicland,2 a com-
munity workspace in Oakland, California, that
attempts to solve this problem by reimagining
the computer interface. At Dynamicland, peo-
ple create software together by “programming”
on scraps of paper. The paper code is seen by a
camera/sensor rig mounted in the ceiling, and
then the program is projected live onto the tables,
floors, and walls of the space. The setup encourages
Learning 37
Making Art with Digital Technology
by Erin Riley
Learning through making Art is the verb, the action, the making—
Learning by doing has been a cornerstone of our materials are physical, digital, or both
progressive education with roots dating back to
the eighteenth century. In the United States, the Digital materials for art
progressive education movement, through the So what does a contemporary art studio look like
work of John Dewey, as well as education philoso- today? How would progressive education advo-
phers like Jean Piaget, have advocated for learn- cates view the melding of digital tools with more
ing by experience. Seymour Papert expanded this traditional ones? With the enthusiasm around
idea through learning theory of constructionism. the maker movement and its growing influence
People learn best through creating and sharing on education, we have an exciting opportunity to
the things they make. Every time we make art, push through the increasingly porous boundaries
our material—whether it is clay, cardboard, or around traditionally siloed disciplines. Building
computer code—is used to form ideas and bring on the principles of progressive education, it is
them into the world. time to equip students with a tool set that brings
Making projects with physical and digital materials

minds and resources together. Digital fabrication True to art

machines developed for engineering and com- Advances in technology have created a framework
mercial design have direct applications in art and for interdisciplinary collaboration. With more sup-
design in a school setting. Educators can now fold port behind the idea of STEAM, art has a voice in
the knowledge of tools and materials for art into the the larger discourse surrounding maker education.
discourse and advancement of ideas in making. While materials available for making art expand, it
is important to keep firm roots in what makes art
Art + STEM + CS a rich place for material exploration, idea genera-
The artist, researcher, and teacher Rama Hoetzlein tion, divergent thinking, and expression.
(2009) charted a lineage from fine arts to contem- Our role as teachers within STEAM initiatives,
porary forms in new media art. This graphic makes maker programs, and as interdisciplinary practi-
clear that use of digital technology yields new tools tioners is not to decorate other’s projects. Instead,
for expressing ideas. If we were to expand this time we should continue to bring what is essential and
line to include engineering, computer science, and, powerful about art into the work students do.
in general, STEM disciplines, we would see how Art provides a place for youth to make personal
cross-pollination has blurred the lines between things that they care about. Through artwork,
discrete areas of study. STEAM (STEM + art) is of students can assert their ideas and wishes, and
great interest to schools, and art programs can be feel proud of the skills they develop through the
engines of innovation. heart and hand. Artists, with their understanding
of materials and keen aesthetic choices have much
“What Is New Media Art?” from Hoetzlein (2009) to contribute to making.
Multimedia
digital
brush painting
painting
pencil
chalk drawing graphic website
ink
design design
digital
printing
intaglio/
engraving
printmaking
computer
filmmaking CGI rendering
film photography
TV video art digital
modeling/
sculpture modeling
casting
naturally game
kinetic design
kinetic art
motors autonomous devices directly
art interactive
interactive
art cameras indirectly
interactive
data information
visualization
computer
algorithm algorithmic
art
network network-based
art
Fine Arts Modern Arts
5,000 5th c. 1820 1940 present

BC AD
New Media Arts
Learning 39
Design at the center

Regardless of how one identifies oneself as a
creative maker, design is at the center of all forms
in making. As students make, how do they under-
stand what they are discovering? John Maeda, art-
ist, technologist, designer, and educator, defines
three types of design in his Design in Tech Report
2016. Classical design is the type of design most
people are familiar with. These designers make
objects and products. Design thinking puts humans
at the center to drive innovation, and computation-
al design uses computation to do design at a global
RYB color chart from Field (1841)
scale. Similar to Hoetzlein’s new media time line,
Maeda’s framework to understand design trends Matisse, in his bold replacement of color for value,
can help us understand where the material meets demonstrated that color itself isn’t the underly-
the digital in making practice. ing fundamental; rather light and shade are the
The principles and elements of design, a struc- most important visual cues for form. Today game
ture outlined by Maitland Graves in his 1941 book designers use procedural design to program color
The Art of Color and Design, provides a framework palettes in their virtual worlds.
for formal design decisions that art programs use It is no surprise that art has historically been
today. These design rules branch into science and cross-pollinating with STEM disciplines. Much
math. Color theory and optics guide decisions has been written about a Renaissance approach
about which colors to juxtapose for a given effect. in support of STEAM initiatives, and as the field
Viewers can be persuaded to see something new of art continues to expand, it seems fitting that
when their visual world is intentionally manip- artists look to the design processes used in engi-
ulated. In his geometric abstractions, Joseph neering, architecture, and commercial design to
Albers showed us how color is relative. Henri inform their process.
The three kinds of design from Maeda (2016)
There Are Three Kinds of Design at Play, We Need to Be Specific.
individual
DESIGN BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY
“classical design” “design thinking” “computational design”
there’s a right way to make what because execution has outpaced designing for billions of • people
is perfect, crafted, and complete innovation, and experience matters and in realtime, is at scale and TBD
scale
Driver/ the Industrial Revolution, and prior Driver/ the need to innovate in relation to Driver/ the impact of Moore’s Law, mobile
to that at least a few millennia of ferment. individual customer needs requires empathy. computing, and the latest tech paradigms.
The two growing categories of “designers” are those coming from Business and Technology. The three categories above are
co-dependent—you must embrace at least two of these categories in order to win in this century.
(clockwise from top)

Rosa Menkman’s glitch art (2011);
drawing with an out-of-focus laser;
melting 3D-printed scraps
Design rules dictate how we use space in creates corrupted information within digital files,
compositions. Entire worlds can be built using giving rise to glitch art. Even high-tech approaches
Cartesian coordinates, bringing a representation to making can introduce an element of chance
of three dimensions onto a flat surface or screen. much like automatism did for surrealist artists in
Artist M. C. Escher used isometric projection to the early 20th century.
create illusions and spaces that appear to fold in
Digital to form
upon each other using this mathematical grid-
Digital design mirrors physical design in many
ding system. Impossible objects can be found
ways. Pixel painting in Photoshop can replicate
in the digital world through puzzle games like
many of the processes used in the studio ad-
Monument Valley.
dressing brush style, paint opacity, and layering.
Sometimes artists want less control in their
Digital information can mirror the push/pull
process, choosing instead to see what unfolds,
responsiveness of physical material. Pixels are
free from the pressure of a preconceived result.
the painterly application of digital information,
Serendipity plays a role as the designer engages
and on screens and in print artists are liberated to
in misthetics, pulling beauty out of mistakes or
color outside the lines.
random actions. Artists have found ways to
Designing for digital fabrication, however,
use technology as active partners in the design
is a different process altogether, which requires
process through programming algorithms while
giving directions to machines and generating
letting the machine generate the art. The artist
viable tool paths. Students have the opportunity
pulls out the best solution from what is generated.
to test their designs in the physical world through
Similarly data bending by modifying image text
Learning 41
fabrication. Mistakes in measuring, scale, and the LogoTurtle drawing robot. Papert, in his
transformations show up in the model that is out- vision for computers to unlock the curiosity and
put from the machine. Mistakes in set-up result creative potential in our youth, paved the way
in failed prints, machines cutting in the wrong for educators in art to adopt digital tools for
place, or machines not working at all. creation, from artists working in a digital fron-
Pablo Picasso famously said, “Learn the rules tier like artist Vera Molnár, who brings digital
like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” to form through algorithmic design and plotter
Once artists learn the rules, and how to design for drawing, to artists who, like Papert, create tools
and control the machines, they can start looking for creative making. Casey Reas’s installations,
for opportunities to use machines and materials prints, and software have inspired a new wave
in new and inventive ways. Artists can carry on of creative technologists. Through the devel-
the same research and exploration that is central opment of Processing, with cocreator Ben Fry,
to artist practice with a new set of tools. artists have a user-friendly environment for
exploring new media art and visual design.
Computer as an expressive tool
Since computers have come into existence, artists Just atoms, bits to atoms, just bits
have been finding creative applications for their Materials are beautiful. An art studio is a rich
use. We can be inspired by exciting work in digi- source of colors and textures and raw materi-
tal technology and build upon the pedagogies that als for projects. Concern around abandoning
put children at the center of their learning. materiality for digital forms can deter some
Logo, a programming language developed from adopting new technology. “Technology is
by Seymour Papert and Cynthia Soloman, anything that was invented after you were born,”
brought design ideas to digital graphics or into said computer scientist Alan Kay. Digital mate-
the physical world through pen marks using rials add to a vast menu of options for bringing
Papert’s Logo turtle
Logo turtle from Josh Burker, Brian Silverman, and Erik Nauman
impactful and personally meaningful objects and References

ideas into the world. Dewey, J. (1997). Experience and education.
Neil Gershenfeld’s Center for Bits and Atoms New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
at MIT brought Fab Labs to the mainstream, and Field, G. (1841). Chromatography. Image. In Chro-
the FabLearn project out of Stanford University’s matography; or, A treatise on colours and pigments
Transformative Learning Technologies Labora- and of their powers in painting. London: C. Tilt.
tory supports K–12 schools around the world as Retrieved from commons.wikimedia.org
they build digital fabrication labs. In addition to /wiki/File:Chromatography_1841_Field.png
the learning that happens from design to object Graves, M. E. (1941). The art of color and design.
creation, I see a rich opportunity in art programs New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
to wed the knowledge of art materials with digital Hoetzlein, R. (2009). What is new media art?
process, and I encourage all art teachers who have [Web log post]. Retrieved from
access to technology to consider how they might kabktechnologyart.wordpresscom
bring it to their studios. /2017/05/13/what-is-new-media-art/
Art students who haven’t been exposed to pos- Maeda, J. (2016). Design and tech report 2016.
sibilities with technical tools can be introduced Retrieved from designintech.report
to artists, working in new forms that challenge /2016/03/13/design-in-tech-report-2016/
and inspire them to think differently about art Menkman, R. (2011, February 15). An example of
making. We can equip our students with a new glitch art. Retrieved from commons.wikimedia
language for speaking about technologies in rela- .org/wiki/File:Glitch_Art.jpg
tion to their work that is true to our fundamental Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms. New York, NY:
methods of how we make and teach art. Basic Books.
Casey Reas: KNBC, custom software, digital video, computer,

projector, dimensions variable. Sound by Philip Rugo. With
permission of the artist.
Vera Molnar’s Interstices. Plotter drawing, ink on paper, 22 x 25 cm,

1986. With permission of the artist and DAM Gallery.
Learning 43
Strategies to Foster Creativity in Classrooms
by Cassia Fernandez
During the past years I’ve been deeply interest- and meaningful. However, if we want to offer
ed in creativity. In this article I condense some opportunities for this kind of engagement to all
strategies aimed to stimulate children’s creative students, it is important to consider broad and
expression in the classroom that I’ve tested in gender-neutral themes for the activities, which
my physical programming classes and analyzed will enable each student to find their own point
during my master’s research. Most of the strat- of intersection between the proposed theme
egies presented here are not based merely on and their own interests. For example, instead of
personal insights but rather grounded on theories asking all students to accomplish a strict goal or
suggested by researchers from the field, which I a narrow challenge, activities based on broader
adapted to my own classes. themes can be much more inviting and be
These strategies are divided into three main connected to their interests. (Rusk and collab-
groups that refer to three relevant aspects con- orators [2008] have condensed some of these
nected to creativity expression: strategies beautifully in “New Pathways into
$ʠ Fueling intrinsic motivation Robotics.”) When implemented in my classes,
$ʠ Setting a supportive climate for exploration such strategies are really effective in engaging
$ʠ Scaffolding the development of ideas students in learning in a very personal way.
Of course, there are intersections of these Some examples of themes that have created
three aspects; this division is only a way to try wide engagement in my physical programming
to organize them. classes are creating an interactive art project, a
magical house story, a Rube Goldberg contrap-
Fueling intrinsic motivation tion, and a pinball machine game.
Teresa Amabile, who studied creativity for many
Encourage students to believe in their ideas
decades, found through her research that people
Throughout my teaching practice, especially
are more creative when driven more by enjoy-
in underserved communities, I have seen how
ment, interest, and passion than by external
relevant it can be for students if you show, as
pressures (also called extrinsic motivators) such
a teacher, that you believe that their ideas are
as grades or money (Amabile and Fisher 2009).
valuable. Sometimes when I talk to students
Below I suggest some strategies that could help
with very little confidence in themselves,
to foster this important aspect of creativity.
words of encouragement and demonstrations
Create ways to connect activities to students’ of enthusiasm seem to be important supports
personal interests to make them move on and keep challenging
Involvement in explorations connected to per- themselves, feeling confident to test their own
sonal interests is an important aspect to foster ideas, and going beyond what they expected
students’ creativity since it heightens the levels from themselves. Of course, it is not just about
of intrinsic motivation. Moreover, by con- being superexcited about everything but rather
necting classroom activities to their passions, looking for something you find really cool in
learning becomes a way to achieve personal their projects or discoveries and talking to them
goals, which makes it feel much more valuable about it.
Creating a positive emotional climate and In my classes, I have seen kids really obsessed
showing enthusiasm for students’ ideas and with trying to build something with materials
discoveries throughout their learning processes and tools that were not ideal for the situation
encourages them to believe that they are capable or their goals. When inappropriate materials
of bringing their ideas to life—which, in turn, can crossed the path of obstinate students, the result
positively influence motivation and creativity. was that they spent long periods of time trying to
build something that eventually led to frustration.
Create opportunities for cooperation instead
Inadequate materials and long periods of frustra-
of focusing on competition
tion result in decreased intrinsic motivation.
Encouraging cooperation rather than competi-
tion can positively influence motivation and cre- Allow course changes throughout the process
ativity (Amabile 1989) and expand participation Many teachers think that planning—the steps
of learners with diverse abilities and interests in involved, the materials needed, and the outcomes
technological-related activities (Rusk et al. 2008). expected—is as important as actually creating
Moreover, in classrooms with large numbers of something. These planning skills can, of course,
students per teacher, peer collaboration can allow be very valuable in many circumstances through
students to be less teacher dependent. Students our lives. But if planning is always the entry
who help others usually feel more confident, while condition (or barrier) for creating something, a
the ones who need help don’t have to wait for the lot of ideas won’t have the chance to be explored,
teacher to move on. By collaborating and getting and kids won’t have the wonderful experience of
in contact with other project ideas through inter- going with the flow in unpredictable learning
acting with their colleagues, ideas can be shared experiments. If we want our kids to be creators,
and inspire the creative process in others. it’s important to show them that it’s okay to re-
think our paths and change our ways.
Setting a supportive climate By allowing (and creating conditions for) our
for exploration students’ ideas to evolve with time, their creative
processes will certainly be much more fruitful. So,
Create a safe environment for initial explorations
instead of always requiring them to make plans
Overly open and unstructured activities can gen-
for the final product and then proceed to the
erate frustration and lack of interest rather than
construction, we can rather leave them somewhat
engagement and autonomy. Conversely, activi-
free to explore new pathways when facing prob-
ties based on very restricted challenges usually
lems and as new ideas arise.
don’t offer many possibilities of connection with
personal interests and of creative development. Provide adequate time for the development
By creating short initial activities from a limited of projects
number of materials (whether physical elements It is common among teachers to say that if there
or programming blocks), students can develop are no deadlines, students will work slowly and
some initial understanding that allows them to be unfocused. However, what I have learned over
feel safe to explore possibilities without fear as time is that if the task is sufficiently engaging
they move onto longer projects. for the students, they will work hard to find the
answers to their questions, and even though they
Select appropriate materials for experiments
can take longer periods of time to create a “final”
The materials offered for construction are directly
product, they will engage in a much more mean-
related to the way students engage in the process
ingful experience.
of testing ideas. When materials allow quick
changes in the design and immediate observa- Encourage sharing in a safe environment
tion of its effect, students can perform small Providing space for students to share their ideas,
quick experiments, which can stimulate the questions, projects, and insights in collective
development of new ideas since several ideas moments are important aspects of classroom
can be tested and refined.
Learning 45
dynamics. However, it is important that the Stimulate students to look at familiar resources
sharing climate is pleasant and stress-free so that in new contexts
students feel comfortable sharing unfinished This suggestion, based on the approach of Tinker-
creations and can emphasize the learning process ing Studio, seemed to be very effective in my cre-
instead of only their final creation. ativity research. In my classes, besides bringing
One time, I told my students that they would recycled materials and what some people would
share their final projects in an exhibition to the call “trash,” I also encourage kids to bring inter-
whole school. Then, I started to see some of the esting materials from their homes to our classes.
kids (especially those with lower self-esteem) The materials they bring are not supposed to be
changing their “crazy” (but supercool and complex) used for their personal projects but instead to be
ideas to something much simpler—something they a common resource for the whole group to use.
already knew how to make—just because they were In our talks, I saw that this was a really important
afraid of not having something working for the strategy to encourage them to look at the things
“superimportant” moment. Since I was interested around them in a new and curious way, which
in fostering their creative potential, that made me made them feel more creative.
rethink the way I deal with exhibitions.
References
Scaffolding the development of ideas
Amabile, T. M. (1989). Growing up creative:
Provide learning resources that allow students Nurturing a lifetime of creativity. New York, NY:
to follow different paths Crown House Publishing Limited.
Providing good learning resources is essential to Amabile, T. M., & Fisher, C. M. (2009).
allowing deeper explorations and greater autonomy Stimulating creativity by fueling passion. In
during the development of projects. An aspect that E. Locke (Ed.), Handbook of principles of orga-
can be helpful in the design of such resources is the nizational behavior: Indispensable knowledge for
students having small blocks of information that evidence-based management (pp. 481–497). West
can help in their initial steps and that can be con- Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
nected among them for the development of more Rusk, N., Resnick, M., Berg, R., & Pezalla-
complex projects. The Scratch Cards are great ex- Granlund, M. (2008). New pathways into ro-
amples of such learning resources: instead of giving botics: Strategies for broadening participation.
step-by-step instructions on how to start a project, Journal of Science Education and Technology, 17(1),
students can autonomously imagine their projects 59–69.
and look at the resources to achieve their goals,
which can be especially important in classrooms
with many students and open-ended projects.
Encourage students to get inspiration from

the available materials
Materials can have deep impacts on the ways
ideas are developed. Instead of asking students
to come up with a project and then look for the
materials they will use to build it, sometimes I en-
courage them to start by looking at the available
resources and only then imagine the project they
will create. In my classes we work mainly with
everyday, low-cost, and recycled materials. When
ideas emerge from the contact with the available
resources, ideas evolve quickly and can go in un-
expected ways.
Brainstorming: Makerspace AI
by Josh Ajima
Fellow FabLearn Fellow Jaymes Dec posed an facilitator when a user is ready for a hands-on
interesting question: “What does an AI-augmented demonstration of skills. Safety usage is moni-
makerspace look, sound, or feel like?” tored and retraining required when necessary.
I started brainstorming about how artificial The makerspace AI recommends or enforces
intelligence might support a makerspace that specific tool settings and bit/blade combina-
becomes safer and smarter as time goes on. Here tions for specific materials and applications,
are some of my thoughts. and recommends alternative materials or tools
The makerspace AI monitors the environmen- based on the database of available makerspace
tal conditions including airborne particulates, resources. The makerspace AI estimates and
sound levels, and machines in operation and records ongoing project costs based on cost of
recommends or enforces use of personal protec- material used, machine/tool use, and consum-
tion equipment such as safety glasses, ear pro- ables (for example, Amazon Go). The maker-
tection, or a respirator. IR temperature sensors space facilitator is notified if assistance is needed
detect soldering irons and hot glue guns left on, changing a bit/blade or to authorize use/cost
fire in a laser cutter, over/undertemperature in outside of approved parameters (for example, a
a 3D printer, and blade/bit overtemperature in project limit of $20 of materials).
cutting tools. The makerspace AI records, collects, and
The makerspace AI communicates through curates project information and files; assembles
audio, visual, and augmented reality (AR) em- a project time line including video/audio of
bedded in safety glasses and ear protection brainstorming among users, design iterations,
(for example, Hologarage).1 and prototypes; and records project materials
The makerspace AI can project visual infor- lists and project instructions (autogenerated
mation on any surface in the makerspace, and Instructables and project documentaries).
project audio in focused areas through ceil- The makerspace AI converts verbal descrip-
ing-mounted projectors and sound panels tions, drawings, and physical prototypes into 3D
(for example, AR Sandbox from UC Davis; models in AR. Users can modify designs using
Audio Spotlight from Holosonics 1). AR or traditional design tools. The makerspace
The makerspace AI recognizes individual AI can render the model in any material or con-
users and knows machines that users are qual- struction method available in the makerspace.
ified to use. The makerspace AI has individual The makerspace AI can apply algorithmic design
control over every powered device in the maker- to create multiple variations of user design:
space including hand tools and can disable access “Show me ten variations of this design that can
to unqualified users (for example, using the be created in the makerspace from plywood using
Milwaukee One-Key app). The makerspace AI the laser cutter.” Designs can be optimized for
provides just-in-time training through audio, strength, cost, material usage, or complexity.
video, and AR on the specific machine a user Users can create custom design algorithms.
needs with specific materials the user wants to The makerspace AI assists users in program-
use. The makerspace AI notifies a makerspace ming wireless electronics modules through natural
Learning 47
language interface. “When I press this button, this

LED turns on.” “This LED’s colors correspond to
this temperature sensor.” “When this pressure
sensor is activated, this motor is triggered for
three seconds.” The makerspace AI shows code
for program in block code and the appropriate
programming language. The makerspace AI
converts a project into a circuit design shown in
AR space with other project design elements. The
makerspace AI creates a CNC circuit board design
that fits a user project. A user can cut a custom
circuit board and then follow the makerspace
AI’s instructions to create a final version of their
prototype design.
The makerspace AI assists with cleaning
(Robot vacuums), maintenance (tracking servicing
intervals, monitoring cutting/printing quality),
and ordering (monitoring stock levels).
Note
1. youtube.com/watch?v=5HV3fcTvZk0
Teaching
Teaching 49
Making in education is not about having the coolest, most expensive tools or the fanciest
makerspace. Making is a way to empower people to solve their own problems and
develop the skills and mindsets to do so.
At its core, the maker movement is about sharing ideas and access to solutions with the
world, not for money or power, but to make the world a better place. It’s about trusting
other people—often people you don’t know—to use these ideas for good.
Making in the classroom is also about power and trust, and perhaps in an even more
important way, because it’s about transferring power to the learner—young people who
are the ones who will take over the world in the not-too-distant future. And in giving
learners agency and responsibility over their own learning, they gain trust—not just the
trust of the adults in the room, but trust in themselves as powerful problem solvers and
agents of change. All of this takes preparation and work on the part of the teacher. The
articles in this chapter show how it happens in the classroom to inspire readers to bring
these ideas into their own teaching practice.
Rube Goldberg, YouTube, and the Archimedes Screw:

Hidden Drivers of Pedagogic Transactions
by Sarah Alfonso Emerson
In Edith Ackermann’s “Hidden Drivers of Pedagogic Off to YouTube the children went, watching
Transactions: Teachers as Clinicians and Design- Rube Goldberg videos, looking for something
ers” (2003), she shows that as teachers take on different. At first the children were growing
the role of clinicians (facilitating communication in excitement by seeing other ideas, but as I
around a problem) and designers (imagining and probed them to think deeper about what they
creating a safe learning environment for explo- were seeing (e.g., “Is that really a new idea?,” “Is
ration and negotiation of old and new thoughts), that a unique use of a simple machine?”), they
a pedagogic transaction takes place between the realized they continued to see a lot of the same
teacher and the learner in which both parties are old thing—inclined planes with objects rolling
shaped by and shape a problematic situation. down, pulleys being activated and releasing an
A learning experience that took place between item to the next location, wheels and axles rolling
a small group of my fifth- and sixth-grade stu- along. I went home that night and decided to do
dents and me can serve as another example that some of my own YouTube research. I came across
shows what Ackermann stated: “that learning a video in which cans rolled upward along an
occurs because participants are jointly engaged inclined plane.1 Now, this was something quite
in exploring, expressing, and negotiating ideas different—it almost looked like magic. The next
[on a topic that matters] because they create and day, I showed them the video in slow motion,
use external forms as a means to mediate ideas and we watched the cans rolling upward multiple
and experience, and because they come at it from times, analyzing the movement, attempting to
different angles” (2013). figure out how it worked. The students came to
It started with a small group of students whom the conclusion that some sort of magnet must be
I was coaching to prepare for the county Rube involved. Nevertheless, their challenge was set
Goldberg competition. The team of eight students before them. They needed to include SOME way
had broken up into smaller teams of two to build for SOMEthing to roll UPWARD.
separate components of their Rube contraption, Back to YouTube they went. They wanted to
which had a Route 66 theme. Their machine was to find more examples. At this point, of the eight
follow a story centered around an imaginary family team members, three were assigned the task to
going on a road trip along Route 66, from Chicago figure out how to make something roll upward, so
to San Bernardino. Their project had already in- only three students YouTubed their way through
cluded various setups of inclined planes with cars their challenge. After about twenty minutes on
traveling “cross country.” However, I knew as well YouTube, they came across an example of a card-
as the students that their project needed a wow fac- board Rube Goldberg project2 in which a small
tor—something to be engineered so creatively that marble was deposited at the bottom of an Archi-
viewers of their project would be highly impressed. medes screw and traveled upward along the screw
We decided to look at the idea of simple machines to be deposited at the top of the machine, where
from a different perspective, and where do eleven- it would then continue to travel downward along
and twelve-year-olds look for new ideas and inspi- the typical Rube inclined plane setup. This was
ration other than YouTube? what the students wanted to accomplish.
Teaching 51
So, they got to work. Student 1, whom I will They included one straight line to connect the
call Monica, was the small team’s artist. She two circles that had the same center point, and
began sketching the contraption they wanted to they sent it to the printer. It was done in fifteen
build. Student 2, whom I will call Moses, contin- seconds. They tested it, and sure enough, it fit
ued to analyze the video to try to figure out how perfectly and snugly around the plastic pipe. They
the Archimedes screw worked. Student 3 ended went back to CorelDraw to duplicate their draw-
up leaving the group to help other teams and ing multiple times, enough to fit the sheets of
never returned. cardboard we had, and printed multiple sheets of
As a side note, I’d like to mention that none these circles.
of the students ever read the description of the
video, in which the term Archimedes screw was
used. They went along for weeks not knowing that
what they were attempting to build was called an
Archimedes screw. It was really fun to have them
later read about Archimedes and learn the history
behind the design they had built.
Back to the story. After Monica and Moses
were done sketching and analyzing, they searched
the room for materials. They came to me with a
clear plastic pipe that we had lying around the
lab. I believe it is the type of plastic pipe that is
used for encasing electric cords to keep them in
place. It was just one of many random items I
had purchased at Home Depot the month before,
figuring it may be used for something or another
over the course of building the Rube Goldberg
machine. They wanted to use the plastic pipe as
the center of their screw.
Next, they needed to add the rounded inclined
planes (the threads) around the plastic pipe to
make a screw. They thought of cutting cardboard
into strips like in the YouTube video and came
to me for advice. I probed them with a simple
question, “Why struggle with scissors and thick
cardboard such as this when we have thin sheets
of cardboard that can easily be cut with our laser Laser-cut cardboard spirals will become the threads around a
cutter?” Their eyes widened and they set to work. plastic pipe, making a screw
They retrieved our digital caliper to start mea- I’m going to fast-forward a bit here. Basically
suring the diameter of the plastic pipe. Next they they were able to create a “screw” with their
measured the diameter of the ball they wanted plastic pipe and many, many laser-cut card-
to use (a small 3D printed ball I had lying around board “donuts.” Their next hurdle was to make
the lab, similar in size to a ping-pong ball). Then this pipe rotate. Luckily we had a few wind-
they logged into CorelDraw (a graphic design shield-wiper motors in our lab leftover from
software), and with a little reminder from me on last year’s animatronics projects. I suggested to
how to set their lines to RGB red and Hairline, them that if they could find a way to mount their
they sketched a circle to match the diameter of screw to the motor, the motor would rotate the
the pipe, and then another circle to match the screw for them. The problem was that their pipe
diameter of the pipe plus the diameter of the ball. was hollow; it had no bottom or top that could
be attached to the motor. Coach Emerson to the had used SolidWorks in over a year. So we
rescue: “If you could find a way to solve your last sat down together, each at our own computer
problem by designing something to be laser cut, with our notebook, the caliper, and the plastic
don’t you think you can find a way to solve this pipe. We discussed together, with a lot of my
problem by designing a part we could print?” probing (“What is it that you need to design?,”
For this task, Monica and Moses needed a “How should it look?,” “What features does it
lot more of my help. With the last task, they need?,” “Is this what you expected it to be?”) and
were able to find the tools they needed mostly came up with a sketch of what we wanted. We
on their own and were able to design what they took measurements of both the inner and outer
wanted in CorelDraw because they were both diameter of the pipe and came up with a cup-like
very familiar with the program (from previ- design, basically an extruded cylinder base
ous classes they had with me in which I taught with a hole in the middle to screw to the motor,
them CorelDraw). For this new problem, they and two more raised, hollowed cylinders to
would need to use SolidWorks (advanced CAD encase the sides of the pipe. The pipe would
software, used primarily in the manufactur- sit inside this cup-like design and be screwed
ing industry), and neither Monica nor Moses to the motor.
Initial sketches and calculations before designing in SolidWorks
Monica’s close-up sketch of the part

to attach the screw to the motor
Drawing of 3D-printed pipe holder Drawing of 3D-printed SolidWorks dowel holder

Teaching 53
In the end, they took their project to compe-

tition and placed second against other teams of
mostly seventh and eighth graders. We were all
very proud of their accomplishments, but what
I know to be the most powerful aspects of this
project are all of the “transactions” of learning
that took place between these students and me.
We designed solutions to problem after problem,
using and manipulating technology and tools at
our fingertips, and I was able to design, immedi-
ately and authentically, challenges that stretched
my students’ minds and allowed them to mediate
and share new ideas with each other.
The 3D-printed part that was attached to the windshield-

wiper motor Notes
1. youtube.com/watch?v=rZyEunPgwwk
For the next step, they needed to learn how
2. youtube.com/watch?v=TjDVTMYE2Yc
the motor actually worked. Monica and Moses
had not participated in our school’s animatronics
project from the previous year, so they sought Reference
out another student whom I will call Bianca, Ackermann, E. (2003, August). Hidden drivers of
who was known to be the electronics expert of pedagogic transactions: Teachers as clinicians
the team. She had worked on a number of the and designers. In Proceedings of Eurologo (pp.
motors during the animatronics project the year 29–37). Retrieved from web.media.mit.edu
before and easily taught Monica how to set up /~edith/publications/2003-Hidden.drivers.pdf
the wires so the motor would run. They tested
it and it worked! The motor successfully turned
the screw; however, they immediately noticed a
new problem. Because their screw was so tall, it
swayed outward and did not stay directly upright
while being moved by the motor. They decided
to use two wooden dowels spaced purposefully
at the exact distance from each other to hold the
ball from falling off the edge of the screw. This
idea they got from the YouTube video. This would
keep it in place on one side, but it did not stop the
screw from swaying outward. With the help of
my colleague Richard, who probed them to think
about securing the screw from the top just like
they had on the bottom, they duplicated the part
they had already printed to mount the screw from
the bottom, added a top to the part that could spin
inside a small hole, in a similar way to how a gear
spins in place, and it was now secure! They tested
everything, and it finally worked. They completed
their challenge to have an object move upward,
creating that unique almost “magical” effect that
we knew their project needed.
Hey, Kids—Follow the Directions!
by Aaron Vanderwerf f
Four years ago at a Young Makers meeting, a par- to rely on them, thinking that the more I could
ent mentor told the group, “Following directions encourage her to free build, the more likely she
is not making.” When I recently saw the same would apply this mentality to the world around
sentiment on a post or tweet, it made me think her. And, so far, the plan seems to be working.
about our practice at the Lighthouse Creativity She builds towers, vehicles, spaceships, sculp-
Lab in Oakland, California, and when following tures, and buildings all while telling intricate
directions is making. We can place most mak- stories about what is happening (and using
ing projects and activities on a spectrum from LEGO Minifig heads as structural components).
step-by-step to completely open ended (sim- At about three-and-a-half she received a kit
ilar to a spectrum of inquiry), and we choose and wanted to build the mining truck on the front
where the learning activity falls based on what of the box. I tried to stay out of it, only helping her
we want students to learn and students’ prior align what she was building to the picture in the
understanding and experience. My instinct is to instructions when she got stuck. What did she get
always push toward open-ended, student-driven out of this experience? First of all, pride. She was
projects, but there are times when following extremely proud to have built the mining truck
directions can be powerful. just like the one in the picture. Second, watching
In that first year of our maker program, her work through the directions, she was clearly
I knew that many of my student groups would developing her precision and spatial thinking.
be following directions from tutorials or mag- How does this apply at the Lighthouse Cre-
azines because they had never been asked to ativity Lab? We try to make the project’s place
create a project of their own vision before. They on the continuum from step-by-step to complete
had trouble even conceptualizing what was pos- autonomy match its
sible. When my daughter first started playing educational purpose.
with LEGO bricks around age two, I purpose- Our physics
fully didn’t give her any directions. I wanted to students build wind
hold off on directions so that she wouldn’t come turbines based on
a specific design,
meaning all students
work from the same
directions.1 One of
our goals is that
five years from now Physics students constructing
students remember a wind turbine
magnet, coil of wire, motion = electricity. Just

building the turbine helps with that. But we also
want them to experience a more open-ended,
process-based aspect, so we ask them to make
it better. But even if they are just building the
Once upon a time . . .
Teaching 55
Students learning woodworking by making a chair
turbine itself, they are still learning core physics directions to do something new because it turns
content, building skills, learning the importance out that following directions is not always easy.
of precision, and developing persistence. Ideally students should be able to move fluidly
In our high school making elective, students between referencing directions and moving for-
start the year with skill builders that involve ward with their own vision. Like in the Arduino
following a lot of directions; they make a chair projects, I want students to know how to find a
(woodworking), a pillow (sewing), and a circuit tutorial, video, or other reference to get started
board (soldering), and play around with Arduino and then take the project in their own direction.
(programming and circuits). The core goal in all So is following directions making? It can be.
of these projects is to build student confidence When students use directions to get started,
and comfort in each of these areas so that when they build confidence and learn perseverance
they undertake their independent project, they and precision that will take them beyond the
will venture outside of their initial comfort zone. directions. When we find that students are
The circuit board is a step-by-step process afraid to leave the directions, it’s our job to
students follow exactly, but after only a few class nudge them into their own creating.
sessions, they are decent solderers and much
more knowledgeable and comfortable with Notes
electronic components. Working with Arduino 1. re-energy.ca/wind-turbine
is a move away from this step-by-step. We ask 2. instructables.com/id/Persistence-of-Vision
students to move through the existing Arduino -Wand
example code and tutorials so they learn how to
find references. Then they engage in an Instruc-
tables Arduino2 project to experience all the
issues that come with following someone else’s
Maker Teacher in the Classroom:

What Should I Do (and Not Do) for Students?
by Heather Allen Pang
As a maker, one of the things I like to do is to finding the one right answer (choosing between
spend a great deal of time on something, go deep, one good answer and one bad one) but rather, in
and feel that the result is really due to my hard any given situation, which of the two good argu-
work. I have taken up quilting recently because it ments gets to win out a little even as I try to give
lends itself to that kind of project. I need to learn some space for the opposite argument.
new things and then do them. It makes me happy. In some of my projects I have come to a pretty
As a teacher of eighth-grade US history, I love satisfactory balance. I have an annual project on
bringing in that maker mindset, but I also have the telegraph, where students work in pairs to
a few other priorities that I need to balance with construct a prototype of a working telegraph to
the idea that the maker (in this case the student) start the unit on technological change in Ameri-
should figure it all out. Even when I am teaching can society. The making activity brings the lesson
in the makerspace, or a sewing elective, I still to life, creating a tactile understanding and
wonder about that perfect balance between what generating deep discussions. The students ask
I should do to help and what I want the students amazing questions and make thoughtful obser-
to figure out for themselves. vations (questions that have never come up when
One of the things I have started to do when I we just read about the invention and use of the
explain something to students (something fun telegraph). But my goal is not to teach the science
like using the laser cutter, or something perhaps of electromagnets or current or wire stripping.
less fun like constructing proper footnotes using In balancing this lesson, I want the focus to be on
the Chicago style) is to remind them that even the history, so I give students instructions and
though I am telling them all the steps they need, prepare some of the parts they use.
and they have the steps in the instructions, I don’t It is not a bad thing that students sometimes
expect them to get it all the first time, and they ask questions about these things, and I invite
should ask each other and me for help. I do want them to explore the answers. If I were teaching
them to read the instructions and help each other. a science class, I might reverse the order—give
We are all still working on that. them few instructions and let them figure out
But it always comes back to the same questions what parts to use. Likewise, when students make
I have asked myself about instructions, kits, pre- display boards for National History Day, I don’t
pared sets of parts, and other methods to move make them discover that contact paper is the best
things along a bit faster. How much is too much? thing to use for covering the cardboard (spray
How much is too little? In some ways this gets paint will warp the cardboard, and leaving it plain
at the heart of the difference between my own won’t work since we recycle the boards) or that if
personal making and my making with students in you mount an iPad at the top of the board it will
the classroom. The goals are different, and some tip over. They could learn from trying, or break-
of the methods are different too. So rather than ing several iPads, but I have made the decision to
thinking in terms of strict rules of making, I want start by telling them these things. Sometimes they
to think in terms of questions to ask and ways don’t listen, but that is a different story. I also
to balance competing benefits. It is not a case of use the large-format color printer to print their
Teaching 57
images for them—they don’t have time or access $ Could I give some help but not do it for them?
to that particular printer; their other choice would $ How much is time a factor?
be to pay a copy service, and that costs money $ How much joy will they get out of doing
some of them don’t have. it themselves?
There are other projects where I still go back $ Can I do less for them to do more?
and forth about how much I take away from their $ Can I teach one member of the group and have
opportunity to learn when I tell them the answer. her teach the rest?
I guess I always will. I do think after almost two $ Can I use this lesson to teach students how to
decades of teaching eighth graders I am getting figure it out? Should I?
better at asking these questions: Part of the role of a maker teacher in the class-
$ What does the item I would be giving or doing
room seems to me to continue to ask questions
for them have to do with the point of the lesson? like these, and to iterate my own teaching with
$ How realistic is it that students can figure it
each project and each class.
out themselves or make the item themselves?
Students work from precut parts to construct a telegraph machine

Trendy, Educational, or Creative?

Solve the Robotics Kit Dilemma!
by Angela Sof ia Lombardo
In 2015 a local business association wanted to Mitchel Resnick, the LEGO Papert Professor
sponsor a robotics after-school lab for five differ- of Learning Research at the MIT Media Lab,
ent first-grade classes in the Bologna, Italy, area. adds another dimension, wide walls: To be effec-
I was named to the organizing committee, and tive, a technology has to allow multiple types of
one of our first tasks was to decide which robotics creations in order to enable the users to express
materials, kits, and software we would use. themselves creatively regardless of their level
Our committee had seen the MilkBot,1 a little of competence.
robot that combines the open-source Arduino
microcontroller with scrap material, and wanted Practical considerations
to offer a similar creative experience to the students Working in a school context with groups of
involved in the project. twenty-five students at a time demanded that we
However, our students had no experience with consider other practical and logistical elements.
Scratch nor with Arduino, so we started reflecting Cost. For a technology to have a significant
on choosing the most useful kit for our purpose. impact on learning at school it should be available
in sufficient quantity to let a class of twenty to
Constructionism provides twenty-five students work in groups of four mem-
learning dimensions bers at the same time.
Seymour Papert’s constructionism was the model Adequacy. To be effective at school, compo-
that we chose as inspiration to design the learn- nents must be in line with learning and develop-
ing experience because we strongly believe that mental goals already achieved by the final user
the educational power of a technology resides (students) and, at the same time, must stimulate
in the potential for creative expression that its progress gradually (scaffolding). For example,
it offers. a technology must be adequate for the students’
We asked ourselves what learning dimensions fine motor skills but also for their ability to take
an educational robotics kit should have to be care and respect the tools and materials. The
effective for a constructionist learning experience variety of components, from actuators to sensors,
in a school context. available in the kit must match the cognitive level
Papert often used a metaphor of “low floor, high achieved by the students and must provide ade-
ceiling” to describe what useful technology looks quate challenges to grow and enrich learning.
like in a constructionist learning experience: Every teacher/educator has the duty of
$ Low floor—To be effective, a technology has to assessing the adequacy of what’s available in
be easy to use, even for a beginner. the kit based on the learning goals and the skills
$ High ceiling—The same technology has to already acquired. This is the most delicate and
offer the possibility of creating increasingly challenging aspect of our job because it requires
complex and sophisticated projects as the us to empathize with our students, to put
user becomes fluent and wants to experiment ourselves in their shoes and imagine how they
with new things. could interact with the robot and what they will
learn through it while trying to go beyond our
personal expectations.
Teaching 59
Quality of the programming environment. types of robots, which are very appealing to the
An effective educational robotics kit must be eyes of a boy or a girl but can limit imagination
supported by an online and offline program- and creativity, for example, kits that only show
ming environment. examples of rovers and cars. We have observed
It must be adequate and adaptable to the level of that students who experiment with a robotics kit
competence of the students. Just like the kit compo- by building and programming a car are less likely
nents, the programming language must also be to imagine and create something far different
adapted to the competences already reached by from the car. Even if they only saw the image on
the students and must gradually stimulate their the box, their ideas will converge in the direction
development. It could, for example, offer block of a car.
programming and then gradually move on to text
programming. Also, in this case, the level of ade- There is no perfect solution, but we did
quacy (and the programming language offered) it anyway
must be evaluated by the educator based on the There are many kits available on the market that
skills of the specific class group (or at least for the support the three learning dimensions to one
expected targets for the age). degree or another. Finding one that meets all
It must provide a good level of interaction between three in a balance is the difficult part.
robot and computer. To satisfy interaction, we have For our project we chose the mBot off-the-
two concerns. The first is about the communica- shelf robotics kit from MakeBlock company.
tion between robot and computer: Do we have to It had a low floor because components were
use a cable? Do they connect via Bluetooth or use easy to connect to the board; the mCore is an
a wireless protocol? We observed that the kits that Arduino-core microcontroller built to facilitate
only use the cable communication limit students’ plugging sensors and actuators thanks to its
creative possibilities, yet kits that communicate RJ25 wires, avoiding kids having to struggle with
via Bluetooth tend to have connection problems circuits, breadboards, and resistances.
(for example, the robots in the classroom connect It had a high ceiling because it provides a
to the wrong PC). The second concern is related to block-based programming language, very similar
the possibility of making the robot interact with to Scratch, that translates block code into Arduino
things happening on the screen. The traditional code just by pushing a button, so students can
concept of robotics involves the use of computers start to discover how an Arduino code looks and
only for compiling and uploading the code in the upload their code on the mCore.
robot’s brain; in a constructionist learning envi- Robot and computer communicate through
ronment it would be useful to be able to do more. cable or with a 2.4G wireless protocol so stu-
Versatility. To be effective within a con- dents can easily create sophisticated projects in
structionist learning environment in a school which robot interacts with what happens on the
context, the robotics must be adaptable and computer screen.
“neutral” enough to enhance imagining and The kit is very cheap compared to other
ideating of all kinds. At the same time, it must robotics kits, and the number of components
be practical and light enough not to clutter up provided is wide enough to let kids experiment
the students’ creations. and learn about different kinds of sensors
For example, in some cases the “brain” of the and actuators.
robot is very bulky and poses some very difficult What we missed using this kit were wide
design challenges for the students. Or sometimes walls and versatility. The kit is set up to build
the kit comes with very short connection cables a car, providing chassis, tires, and short RJ25
(from board to sensors/actuators), limiting the wires that facilitate building compact objects.
size and aesthetics of the creations. The box and instruction booklet show images of
Moreover, some kits are sold in boxes contain- a car and how to build it, so kids’ imaginations
ing images that invite students to build certain and creativity were limited.
After three years of using these kits we figured

out how to design the learning experience and
how to introduce students to the kit to solve the
wide walls and versatility issues.
As an example, we use spray paint to cover all
the images on the boxes, and we take the chassis
and tires away from the box as well as the instruc-
tion booklet so as not to limit students’ freedom
in exploring and imagining what they can invent.
An alternate option is buying an Orion board
(similar to the mCore but with more RJ25 ports)
and buying each component separately instead
of purchasing the off-the-shelf kit. This solution
requires conscious budgeting to determine which
components to buy (so it takes more time), but
it offers the chance to go beyond wide walls and
versatility issues and provide our middle school
students with adequate building material and
objects to think and tinker with.
Final reflections
Before buying an educational robotics kit, it is
very important to have the chance to either ex-
periment with it yourself or to talk with someone
who already uses the kits. Visit fairs and events
dedicated to educational robotics, participate
in workshops, or observe laboratories (such as
CoderDojo) where you can use robotics kits, join
numerous online communities, or ask for feed-
back from colleagues in other schools, and make
a decision that takes into consideration the pros
and cons based on all the information you collect.
Every context, every class group, every edu-
cator is unique and special, and for this reason
personal reflection and a careful evaluation of the
characteristics that an educational technology
must have are necessary in order to achieve the
preestablished objectives.
Note
1. raspibo.org/wiki/index.php?title=Milkbot
Teaching 61
Building Knowledge and Relationships through

Building Toys for Others
by Erin Riley
with Nathan Holbert and Sawaros Thanapornsangsuth of Teachers College, Columbia University
GAMES, Greenwich Academy’s Makers and Project description

Engineers in Greenwich, Connecticut, a pro- A long-standing tradition at Greenwich Academy,
gram designed to engage students in the process the Big Sister/Little Sister program pairs fourth-
of making for others, offers an environment for grade “big sisters” with first-grade “little sisters”
gaining new knowledge and skills in the school’s in activities throughout the year. In a partnership
makerspace. Fourth graders make toys for with the Snow Day Learning Lab at Teachers
their “little sisters” as part of a special yearlong College, Columbia University in New York City,
collaboration. This article shares observations the GAMES program engaged fourth graders with
and outcomes, focusing on the perspective of designing “dream toys” for their first-grade little
little sister “clients” and makers. The motivation sisters. Rather than have students make toys or
behind making for others deepened the impact objects for themselves, the dream-toy activity is
of this project while further developing their about building connections between the maker
competencies in making. and her community. The expectation is that
opportunities to create artifacts to “give back” or
All names in this article are pseudonyms.
support one’s community might provide learners
with a broader perspective of the value of making
and appeal to a more diverse audience.
Sophia sharing progress on her toy design for Nancy Cathy sharing her final toy design for Annie
The process The engineering design process provided

The overarching goal for the year was for stu- a framework for the girls to plan their design
dents to engage in the engineering design pro- and overcome various challenges on their way
cess to create a dream toy for their little sisters. to a complete toy. Despite the common task of
They met every two weeks for sixteen sessions. designing a dream toy, a wide range of design
The activity sequence began with two days of ideas developed. Some fourth graders pulled
making with cardboard to familiarize the girls out one or two ideas from the client interview
with the lab and stimulate creativity for the year to focus on, while others incorporated as many
ahead. After the initial making sessions, girls of the ideas presented as they could, to create
interviewed their little sisters to gather the infor- complex and highly personalized toys.
mation needed and brainstormed within a small For example, Chloe, a fourth grader, de-
group. After three days of prototyping, they met signed and made a plush dry-erase board for
with the first-grade girls, who offered feedback her little sister, Pam. From her little sister inter-
on their prototypes. The girls then had seven view, Chloe learned that (1) Pam likes the colors
sessions in which to complete their final designs orange and blue, (2) her favorite animals are
for their little sisters. The concluding event was a bunnies, (3) she likes to draw, and (4) she likes
play date where the toy exchange took place and to play with Magna Tiles and stuffed animals.
the girls could play together. This information helped her to form her first
prototype using cardboard, markers, and mag-
Number of
Activity nets. Chloe’s concept showed careful consider-
Sessions
ation for her client, as the prototype satisfied all
Make with cardboard 2 of the criteria gathered from observations and
information recorded in the interview. Pre-
Interview little sisters 1 senting her prototype at the feedback session
allowed Chloe to tailor the idea further to fit
Brainstorm with small group 1
Pam’s toy and play preferences. Chloe revised
the final toy design to include magnets, which
Prototype 3
hold the eraser, into the paws.
Receive feedback 1
Make toys 7
Play date 1
Chloe’s brainstorm and design sketch for Pam’s toy
Project plan using engineering design process

Teaching 63
Chloe prototyping Pam’s toy based on her interview Building final toy
Chloe’s final toy for Pam: magnet paws and dry-erase board for drawing
Aside from the natural constraints of time, ma- for Pam (Betty shares her sister with Chloe), and
terials, and size, students could envision whatever Amy’s talking pillow for Emma.
they wanted for their little sister’s dream toys. This Ellie’s snake idea pushed the boundary of scale:
resulted in a diverse range of toy creations. While her creation for Gina served a double function as
soft toys were the most requested toy types from a wearable piece. Kylie incorporated a light-up
the first-grade little sisters, their soft-toy creations element and decorative trim, treating the sur-
were personal, unique, and highly creative. face of the pillow like an artist’s canvas. Betty’s
Four examples of plush toys illustrate the golden thread pillow brought a magical touch to
variety of ideas that emerged from the design Pam’s dollhouse. Amy’s sunshine-yellow pillow
process: Ellie’s plush snake for Gina, Kylie’s gave Emma an equally cheerful message: with a
light-up pillow for Willow, Betty’s pillow with the squeeze, the pillow says, “Have a great day!”
golden thread (inspired by her favorite fairy tale)
(left to right, top down)

Ellie’s large-scale plush snake for Gina; Kylie’s light-up element for Willow’s pillow;
Betty’s golden-thread pillow for Pam; Amy’s talking pillow creation for Emma
The value of making for others demonstrated an ability to receive feedback and
The little sister/big sister relationship, one that change course with her design idea. In the end
is meaningful for both grades, proved to be a she expressed how proud she felt of her efforts
strong motivating factor in the work the girls and completing the work on time.
produced. In many of the toys we saw students
making adjustments and putting their vision Confidence with tools
for the project aside to create something that We offered a variety of tools for students to
matched the interests and toy preferences of work with over the course of the year to execute
their little sisters. This was particularly evident their toy construction. This included standard
after the client feedback session. hand-building tools like saws, files, vices, and
One maker, Ruth, presented a talking pillow cutters for the workbench area as well as hot glue
prototype to her first-grade little sister Stephanie guns, a sewing machine, and power drills.
at the feedback meeting. While Ruth expected the By providing the tools with some general
pillow with the “I love you, Stephanie” message to safety guidelines, students had many opportu-
be embraced, Stephanie offered a new direction, nities to hone their skills. Tool “rollout” came in
requesting a “dollhouse with wheels and a bed- stages, with students trained in proper use and
room.” While initially disappointed, Ruth showed safety procedures. By the third session in making,
flexibility in her thinking and design, abandoning the girls had all aforementioned tools available
her initial idea and adapting to Stephanie’s feed- to them, and they were encouraged to support
back. By the third session following the feedback, each other by lending a hand to fellow makers. A
Ruth began making progress on a one-story doll- helping spirit emerged in the weeks that followed;
house and on the second-to-last day was putting experts in tool use willingly assumed a teaching
finishing touches on her creation. She said, “I am role with their peers. This was especially true with
so proud of myself today!” When asked why, she the power drill and sewing machine, where Ellie
said, “I worked so hard. I’m almost done!” Ruth helped Melodie with her pillow project.
Teaching 65
Students were encouraged to use tools to Making connections and building

develop creative solutions to design challenges. community
For example, Melanie came up with a creative As a school of many traditions, Greenwich Acad-
solution for a functional axle for her little sister emy welcomes a new one into the mix—one that
Allison’s car. Searching through a container of focuses on innovation, developing making skills,
various bolts and nuts Melanie stumbled upon and building connections between the maker
some eyebolts. She marked and drilled pilot holes and her community.
in the wood, matched her bolt size to her drill bit, At the final play date, where fourth-grade
and attached the bolt and nut. The eye func- makers connected with their little sisters to
tioned as a loop for the axle. Giving students the exchange toys, it was clear this relationship
freedom to experiment with tools allows them to between the girls was personally meaningful.
create new possibilities for making and solving The joy in making for others experienced by
the problems at hand. big sisters was equal to that of little sisters who
received the handmade toys. With a hand in the
design process, these girls are already look-
ing forward to reaching fourth grade to start
this process with their future little sisters. The
fourth graders, now entering middle school,
have established a strong tie to the Engineering
and Design Lab and can confidently work in the
space through integrated projects or courses.
Melodie and Ellie working together at the sewing machine
Iris's message to Lilly
Melanie’s axle solution Makers playing together during the toy exchange and playdate
Sample of final toys for GAMES
Acknowledgements that you will be taking tremendous superpowers

Special thanks to Stephanie Seidel, Mariana with you to fifth grade and beyond. Since you
Keels, and the fourth-grade team for coordinat- are all makers, let’s just call these makerpowers.
ing extra sessions outside of GAMES for inter- Maybe some of you are wondering what a
views and feedback sessions with the first-grade makerpower is exactly.
girls. Thanks to Molly King, Jon Ross-Wiley, Let me explain. A makerpower is a set of awe-
Mark Feiner, and Ann Decker for their ongoing some abilities. You get these powers when you
support of this project. make things—when you take something from
your imagination and bring it into the world.
Postscript: A Farewell to Fours (2018) Now you might think makerpowers might be
Note: Erin Riley gave this graduation speech to the sawing wood, sewing, or using a glue gun. These
students who had just completed the Toy Building skills are awesome, for sure, but makerpowers
project and are moving on to middle school. are a little different. They are SUPERpowers.
These powers allow you to do all sorts of things—
Parents, friends, and most especially members more than cutting or gluing wood. This morning
of the fourth-grade class, I want to point out some makerpowers that you
have, that you can take with you to fifth grade
I am so honored to be here to say a few words
and beyond.
about our wonderful fourth-grade girls. This is
an important day. While we say farewell to you as Makerpower 1: Bravery
fours, I have the privilege of also saying welcome. This power helps you choose bravery when faced
Welcome to you as fives . . . and sixes . . . and with new tasks. You learned to hammer, drill,
sevens . . . and so on. While GAMES (Greenwich use machines and tools. You faced your fears and
Academy Makers and Engineers) comes to a close, practiced the makerpower of bravery. I witnessed
your time for making whatever your imagination your strength and confidence in full force in the
brings is just beginning. This marks the closing of Engineering and Design Lab.
a remarkable year of creativity, problem-solving,
collaboration, and most importantly of demon- Makerpower 2: Hard-problem solver
strating YOUR character in our Engineering and This power makes you willing to solve hard prob-
Design Lab through the making of toys for your lems, and after that, even harder problems. You
little sisters. can see how this would be a very handy super-
Group four, next year you will be off to middle power. Being able to put the thickest thread
school, and it gives me great pride in knowing into the tiniest needle, or getting paint to stick
Teaching 67
to rubber, were truly challenging, but they have

equipped you for new challenges to come.
Makerpower 3: Creative thinker

This power helps you think for yourself and see
things a little bit differently. Each and every one
of you made something unique. Now, in the
middle school you will have even more choices in
clubs and arts and performing—more opportuni-
ties to be uniquely you.
Makerpower 4: Self-believer
This power instills a can-do spirit. When things
get hard, you push through. Two more classes of
GAMES and two boards to saw, four holes to drill,
one pillow to sew and to stuff, but no problem!
It can be done! When you have the self-believer
makerpower, you know you do not give up
because you know how to make a plan and deep
down that you can get the job done.
Makerpower 5: Team builder

This power helps you work well with others and
negotiate. When you are a team builder, you
help, you share, and you work together. When
we work together, we can get more done and do
great things.
Fourth-grade girls, you have done amazing

things in lower school. You have learned, and now
you lead. Think of these makerpowers—bravery,
hard-problem solver, creative thinker, self-
believer, team builder—as forces for good that
you can put out in the world. Spend lots of time
this summer exercising your creativity. Make lots
of things, and see you next year in the lab!
Lesson Plan: MLK March on Washington Artifact
by Josh Ajima
Lesson plan and activity

Investigate: What is the significance of
this button?
Teacher presents button to students and ask
them to research and present why it is signifi-
cant. (Teacher could tell students that a button
has been donated to their history class and the
students need to report on its historical signif-
icance. Or the students could be given the role
of appraisers/experts and asked to explain the
value of the piece. See Antiques Roadshow or
American Pickers as examples.)
Martin Luther King Jr. at March on Washington for Jobs and
Freedom. By Rowland Scherman; restored by Adam Cuerden
(US National Archives and Records Administration) [CC0 or
Public Domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
The 1960s civil rights movement sought to end

segregation and discrimination against African
Americans. One of the largest political rallies
of the civil rights movement was the March on
Washington for Jobs and Freedom. A key moment
of the march was the “I Have a Dream” speech de-
livered by Martin Luther King Jr. from the steps of
the Lincoln Memorial to a crowd of two hundred
thousand to three hundred thousand. The effects
of the March on Washington include building
momentum for the passage of the Civil Rights Act
Button worn by participants of the March on Washington for Jobs
of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. and Freedom in 1963. 1
Objectives Explore: Take action

$ Students will investigate and explore the legacy Teacher provides students with copies of the
of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights button to wear. (All files for this project are posted
movement through a reproduction of a button on Thingiverse.2) Students are asked to plan/
from the 1963 March on Washington (shown participate in an event/project/presentation to
being worn in photo above). commemorate or recreate the march. Examples
$ Students will design, make, and share a histor- might include a march through the school or
ical artifact that illustrates a significant aspect creating photos/videos of students marching.
of the civil rights movement. Students could also green screen themselves into
Teaching 69
photos/videos of the time period. Students might

also take on the persona of people from the era
and conduct historical interviews from the march.
Design/make/share: Civil rights era artifact

Authentic challenging problem: Create a historical
artifact that represents the legacy of Martin
Luther King Jr. or illustrates a significant aspect
of the civil rights movement.
1. Research and then design the artifact in
3D modeling software such as Tinkercad
or Morphi.
2. Make the artifact using a 3D printer. Iterate
the design if necessary for printability. Take
photos of finished design.
3. Share design on Thingiverse. Be sure to in-
clude a photo and key fields such as summary,
category, and tags.
You may want your students to document
the process with the Mini Maker Notebook—
Thingiverse Edition.3
Notes
1. Multiple source images were used to create
the vector image for this button design,
with buttonmuseum.org/buttons/march
-washington-jobs-and-freedom providing
the primary visual source material.
2. thingiverse.com/thing:2018467
Constructionism for Science Literacy
by Christa Flores
Construct-a-what? One of the beautifully ironic drawing, and writing. The most highly prized
traits of the pedagogical theories of constructiv- form of evidence of learning we have in traditional
ism and constructionism is that a deep under- settings is test scores despite tests being designed
standing of either is impossible from just reading by teachers for efficiency from a teacher’s per-
this, or any text. Nevertheless, try this metaphor. spective yet often badly designed from a learner’s
If constructivism was a backpacking trip into perspective.
the Alaskan wilderness on a shoestring bud- Constructionism, a term coined in the 1980s by
get armed with a “good plan,” then traditional Seymour Papert, is accumulation and application
teacher-led models are more like an all-inclusive, of new knowledge through measuring, making,
family-friendly, low-risk Alaskan cruise: look but and using problem-solving techniques to make or
don’t touch. Having that “Aha! I get construc- create something. It builds on the idea of construc-
tivism!” moment is often visceral; you feel it tivism, but unlike constructivism it shows physical
before you can put it into words. Understanding evidence of possessing and comprehending new
constructivism authentically requires you, the knowledge. When a learner creates an artifact,
learner, to experience learning in a self-directed they engage all the senses. The existence of the
environment. It requires time to get a good “feel” artifact—a line of code, a fat-free muffin, a photo-
for the discovery versus consumption path to graph, a rubber-band gun— is evidence of learning
new knowledge. You must allow yourself to play, and knowledge specific to the challenges that the
explore, and expand your own experiences while student faced to make the individual artifact.
problem-solving or reaching a learning goal. Not convinced? Try making something you
I hope to define the terms constructivism and have never made before without a recipe or kit.
constructionism through the lens of science liter- You will learn a lot through trial and error, or
acy and the maker movement in education. This more quickly by seeking out reliable how-to
work has a deep and valuable history—tested, videos to apply new skills to a unique situation.
researched, and proven to be good for kids While making your object, you are learning
and society. through constructionism. The creation of the
Constructivism is a term from the 1960s coined artifact will drive your learning using all of your
by Jean Piaget that means learning is constructed senses and nearly every part of your brain. This is
inside the head of the learner as new knowledge a concept that author David Perkins calls “making
combines with existing experience. learning whole.”
Applying constructivist principles to education The role of the teacher is to create the condi-
is a source of great joy and inspiration, but it is tions for invention rather than provide ready-
not the usual way schools operate. Why should made knowledge. —Seymour Papert
schools adopt it? How do we know what students
are learning? Growth in the accumulation of Constructivism is the discovery approach
knowledge inside a person’s head can be hard to learning. If you provide learners with the
to measure. You have to rely very heavily on a tools they need to ask questions and to invent,
learner’s communication skills, such as speaking, they can and will drive their own learning.
Helpful adult facilitators design the prompts
Teaching 71
and provocations, but the learner is allowed to

discover new ideas independently through their
tests and their creations.
Constructivist science
The idea that each individual should learn
through direct experience rather than direct
instruction is so obvious to real scientists that the
Latin phrase Nullius in verba, which translates to
“take nobody’s word for it,” was adopted in 1660 as
the official motto of The Royal Society of London.
The motto was adopted as “an expression of the
determination of Fellows to withstand the domi- A sense of wonder in the creation of shared artifacts
nation of authority and to verify all statements by
an appeal to facts determined by experiment.” A Born in 1870, one of the first scientists to
scientist is a constructivist by nature and pro- study how children develop cognitively was
fession; for example, many scientists design and Italian physician and curriculum designer, Maria
build their own tools for inquiry to make sure that Montessori. As early as 1901 Dr. Montessori was
they really are doing what is intended. advocating for the use of the scientific method to
In the late 1700s and early 1800s an educa- inform curriculum design. Dr. Montessori began
tional reformer was working with children right her groundbreaking work in the 1910s on what is
around the same time that “science” was being now known as the Montessori method, or one of
revolutionized in Victorian England by such icons our first modern models of self-directed learning,
as Faraday, the Herschel family, and Darwin. or constructivism.
Having read Rousseau’s Émile (1800), a book about Despite their successful models, Montessori
education that looked at Christianity critically and Pestalozzi were not mainstream. Education
and was later burned publicly, Johann Heinrich by now had been designed for standardization
Pestalozzi (1746–1827) affirmed “that teachers and during the industrial era. Nevertheless, new ways
parents never should teach children anything of thinking about learning were appearing in
they could learn or experience naturally.” In 1799, areas as disparate as the Bauhaus school of art
handed the care of war orphans, Pestalozzi creat- and architecture (1919–1933), the arts and crafts
ed educational programs that focused on hands- movement, and the work of American philoso-
on learning by making real-world objects, giving pher and educational reformer John Dewey.
these children both education and a pathway Influenced by Rousseau and Plato, Dewey
out of poverty. Pestalozzi was an entrepreneur, would advocate for the role of education in pro-
constructivist, and a constructionist who would tecting democracy in such works as Democracy
often say that learning should be by “head, hand and Education (1916). Even though they were
and heart.” describing the idea of constructivism, the term
would not be coined until Swiss psychologist Jean
I went gladly, for I hoped to offer these innocent
Piaget (1896–1980) would study young children,
little ones some compensation for the loss they
beginning with his own.
had sustained, and to f ind in their wretchedness
Piaget noticed that children construct an
a basis for their gratitude. In my zeal to put my
understanding of their world via sensorimotor
hands to the task which had been the great dream
interactions with their environment. Piaget was
of my life, I should have been ready to begin even
highly influenced by Dr. Montessori as well as
in the highest Alps and without f ire and water, so
the Montessori method, which modeled a learner-
to speak, had I only been allowed.
centered and effective model for constructivism.
—Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
Piaget used the terms assimilation and accommoda-
tion to explain the twin processes of constructing
new knowledge or understanding. Assimilation have the effect of being “magic” to a person not
happens when the input children take in from ready to assimilate new ideas. Take for instance
their environment becomes part of their schema, how popular science fiction is a temporary break
or toolbox of knowledge. from our boring old schemas.
Constructionism, a learning theory

and a model for science literacy
through maker education
Standing on a foundation of Pestalozzi, Mon-
tessori, Dewey, and Piaget, we begin now in the
1960s in Brazil, where another revolutionary
thinker named Paulo Freire was frustrated not
only by the poverty but also by the lack of success
of solutions imposed on the poor. Freire showed
through experimentation that literacy was the key
to achieving freedom and self-actualization. He
The FabLearn Fellows family tree
coined a new learning model called critical peda-
As facilitators of making in science, we have gogy, where education was a tool to question any
the opportunity to witness learners practice Piaget’s system of oppression, including economic
accommodation and assimilation in the act of and educational systems. Friere was laying the
making, fixing, and deconstructing artifacts. groundwork for what we now call the maker
When given the time and materials to explore and mindset before the term existed, a sentiment that
test without overt adult instruction, the learner would resonate in Piaget’s work as well.
is practicing “constructive autonomy,” the sweet Piaget was not only a learning theorist, he was
spot where you can answer some of your own also an early advocate for the mindsets we now
questions. Learning is about going beyond your- cherish in the current maker movement such as
self, stretching and gaining new knowledge, and agency and inventiveness. Piaget advocated that
that happens only as a result of getting stuck, or learners be allowed to employ a bottom-up, or
what some term “failing.” user-generated, learning model that would chal-
Even a self-directed learner may get stuck and lenge traditional schooling, which was passively
need a mentor. Thankfully Lev Vygotsky’s theory receiving canonized ideas from teachers. Piaget
of “social constructivism” as well as “zone of prox- saw school as a venue for raising innovative
imal development” offers a new mode for assess- thinkers instead of well-trained consumers much
ing and encouraging constructivism (1987). in the same way Freire saw education as a tool to
When using a constructivist approach to enlighten not oppress.
learning, students are in a constant state of “it While working at the University of Geneva
reminds me of” while they make sense of the (1958–1963), Piaget hired a young mathematician,
world. This allows new knowledge to “rest” on Seymour Papert, to help understand how chil-
a fertile foundation of some kind. Piaget called dren learn mathematics. This experience would
this fertile ground for new learning a person’s be reflected in Seymour Papert’s seminal work
schema. If a new idea is incorporated into a entitled Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and
learner’s schema, this is called cognitive develop- Powerful Ideas (1980), which states that children
ment, or learning. For anyone to learn complex should use computers as powerful tools to create
models and abstract ideas in science, there must their own educational experience. His theory of
first be fertile foundations to latch onto these constructionism, is a combination of constructiv-
new models. If fertile ground is absent, the new ism as well as the word construction.
idea may be ignored or rejected outright. Science Papert’s constructionism builds on the power
and technology that cannot be assimilated would of constructing one’s own knowledge but adds the
Teaching 73
idea of making things. Papert was struck by the tionism. Welcome to the club. Lets stand on the
power of the computer and how this power could shoulders of so many giants, learn from critical
be used by children in a creative way. He and pedagogy and constructionism, then dare to
others invented the Logo programming language cultivate a society of inventive, empathic skeptics.
as a way to make that happen. Papert successfully Nullius in verba!
predicted that the use of technology as seen in the
current maker movement, and increased use of References
programming in science labs to collect and ana- Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education.
lyze data, would allow young learners to construct New York, NY: Macmillan.
their knowledge of various subjects through Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed.
personal inquiry and creativity. The Scratch New York, NY: Continuum.
programming language is a descendent of Logo, Green, J. A., & Pestalozzi, J. H. (1905). The educa-
and its various outlets for exploration are a fine tional ideas of Pestalozzi. London: WB Clive.
example of this reality. Holmes, R. (2009). The age of wonder: How the ro-
When we expand constructionism to include mantic generation discovered the beauty and terror
paper, tape, wood, fabric, sound, light, etc., in of science. New York, NY: Vintage.
addition to programming, we not only unveil the Lillard, A. S. (2005). Montessori: The science
“maker movement,” we see a concrete mode for behind the genius. New York, NY: Oxford
identifying a learner’s personal schema—not to University Press.
mention tangible documentation of growth in Meadows, J. (2004). The Victorian scientist:
new knowledge. The growth of a profession. London: The
When actively creating our own education British Library.
from first-hand experiences through play, test- Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, computers,
ing, and exploring, we learn by doing in a con- and powerful ideas. New York: Basic Books.
structivist way—behaviors we expect to see in Perkins, D. N. (2009). Making learning whole:
the next great scientists and inventors, and How seven principles of teaching can transform
simply the behaviors of someone who is learning education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
through constructivism. Pulaski, M. A. S. (1971). Understanding Piaget:
When we make and build models of ideas or An introduction to children’s cognitive development.
tools for inquiry, or invent something, this is New York, NY: Harper & Row.
constructionism. Most proponents of progressive The Royal Society. (n.d.). History of the Royal
education then and now would deem the effective Society. Retrieved from royalsociety.org
use of both constructivism and constructionism /about-us/history
in school as necessary. Constructionism assumes Soëtard, M. (1994). Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi.
not only Piaget’s constructivism, but thanks to the Prospects: The Quarterly Review of Comparative
maker movement, it can also reflect Friere’s ideas Education, 24(1/2).
on self-determination and Papert’s prediction
about the role of technology to foster a more inno-
vative and truly democratic society. It’s perhaps
the perfect storm of puzzle pieces for real change
in education.
The last pieces of the puzzle are now in our
hands. Learning through the making of things is
constructionism in action. This is what happens
everyday in a makerspace; therefore, makerspaces
are learning “ecologies” designed for construc-
tionism. If you are working with learners in a
makerspace, you are a facilitator of construc-
Engineering Starting from Scratch
by Alphonse Habyarimana
Kepler Tech Lab, these students would have had

no exposure to these concepts. I also gained a bet-
ter understanding of interactive learning through
the experience of creating these workshops.
Lindy Hatten says, “Interactive learning is a
hands-on approach to help students become more
engaged and retain more material” and that “with
or without a form of technology, interactive learn-
ing helps students strengthen [problem-solving]
and critical-thinking skills.” We felt that inter-
active learning was the key to helping students
acquaint themselves with new concepts, and there
is nothing more interactive then being able to
Kepler Tech Lab middle school and high school students in class
program your own stories.
The Kepler Tech Lab (now I4Fab) in Kigali, Rwanda,1 As part of our workshops, we introduced
offers after-school engineering classes and Scratch to our students and wondered if learners
workshops to middle school and high school stu- with little to no knowledge about using comput-
dents. Creating and facilitating these classes was ers for programming can do something meaning-
an extraordinary experience as we helped young ful. In some ways, we were late to start because
students with zero knowledge of engineering or Scratch can be used by much younger children. It
tinkering get started with experimenting and requires only critical thinking and drag-and-drop
testing what technology has to offer. graphics without much typing.
For the first time, we enrolled and taught As always, our students were interested in
middle school and high school students in a two- doing many things at once, trying to catch up
month experience, and it was amazing to see how with what they had missed during their early
they were excited to build their own things, play years. The lab staff only needed to provide a little
around with Arduino kits, and try the concepts of support and steer them toward our goals for them
electricity using Squishy Circuits. Without the to get the most out of the software.
Sample game of guessing numbers

to show to students
Teaching 75
Students’ written stories in brief
How did we get started? First, we realized that present to the whole class what they had made to
we should not wait until our students are fluent help develop their technical communication skills.
in using computers. We helped them to navigate We still have a lot to do with Scratch, and stu-
through the graphical user interface of Scratch to dents’ smiling faces confirm that they are enjoy-
get them to understand how to pick a sprite, cus- ing and learning a lot from Kepler Tech Lab.
tomize the sprite, change its style, make it move,
add a message, and add sound, just to list a few. Note
Isn’t that enough for beginners? And that was just 1. keplertechlab.wordpress.com
day one. On day two, after understanding more
about what they can do with Scratch, I gave them
homework to write stories of their choice so that Reference
they can start day three (we had three sessions in Hatten, L. (n.d.) What is interactive learning?:
a week with these students) with making stories Overview & tools. Study.com. Retrieved
in Scratch. Do not try to read the first one from from study.com/academy/lesson/what-is
the right unless you can understand Kinyarwanda. -interactive-learning-overview-tools.html
(Hint: It’s a love story.)
Day three was not only about teaching the
students how to make animations of their writ-
ten stories in Scratch but also for the students to
Learning Scratch programming

Middle School Sewing Elective, Version 2
I coteach a sewing elective for middle school

students. This article is about the second version;
the first ended in some frustration, so we stopped
offering it for a while, and I went on to be part of
other electives. Recently we resurrected the idea,
and I am coteaching with a colleague (great fun
and so much calmer).
The first time I taught the elective I ran into
Machine sewing project—tote bag Hand sewing project—stuffed toy
one big problem: I was the only one there who
could fix the sewing machines, and they broke all once they have completed the two basic ones. The
the time. Beginning sewing students often have most popular advanced machine sewing project
trouble with the machines, and things get tangled has been a zippered pencil case bag. Getting a zip-
and messy pretty quickly. In particular, the “heavy per in correctly feels a bit like magic, and they show
duty” Singer machines we have are not, in fact, off their new bags to everyone. We have offered
heavy duty, and they seem to have chronic bobbin the option of finding their own patterns or using
alignment problems. These problems are made some of the ones I have brought in, but so far we
worse when students just keep sewing rather than don’t have any takers for the task of learning to use
stop as soon as they hear or see a problem. commercial patterns. They are much more likely to
So with ten students and five machines, I go online and find video instructions.
spent most of my time untangling machines, and Although with the new model I still have to fix
very little time was left to help with actual sewing machines and there is some frustration, we can
projects. The new model does not completely re- spend more of our time working on sewing. If all
move that problem, but it does offer a model that the machines break at the same time, we can do
is more sustainable and allows students to move hand sewing projects while I fix them. A few stu-
forward even if I can’t get to the machine quickly. dents have taken the elective for a second time,
We now offer hand and machine sewing and they are starting to learn how to fix the ma-
together to about twelve students. Half of them chines themselves. They watch me clean out the
start out on the machines (we still have five— loose threads from the bobbin case and rethread
usually four work at any one time). The other the machine each time, and they realize they
half start out with my coteacher on hand sewing. can do that too. We now run this elective twice a
When they have completed their first project, they year (each one runs eight to nine sessions), and
move to the other group. version 2 appears to be a success.
All the sewing machine students start out mak-
ing a tote bag from a pattern I have put together,1
Note
and all of the hand sewers start out making a
1. Tote bag instructions: bit.ly/totebag_pang
small felt stuffed animal from a silhouette they
find online. We then have a variety of more ad-
vanced sewing projects for them to move on to
Teaching 77
Why I Teach SolidWorks CAD to Young Children
SolidWorks is a CAD program, stated to be the

world’s most popular, used widely in the manu-
facturing industry—and it’s a program I teach to
kindergarteners. You might be wondering why
teach SolidWorks to young children at all when
free programs such as Tinkercad exist. Well,
initially I had a very specific purpose for teaching
SolidWorks, and it can be summed up with the
following: LCFF LCAP Community Engage-
ment Plan Linked Learning Career Pathways
Career Exploration.
Let me explain.
The lab out of which I teach, our elementary
school makerspace, which we call the iSTEAM
Lab, was envisioned and built with a certain end
in mind. The iSTEAM Lab was built to fulfill a
need that our school district became aware of
through the state of California’s Local Control
Funding Formula (LCFF). The LCFF is a state
A fifth-grade student using SolidWorks to design a part for her
policy/funding law that affects how school independent project
districts spend money. According to the LCFF,
each California school district must have a Local knowledge and applied skills; and each student
Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) that incor- enjoying learning throughout life by learning
porates all stakeholders including parents, com- how to learn. Of the nine strategies, which in-
munity members, and students. The LCAP must clude titles such as Applied Learning, Learning
state how the school district plans to meet goals beyond the Boundaries, and Network of Alli-
and address state and local priorities. In my school ances, strategy six is titled College and Careers.
district, the San Bernardino City Unified School Detailed in this strategy is our district’s plan to
District, we designed a Community Engagement transform high schools and the student experi-
Plan to meet LCAP requirements. ence by implementing a district-wide system of
Our Community Engagement Plan includes Linked Learning pathways built upon K–8 expe-
nine strategies that are designed to meet the riences that ensure college and career readiness
following goals: each student developing and upon graduation; establish a system of commu-
pursuing an academic and career plan based on nication so that community, district, and school
their interests and talents; each student demon- site strategy leaders are actively engaged in the
strating independent initiative, civic responsibility, work and can articulate the district’s vision;
and community pride; each student developing create an infrastructure that supports develop-
creativity through mastery of fundamental ment, quality, and sustainability of college and
career pathways; have 100 percent of district feeder secondary schools, Curtis Middle School
students participating in high-quality pathways and Indian Springs High School. My program in
that focus instruction on academic and industry the iSTEAM Lab is designed in alignment with the
standards as well as twenty-first-century demands curriculum of the manufacturing pathway that is
and are equitably accessible to any interested being taught at Curtis Middle School and Indian
student; and assess progress and revise plans Springs High School. All of this leads to why I
using processes and systems that support a am teaching SolidWorks to children as young
culture of continuous improvement for district, as kindergarten. SolidWorks is the industry-
college, and career pathways. standard 3D modeling software in the manufac-
Clearly stated in our Community Engagement turing industry and the program my colleagues at
Plan is our commitment to career pathways the secondary level are teaching their students.
through what’s called Linked Learning. The Linked
Learning Alliance website states the following: SolidWorks is complex but powerful
Now that I’ve explained why I teach SolidWorks
Linked Learning is a successful approach to educa-
to young children, I’d like to share why I contin-
tion based on the idea that students work harder
ue to be passionate about teaching SolidWorks
and dream bigger if their education is relevant to
to students and why I would want to teach it to
them. The Linked Learning approach integrates
young children regardless of any LCFF; LCAP;
rigorous academics that meet college-ready stan-
Linked Learning; or other district, state, or orga-
dards with sequenced, high-quality career-techni-
nizational reason to do so.
cal education, work-based learning, and supports
I have no background in engineering. I have
to help students stay on track. For Linked Learning
never taken any engineering classes. I have
students, education is organized around industry-
never been formally taught SolidWorks. Most
sector themes. The industry theme is woven into
of what I have learned about using SolidWorks,
lessons taught by teachers who collaborate across
I have learned through personal trial and error,
subject areas with input from working profession-
from watching YouTube videos, and from mini
als, and reinforced by work-based learning with
lessons from friends and colleagues who know
real employers. This makes learning more like the
more than I do. When I was first introduced to
real world of work, and helps students answer the
SolidWorks and struggled through completing
question, “Why do I need to know this?”
a simple tutorial (when I say struggled, I mean
In order for this strategy to work at an ele- STRUGGLED—like wanting-to-throw-my-
mentary school, our school, Bing Wong Elemen- computer-across-the-room kind of struggled), I
tary School in San Bernardino, California, has left the experience thinking “Why would I ever
begun a flagship Career Exploration program. want to put young children through what I just
The iSTEAM Lab was built to pave the way for the went through? I could make this on Tinkercad so
rest of our school’s Career Exploration focus. The much easier . . . probably . . . I think . . .”
lab allows students the opportunity to explore As it turns out, I could not make it more
careers in the manufacturing industry, which is easily on Tinkercad. Tinkercad does not have
a dominant industry in our region of California. the precise sketching and dimensioning tools
Our school district has identified it as such, thus that SolidWorks has. It doesn’t offer the ability
creating a manufacturing pathway at our local to first sketch on one plane and then sketch on a
different plane at a different angle and still have
everything align well together. It doesn’t allow
for sketching separate parts and then putting
them together in an assembly to see if they would
actually fit together (which turns out to be so
Fourth-grade students used
helpful when designing 2D pieces that will be laser
SolidWorks to design a coin cell cut and then pieced together into a 3D object).
battery and LED holder. I couldn’t transfer all of my sketches over to a
Teaching 79
Fifth- and sixth-grade students designed

these parts in SolidWorks, then laser cut
them, and finally assembled them into
a shadow box.
drawing/blueprint so students could deconstruct $ Sketching birdhouse pieces as separate parts,

my work. I couldn’t have my students slice their then creating an assembly to piece them
part and analyze its interior structure. I definitely together, and finally laser cutting the parts
wouldn’t have been able to run the sustainability out of wood to build the birdhouses (kinder-
simulation as I taught students about the impact garten project)
mass-producing their product would have on $ Sketching shadow box pieces as separate parts,
our environment. then creating an assembly to piece the shadow
Now, I may be wrong. Like I said, I’m no expert box together, and finally laser cutting the parts
in engineering nor 3D design, nor have I had a out of wood to build the shadow boxes (fifth-/
heck of a lot of time using Tinkercad or Solid- sixth-grade project)
Works or any other CAD modeling programs. $ Designing parts to make a hydraulic scissor
But as I spend more and more time with both lift kit and analyzing environmental impact
Tinkercad and SolidWorks, the more I am con- of manufacturing the kits (fifth-/sixth-
vinced that Tinkercad is a nice place for my young grade project)
students to get an introduction to 3D modeling If you are teaching 3D design or 3D printing,
but SolidWorks is where I want to be spending attempt to get funding to purchase some edu-
most of my time teaching 3D design. The students cational licenses of SolidWorks. It is a powerful
are beginning to organically love studying and program that allows for powerful teaching mo-
sketching blueprints. They make math connec- ments, even with young children.
tions more quickly by using their blueprints. They
feel more authentically like the engineers I am
always telling them they are. They genuinely feel References
more like the artists I am always telling they are. Linked Learning. (n.d.). What is Linked Learning.
Some examples of SolidWorks projects I have LinkedLearning.org. Retrieved at
done or are working on with my young students linkedlearning.org/en/about
include the following: San Bernardino City Unified School District.
$ Designing tetrahedronal kite connectors and (n.d.). Community engagement plan. SBCUSD.
then 3D printing them to build kites with com. Retrieved from sbcusd.com/district
straws and tissue paper (third-grade project) _offices/superintendent/community
$ Designing coin cell battery and LED light _engagement_plan
holders and then 3D printing them (fourth-
grade project)
Mystery Artifact Lesson
by Josh Ajima
Walking into school one day, I started chatting American Pickers, or Pawn Stars to determine
with a teacher about our plans for a joint maker the value of an unknown artifact. Your job is
challenge with our two advisory groups. I told to research the object and give a three-minute
her about the Martin Luther King Jr. design chal- appraisal of its historical significance and value.
lenge some of the students were working on.1 We The value of the object increases with the number
started brainstorming how we could incorporate of verifiable historical connections and associa-
this idea into her current unit and use the school tions you can make with the artifact.”
makerspace. Shortly thereafter I brought in one
of the MLK artifacts, a replica of the key to the Possible connections and associations
jail cell where he wrote the famous “Letter from It’s a key.
Birmingham Jail” and presented the teacher with A key to a jail cell.
the broad outline of this lesson. The idea is to
present students with a challenge that cannot A jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama.
be easily found on the internet and that rewards
A cell where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
depth of research.
was incarcerated.
Students might need some hints. For this
particular MLK artifact we could tell students that A cell in which he wrote the Letter from
the owner lived in the South. Or that the key was Birmingham Jail.
owned by someone in law enforcement. Students
A letter which defends the strategy of non-
research their ideas about what the artifact is and
violent opposition to racism.
the historical connections. They present their
appraisals, and then we compare them to the doc- A strategy which became a pivotal part of the
umentation of the original creator of the object. American civil rights movement of the 1960s.
Student instructions A movement that helped to end segregation

“You are a professional appraiser brought in as in America.
an expert by a show such as Antiques Roadshow,
Questions to answer: What is this object? What does it do? Replica of the key ready for 3D printing
What is its historical significance and value?
Teaching 81
Follow-up assignment
The next phase is to challenge students to
research and design their own mystery artifact
related to the unit they are currently studying.
They need to provide information such as photo-
graphs or documents that support the accuracy
of their design. They also need to create a video
or document presenting the “correct answer” in
the appraisal format.
Any number of objects related to presidents
(or any historical subject that fits with your class)
can be used as the mystery artifact. The object
needs to be something that can be digitally fabri-
cated using a 3D printer, laser cutter, CNC mill,
2D printer/button maker, or vinyl cutter.
You can download a replica of the MLK Bir-
mingham Jail Key on Thingiverse for 3D printing.2
Notes
1. designmaketeach.com/2017/01/05
/design-challenge-mlk-2017
Reference
King, M. L. Jr. (1963, April 16). Letter from
Birmingham Jail. Retrieved from en.wikipedia
.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail
Engaging Classroom Teachers in Making
by Angie O’Malley
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges for me, as Lab tours

a STEAM specialist, has been keeping making During a staff meeting we broke out into various
alive when my students leave the lab. I make a sessions, and I held a lab tour. I showed practically
very intentional effort to collaborate with teach- every tool, briefly explained how it worked, and
ers, learn what students are doing in their reg- showed examples of student creations that used
ular elementary classrooms, and integrate this that tool or machine. I had the teachers open up
into lessons and projects in the lab. However, every cupboard and drawer and peak into every
often this relationship is not reciprocal. In an ef- shelf. I wanted them to see all the materials they
fort to get more teachers incorporating making and their students had access to. I encouraged
into their lessons, I’ve tried a few strategies this them to use the space with or without me,
year that seem to be helping. Yet without hav- depending on their comfort level.
ing a specialized coach whose time is dedicated
to going to individual classrooms and meeting Making cohort/book club
with teachers, this process can be difficult; I am My school has a monthly staff meeting on a
always looking for new ways to share the making specific topic we proposed at the beginning of
mentality throughout my school. the year. Typically there are four or five groups/
topics to select from. Teachers choose which topic
Here are a few ideas I’ve tried this year: they want to further investigate, and a cohort is
formed for the year. I am leading a making group
After-school making party (and proudly—as more than half of the teachers
Getting teachers to attend an after-hours event
are in this group). We are reading Meaningful
sometimes means meeting your audience. My
Making volume 1 and discussing it as a traditional
audience happens to be one drawn to Pinterest,
book club might do. Teachers are also creating
so we had a Pinterest Party. There were several
their own making projects they want to use with
projects inspired from Pinterest with materials
their students, and I’m here to support them
for them to create. One of the projects purposely
through the process.
required the use of a Cameo vinyl cutter because
none of the teachers knew what it was or how to
use it prior to the party. In the end, teachers left
feeling engaged, learned where materials were
in the lab and what different machines do, and
seemed curious about how they could bring more
making projects to their own students. I plan
to slowly incorporate more “lessons” into these
events. Perhaps next is a Valentine Card Making
Party, with one option being paper circuits.
Teaching 83
Not the End: Reflections on a Year of History and Making
The end is in sight. The grades are almost done.

The classroom is closer to clean, and my checklist
for the end of the year now fits on one page.
It is already the next page I am looking
forward to. I am thinking about personal mak-
ing projects I will work on this summer, things
I want to try for myself, things I need to make
to make my life easier, fun projects I have been
putting off, and most of all, ideas I have for the
classroom next year. I don’t know which ones
will work. I don’t really know until I try them in
the classroom, but I have ideas I will try myself,
and then maybe with students. I have modifica- Eighth-grade US history Monument project
tions I want to make to existing projects. What So what am I thinking about for next year?
can make it better? How can it be more them I have a long list, including a reimagined writ-
and less me? What are the fundamental skills ing assignment to go with the innovation of the
for research, history, and life that I can help my telegraph (we build the telegraph machines [see
eighth-grade girls find next year? page 56], then imagine the historical experience),
I think about these changes and improve- a different way to look at architecture (we will
ments, and I can see at least one way in which continue to explore 3D printing of eighteenth-
making in the classroom brings me to my best century Williamsburg buildings, but we will also
place as an educator. When we make together, or take a look at more modern architecture later in
even alone, we revise, rethink, and revisit almost the year), and perhaps a more open-ended set of
all the time, and we have to go back to the fun- questions for the research project at the end of
damental questions of what we are doing: Why the year. I am also looking forward to the projects
does this work the way it does? What can we do that have become part of the yearly fabric of
to make it better? What do we know now that we my class: the monuments, the silhouettes, and
did not know before we engaged in this process? National History Day (see Meaningful Making
I think more about lesson planning as making volume 1, pages 81, 84, and 125, respectively).
now, and it helps me do it more effectively. I also Maybe when I get to the start of the new
think more about assessment construction as a school year, some new idea will occur to me or
making process too. If this document exercise is my students. I look forward to it.
something I am making for my students to bring
out their skills and knowledge, to let them show
themselves what they can do, then I can think
through what I construct differently, and I hope
they can get more out of it when they engage with
the voices from the past and my instructions.
The Kepler Tech Lab’s Girls in STEM Initiative
What would it take to bridge the gap between girls The lab is offering engineering enrichment
and boys in STEM fields? It is believed that anyone programs in computer programming and elec-
can create or build things out of their creativity, but tronics recycling to girls who recently graduated
how can someone actually do it? I think it requires from high school or dropped out in the middle
that person to be interested and committed to face of their studies. Students are in the lab for three
challenges and celebrate successes if the end re- sessions a week, three hours per session, learning
sults look great. How about stimulating someone’s basic electronics, learning how to use electronic
interests through introducing developmental con- equipment, and practicing technical communi-
cepts and establishing different ways to be exposed cations through a variety of presentations about
to the applications of those concepts? their projects and experiments.
The Kepler Tech Lab in Kigali, Rwanda, has The goals of our initiative are not only to
established a strong partnership with Igire Rwanda encourage equal participation of girls and boys
Organization, a not-for-profit organization that in engineering fields but, more importantly, to
empowers youth to use their talents, skills, and facilitate them through independent long-term
opportunities to create their own jobs. With Igire projects and become their mentors to turn the
Rwanda, girls are provided with soft skills at the projects into high-tech business opportunities or
same time as technical skills through STEM educa- careers in a variety of technical fields.
tion right in the lab.
Kepler Tech Lab students testing a battery A representative from Igire Rwanda Organization working with Kepler Tech Lab students
Students conferring on a project Students working on an electronics project

Teaching 85
Decolonizing STEMM: Reclaiming Indigenous Knowledge

and Practices with Felt Monsters and Ceremonial Masks
by Reina Sofia Cabezas
In February 2009, on the heels of President

Obama’s victory, I had just started my first full-
time fourth-grade teaching gig in East Oakland,
California, a community highly impacted but
resilient in the face of intergenerational trauma,
poverty, and segregation. Fresh from a career
transition as a crisis counselor, I inherited a class-
room whose teacher had been released. I thought,
“I did crisis counseling and case management
with women and children survivors of domestic
violence for ten years—I can definitely learn with
kids “all day, erryday.” Leaning on my community of practice
I quickly realized that I was supposed to dish out
out how to decolonize STEMM (science, technol-
a lean diet of only English and math, all day, erryday.
ogy, engineering, math, and making) in order to
How can we expect students to find a connection
be a culturally responsive teacher. To understand
with their education, their communities, and the
what it meant to decolonize STEMM I needed to
world when we are complicit in serving anemic
first understand colonized STEMM. Colonization
diets of decontextualized language and math?
is the elimination of indigenous peoples and their
As a K–12 student my education had been
practices, knowledge, and beliefs by a conquering
basic, rote, and boring. So, as a teacher, I was
culture. Colonization of the Americas began in the
acutely aware of the many ingredients to a good
fifteenth century and continues to be enforced by
education that had been missing for me as a stu-
government, religion, poverty, and segregation.
dent and were also missing for my own students.
Adding insult to injury, the scientific knowledge
Ingredients like fun, engagement, inspiration,
and practices of indigenous peoples were appro-
hands-on activities, and authenticity were still the
priated by white practitioners and continue to live
exception instead of the rule.
on in disguise as inventions of the white colonizer.
So my students and I started experimenting
This meant that to decolonize STEMM for my
with the little technology I could get my hands on.
students I had to start by decolonizing my own
There was one computer lab on campus that no
mind. I started seeking out holders of knowledge
one used. We had it all to ourselves—to play math
willing to mentor me. I joined a local Xicana youth
games, use Google Docs, and look up YouTube
empowerment organization focused on third-
videos before districts knew to block them on the
world resistance and alliance building across
network That’s when I started getting called the
international peoples’ struggles. This organization
techy teacher, and before you knew it I was teach-
gave me a pulse on local youth outside my own
ing a Digital Literacy class and my first middle
school. I also began attending and participating in
school engineering class.
professional development by and for educators of
Even then, without knowing all the education-
color, where we explicitly unpacked our own inter-
al buzzwords I know now, I knew I had to figure
nalized oppression through readings, discussion,
and actions. Lastly, I started a Women of Color in three isolated spaces. My sixth graders and I
STEMM (WoCSTEMM) educators group that has would spend an entire year in the engineering
since evolved to include white STEM allies through lab. The seventh graders and Sensei, their teacher,
a convergence with the Social Justice Math Educa- lived their whole year in the clean space, where
tors of the East Bay (SJMEB). they learned graphics software and Tinkercad.
The convergence of the WoCSTEMM and The woodshop was the domain of the eighth
SJMEB groups eventually led to the creation of graders because they were supposed to be mature
Radical STEMM Educators. We started in Oakland enough to handle a woodshop and all its ameni-
and have grown to include STEMM educators in ties with Mr. Bell. Since we quickly realized that
San Francisco and Santa Rosa, California. I go wasn’t the case, we wondered if we rotated each
to this group to work through curricular devel- grade through all three different spaces—the
opment issues and uncover how my colonized clean space, the woodshop, and the engineering
mind is creeping into my curriculum design. We lab—all three years, would students have more
use Critical Friends protocol to present projects opportunities to build their skills in each move
that ensure educators and students are digesting each school year?
well-balanced, nutritious STEMM through a criti- The plan was for each grade and teacher to
cal pedagogical lens. spend one trimester in each space each year. This
gave teachers and students a much clearer time-
My path to a decolonized maker project line for project planning and deadlines. It also
Decolonizing STEMM is a process of critical helped us spiral the safety procedures as well as
reflection on the colonizer—Western practices curriculum related to each space, materials, and
of education—untangling them from indige- tools. I loved it as a teacher because I also got to
nous practices, and explicitly reclaiming them as learn new technical skills and strengthen those I
indigenous practices for students. As I learned had. We were also more of a team, able to mean-
from Xicana Moratorium Day, I could not simply ingfully plan out the complete three-year experi-
be an armchair revolutionary—I had to organize ence for students.
myself in active resistance to this parasitic diet The sixth graders and I started in the clean
of education. space, which was equipped with a whole lot of
By 2014 I was at Epic Middle School, and I fun: a couple of sewing machines, a laser cutter,
had tailored out-of-the-box robotics and a 3D- three paper cutters, a 3D scanner, and two heat
modeling curriculum for students of color in presses. I just needed to figure out where to start.
East Oakland. The Design/Engineering depart- As the sixth-grade educator on the team I knew
ment at Epic Middle School consisted of three my role was to set the tone for students and ba-
teachers and offered me more space, more sically make it a little easier for the seventh- and
machines, and more open-ended design. This eighth-grade teachers. The mindset of our stu-
was when I officially caught my first wave in dents for the next three years around the safety
the maker education movement and meant I procedures and the spaces, materials, and tools
had to refine a process to develop maker proj- potentially depended on how I framed them.
ects grounded in critical pedagogy. Guided by The students and I had fifty-five-minute peri-
the Ethnic Studies framework of the Oakland ods in the makerspace four days a week for twelve
Unified School District (OUSD) and the critical weeks. I planned to start with two short projects
friends protocol with members of the Radical that would introduce the students to the culture
STEMM Educators of the Bay Area, I set off on and tools in the clean space: writing algorithms
this journey, with many detours along the way. and sketching basics. Writing algorithms was a
The 2015–16 school year at Epic Middle School fun way to have students learn about routines
was a gutsy experiment for the design/engineer- and procedures as well as safety for my classroom
ing teachers and administrators. Before this, the and the space. It was also a way to prime their
Design/Engineering department was working thinking because I knew we’d be programming
Teaching 87
and building robots in the engineering lab by the students saw themselves reflected in the class,
third trimester. I planned a sketching project to so they were all engaged and curious.
introduce the Stanford d.school’s design-thinking
Detour 1:
process. It was contextualized around an Epic
Developing my maker educator identity
Middle School uniform redesign. I love to use
As an educator my north star is codesigning
sketching in the brainstorming process and teach
liberatory learning experiences with colleagues
orthographic sketching at some point, so I wanted
and students in Oakland. There are other terms
to preassess my new students’ 2D sketching abil-
for this, like culturally responsive, critical thinking,
ities. I learned that despite having actual sketch-
and twenty-first-century skills that are all empow-
ing ability, most students didn’t have sketching
ering for students of color to experience; however,
confidence. I decided to take a step back and not
getting to what we really mean as individual
only teach how to use shapes to make realistic
educators, let alone what the system means when
icons but also to introduce students to tracing. To
we use such vocabulary, is not as straightforward.
my surprise some students even said they didn’t
Many educators believe it is enough to teach
know how to trace, so this mini project ended up
students of color to read and do math really well
being a great way for me to create peer tutoring
and that is social justice. It is social justice, but
pairs: one student with higher confidence in trac-
I would add it is only the first layer of the social
ing supporting another with lower confidence. In
justice cake for me. Liberatory means that students
turn, this helped me set expectations for commu-
can and will experience mainstream maker educa-
nication and collaboration, and communicated
tion—like typical high-tech to DIY projects—but
that I was not the only expert in our classroom.
will do so in the context of using their own maker
After this, we moved on to beginning sewing
experiences as a way to deconstruct how the
practice, along the way developing a process of
mainstream maker movement can either disrupt
checking materials in and out, reporting missing
or perpetuate systems of oppression. They build
or damaged materials, and sharing materials.
on their own maker backgrounds versus depend-
These mini projects took most of the first half
ing on some dominant culture to define what
of the trimester but set the tone for the class. Plus,
maker means for them.
they gave students a lot of skills they could use in
I started with myself, tapping into my own
the second half of the trimester, which would be
background to build this definition. I studied
one major project: a felt monsters sewing project.
Paulo Freire’s popular education model of the
The class would wrap up with a student-led con-
1930s long before I had heard of the design-
ference for parents.
thinking process. I knew the writing process and
The Felt Monsters project was the bridge that
the scientific method long before I was aware that
helped me share my own maker narrative with
IBM’s user-centered design from the mid-1980s
students as well as share some of the values that
interviewed consumers about their preferences.
shape my life and teaching philosophy. Students
Empathy is not new. If students were to have lib-
would design and make their own felt monster
eratory maker experiences, I couldn’t perpetuate
out of felt and thread. For inspiration, we ex-
the notion that designing with empathy, respect,
plored ceremonial masks from around the world,
and diligence is a newly invented ethic. I had to
their significance, and ways they were made.
break stereotypes, not reinforce them: makers are
To me this was a decolonized STEMM proj-
nerds; makers are all white and male; makers only
ect because I not only shared my own maker
make high-tech, electrical things; makers create
narrative with students but also shared a piece
more waste. Most of all I had to break this notion
indigenous peoples’ maker narratives, develop-
that designers only exist in and for the main-
ing a broader definition of a maker or engineer.
stream world.
Moreover, by giving students a concrete example
The mainstream, white-dominated maker
of how people around the world make artifacts
world produces some insight into what maker
that are important expressions of their culture,
education is. In the book Maker-Centered Learning:
Empowering Young People to Shape Their Worlds Building community with students. Building
Harvard researchers synthesized four hallmark community in a classroom means, as all edu-
instructional strategies of maker educators (2016): cators know, that we need to get to know our
1. Students as Teachers— students and they need to get to know us. In
Facilitating Student Collaboration an effort to promote healing I chose to use an
2. Encouraging Coinspiration and Cocritique indigenous healing circle format for our daily
3. Redirecting Authority “Do Nows.” When I introduced the talking circle
4. [Ethics of ] Knowledge Sharing and its mechanics to students, they were al-
While I appreciate this research, it is nonethe- ready somewhat familiar with restorative justice
less, mainstream. It perpetuates the myth that practices but had no idea that these concepts
maker education is a creation and invention of originated in indigenous peacemaking and
the mainstream, white-dominated culture. This healing practices. Once I began to tell stories of
perpetuates stereotypes that maker education is the Lakota Nation talking circles and how First
one thing, one way, from one origin, and every- Nations peoples used them as ways of gover-
one else is just learning about this way of teach- nance, students sat forward and became inter-
ing and learning. So while I appreciate and can ested, taking turns to speak, not interrupting
learn from it, I needed different lenses to help me one another, and listening and speaking from
define making. the heart. I would be lying if I said a humanities
I found my answer close to home and decided lesson was enough to break habits of inequity,
to use the OUSD Ethnic Studies Framework as the but we tried. We practiced taking turns, not
pedagogical cornerstone of liberatory education. interrupting, looking at the speaker, and writ-
Ethnic studies was born out of the struggle of youth ing thoughts down triggered by the speaker. I,
of color demanding that the education system re- like Sensei once said, was relentless in warmly
make itself in order to be worthy of their time. demanding and reminding students why we
Luckily I had help along the way. The OUSD chose this way of communication.
happens to be a natural spring of talented ethnic Once I laid the foundation of how we would
studies educators who authored a framework communicate I knew I also had to reinforce
tailored to Oakland students (bold added): it with how we would collaborate. The Ethnic
Studies Framework operating principles helped
OUSD’s Ethnic Studies definition me clearly define these expectations for my
Ethnic Studies is a content and pedagogy that human- students. I asked how many of them thought it
izes and empowers all people by honoring histories was fair that everyone, not just the teacher, has
and cultures of historically marginalized groups, a voice and that if someone’s voice was being
by employing multiple disciplines and perspectives to shut down, how important it was for them to
critically analyze systems of oppression, and by pro- be able to do something about it. Not one of my
moting action in solidarity with others to transform students objected when they realized I was pro-
students’ lives and communities. posing a way that they could not only question
What better foundation for my own maker- but also debunk my “authority.” In the Ethnic
centered classroom than this example of young Studies Framework this operating principle
students who organized, struggled, and resisted is called “Critiquing the dominant individual/
in collaboration to see the reflection of their own institutions/ideologies.” It describes question-
ethnicities in education, championing equity, and ing as a “critique in positive/constructive ways
openly critiquing the system as a way to inspire that build a foundation for change, but are also
each other and redirect authority from the bottom honest and transparent, recognizing existing
up? Is this not at the heart of hacking and making? power structures and how to work around and/
OUSD’s Ethnic Studies Framework includes or change them.”
six operating principles, one of which is “Build
community and promote healing.”
Teaching 89
Connections: would refer back to my story and find encourage-

History to personal stories to projects ment. “We should have an easier time because we’re
I could have simply jumped into our first sewing starting younger.” Or students would also acknowl-
project, Felt Monsters, and explained how it con- edge each other’s determination and celebrate
nected to history and culture. But I realized that victory, especially when learning how to first thread
if I wanted students to not only honor but also the needle and tying a knot on the end: “Ms. Cabe-
critique history, they needed to know that what zas, look! I did it!” It didn’t matter if it took them
they learn in history class isn’t the definitive story half of the fifty-five-minute period to do it! As a
of our people or of them personally. favorite maker educator and colleague Susan Wolfe
I happened to have coordinated with their says, “Move at the speed of trust.”
humanities teacher and knew they were on the This spirit of sharing challenges and victories
Mesoamerican unit of study. So I asked them inspired them to collaborate further. Once they
where their indigenous and European ancestors mastered threading the needle and tying a knot on
were from and shared my Nicaraguan roots: the end, students were excited when I asked them
indigenous and European with Middle Eastern to help a colleague with the same struggle. They
influence. Their heads almost exploded when I would gladly take time out of their own project
explained that Nicaragua was mostly colonized even if they sometimes forgot how they had done it.
by Spaniards from Andalucia, which was ruled by They’d call me over exclaiming, “Wait! I don’t know
the Moors for eight hundred years. how I did it. Can you help us?” I would gently en-
The stories of precolonial Nicaraguan peoples— courage them to continue since “I just know you’ll
Niquirano, Chorotengano, and Chontal—made get it,” and when they did, “I told you you’d get it!”
them curious about their native ancestors. Many
of them knew of Mexicas or Aztecas but didn’t Detour 2:
know the many regions of Mesoamerica and their Leaning on my community of practice
interconnectedness and were intrigued. Moreover, Celine Liu, math program manager at the
many newcomer Central American student refu- Alameda County Office of Education, and I
gees in class had never heard of these people and had started using the Critical Friends Protocol
stories, and instantly became curious about their with our study group Radical STEMM Educa-
countries of Honduras and El Salvador. tors of the East Bay to structure how we shared
While I taught them how to hand sew, I also problems of practice. Now I needed their help.
shared how sewing is a sacred, family legacy Originally, before the felt monsters, I presented
for me. I was raised in a multigenerational, a remake of a ceremonial masks project to the
immigrant household with my grandma from group, and my fellow educators helped me re-
Nicaragua, a single mother working in the shape the project to make it sixth grader friend-
Office of Social Security during the day with a ly. They pushed me to think about how I would
clothes-making side hustle, supplementing her guide students to discover ceremonial masks,
income to send her daughters to private school. connect them to history and personal stories,
I told my students the story of how I started and redesign them to reflect these discoveries.
sewing, first hand-hemming clothes to fit me and
The plan and the reality
then making my first purse. True story: my first
My plan was now complete, or as complete as any
sewing project in my first sewing class in 1999 was
classroom plan ever is. The project(s) would be my
to make a purse, and I live in regret of not taking
first large-scale attempt at decolonizing STEMM,
my idea of a cell phone pocket in purses to the
connecting history with personal stories from the
market! We laughed together at my failure as an
students as we made personally meaningful objects.
inventor and business tycoon.
At first the plan went smoothly. After four
Weaving personal storytelling into making, no
weeks into the trimester students had learned
matter what medium, helped humanize me to the
how to hand sew using the paper patterns. I saw
students. When they started hand sewing, they
a respectful, curious community develop. While
they were spending their time and energy hand finished their felt monsters, and brought them
sewing some days they would get to sit together back to school to show them off. To me that
and chat, check in, build relationships. Most showed that they had connected with the project
importantly for other content teachers, I spent in a personally meaningful way. They learned a
about two weeks teaching them how to do basic lot of skills that will be useful in their lives and in
online research, and they’d read about ceremo- future makerspace projects. Skills like kind and
nial masks, find images of ceremonial masks clear communication, effective collaboration,
with intriguing shapes to them, and collect as and sharing the workload are hard skills to teach
reference. Other days I’d structure their chatting sixth graders, but by the last trimester they were
through prompts to share what they had discov- leading our “Check-Ins,” “Do Nows,” and “Report
ered about ceremonial masks, play videos that Backs” as I sat back and took notes. They learned
show how peoples used ceremonial masks in the foundational safety expectations before going
ceremony, and talk about the symbolism of the into the woodshop, where we’d use more danger-
mask and the ceremony. ous equipment. They learned the basics of online
The plan for the Felt Monster project would research: keyword search, using basic search com-
combine hand sewing, machine sewing, Tinker- mands to scrutinize information, and, all of our
cad, vinyl cutting, and the heat press. They would favorite, CTRL-F to scan text.
use paper patterns to cut out the body of a felt I take full responsibility for biting off more
monster, then hand sew and stuff them. Next, we than we could chew, but it was fun to build com-
would move online to use the Tinkercad design munity with a sewing project. Even though it took
software, where they would design the eyes and time, both structured and unstructured conver-
mouth based on the design inspirations they sations were no big deal because they had to pay
collected from their own online research, listen to attention to their needle not poking them rather
videos, and share their findings with each other. than each other’s facial expressions distracting
Last, they would take the Tinkercad files to the them from note-taking or listening. As a result,
vinyl cutter to cut and to the heat press to place my students were much more personally invested
the features onto their felt monsters. Between than usual in these projects.
the introduction of all these tools and materials, I Because this was my first maker project out-
estimated this would take the rest of the trimester side of pure 3D modeling or robotics, I didn’t have
= 13 weeks – 4 weeks of mini projects – 1 week of a clue how long students would take to get com-
student-led parent conferences = 8 weeks total. fortable with hand sewing. I did have a good idea
In reality, we ran out of time. Although almost of how long they’d take to warm up to Tinkercad,
all the students completed sewing their monster, so I gave breaks during the hand sewing to avoid
too many of the students did not have a chance project fatigue. If students wanted to explore
to fully design and cut the vinyl features. In spite Tinkercad, they had the opportunity to join me in
of this, students were able to proudly show off small groups to get started. This was also a way
their accomplishments to their parents and speak for me to build a small student Tinkercad tutor
about the cultural connections they discovered army to support others in preparation for all of
and skills they had developed. us moving on. I plan to keep my student mentors
very busy in the future!
Lessons learned Nonetheless, while all students started Tin-
Now that the class is over, I can look back at things kercad, most of them did not cut out the facial
that went right and things that can be improved. features on the vinyl cutter, which was the next
I confess, I lectured too much. Embarrassing. step in the path I initially imagined.
In general the projects went well and the The main problem I faced was not the equip-
students were very satisfied with the felt mon- ment, although I am still wondering where some
sters and the masks. Some were sad that they needles went (I know the kids didn’t eat those),
had run out of time, so they took them home, why the Wi-Fi would betray us despite IT being
Teaching 91
there many days working on the issue, and how we I am the first one that needs to check the implicit
could recycle the irregular pieces of leftover felt. biases of projects in my maker classroom.
The main problem we faced was time. I spent This is just the beginning of my paths and de-
too much time teaching ceremonial mask histo- tours into many, many rabbit holes. Detours are
ry, online research, and scaffolding hand sewing the hallmarks of student and teacher creativity,
with the paper patterns. Instead I wish I could’ve which lead to maker opportunities for students to
planned more collaboratively with the humanities find their own maker mode. I intend to learn the
and English teachers. We could have gotten to lessons and continue to decolonize my STEMM
vinyl cutting if they could have taught the online lessons while still exploring new ideas.
research and history. It may seem that the conver-
sations with students took too much time, but I References
don’t believe so. In fact, through hand sewing and Agency by Design, Project Zero, Harvard Univer-
the time they got to chat, content based or not, we sity. (2010). Parts, purposes, complexities. Har-
built a strong learning community that I believe vard Graduate School of Education. Retrieved
will pay off in the long run. from pz.harvard.edu/resources/parts
This was highlighted in my Critical Friends -purposes-complexities-0
Group, but we didn’t quite know how to mitigate Clapp, Edward P., Ross, J., Ryan, J. O., &
this since those present had little experience with Tishman, S. (2016). Maker-centered learning:
project-based learning in their classes. This group Empowering young people to shape their worlds.
mainly helped by asking questions about the sig- San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
nificance of ceremonial masks in cultures around Ethnic Studies Leadership Team, Oakland Uni-
the world. Each was curious and engaged through fied School District. (n.d.). OUSD ethnic studies
the lens of their own STEM content area. One framework 2017–18. Oakland Unified School
area for me to address would be to add educators District. Retrieved from sites.google.com/a
who have experience with project-based learning /ousd.k12.ca.us/history/home/professional
to my feedback group. -development/ethnic-studies-leadership-team
Radical STEMM Educators of the Bay Area. (n.d.).
Trailblazing new paths
Radical STEMM Educators of the Bay Area.
How can maker educators help students develop
Retrieved from facebook.com/groups/TM4SJ
a maker culture that nurtures rather than extracts
Wikipedia. (2018). Critical friend. Wikipedia.org.
resources? How do we develop maker culture in
Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki
this way? What are the considerations we must
/Critical_friend
make as maker educators to use the supplies,
technology, and materials that encourage student
makers to develop a culture of repair instead of
perpetuating a culture of waste?
These are just a few of the questions I contin-
ue to think about as I explore what it means to
decolonize STEMM. I recently gave a short Ignite
talk called “The Parts, Purposes, and Complexities
of Decolonizing STEMM” to systemically unpack
that thinking in order to be a more conscious
educator in the way that I perpetuate and/or
disrupt dominant maker cultural myths (“Parts,
Purposes, and Complexities” being a thinking
routine developed by Agency by Design [2010]).
My students will only learn to question stereo-
types and assumptions if I model that for them, so
Convincing Yourself and Others:
Why Bring Making into
the Classroom?
Convincing Yourself and Others: Why Bring Making into the Classroom? 93
How does making in education really happen? Where do we start? How is it dif ferent
from what we have done in the past? Is it for all students or just some? How can I convince
other educators, parents, administrators, and even students that making is the right
approach to learning? What will I show my colleagues and administration as evidence
of student achievement?
For educators launching a journey into a new kind of teaching and learning, answering
these questions with certainty may seem like an impossible task. When the task
expands to convincing others, it seems even more daunting. Many educators feel deep
down inside that real and relevant projects are the best learning experiences but don’t
feel comfortable advocating for something that seems to challenge traditional school
practices. This chapter contains articles from the FabLearn Fellows, who are working on
answering these questions and towards becoming braver advocates. Like all iterative
projects, these answers are never the f inal word, but as we share our stories we all benef it
from the journey.
Experimenting:
The Power of Hands-On Learning
by Kof f i Dodji Honou
When I started working as a Fab Lab member and When I discovered digital fabrication ma-
then as a Fab Lab manager, I never thought that it chines like 3D printers and everything that can
would be such a great experience in terms of leader- be realized with them (especially in the African
ship or professional and personal development. context), I decided to specialize and master them
in order to share and disseminate my knowledge
within my community. Indeed, my experiences
with Fab Labs in West Africa, Europe, and the
United States showed that teaching and learn-
ing this technology can promote local economic
development as well as strengthen social cohesion
and capacity building of local communities.
Educator workshop
My journey as an “African Fablaber” started

four years ago as a volunteer with an NGO in
Lomé (Togo). I used to share my time and expe-
rience by providing basic computer training to
students, kids, and everyone in the neighbor-
hood who needed it or was just curious about it.
Learning to solder
With DefKo Ak Niep (“do it with others”) in

Dakar (Senegal),1 we initiated many programs
to bring this kind of hands-on learning to local
schools, teaching both young people and edu-
cators. We started pilot projects and are im-
pressed by the power of learning by doing—in
just half an hour, eight-year-old students were
able to solder electronic circuits.2
They could also design 3D models and print
them out by themselves. Most of them had never
used computers before nor had they soldered
electronic components because IT or electronic
classes are not available in their schools.
3D-printing workshop
That is the power of hands-on learning, and

I am looking forward to continuing to make it
happen in our communities.
Notes
1. fablabs.io/labs/defkoakniep
2. youtu.be/EYZhbKdYgMQ
Building computers from recycled parts

Confessions of a Maker Educator
by Angie O’Malley
Although I choose not to bring it up often, I have a you support the idea?” He loved it, but neither of
confession to make. You see, when I started con- us had any idea of what was to come.
sidering teaching as a career years ago, my passion I was so excited, I started the next week. I
was to be a physical education teacher. Being the knew third grade was learning about simple ma-
goal-orientated person I am, I got my undergrad- chines in science, so I went and bought a hand-
uate and graduate degrees in physical education. I ful of wind-up toys. Third-grade students spent
got my state teaching endorsement in health and the next week taking them apart, documenting
fitness. I attended conferences and workshops photos and labels with the tablet, attempting to
galore on physical activity and wellness. For my identify any simple machines they found, then
first employment opportunity, I found myself in an figuring out how to put them back together. The
interview with administrators and teachers, where kids couldn’t believe they were getting to take
it was stated, “We only have a position for a part- apart and explore toys in technology class. They
time PE teacher, but we also have an opening for were engaged. They were excited. They smiled,
a technology teacher. Can you teach a kindergart- laughed, and shouted to their classmates when
ener how to use a mouse?” Of course, I can teach a they made a discovery. They were hooked, and so
kindergartener how to use a mouse. I thought, “If was I.
it means I can teach PE, I’m in.” The next school year, I set a goal. I was going to
Fast-forward a few years. On Mondays, do one hands-on design project with every grade
Wednesdays, and Fridays I taught students the level. I just had to convince the classroom teachers
proper footing for overhand throwing, set up that what I was doing was worthwhile. I needed
a gym for a game of kickball, and stressed the to gain their trust so that when they sent their
importance of healthy eating. On Tuesdays and students to “technology class” once a week and
Thursdays I sat in a traditional computer lab, they weren’t setting eyes on a screen, they could
looking down the rows of computers, seeing still recognize the importance of it all. I started
the occasional eyes pop up over the monitor as emailing and meeting with every teacher, listing
I reminded students how to hyperlink slides their units of study. I turned to Pinterest and
and keep their fingers on home row. The stu- Instructables. I talked out ideas with friends and
dents were excited to have screen time but were family, and I turned to my own imagination.
ultimately running through the motions. As That school year, while we still did a lot of
hard as I tried to keep students engaged and be screen-based technology, there was more hap-
cutting edge, I was not doing well. I was bored pening. I kicked off the school year showing
with the routine and I thought, “If I’m bored, my students “Caine’s Arcade,”1 a viral video about
students have to be feeling similarly.” I knew of a a child who created a working arcade out of
school in the area that was incorporating engi- cardboard and other recycled materials. Then
neering and design into its curriculum, a rare we made our own school cardboard arcade. The
find at the time. That spring, I pitched an idea to computer lab was so full of cardboard boxes
my administrator: “I’d like to incorporate some during the weeks students were designing and
engineering and design into technology. Would making that I was told I was putting the school
at risk of being in violation of fire code. We set cutters, multiple 3D printers, and CNC mills, we
up a giant arcade in the gym, and over a hundred are making. Students are practicing the design
students proudly shared their creations. process daily. There is room for play and discov-
Throughout that school year, I slipped in ery. Students are encouraged to prototype, test,
hands-on design projects. Third graders screen and redesign. Their imaginative ideas are met
printed geometric designs on T-shirts using with encouragement. They know the lab is a safe
homemade screens and geometry blocks to tie place to take risks and test new ideas.
into their math unit. Second graders built a 3D So if you find yourself stumbling upon the
city out of paper to learn about community help- maker movement, know that you don’t have to
ers and city planning. Kindergarteners built and have an engineering or design background. You
tested bridges made from toothpicks and marsh- don’t have to find a school with a program already
mallows and learned about architectural engi- in place. You don’t need the latest gadgets and
neering and design. Fifth-grade students learned costly equipment. But you do have to be willing
about biomimicry and invented and constructed to start. You have to be willing to collaborate with
their own devices that were inspired by nature. colleagues to gain their trust. You have to show
Teachers were appreciating the collaboration. that what you are doing is benefiting the stu-
Parents were happy their children were coming dents. You have to be willing to spend the time
home excited to talk about what they had done in doing the research to find project ideas and inspi-
class. Students were engaged, they were having ration that fit into your program. And just as you
fun, and they were learning. will ask of your students, you have to be willing to
The process continued to grow for me and take risks. Trust me—the rewards are worth it.
for our school. The following year, I asked to
change the name of my class from technology to Note
STEAM. I wanted everyone to understand that 1. cainesarcade.com
more than computer and tablet usage was hap-
pening. The computer monitors that once sat as
the primary feature on tabletops were now more
often pushed aside to allow for cutting, gluing,
drawing, designing, and constructing; I wanted
a name to reflect the change.
The year after that, I pitched the idea that I
would quit teaching PE and move to teaching in
the lab full-time, where students would come to
class twice weekly instead of once. The idea was
approved. That same year, the school moved into
a new building, where I was able to help design
and plan our lab. We have moveable tables with
tons of floor space for students to build. We
have laptops and tablets that can be used when
needed but set aside to allow for more space
when making. We have a sewing machine and
a workshop table with hand tools. We have a
prototyping-materials cupboard filled floor to
ceiling with everyday materials and recyclables.
There is a cupboard with toys to spark imagi-
nation and reinforce ideas such as marble runs,
robots, building blocks, and art sets. While it
isn’t a multimillion-dollar facility with laser
Funds of Knowledge
by Aaron Vanderwerf f
In most schools, we still use what Paulo Freire true meaning of what they are learning because
called the “banking” model of education as our that learning is decontextualized. Contextualized,
dominant model—teachers depositing knowl- student-driven learning will be the driver for stu-
edge into students’ minds. Seymour Papert dents to understand the math that surrounds us.
asked us to think about who defines what I read Paulo Freire in my teacher education
constitutes a discipline; in other words, what is program, but his words about the role of educa-
physics, and how is it taught? He posited that tion in liberating the poor have taken on a much
we continue to teach (even thirty years later) deeper meaning now that I have been a teacher
the same physics courses that were developed for many years; I have worked with low-income
around the technology of paper and pencil, students for over ten years, but I still have
which are focused on solving word problems questions about how this looks in my own school
and carrying out labs with already-identified setting. As a part of my credentialing program,
answers. Instead, he challenged us to reimagine we completed a Funds of Knowledge project that
our disciplines and what students can now do asked us to interview/observe/visit a student
because of new technology so that students both and their family to learn more about their own
lead the vision of what they are studying and knowledge of the world and learn to see the assets
so that they will deeply understand what they they have. Clearly this project was created to help
are learning. Too many students are learning us to reject the deficit model that many people
algorithms and skills without understanding the have about the poor; in addition, the project was
Hands-on learning about circuits

intended to help us to see that our students and different projects with different areas of focus,
families had resources that related to our con- it isn’t long before they exceed my understand-
tent. For me, the connection to the humanities ing in many areas and I start to learn from
and the more philosophical and political issues them. In addition, these projects drive them to
Freire discusses was clear, but what about to pursue understanding more formalized knowl-
algebra and physics? edge (e.g., engineering, math, physics) so that
After visiting and talking with my student they can better design their next project or so
and his family, it was clear that they had a strong they can explain what they are doing to others.
fund of knowledge, that education was extremely For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, men
important to them, and that the deficit model was cannot truly be human. Knowledge emerges only
indeed faulty. I believe now, as I did then, that all through invention and re-invention, through the
of my students can learn physics, and in general restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry
my classes are taught in a way that encourages men pursue in the world, with the world, and with
collaboration, critical thinking, and conceptual each other. —Freire, 1972
understanding. Students learn by doing and learn
through understanding, not through memoriza- Finally, Freire says that “liberation is a praxis,”
tion or algorithms. But the family that I visited and this makes me think about how we can push
did not know too much about physics, and I our students to truly “[reflect] upon their world
would guess that if asked, for example, they would in order to transform it.” How can students use
have had Aristotelean models of motion, not what they have learned to bring about changes to
Newtonian models, and that without my guidance our society to lessen oppression? In today’s con-
their son would not have come to understand the text it seems that part of changing that equation
Newtonian model of motion. So I questioned how is about technology, but it isn’t just about access
areas of study like physics and algebra fit into to technology—it is about who controls the
Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. My student had technology. The activities that we are embarking
a strong knowledge of the world around him, but on with our students allow them to own their
he would not have learned much about physics technology and use it to level the playing field. In
without my guidance, even if that guidance were my own microcosm, thinking back to the Funds
minimal and valued my student’s own construc- of Knowledge project, I think that I also need to
tion of knowledge rather than just transmitting it. do a better job of pulling parents into our pro-
In Freire’s description of a problem-posing gram. So much of what we do in our design and
education he states that students and teachers making program plays into strengths that our
must learn from each other. It is through activ- families have as well as areas that they would be
ities like open-ended design and making where interested in learning more about if opportuni-
I have seen this happen most clearly. With more ties were presented to them.
than twenty-five students in a class pursuing
Reference
Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. B.
Ramos, Trans.). New York: Herder. (Original
work published 1968).
Cheikh Anta Diop Fab Lab Academy
by Koffi Dodji Honou
Cheikh Anta Diop is one of the most well-known The Academy has two components:
and brilliant African scientists. He greatly con- Component 1: A Fab Lab team and volunteers
tributed to knowledge on ancient African soci- visit schools all year long with appropriate tools
eties and has long worked for the emergence of and equipment to provide training and organize
science in the educational sector. practical workshops.
Inspired by his deep commitment, our Fab During these workshops, participants are intro-
Lab DefKo Ak Niep (“do it with others”) in Dakar, duced to IT basics and different components of a
Senegal, decided to honor and acknowledge his computer and its systems. They learn how to handle
dedication to science and technologies in Africa by a keyboard, mouse, and word processor. We also
naming our training program (or mobile fab lab) have programming training with Scratch and an
after him: Cheikh Anta Diop Fab Lab Academy. introduction to electronics and 3D printing.
The Academy aims at promoting sciences through Component 2: The second component targets
the popularization of new technologies, namely two specific groups: (1) young people in dis-
digital activities, digital fabrication, and making. advantaged areas and (2) selected occupations
This project’s objective is to open up an such as shoemakers. In Dakar there are a large
alternative, participative, and experimental number of shoemakers who manufacture thou-
pedagogical curriculum to all Senegalese who wish sands of shoes daily.
to discover digital fabrication. With the Academy
participants will no longer be passive technology
consumers but active creators, innovators, and
designers who are invited to explore and develop
their ingenuity, creativity, and potential.
Topics related to sustainable development
and concepts such as do it yourself (DIY) and do it
together (DIT) are the core of Academy trainings.
The program currently targets the large num-
CAD training for adults
ber of young people in the city of Dakar. After
establishing the program there, the project and the We want to introduce them to digital manu-
concept will be expanded to more remote areas. facturing tools including laser cutting. We believe
that training them on these digital manufacturing
tools will improve their productivity and work-
flow and help them generate extra income.
The Cheikh Anta Diop Fab Lab Academy is an
alternative education program and will evolve, for
the better hopefully, over time. We continue to
look for more things to teach, and to improve our
own techniques to create and spread knowledge
with DIY and DIT.
CAD training for youth

Megachanges and Programming Curricula

by Cassia Fernandez
Seymour Papert of the MIT Media Lab, whose ease a shortage of workers in IT jobs (The Royal
ideas strongly influenced the maker movement, Academy of Engineering 2009; Nesta 2011; The
was among the first to propose that computers Royal Society 2012). In the country’s future econ-
could be powerful tools to support learning, omy programming would be a valuable skill, and
allowing kids to express themselves in mean- for that reason it should be taught in schools. As
ingful ways and to reflect on their own thinking in the UK, many countries in the world are mak-
process while creating programs. ing efforts to bring programming to their schools
In his closing keynote address at the 1990 for this same reason. In my own country, Brazil,
World Conference on Computers in Education, I’ve been seeing new independent programming
“Perestroika and Epistemological Politics,” Papert schools popping up everywhere, trying to attract
reflected on the relationship between political and students by stating that besides the benefits of
epistemological aspects of educational paradigms, formal reasoning developed through program-
using a perestroika metaphor to discuss resis- ming, acquiring these skills could be a strong pro-
tance to change in education. In his talk, Papert fessional advantage for the future. In both cases,
posed the distinction between what he called a lot is said about what should be taught and very
megachanges—real, structural changes—and little about how it should be learned.
incremental evolution. He suggests that, similar Although today there are many teachers con-
to what happened in the early days of perestroika, cerned with new ways to use computers to make
educational reformers try to make incremental structural changes in our systems, it’s evident
changes in schools, hoping that they will eventually that marketplace forces still drive (and will keep
lead to a new transformed and well-functioning driving) the future of education. The introduction
educational system. But, in his view, these reforms of computers in schools took place many years
require a deeper and radical restructuration of ago and still nothing has really changed. Can we
the conceptual and administrative organization expect the same with the introduction of pro-
of education, involving rethinking educators’ gramming curricula?
roles, traditional curriculum organization, and While there is no intention to make any changes
school bureaucracy. in the way we use computers at schools—and
As a strong activist for the transforming poten- intention is the key aspect to megachanges—
tial of computers in the learning process, Papert programming activities become simply a way to
imagined that technologies could play an important achieve technical skills. As such it is a good exam-
role to drive megachanges in education by provid- ple of incremental evolution. Yet so much more is
ing opportunities for learners to develop knowledge possible. Today having great programming tools
and express themselves by programming. and robotics kits designed to support creative ex-
While trying to understand the reasons lead- pression and new relationships with the learning
ing some countries to incorporate programming process, this discussion should be pushed beyond
in their schools’ curricula, I looked at the situation skills and jobs. While achieving important techni-
in the United Kingdom, and much of what I read cal skills, kids should have the opportunity to use
supported teaching programming as a way to computers to express their creativity and develop
new learning attitudes, in exploratory processes The Royal Society. (2012, January). Shut down
driven by personal interests. But who will take or restart? The way forward for computing in
up the cause of this megachange? UK schools. London: The Royal Academy
As Papert states paradoxically, “Technology of Engineering. Retrieved from
should be the instrument for the achievement of royalsociety.org/~/media/education
a less technical form of education” since “hav- /computing-in-schools/2012-01-12
ing a strong technical infrastructure allows the -computing-in-schools.pdf
system to be less technical in its methodology.”
These shifts in the use of technology, however,
will only happen if teachers are intentional
in their goals. In this sense, more attention
should be put on the approaches to introduce
programming for kids—approaches that have
the clear intention to change the relationship
of learners and learning, and that doesn’t focus
only in the achievement of technical skills and
in the development of abstract thinking. At this
moment, when programming is being intro-
duced in many schools, considering the possibil-
ities brought by the use of computers to create
meaningful learning experiences—although an
old idea—is more important than ever before
and should be at the forefront of the educational
debate by us, teachers.
One important question to be posed is why
almost thirty years later we are still talking
about ways to shift this trend. While having
many more questions than answers, I would like
to emphasize the importance of reflecting on
the underlying structures guiding educational
decisions, and on our role as teachers to be con-
scious and critical when confronted with new
educational technologies and methodologies.
References
Nesta. (2011). Next gen. London: Nesta.
Papert, S. (1990, July). Perestroika and epistemo-
logical politics. Closing keynote at the World
Conference on Computers in Education,
Sydney, Australia. Transcript retrieved from
stager.tv/blog/?p=928
The Royal Academy of Engineering. (2009.) ICT
for the UK’s future: The implications of the changing
nature of information and communications technol-
ogy. London: The Royal Academy of Engineer-
ing. Retrieved fromraeng.org.uk/publications
/reports/ict-for-the-uks-future
Local Partnerships Empower

Educators and Student Leaders in Rwanda
The Kepler Tech Lab (now I4Fab) in Kigali, Facilitators were trained to help students
Rwanda,1 connects with local/corporate orga- perform the same experiments using the prin-
nizations to implement practical education ciples of design thinking. With this training, we
in schools or local communities for students took a leap forward to implementing hands-on
to learn by doing and solve critical problems STEM learning that has practical applications
in their communities. One of the goals was to for the local community.
provide students with STEM and ICT education
that moves away from textbook-driven mem- Note
orization to approaches that are more student 1. keplertechlab.wordpress.com
centered and focus on problem-solving. After
a partnership with Igire Rwanda Organization
of providing STEM education to its beneficia- References
ries, the tech lab hosted teacher training with Mothering Across Continents. (2014). About
Pivot Academy of Mothering Across Continents Mothering Across Continents. Retrieved from
(MAC) to train a team of facilitators who were motheringacrosscontinents.org
training tenth-grade students in Southern Shafer, P. (2017, November 3). This is our dream.
Province, Rwanda. [Web log post]. Retrieved from
Mothering Across Continents is a not-for- motheringacrosscontinents.org/Blog/tag
profit organization that provides “[consultancy], /pivot-academy
coaching and mentoring [to students] to develop
dream projects that help raise tomorrow’s
leaders.” Pivot Academy is a MAC program that
creates “awareness of the need for and value of
STEM education, coupled with ICT (information
communication technology).”
Kepler Tech Lab hosted four day-long teacher
training programs with Pivot Academy to train
their seventeen facilitators plus five lab staff. The
trainees were prepared to train four senior (tenth-
grade) students from five high schools (at least 511
students) in Southern Province, Rwanda.
The training included performing exper-
iments such as water filtration, solar desali-
nation, solar dehydrators, zeer pots, and food
preservation (putting food in different solutions
such as salt, vinegar, and sugar to extend their
expiration dates).
Maker Education and the STEM Monster
by Christa Flores
Ask . . . and ye shall answer your The school for inventors

own questions Named after African American entrepreneur
and founder of Atlanta Air Michael R. Hollis,
I hope to apply a strong focus on place-based
Hollis Innovation Academy is a Title I public
making and science while here in Atlanta. . . . I
school, meaning that it serves a high percentage
also noticed that this year’s research panel was
of low-income students. It opened its doors to
very program and project focused, or more prac-
Pre-K to fifth-grade students in 2016. Hollis
tical in nature. This gives me hope that higher
Innovation Academy was the product of an
education is stepping up to the plate to support
Atlanta public school program called “Turn-
and study best practices around making in com-
around,” closing failing public schools and
munity programs in ways it has not in the past.
sending their displaced students to a new build-
The above is a reflection from FabLearn 2016 ing with a new name, leaving behind failing
from a prompt given to the FabLearn Fellows by track records. Turnaround offers a fresh start
our mentor Sylvia Martinez. How would I apply to envision a school’s mission and often entails
FabLearn lessons to my new role as a K–8 out- new leadership. Hollis has that leadership with
reach manager at Georgia Institute of Technology Doctor Diamond Jack, former science teacher
(a.k.a. Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia) within and a firm believer that Hollis is poised to be a
the Center for Education Integrating Science, model for what quality STEM education can be
Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC)? in a Title I school.
CEISMC is a self-contained K–12 STEM edu- How might focusing on innovation literacy
cation research and design hub that has been at this local public elementary school fulfill the
around for twenty years. Lately, CEISMC has vision of STEM education in an underserved
caught the maker education bug, and I was area? It has a great start: Hollis has three dedi-
hired to bring my experience to their partner cated STEM teachers with their own classrooms,
K–12 schools wishing to start maker programs and K–5 students meet for ninety minutes a
or makerspaces. As I no longer have a maker- week in STEM class. Add to this equation Hol-
space of my own, I am answering my own lis’s partnership with CEISMC to design three
call-to-arms post about these lessons learned. makerspaces in hopes of bringing innovation to
I have shifted from being a teacher/researcher life for these elementary school children. Cur-
or makerspace coordinator to a curriculum and rently Hollis has a very traditional, teacher-led
learning space codesigner, working with multi- classroom environment that makes the progres-
ple educators in multiple disciplines at multiple sive teacher in me a little uncomfortable, but I
public schools. This is the story of one of those am patient and hopeful that the maker mindset
schools and how I learned that STEM mandates will flourish in this new school.
could coexist with maker education.
Connections and frustrations study and preordered all supplies for the pre-
In short order working at CEISMC connected determined experiments. It seemed as though
me to Atlanta’s local maker movement network there was no student voice built into the enter-
such as Lew Lefton of Georgia Tech’s math prise. With the fair looming large, every STEM
department, founder of the Decatur Makers, class block of time would be devoted to the
a community makerspace and organizer of science fair projects. My attention shifted from
Atlanta’s Maker Faire. I met the impressive makerspace design to asking how we might
STEAM program director Courtney Bryant of protect any possibility of student voice in these
Drew Charter School and the cocreator of the projects. In other words, how was I going to
TinkerYard, a playground designed by kids fight the STEM monster (STEM as a drill-and-
for kids. I also met the team of entrepreneurial kill approach) and design more student voice
educators behind STEAM Truck, Atlanta’s first into STEM classes?
not-for-profit mobile maker lab, while at a
design-thinking workshop facilitated by the
Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation.
Despite these positive experiences, I was
losing sleep at night, worried that I wasn’t
connecting with the three STEM teachers I was
assigned to work with, or with the students at
Hollis. My role as an outreach manager seemed
ill defined and therefore prone to failure. More
frustration came as I found out that my maker-
space planning and project-based lesson code-
signing would be derailed for months due to a
district-wide plan to promote STEM.
The students made their own signs for the workstations.
The STEM monster rears its head
When I arrived on the Hollis scene, it was already
mid-October. Lesson planning had already been
done and classes had started. Then a new edict
came down from the district saying that all kin-
dergarten to fifth-grade students must participate
in a science and engineering fair in December.
I worried that not only would this derail the
makerspace planning, it was a step backwards
in creating STEM experiences that were less
teacher directed. Then a friend shared her expe-
rience with an elementary science fair: “It’s the
only time I got to do science. I loved the science
fair as a kid!” My friend reminded me that there
is room in the world for both makerspaces and
science fairs, and I resolved to keep both visions
in mind moving forward.
Because the new Hollis Science Fair seemed
like the district priority, the STEM teachers I
was meant to codesign lessons with instead took
understandable measures to help secure their An array of choices
students’ success. Many chose topics for them to
Go slowly, but GO! tackling a real problem. The discouraged team

Working with some of the teachers, we slowly turned out to be the first to find the solution,
introduced the idea of a makerspace and self- demonstrating beautifully for their peers what
direction into STEM classes. I spend three days perseverance looks and feels like.
a week at Hollis, working with third graders in In the second lesson students rotated through
Ms. Battle’s STEM class on Friday mornings. stations. Some made the dough for the squishy
This particular section of third graders was circuit frogs with Ms. Battle. Some used comput-
assigned to create electronic frogs using Squishy ers to review digital media on frogs Ms. Battle
Circuit dough, homemade dough with conduc- had curated for them. Some were on the rug
tive properties. This would be part of a larger building with LEGO bricks, and some explored
frog study for their science and engineering making series, parallel, and short circuits
fair project. While waiting for supplies for the with me. It was great having two adults in the
science fair projects to arrive, we introduced stu- room—one to facilitate the very messy lessons
dents to electricity in three lessons that spanned of making dough, and one to watch as students
four to five hours of classroom time. discovered science concepts like short circuit,
In our first lesson students were given an or open and closed circuits, while playing and
alligator clip, one C battery, and one small exploring. These first two lessons were fun, and
flashlight bulb. The prompt was simply to get kids seemed to really engage with the material,
the lightbulb to light. Perseverance is one of but they were 100 percent teacher directed.
the “Habits of Hollis,” so we used that word The third lesson came spontaneously because
a lot in the first fifteen minutes when no one the supplies for the fair project had not arrived.
had figured out how to light the bulb. “I give On Thursday night I was in the hardware store
up,” said one girl, and her partner followed suit parking lot when I texted Ms. Battle to see what
saying, “This is too hard.” I shared that it some- she had planned for our STEM class the next
times takes fifth graders an hour to figure out morning. We seized the opportunity to design
the same problem and assured them they were a follow-up lesson to the past two sessions on
Making circuits with no instructions

Happy makers at the workstations
exploring electronics. It was an opportunity issues decreased significantly, and self-discipline

to have the third graders start using real tools reigned. I thank the magic of a makerspace for
and making something real. Before students the change.
arrived, we set up the classroom as a makeshift In these few lessons we moved from being
makerspace. We pulled the tables and chairs entirely teacher directed to some student choice.
out of rows and made work stations. We had a It was a small window into their individuality,
wood measuring station, a wood cutting sta- but it is a window with a great view.
tion, a sanding station, an electric component
assembling/testing/experimenting station, and If STEM is a monster, can it be a
a station where artists could work on making cuddly one?
signs for our stations. I empathize more fully with frustrated non-STEM
We started the lesson with a talk about what educators who feel the oppressive weight of STEM
a makerspace is, what a maker is, tool safety, initiatives that consume grant funding and steal
and mindfulness. Then we quickly got to work. time away from equally important experiences. I
For most, if not all the children, it was their first now have a different view of the STEM monster.
experience with woodworking. Cutting a piece I am very grateful that I was in a school that has
of pine was clearly very gratifying for some of three talented teachers dedicated to exposing the
these makers. While sawing one young lady Hollis students to science, technology, engineer-
even declared, “This is what I want to do when ing, and math through invention and inquiry.
I grow up.” I wasn’t sure if she was referring I even hope to embrace the constraints of the
to woodworking or what, but I was happy to science and engineering fair to promote more
have exposed her to a new passion. During this student voice and choice. I might be collaborating
lesson Ms. Battle and I noticed peer-to-peer with a STEM monster, but I am a firm believer
mentoring, tool skill acquisition, moments of that maker education has the ability to rebrand
self-identity, applied mathematical literacy, old ideas and be a flexible vehicle for innovation
and total engagement. The number of behavioral literacy in young innovators.
Constructionism 800 Meters above Sea Level

by Nalin Tutiyaphuengprasert
Far from the big city

As a constructionist facilitator from the would be nice to get away from a big city for a
Darunsikkhalai School for Innovative Learning couple of days, so I said yes.
in Thailand, I received an invitation to teach There were thirty teachers from the Office of
fifty teachers in a corporate social responsibility Non-Formal and Informal Education (Mae Jam,
program of Thaicom Public Company Limited. Chiangmai region). All of them can speak the
The location would be 780 kilometers (485 miles) Thai language, and for many of them Thai is
away from the airport of Chiangmai. It would their second language. Another group of twen-
be a long journey to the highest-altitude spot of ty teachers was from Wat Khian Khat School,
Thailand. It sounded terrific, and I thought it located in a temple in Pathumthani province
Examples of existing projects: (left to right) Mushroom project; Chicken Farm project; Sun-Dried Banana project
(70 kilometers [43 miles] from Bangkok). The donor, with limited infrastructure. Electricity is mostly
Thaicom Public Company, wanted the teachers to based on solar panels, and blackouts are com-
learn how to conduct project-based learning with mon. Cellular phones are useless in their villages.
the small grants that they had received. Teachers spend eight days per month traveling
From my observations and from documenta- back and forth to their homes in a small city three
tion of their projects that I had received a week to four hours away from the schools. This is quite
before this trip, I decided that creativity should different from teachers whom I had taught before.
be a main topic for this workshop because, even I tried to think of what would be most efficient
though there were a lot of projects, most of the and sustainable in this particular context, with no
projects were very similar. I had one-and-a-half computers, no cell phone, and no laser cutter.
days to run my workshop and a half day for final I had planned to introduce fifty teachers to
presentations. Thai Satellite arranged for all the the design process in a simple way at the begin-
teachers to travel from their villages to the most ning and then integrate into their projects for
convenient spot in the area with electricity the villages. At this point, it doesn’t matter if
(on, well, most of the time) and teachers stayed they know what constructionism or the design
at small guesthouses during the workshop. process is—I mostly wanted them to learn how
It was amazing that for less than 200 US to have a clear picture of a continuous refine-
dollars per grant, they produced interesting and ment process and to not be scared of thinking
sustained results such as raising pigs, goats, and creatively as they innovate something new.
chickens, breeding them with fruitful results. Now These are the most important skills for them to
they have inexpensive protein—enough to feed have to be able to continuously improve their
the hill tribe communities. They also grew coffee projects and to guide their students in how to
plants and learned how to roast their own coffee think, make, and reflect, which is the core of
beans. There were twenty projects consisting of the constructionism learning process. I chose
pig, goat, and chicken farming; coffee plants and papers, straws, balloons, rope, and a few more
products; and a sun-dried banana project. building materials to help them learn how to
Many projects had a goal of increasing income make paper prototypes for all ideas that we
for local hill tribes, who live on the mountains would be developing together.
(Clockwise) We kicked off with a low-cost prototype; getting the teachers familiar with design processes; the paper prototype process
I started off the workshop with making an growing different types of mushrooms (which
artistic statue from simple materials to stim- bring a higher price), designing a closed system
ulate how we make something from collective of goat farming, making a low-cost version of
ideas. Teams made a simple prototype by think- chicken feed from local materials, and making
ing, drawing, and discussing the work; getting jasmine-flavored coffee beans.
frequent feedback; and not trying to make things We went through the same design process
perfect. I found that welcoming imperfection and but this time with their own project. The teachers
always giving space for feedback and growth are were now more comfortable with all the pro-
new perspectives for them. They felt uncomfort- cesses and much more relaxed about quickly
able with the short time I gave them, but I insisted making a paper prototype. I combined design
that imperfect work is fine and that it actually processes, making it simple for them to follow
helps to keep your mind open to feedback. Some steps and repeat them by themselves with their
teachers struggled, but others started to accept own project. I introduced strengths, weaknesses,
ideas and learn to “let loose” a bit more. I went opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis to
through another round of the design process by help them think of both advantages and disad-
assigning them to interview each other and make vantages. This helped them come up with even
prototypes of wristwatches for their partners more ideas on how to use the resources and
before jumping into real-life projects. opportunities that they have without getting
Then I invited teachers who had common stuck on problems. The ideas they came up with
interests to work in teams. After a discussion we were all fascinating to me. They learned to cope
asked the participants to write their individual with problems with local materials and available
ideas on paper, and we put all the different ideas resources. They had ideas about recycling trash
on the wall. There were a lot of different projects such as using eggshells as a source of calcium,
that came up such as growing avocado trees, the main ingredient of chicken feed.
(left to right) Design-thinking process; designing wristwatches; discussion on design (thinking) processes
Mushroom cabin for growing mushrooms in winter Avocado garden project to help reduce deforestation
(Clockwise) SMART indicator

(how to evaluate a project);
final presentation; solar
banana greenhouse
In the final reflection, I asked participants sues involved as we implement these ideas in real
to think of three words or phrases as their most situations. The teachers make decisions at differ-
important takeaway. These were their words ent paces and have different levels of persistence.
and phrases: We are trying to take all this into consideration as
$ teamwork, faith, learning by constructing we plan follow-up sessions and continued support
$ friend, buddy, think together for these projects.
$ problems, learn, understand I learned so much from this experience myself.
$ differences, process, measurement To bring about change, we need to think of how to
and evaluation make it easier for people to perceive and be open
$ brainstorm, teamwork, and determination to new ideas. Bringing materials from the outside
$ experience, brainstorms, and development can build up resistance and make it harder for
$ fight and persist for your life participants to transfer ideas or localize knowl-
Participants reflected that they had found edge from the outside.
the benefits of diverse ideas from working with In explaining constructionism, Seymour
others. They became familiar with design pro- Papert said that learning happens “especially
cesses and learned to plan things rather than felicitously in a context where the learner is con-
just jumping into projects without planning or sciously engaged in constructing a public entity,
getting feedback on the ideas. They learned how whether it’s a sandcastle on the beach or a theory
to discuss, listen, and welcome ideas from people of the universe” (Papert and Harel 1991). From
who may not usually speak up. During the final sandcastles to bamboo-stick frog condomini-
presentations, a few people who usually do not ums, constructionism is alive and well around
speak volunteered to give the team presentation, the world.
showing the pride they had developed in the proj-
ects they had been working on. Reference
We are still in the process of supporting this Papert, S., & Harel, I. (1991). Situating construc-
group of teachers. I am working with the donor to tionism. Constructionism, 36(2), 1–11.
plan follow-up workshops and determine how to
track their progress. We are aware of complex is-
Projects to Explore in Depth
Projects to Explore in Depth 113
The projects in this chapter give the reader a lot to think about, try, and adapt for one’s
own situation. In contrast to the project snapshots in the f inal chapter of this book, these
projects are more fully described and often feature interesting ref lections and course
corrections from the authors.
Desktop CNC: Linoleum Stamp

by Josh Ajima
I have been trying to figure out workflow and

some project examples to share with teachers on
the use of desktop CNC machines in the class-
room. One of the advantages of CNC machines
like the Bantam Tools Desktop PCB Milling
Machine is that they can use a wider range of
materials than a 3D printer or laser cutter. This
linoleum stamp project is a useful quick reference
of what I’ve found to work well for educators just
starting out with desktop CNC machines.
Material: 2 ✕ 3 inch linoleum blocks from
Inventables. (I bought some during a Black Friday
sale.) Cut the blocks in half on a bandsaw, creating
blocks approximately 52 mm for x, 38 mm for y, using) and delete the other tools listed. Change
and 22.5 mm for z, as measured using a pair of dig- the Engraving Depth to 1 mm. Unselect Cutout.
ital calipers. Per-stamp cost is around fifty cents. Open Advanced and change the Invert setting to
Bit: I used an 80-degree engraving bit from Yes—everywhere.
Bantam Tools, which is recommended for general Milling: Home the machine and check that
purpose engraving. You probably could save time the block is securely attached to the bed, that
using a combination of the engraving bit and a the correct bit is installed, and that the software
larger end mill, but the bit was already in place, so preview matches the physical setup. Put in/on ear
I just went with what I had to skip a tool change. protection. Then click Mill All Visible. Ensure that
Fixturing: I used Intertape 591 Double Sided everything is cutting correctly. In my case, the
Flatback Paper Tape that I bought in bulk years machine milled for approximately 45 minutes.
back for CNC work. Finishing: Open the machine and vacuum up
Image processing: Download a .jpeg image of the dust. The stamp should pop off easily. Clean
a tree from the internet. If you have Adobe Illus- up a few areas on the edges with a hobby knife.
trator, import the image, then use the image-trace Stamping: Use an archival stamp pad to ink
feature to create a vector outline. Save this image the stamp, then apply to plain white copy paper.
as an .svg file. If you don’t have access to Illustra- I used a Ranger Ink pad, but the coverage of the
tor, there are online sites that convert images. stamp wasn’t total; I would like to try a few dif-
Use a simple image with a single outline. The ferent type of ink pads. (My seven-year-old used
first image I tried had nested outlines, but the markers to decorate the tree. My daughter wants
Bantam Tools Desktop Milling Machine Software to use these as gift tags. We would use card stock.)
does not recognize interior lines. Optional finishing: Make a stamp on plain
Setting up software: Enter the size of the paper and glue this to the back of the stamp. You
material, and then open the tree.svg file. Select may wish to round off the corners using a band
the 80-degree engraving tool (or the tool you are saw or a sander.
3D-Printed Lithophane
by Josh Ajima
This is a lesson plan submitted to the FormLabs: $ AI.12 The student will identify technological
Innovate and Educate Challenge in hopes of developments in the visual arts.
winning a Form 2 resin 3D printer. Entries were $ AII.5 The student will use contemporary media,
composed of a lesson plan and related STL files tools, and processes to create works of art.
posted to Pinshape.1 In this lesson plan, students
create a lithophane, which is an object that reveals Materials
a picture when a light is shined through it. $ Digital cameras
One of the dilemmas I had with my entry is $ Computer with photo editing software and
that I have no idea what educators expect of a internet access
digital fabrication “lesson plan.” Do educators $ 3D printer
want a word-for-word lesson with screenshots
Sources
of every technical step and sample files? Do they
Lithophane test card models were created using
want ideas that they can build off or just exam-
a test card image downloaded from Wikimedia
ples with some classroom context? Does anyone
Commons2 and converted online into an STL.3
really need a list of standards and Bloom’s levels
MLK lithophane model was created from an
for every activity?
image from the Library of Congress 4 and converted
Unfortunately I did not win the contest, so the
to an STL via an online customizer.5
Form 2 resin 3D printer remains on my wish list.
But at least I have a lesson plan to share. Anticipatory set (8 minutes)
Subject: Art, Technology Preparation: Teacher has started a 3D lithophane
Grade Level(s): Grades 6–12 printing before class starts, timed to end during
Duration: One hour student independent practice.
1. Ask students to think about what makes a
Lesson objectives good black-and-white photograph.
$ To investigate concepts of opacity, translucence, 2. Have students take two black-and-white
and contrast using 3D-printed lithophanes photographs using class digital cameras or
$ To investigate the transformation of 2D images personal devices and save the photos to a
to 3D models computer with photo editing software.
$ To explore 3D printing as a new material/
method for creating art Introduce and model new knowledge
(12 minutes)
Standards Teacher explains that a lithophane is 3D artwork
Virginia Visual Arts Standards of Learning or an image that can be seen clearly when backlit.
$ AI.6 The student will use a variety of traditional
1. Teacher shows MLK lithophane 3D print,
and contemporary media (e.g., two dimensional, first flat and then backlit. Teacher passes
three dimensional, multidimensional) to create MLK lithophane for students to view.
works of art. • Traditional lithophanes were etched or
molded out of thin porcelain.
• The thickness of the material in a lithophane Formative assessment

determines the amount of light that can Which part of the 2D photograph will be the
pass though the material. thickest on the lithophane? The thinnest?
• If light is totally blocked by a material, the Independent practice (15 minutes)
material is opaque. Students create a lithophane STL file using one
• If light can pass through a material but of the black-and-white photos they took at the
objects cannot be seen clearly on the other beginning of class.
side, the material is translucent.
• Contrast is the difference in tone between Formative assessment
lightest to darkest. Are the darkest parts of the image showing as
• Black-and-white photos and lithophanes the thickest part of the lithophane preview?
both rely on strong contrast. Are the lightest parts of the image showing as
2. Teacher shows the 2D and 3D versions of the the thinnest part of the lithophane preview?
test card. (Use test card model thickness that
Closure (10 minutes)
shows the widest range of tones between light
1. Teacher demonstrates slicing an STL file
and dark using available filament.)
using completed student lithophane as
• Software can convert a 2D image into a an example.
3D model by changing the height of the
2. Teacher removes finished lithophane
3D model based on the lightness or darkness
(ideally of sample image used in guided
of the different areas of the 2D image.
practice) that was printing at beginning
• 3D printing represents a new medium for of class from the 3D printer.
creating artwork.
3. Teacher demonstrates starting 3D print
Formative assessment of student lithophane.
Which part of the lithophane will allow the most
Formative assessment
amount of light to pass through? The least?
What term can be used for the thinnest part
Guided practice (12 minutes) of the lithophane? What term could be used for
Teacher models creating a lithophane STL file the thickest part of the lithophane?
using a sample photograph taken in the classroom
using available photo editing software. Students Notes
practice using same image. 1. pinshape.com/items/29307-3d-printed
1. Save edited photo. -lesson-plan-3d-printed-lithophane
2. Upload image to 3dp.rocks/lithophane/. 2. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Test
3. Change Image Settings to positive image. _card.png
4. Optional: Change settings for maximum size 3. dp.rocks/lithophane
and thickness to match desired project size 4. loc.gov/item/99404332
and opacity of filament being used. 5. thingiverse.com/thing:74322
5. Refresh and download STL. Save file.
Optional:
• Convert color image to black and white.
• Crop image.
• Adjust contrast of image.
• Erase background or distracting elements
in photo.
Making the Buttons
by Josh Ajima
One of the surprise hits of our makerspace this $ Political movements: civil rights, peace
year has been the humble button maker. When movement, Occupy Wall Street
we were setting up all the new equipment and $ Wearable art
tools in our renovated technology classroom, we $ Self-identity and self-expression
ran across an old button maker sitting neglected $ Fundraising: school clubs, fields trips, charities
in a storage closet. Luckily, we also found a box $ Social awareness: anti-bullying messages
of button parts. The button maker was heavy and $ Entrepreneurship and marketing
hard to use but worked most of the time. A • Sports marketing: team logos and mascots
month later, students in the makerspace had • Marketing: brand recognition, icons
gone through 750 buttons. $ Role-play
We realized that the button maker is one of the $ Collaborative job roles: buttons for each team
most scalable tools in the makerspace. An entire role such as leader, recorder, and timekeeper
class of students can make a personalized design $ Simulations: rock/water cycle, atoms
during a single class period. Buttons are a timeless making molecules
real-world product that students are happy to pin $ Memorials
on their backpacks. Buttons also have great profit $ QR code and Snapchat avatars
margins as they cost just ten to twenty-five cents $ Emoji: empathy/mood
but can be sold for one to two dollars. $ Mastery badges
When we ran out of buttons, we couldn’t find the
odd size that our old button maker took. After some Note
careful research, we ended up spending a thousand 1. A great resource for button research:
dollars in punches and button makers from Amer- buttonmuseum.org
ican Button Machines, a company recommended
by a number of librarians. This may seem crazy but
has been well worth it. Students have made more
than a thousand buttons this quarter. The smaller
buttons can also be made into a variety of keychains
and zipper pulls. The graphic design for buttons can
also serve as a stepping-stone to designing for other
digital fabrication devices such as the laser cutter,
vinyl cutter, CNC, or 3D printer.
How can buttons be used in

the classroom?
There are countless ways to use buttons in a
classroom. Here are a few ideas:1
$ Campaign buttons: historical and
student elections
Make Your Own Low-Cost Computer

with a Raspberry Pi and Recycled Materials
by Kof f i Dodji Honou
Objective
The objective of this project was to design and
build a replicable, low-cost computer locally and
easily. Since computers are still expensive for
most African consumers, Pi-COMP is a low-cost
and open-source way to tackle this issue.
Once these devices are assembled and work-
ing, Pi-COMPs can be installed at local libraries,
schools, bookstores, homes, fab labs, video game
centers, offices—most anywhere. They can be
This was an entry for the Make a Difference Challenge,1 a connected with local data servers and the internet
competition to encourage openness and knowledge sharing so that users have the opportunity to develop their
to make the world a better place. It was organized by Helmut
Schmidt University2 in Hamburg, Germany, and the Arab German IT skills, creativity, and imagination.
Young Academy and the Open Lab (OLab), also in Hamburg. The
end product is called Pi-COMP, an all-in-one computer composed Materials and components
of a central unit interconnected with a flat screen from recycled
computers. Pi-COMP was first prototyped at the Fab Lab DefKo Raspberry Pi 3 Micro SD Class 10 Power supply
Ak Niep (“do it with others”), Dakar, Senegal.3 model B (8 GB or more) (5 volts 2.5 amps)
This project is documented and licensed (Creative Commons

CC BY-SA) to make it available to as many people as possible in
Africa and around the world.
What problem were we trying to solve?

The social problem is the digital divide and
limited access to technology resources in Africa. $ 3 mm Allen bolt cap hex screws
There is still limited access to computers given $ Recycled computer screen (abundant and
the high cost for most consumers in Africa. inexpensive in most African countries) or
To solve this widespread problem in Africa, a flat-screen monitor (the Pi-COMP size
in partnership with the OLab, we designed and depends on the size of the screen; we used
built all-in-one, low-cost computers based on a 15-inch flat screen)
Raspberry Pi and recycled materials. We call this $ Plywood (4 mm recommended; this will be
computer the Pi-COMP. used to build the cover; other types of materials
The Pi-COMP can democratize technology. may be substituted)
It can help African kids and students acquire $ Transparent plexiglass (for the front cover)
IT skills plus learn about CNC milling and laser
cutting. They will then be able to unlock their
creativity and contribute to the well-being of
their communities.
Instructions 5. Assemble all the laser-cut plywood by

1. Remove all the plastic that covers the monitor connecting and screwing the joins.
as we just need the electronic part of the screen.
6. Add the Raspberry Pi, screen, and cables.
7. Attach the front cover.
2. Measure the length, width, and depth of the

screen. This measurement will be used to de-
sign the box when laser cutting, so be precise.
Use CAD software to design all the pieces to
be laser cut. We used SolidWorks, but other
8. Install software that would be useful for your
open-source software such as Inkscape work
project or users.
just as well. (All the DXF and SolidWorks files
we used are available to use and modify.4)
4. Laser cut the plywood for the case. If you are
using other material and/or a different width
of material, be sure to adapt the design and
measurements in order for the junctions to fit.
9. Customize!
Notes
1. make-a-difference.info
2. openlab-hamburg.de
3. fablabs.io/labs/defkoakniep
4. goo.gl/dcVGf4
Animatronics: Making STEAM Move

materials we wanted to use with animatronics, so

we had some background skills and knowledge
to guide our exploration. We had five groups of
four students (grades 4–6) working with one adult
each, two days per week after school for an hour
over the course of eight to ten weeks.
In this project, students decide on a charac-
ter they want to build and up to two movements
they’d like the character to make (including nod-
ding of the head, waving an arm, shaking hands,
Materials: spinning a rope—basically anything repetitive).
$ Two-speed 12-volt DC windshield wiper motors Then they sketch the skeleton of the animatronic
$ PVC pipe and measure PVC pipe, wood, and dowels to build
$ Bubble wrap or foam pool noodles the skeleton; study the wiper motor mechanisms;
$ Various connectors and motor arms and figure out how to place the wiper motor to
$ Metal fasteners and wires the skeleton in order to get the desired body part
$ Wood to make its movement. Finally, they cover the
$ Various hand and power tools skeleton with bubble wrap and a costume so it
$ Props and costumes looks like a realistic figure, record a video of the
$ iPad or mini projector animatronic character (a student actor) speaking;
This unit was designed to explore how far into and have the video playing on an iPad that can be
the world of animatronics students could go in attached as the head of the animatronic.
our makerspace. Animatronics is a unique and
mostly unexplored industry at the cross section
of STEAM. Fortunately for the students at Bing
Wong Elementary in San Bernardino, California,
the world leader in animatronics happens to have
its business center and warehouse five minutes
down the street. Garner Holt Productions has
adopted our school because of our focus on career
exploration and STEAM.
As a thank you to founder Garner Holt for
adopting our school, our students made ani-
matronics to showcase for him at our adoption
ceremony. We had never built animatronics As we worked through this project, we realized
before this project, but we had worked with servo that students needed to stop often for mini-
motors. We had also built underwater remotely lessons from their adult leader. Students needed
operated vehicles (ROVs) using a lot of the same to understand the electronics (and safety) of
our projects in our makerspace are small tabletop

projects. These animatronic figures were life-size
and some of them slightly oversized!
If I could do this project again, I’d spend time
with the adult leaders, crafting a sort of construc-
tion manual divided into units. We would start
with the structure of the animatronic and spend
time sketching the skeleton with dimensions
and teaching students how to frame such a large
project. Next, we would move on to the motors,
spending time teaching students and having
them explore how the motor works with smaller
objects. Finally, we would spend time “figure fin-
the motor. Students needed to understand the ishing” the animatronic, as it’s called in the world
physics of motion. Students needed help with of animatronics. This would include lessons on
measurement. Students found they needed parts how to make the animatronic look lifelike, where
that didn’t exist. Students needed crash courses all the fun art comes in. We could explore with
in fashion and costuming as well. We realized by makeup, sewing, vacuum forming—even skin
the end of the project that the project itself could and hair.
have easily been broken up into “chunks” or in An animatronics project truly allows for so
ways that would have allowed for more creativ- much creativity. We could easily have tried to im-
ity in the process. But because we went into the prove the mechanisms of our finished animatron-
project blind, we learned through trial and error ics with more electronic parts. The possibilities
that we may have done things in an order that seem endless—sensors could be added, custom-
took entirely too long, or we overlooked import- ized 3D-printed body parts could be designed,
ant learning opportunities in order to meet a eyes could have eyelids that open and close, hands
deadline, or we missed out on opportunities to could have fingers that bend and move, speak-
share our knowledge across groups because of ers could be added—so many options to explore
the way we were grouped. (Instead of working with this project. There are so many, in fact, that
as one large team on multiple projects together, we have made animatronics a class elective at
we worked as separate teams.) We also had never our school so students have the option to go into
made anything so physically large before. Most of depth for longer periods of time.
Making Hope Happen

When a tragic event happens in a community, nity. They fabricated them using a laser cutter and
the members of the community come together ultimately used their finished product to promote
in an emotional connection of support and hope. social action. They decided they want to sell these
When our city of San Bernardino, California, items at our community’s memorial events, donat-
experienced such an event in 2015, a tragic mass ing all funds received to families of victims.
shooting, our children felt compelled to be lights It’s fitting that our school district’s motto is
in the community, as children often are in times “Making hope happen.” For the past few years,
of darkness. In my iSTEAM Lab, students wanted the San Bernardino City Unified School District,
to make something. Making is a very personal in partnership with the city, has pursued a
experience for a maker; it’s an experience that mission to spread the infectious power of hope.
draws creativity through passion. Students were We want our children to have a vision of their
passionate about the object they wanted to create. future success. We want them to have the emo-
They wanted something that showed they had tional commitment and motivation to pursue
not given up hope—that they were in fact hopeful excellence while serving others. We want them
that light always shines during times of darkness. to believe in their sense of purpose. Our school
During times of difficulty, with the right mindset, district has a vision to develop a thriving and
there is always a way to see light and to see hope, innovative community where every student is a
and the students at Bing Wong Elementary want- lifelong learner and successful in reaching their
ed to illuminate the path to hope. hopes and aspirations.
What they ultimately came up with (after much I know our community has all the resources
brainstorming) was to make luminary candle it needs to make hope happen in the lives of our
holders out of laser-cut and engraved wood. They students. We make connections, draw inspiration
graphically and mathematically designed the can- from each other, and learn together. When we as
dleholders using CorelDraw, seeking images that learners, both student and teacher, design and
symbolize pride, peace, and hope in their commu- become our own solution to the struggles we face,
we have the ability, will, talent, and dedication to
thrive and innovate. When students are designing
in the iSTEAM Lab, they become a part of their
designs, and their designs become a part of them.
Making something becomes making something
of value, which becomes confidence in our ability
to make something of value, which becomes
visualizing our value, which becomes hope. When
students are trusted to design and make, they’re
given the opportunity to choose their own path to
success. These small luminary candles are designs
brought to life through hope, making hope happen
for everyone.
Helping Young Students

in the Developing World Explore Electronics
Kigali, Rwanda, second-year (eighth-grade)

students have been learning electronics by
building their own electronic components.
These students learn how electronics compo-
nents such as capacitors and resistors are built
and try to rebuild them using raw materials.
Homemade resistor
Every material is resistive, meaning that it resists
charge going through it. Even a conductor like
UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova (2014) a copper wire has some resistance. A commonly
wrote in the 2013/4 EFA (Education for All) Global available and easily shapeable resistive material
Education Monitoring Report that the “poor quality is graphite, which can be molded into any size or
[of education] is holding back learning even for shape. Given their background of theory-based
those who make it to school.” This quote is about knowledge, it took students in the engineering class
simple literacy, so the question must be asked: If at Kepler Tech Lab about two weeks to better un-
so many people in the world are without access derstand how a resistor works through a variety of
to the most basic of education, why should we be experiments. On a clean sheet of paper, they drew
concerned with teaching fabrication and making? shapes with graphite pencil and used a calibrated
We believe it is a literacy to learn about electron- multimeter on the “resistance” setting to measure
ics and fabrication, and to develop the skills to use resistance at various lengths of the pencil drawing.
modern tools and be part of the world’s fast-grow-
ing maker movement.
Being exposed to the concepts of electricity
and electronics for the first time may be scary but
creates curiosity to further explore how things
work. In developing countries, where the maker
movement is lagging behind the developed coun-
tries, kids learn everything in theory, but hands-
on experiments are rare—not because kids don’t
want to do them but because there are no means to
practice what they learn. What if they get access to
practical hands-on experience and get the freedom
Homemade capacitor
Breaking things down and showing students how
to explore how electronics work? There is no doubt
things are built gives students a chance to com-
that given the chance they can be part of the maker
pare what has already been made and what they
movement as independent inventors, designers,
are about to make. This leaves room for them to
and tinkerers—on par with anyone in the world.
be more creative while arranging required mate-
At the Kepler Tech Lab (now I4Fab), a science
rials to assemble their own components.
and engineering teaching laboratory based in
A capacitor is a component used to store

charges. It had been broken into pieces, and
students were excited to see how it was made
with only layers, insulators, and electrodes (anode
and cathode). Students can make a homemade
capacitor with two sheets of aluminum foil as the
conductor and sheet(s) of papers as the insulator.
Another capacitor can be made using salt,

water, and aluminum foil as conductors, and
a plastic water bottle as an insulator. First, the
bottle has to be filled with water. Dissolve a
spoonful of salt into the water. Wrap foil around
the bottle without making any wrinkles. An easy
way to do this is to flatten the foil and gently roll
the water bottle into it, taking care to smooth
out any wrinkles. After that, screw on the top of
the water bottle and poke a nail through so that
the bottom of the nail touches the water. Then,
capacitance can be measured between the nail
and the foil. Students should keep exploring
what happens if they add more salt, use less foil,
How to do this in your makerspace
or if they add a sheet of paper between the tin
Separate the students into small groups. Have
foil and the plastic bottle.
each group start with two large sheets of alumi-
Like all learners, young students in the
num foil and one large sheet of paper. Have them
developing world need to experiment with how
sandwich the paper between the two pieces of
things work. In learning electronics, they get the
foil, making sure that the foil pieces do not touch.
most out of making the components rather than
If that happens, current will flow between the
our handing them electronic parts to be used
two pieces and no charge will be stored. In order
without knowing how they are built. I can’t wait
to secure the placement of the sheets, have the
to see what the future generation of makers will
groups tape the layers together and then use the
bring to the world’s changing technologies!
multimeter on the “capacitance” setting to see if
they are able to measure a capacitance between
the paper and the tin foil. Note
Ask the groups what happens when they cut 1. keplertechlab.wordpress.com
the pieces smaller and measure the capacitance
again. They are exploring the effect of chang- Reference
ing the surface area of the foil. What if they Bokova, I. (2014). Foreword. In UNESCO Teaching
use multiple sheets of paper or other spacers and Learning: Achieving quality for all.
to change the spacing between the two sheets EFA (Education for All) Global Education
of foil? Encourage the groups to keep iterating Monitoring Report. Paris, France: UNESCO.
their experiments, noting all the changes they Retrieved from unesdoc.unesco.org
are seeing. The first group to finish the activity /images/0022/002256/225660e.pdf
can mentor their fellow classmates.
Creative (and Squishy) Circuits
The eighth graders who take engineering classes at

Kepler Tech Lab (now I4Fab), in Kigali, Rwanda,1
always surprise me. No matter what I prepare
for, the creativity they add to the lesson com-
pletely changes the learning outcomes I had
planned for them. Although Squishy Circuits
dough is often used for younger students to
learn about electricity, I still use it with older
students because it supports creativity in the
process. When I told the students we were going
to make dough and use it in our electronic proj-
ects, they were all surprised and started joking
around that they were going to eat it because it. You can simply take a piece of dough and use it
they know they cannot eat or drink in the lab for in a circuit as an actual resistor.
safety reasons. Next, the students used the insulating dough
as a spacer between two pieces of conductive
What is Squishy Circuits? dough in order to make a capacitor. It worked,
According to the Squishy Circuits website, it but the insulating dough seemed to be a little bit
“uses conductive and insulating play dough to conductive too. As that was not expected in our
teach the basics of electrical circuits in a fun, experiment, we need to explore more.
hands-on way.”2
Our engineering classes are structured so that What happened next!
kids work in pairs, and they switch teams after Once all nine teams (two students on each
two weeks to experience working with diverse team) completed the first challenge of making
groups of fellow students. Since we are teaching resistors and capacitors out of dough, they
a physical computing curriculum, they first learn moved on to experimenting with Squishy Cir-
how to use computers, competing with one an- cuits. They added LEDs and buzzers as loads in
other with typing games to become familiar with their circuits. Throughout I was happy to see
computer keyboards and interfaces. their smiling faces as they were telling every-
Squishy Circuits was one of our first physical one what they can do with the dough they had
computing projects. I asked students to make made. My reaction was to tell them, “Sure, the
resistors and capacitors, which they did, but they floor is yours, let’s do it! We shall have an exhi-
also made funny things I never anticipated. First, bition session to see what each team is going to
they made two different doughs, one conductive make.” They started testing all sorts of different
and the other insulating, with the help of recipes things, and I thought to myself, “How crazy are
on the Squishy Circuits website. The conductive these kids?” Yes, they were mad explorers, in-
dough is the resistive one; after making the con- novators, and tinkerers—just see some of what
ductive dough, it is easy to make a resistor out of they’ve made.
Each team showed their creations to the Lesson learned from this activity: giving stu-
whole class in an exhibition. The teams were so dents the freedom to do anything and spending
excited about their creations and they inspired your time assisting them is the way to creativity
me as well. and learning.
Notes
1. keplertechlab.wordpress.com
2. squishycircuits.com
Trebuchet Making: STEM in Action
Through trebuchet building, students explored

the principles of physics and mathematics. They
learned the applications of kinetic and gravita-
tional or potential energies as well as conservation
of energy, in which they were able to understand
the difference between those energies and their
working principles.
We had covered computer programming

(Scratch), physical computing (Arduino), and
other electronics-related concepts with middle-
school students at Kepler Tech Lab (now I4Fab)
in Kigali, Rwanda. Another topic to explore in
our workshop was how to use woodworking and
metalworking tools such as a hacksaw and drilling
machine through construction of a trebuchet—
a type of catapult that uses the gravitational
potential energy of a raised counterweight to
throw something off the ground (Finio 2016).
Building a trebuchet is not only about launch-
ing a projectile (although that makes it fun) but
also about the application of physics and mathe-
matics, not to mention the ability to use wood-
and metalworking tools.
Note
1. keplertechlab.wordpress.com
Reference
Finio, B. (2016, May 19). Build a Mini Trebuchet.
Retrieved February 19, 2018, from
scientificamerican.com/article/build-a
-mini-trebuchet
Connecting Children around the World

with the “Emotions Chair”
by Susan Klimczak
Ilaria La Manna is colored pens and crayons. When they finished, we

an extraordinary got on Skype, and they shared their drawings with
children’s educator children in other workshops around the world.
and director of Fab Then each child started building their own
Lab Argentina,1 who press-fit emosilla. I was amazed at how even the
works with FabLat,2 smallest ones LOVED to sand the edges and take
an organization mighty swings of the rubber mallet to pound the
that connects chil-
dren and educators
learning and making all over Latin America. While I
was taking some courses in Boston, Massachusetts,
she generously offered to connect our Fab Lab,
the South End Technology Center @ Tent City in
Boston,3 to a network of Fab Labs doing an emosilla
(“Emotion Chair”) workshop in Mexico, Peru, Costa
Rica, and Columbia. These chairs use a press fit
design, which means they can be made without
nails or screws, and the pieces can be cut with a
laser cutter ahead of time.
Fair Foods of Boston, an organization that dis-
tributes food and makes colorful benches, donated chairs together. They were intrigued by the press-
several sheets of 4 ✕ 8 foot plywood that our ShopBot fit design and how to fit the pieces of the chair
guru Brad cut using together like a puzzle. Ilaria used simple instruc-
the chair templates. tions and explanations to help them feel confi-
It took some creative dent enough to try the new tools with gusto.
collaboration with Ilaria
to change the design to
match the width of the
wood that we had.
Ilaria started the workshop by exploring
emotions with the six girls aged four to eight. She
used a wonderful slide show of photos that really
engaged the youth. Her blend of simple language,
questions, and humor created a learning envi-
ronment where the children could comfortably
explore the full range of emotions, not just the Then some children painted their chairs with
happy ones. water-based paints (we had four colors—white,
Then Ilaria asked the children to draw an emo- blue, red, yellow—and they mixed the colors they
tion that they felt on a worksheet handout with wanted in recycled plastic food containers), using
cheap sponge paintbrushes from the hardware I have to admit that clean-up was pretty
store. Others went into the computer lab and time-consuming because little people find end-
created their emotion faces, using GIMP and Ink- lessly creative ways to get paint outside of the
scape to digitally reproduce the design that they plastic tablecloths that we used as drop cloths.
had drawn. Then they laser cut their designs onto But it was worth all the effort because, thanks to
eleven-inch circles. They loved playing with the Ilaria, the children had "hard fun" (Papert 2002):
emotion faces as masks before we used wood glue Once I was alerted to the concept of “hard fun” I
to attach them to the chairs! began listening for it and heard it over and over. It
is expressed in many different ways, all of which
boil down to the conclusion that everyone likes
hard challenging things to do. But they have to be
the right things matched to the individual and to
the culture of the times. These rapidly changing
times challenge educators to find areas of work
that are hard in the right way: they must connect
with the kids and also with the areas of knowl-
edge, skills and (don’t let us forget) ethic adults
will need for the future world.
When the children needed a break, they

spontaneously went over to the Skype panel and
Notes
1. fablabs.io/labs/fablabargentina
started interacting with other children around
2. facebook.com/fablatkids
the world, sharing funny faces and gestures. They
3. fablabs.io/labs/southendtechnologycenter
were proud of their colorful hands . . . as well as
their colorful chairs, which they shared with other
children in Latin America via Skype. Reference
Papert, S. (2002, June 24). How to make writing
"hard fun." Bangor Daily News. Retrieved from
archive.bangordailynews.com/2002/06/24
/how-to-make-writing-hard-fun
“PUSH ME!”
Teaching Paper Electronics to a Crowd with a Switch Sampler
by Susan Klimczak
Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn (L2TT2L) in Boston,

Massachusetts, is a sixteen-year-old maker
program where annually thirty-six teens of color
learn, build, and then teach six different tech-
nology, coding, and engineering modules.1 Each
year our youth teachers engage more than seven
hundred children at over thirty community orga-
nizations with constructionism-based activities
at free four-week summer STEAM camps. This
article offers insights into the process and plan-
ning for teaching paper electronics to families at
a large book festival as well as a switch sampler
manipulative for teaching and reflections on how
to make our activity better next time.
It’s not always . . . easy to turn attention to processes,
strategies, and practices—but that is at the core
of the learning experience. . . . Once you make
something, it’s something you can reflect upon, $ Inject high expectations and STEAM opportu-
share with others. nities in a complex setting
— Mitchel Resnick $ Use preparation as a “project exercise” for
MIT Media Lab Lifelong Kindergarten Group the online Learning Creative Learning course
I was taking with the MIT Media Lab Lifelong
Boston Book Festival calling! Kindergarten Group
Well, actually they emailed. L2TT2L youth teach-
ers were invited to conduct a paper electronics OK, that’s hatching four birds with one egg—a
workshop. Inspired by Mitchel Resnick, I want little crowded in that egg, but I enjoy a challenge!
to share the processes, strategies, and practices
involved in planning and carrying out this oppor-
Planning and execution
Blending reading and paper electronics
tunity. This is also an opportunity to reflect on
We decided to have a family activity based on
and document the lessons learned.
favorite book scenes. To prepare I asked for book
I love “hatching two birds with one egg,” so my
recommendations from two friends. Dr. Kim
plan was the following:
Parker is a multicultural literacy expert who helps
$ Design a paper electronics activity to blend
educators connect youth to texts that can change
reading and STEAM with a focus on authors
their lives. Joyce King has been collecting chil-
of color with characters of color who look like
dren’s books by and for people of color for fifty
our youth
years. She cofounded St. Joseph’s Community
$ Refresh an old “Blinkie Paper” activity with
School in the late 1960s, a free, parent-run alter-
new ideas for summer STEAM camps
native school based on Nguzo Saba principles.
We created a poster of book covers based on inspirations for the activities in the free summer
their recommendations with the title “Good STEAM camps taught by our teenage youth teach-
Books That Can Light Up Your Life!” It had ers. I wanted to try out some ideas for refreshing
an LED with a heart diffuser and battery that our Blinkie Paper activity:
actually lit up the poster. $ 3D-printed press-fit diffusers for 5 mm LEDs.
At the festival, each parent and child pair We have been using simple press-fit LED dif-
worked together to create an “electrifying” scene fusers in a soft circuit bracelet activity. Using
from their favorite book using LEDs, 3D-printed Tinkercad to create simple shapes with 5-mil-
diffusers, and coin cell batteries with the help limeter holes is very easy, and the diffusers are
of the teen youth teachers. very quick to print in a few minutes. We used
shapes like balls, stars, and hearts.
$ Switch it up! Managing the CR2032 coin cell
batteries has always been a challenge in our

paper electronic activities. Children easily drop
and lose the batteries if they are clipped on
with a binder clip. If the batteries are perma-
nently taped on with cellophane tape, they run
out very quickly. We’ve been using Jie Qi’s pa-
per battery holders.3 (We make them ahead of
time because the paper folding seems difficult
for the children to do—and even challenging
for some of our teen youth teachers.) The chil-
dren also have a hard time manipulating the
paper tab to turn the battery on and off.
Children love interaction, so finding some
cool switches seemed like a great solution.
That way, we could use the paper battery hold-
ers (fixed in the “on” position), and pressing
buttons or push/pull tabs could complete the
circuit and turn them on.
$ Engage with solder. Introducing children to
soldering at an early age is very empowering

and has a positive impact. We usually use
copper tape that is conductive on only one side
to save money. It’s often hard to get children to
fold down the places where two sets of copper
tape have to join to complete the circuit. Those
connections and LED legs connections are
often easily disrupted if just cellophane tape
is used to hold them in place. Soldering the
Refresh “Blinkie Paper” and inject
connections between copper tape and the LED
high expectations
is one solution!
At L2TT2L, we have been teaching paper electron-
We decided to have the children participate
ics, what our youth affectionately call “Blinkie
in the soldering by holding either the solder
Paper,” for over six years, inspired by a series of
OR the soldering iron (if they were very
workshops that our friend Jie Qi had offered.
good at the solder). Just touching the solder
(She now has her own company, Chibitronics!
to the soldering iron tip was very exciting for
Check out her Love to Code Kit.2) We’ve used
the children.
Blinkie Paper storytelling and pop-up cards as
Updating a childhood
inspiration for
paper electronics
When asked to name a
beloved childhood object
during the first week of
the Lifelong Kindergarten
Group’s online Learning Creative Learning class,
I chose embroidery and spoke about the elaborate
embroidery samplers I stitched as a child to learn
all the stitches.
During the second week, we were assigned a
project that involved animating a name. I came
up with the idea of updating my childhood love
to express my new interests by making a “Switch”
sampler for the Boston Book Festival as a touch-
able and playful inspiration for children and
youth teachers.
I found a paper switch sampler template by
Becca Rose4 and decided to incorporate Jie Qi’s
paper battery holder in the mix. I had so much fun Tisch Scholar Rohun Dhar's Harry Potter “Blinkie Paper” example
making and decorating it in the twenty minutes
Getting inspiration from a young friend
here and there I could find on my busy days!5
The South End Technology Center @ Tent City
Having this manipulative as well as a “boss”
in Boston6 is located in a mixed-income housing
Harry Potter example made by our Tisch Scholar
development that came about because of a Tent
Rohun Dhar turned out to provide a lot of smiles
City protest in the 1960s led by Mel King, our exec-
and inspiration as they got passed along at the
utive director. Every Thursday we offer free open
Festival. Rohun even made his circuit look like an
access to our Fab Lounge, and many young people
H for Harry Potter!
like Damani from Tent City Apartments drop in
to make things with our teen “Fab Stewards.”
During Fab Lounge, I was working on my
switch sampler and fourth grader Damani was
fascinated. Her class is studying energy at school,
and she had come up with many interesting the-
ories about how the circuit worked that she was
eager to test.
For the first theory—which startled me with its
brilliant simplicity—Damani asked, “Hey can’t you
close the switch with ANYTHING that is metal?” This
resulted in her and other children running (with
gleeful chaos!) around the center looking for met-
al stuff to test. They used scissors, rings, spoons,
needle-nose pliers, pieces of scrap copper tape,
wires—you name it! Some found shiny things
that were not metal and did not close the circuit.
I got so energized listening to their conversations
with each other about why some items worked to
light the LEDs and others did not. It reminded me
of something Mitchel Resnick always says: “Chil- for eight parent-child pairs. When we arrived,
dren don’t have ideas, they make ideas!” I decided we were in a large room shared with five or six
to bring a lot of metal items with us to the festival other activities with no way to easily manage
so that the children attending could try this too. who participated and when they started. The
actual number of parent-child pairs we served
was thirty! We might have done more, but we
ran out of materials—which was actually a
blessing because it limited the numbers and
allowed participants to finish on time.
$ Facilitating gets hectic, so have a template for
the project and prep ahead of time. We made
all the paper battery holders and 3D-printed
diffusers ahead of time and made a template
for the paper electronics activity.
Inside Outside
$ Divide the activity into parts and create stations.
We set up the activity with three stations—draw-
ing, circuits, and soldering—and the festival
On a side note, when Damani was playing parent-child participants moved among them.
with the sampler circuit, she realized that all four On each table, we had several signs with instruc-
switches did not work at the same time; only pairs tions to help teen youth teachers guide activities.
would light up together. She came up with many
theories about why that was, and then she tested
them. We had a great time together asking ques-
tions and testing her ideas. Finally, she decided
to make a mini sampler with two of the switches.
Damani proudly showed it to her teacher, who gave
her “bonus points” for her efforts even though she
was already at the top of her science class!
$ Make many lists of materials. I LOVE lists,
Strategies and lessons learned especially because lists really help when I work
Prepping with teen youth teachers. We organized our
Through the years our youth teachers from materials list by station.
L2TT2L have offered activities at a variety of fes-
tivals that range from the World Maker Faire to
the Cambridge Science Festival. We’ve learned to
be prepared for anything and everything beyond
what we planned to do:
$ Bring at least three times more material than
you imagine you need. For this book festival, we

offered to do an organized two-hour workshop
$ Packing and organizing are key. I am a “box $ Increase number of youth teacher facilitators
whisperer,” fishing out wonderful boxes from and add dedicated explainers. There were only
the dumpster behind my building and whisk- five of us. To get the most learning out of the
ing them away from folks who had received activity, we needed more “how to do it” facilita-
boxed gifts. Materials were put in labeled tors and a youth teacher to be a dedicated “ex-
boxes or in Altoids tins (that our youth teach- plainer” at each station, engaging participants
ers love to spray paint). in conversation about what they were doing.
Materials for each station were packed in sepa-
$ Bring someone dedicated to photographing.
rate bags. A sewing volunteer made large bags I got so busy helping with soldering and trou-
with outside pockets for folders from remnant ble-shooting that I did not have much time to
upholstery fabric, and we put cardboard rein- take photos.
forcing bases covered with scrap vinyl from
Final thoughts: Each one teach one
vinyl cutter projects on the bottom. Then I
One of the most powerful things about L2T-
stapled labels on the outside of the bags.
T2L—which should be part of any maker edu-
cation manifesto—is that all youth should have
the opportunity to teach and be responsible for
what they learn, to share their knowledge with
others. For the past eight years, when youth
teachers were given an opportunity to identify
the most important part of L2TT2L to them, they
have consistently reported that being part of an
effort to create positive community change and
teaching children at community organizations
rank the highest. (Surprisingly, getting paid
ranks the lowest.)
Facilitating The thirty families participating in our work-
The festival was a success! Most of the partici- shop at the Boston Book Festival increased the
pants really enjoyed the activity. Many parents number of Boston children (800+) that our youth
were superexcited about circuit building and sol- have taught and for whom they have been role
dering. Their eager enthusiasm to share what they models of color enthusiastic about technology,
loved with their children was infectious. Overall coding, engineering . . . and, of course, making!
we engaged participants in a pretty high quality Recently, I have been reading the excellent
of “hard fun.” and very inspiring interviews posted on the
Of course, it wasn’t perfect. I always take website People of Color in Tech (POCIT).7 Asia
ten minutes immediately afterward to jot down Hoe, a product designer (who believes that curi-
notes that help me remember how to improve. A osity is her superpower—I LOVE that!) says that
number of parents would have preferred a quick this is her top advice for young people of color
fifteen-minute activity with spectacular results aspiring to careers in tech: “Each one, teach one.
to the hour-long learning engagement we had Whether through teaching, mentoring, writ-
planned for each parent-child pair. To increase ing, or speaking, passing on your knowledge is
the quality of learning that happens I plan to do of critical importance to not only improve the
the following: state of the world but to help you develop in [a
$ Better engage participants in troubleshooting. tech career]. When you impart your knowledge
We needed at least two soldering irons (but to someone else, you must first break it down
only had one) and a guide so that the parent- into the smallest components so that someone
child participants could have been more inde- new might understand, further validating and
pendent in troubleshooting. ingraining your knowledge” (Berhane 2017).
Being part of an effort to create community 3. simonetti.media.mit.edu/~jieqi/2012/01

change for POCIT was also one of the inspirations /paper-battery-holder-tutorial
for Ruth Mesfun, who founded the organization. 4. beccarose.co.uk/paper-switches-2
She says, “The main goal of the site is to help 5. youtube.com/watch?v=6NRT8E5-reM
people of color realize that, even though the 6. fablabs.io/labs/southendtechnologycenter
numbers are low, there are so many of us who 7. peopleofcolorintech.com
want to support each other” (Dicky 2015).
Acknowledgements References
Berhane, M. (2017, September 18). Interview: Asia
To awesome Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn youth
Hoe, product designer. PeopleofColorinTech.
teachers Ke’Brant (KB) Almond, Nyari (ND) Davis,
com. Retrieved from peopleofcolorintech.com
Trinity Merren, and Dee Dee Pimentel, who
/interview/episode-78-asia-hoe
taught this activity at the Boston Book Festival. To
Dicky, M. R. (2015, October 27). People of color in
Bill from our Personal and Professional Empow-
tech highlights the stories of racial minorities
erment program at the South End Technology
in a mostly white industry. TechCrunch.com.
Center @ Tent City, who took the time to help out.
Retrieved from techcrunch.com/2015/10/27
And, as always, to Eva Kerr, a wonderful eagle-eye
/people-of-color-in-tech-highlights-the-stories-of
editor and a 16-year volunteer at the South End
-racial-minorities-in-a-mostly-white-industry
Technology Center @ Tent City—no piece of my
Madda, M. J. (2016, May 23). The maker movement
writing ever leaves SETC without being greatly
isn’t just about making and electronics:
improved by her careful edits and suggestions.
EdSurge talks to MIT’s Mitch Resnick.
EdSurge.com. Retrieved from edsurge.com
Notes /news/2016-05-23-the-maker-movement
1. bostonbookfestival2017.sched.com/event -isn-t-just-about-making-and-electronics
/CM6D -edsurge-talks-to-mit-s-mitch-resnick
2. chibitronics.com/lovetocode
Tiny Adventures in Affordable Physical Computing

by Susan Klimczak, in collaboration with George Swallow and James Salvatore
Arduino IDE. They accommodate digital (on or

off) and analog (a value between 0 and 100%)
components as well as servo motors.
The creative possibilities of the ATtiny85 micro-
Is it easy to get started?
controller are awesome if you know the basic
While we highly recommend this microcomputer,
characteristics, how to set one up, and how to
we found that there were very few comprehensive
write code. But first let’s lay a bit of groundwork.
guides for beginners, especially to explain how
Where might you have seen to connect and control servo motors. Some of the
best introductory physical computing projects
ATtiny85s before?
are kinetic sculptures, where servo motors are
ATtIny85s are all around us unseen! They are
essential. The lack of a guide was a missing link
used in alarm clocks, microwave ovens, washing
for educators wanting to initiate fun physical
machines, cameras, tablets, notebooks, mobile
computing projects with these very low-cost
phones, and refrigerators.
components—so we decided to write one!
If you’ve seen a light show at a concert, it could
George, James, and I spent nearly a year exper-
have included ATtiny85s to point lights in the
imenting with ATtiny85s to create documentation
right direction, change color, and control bright-
and sketches for this guide because we could not
ness. If you are a physical programmer, you’re
find a beginner-friendly guide that was useful
likely familiar with the Trinket (Adafruit) and the
for maker educators who want to use servos. We
LilyTiny (Sparkfun), which use the ATtiny85 as
hope you find this introduction to ATtiny85 and
their microcontroller chip.
the full guide helpful. The following is a summary
Why would an educator want to use one? of the guide, entitled ATTiny Adventures: Exploring
It’s inexpensive! ATtiny85s range from around the Mysteries, which can be found online, down-
three dollars each to less than a dollar in quan- loaded, and freely shared.1
tity on eBay (beware—there will be a three- to
six-week lead time for shipping!). This price is
The basics
significant for our free program serving low-
What is an ATtiny85?
An ATtiny85 is a microcontroller, which is a tiny
income youth because we can now afford to have
computer designed to run small programs that
youth make physical programming projects and
can listen to or control electronic components
take them home.
that people connect to its “legs” (pins).
It’s small! ATtiny85s are very small but not so
There are two types of ATtiny85s: through-
small that you can’t handle them, so using one can
hole types with legs and tiny surface mount
significantly shrink the size of any project and keep
types. This guide assumes the use of the
individual beginner projects to a manageable size.
through-hole type. The ATtiny85 program
It’s powerful! ATtiny85s are perfect for physi-
memory is flash memory, so when you remove
cal programming projects with just a few inputs/
power from the device, the program and data
outputs because they can be programmed in the
you have on it do not get erased, which means
the next time you power up the ATtiny85, your can be used for analog components. For practical
code is still there and runs as soon as the ATtiny purposes, all five of the pins can be used for
is connected to power (a battery, USB port, or LEDs, buttons, or servo motors.
wall plug). Use with a socket. The through-hole ATtiny85
An ATtiny85 is a scaled-down version of most conveniently sits in a socket so you can
the main chip on Arduino Uno or SparkFun take it in and out when reprogramming it. There
RedBoard development boards, which you are two kinds of sockets, but only one works well
might be familiar with: with ATtiny85 projects that require flattening
the pins (as we found out the hard way!).
Arduino Uno
ATTiny85
with ATTiny328 This one with round
legs and beads at the top
does not work well because
Size the legs snap off when
you try to bend them 90
degrees to solder them
Pins 8 20 onto paper-based projects;
however, they work fine
Programming
8Kb 32Kb
for breadboard projects.
Space This kind with flat legs works well if you want
Dynamic to do a paper-based project where the legs need
512 Bytes 2K Bytes
Memory (SRAM) to be bent 90 degrees. You can buy these on
SparkFun for less than a dollar. However, they
Clock Speed 1 or 8 MHZ 16MHz
are even cheaper on eBay (search “8 Pin DIL/DIP
Has a power jack IC Socket” and you can get hundreds for a couple
Making Must connect and header pins of bucks).
Connection directly to pins that make things
easier to connect
5V
7–12 regulated
Power 2.7–5.5V supplied onboard by power
Requirements directly to pins jack and 5.5 V Line it up. The ATtiny85 needs to be lined
regulated by USB
connector up exactly the right way when you put it in any
socket. It has a dot by the reset pin, which lines
up with the notch on the socket.
What’s on the ATtiny85, and how do you wire
it in a circuit?
Wiring diagram for ATtiny85:
Connect to the computer for coding. To pro-

gram the ATtiny85, an interface to a computer is
needed. The easiest way to connect is by using a
little board with a socket
to plug in the ATtiny and
the USB port to connect
to the computer. The
best ATtiny85 program-
mer we know and love is
Five usable pins. There are five usable pins
the Tiny AVR Programmer board from SparkFun,
that can be set up as inputs or outputs. All of the
which has an awesome tutorial and support.
pins can be used for digital components. Some
Coding with servo motors gets a little more

complicated. Here are two things you need to
know and some example code we know and love
for you to remix:
$ Servos can be used on any of the five digital
pins 0–4. This is because the servo library code

The Tiny AVR Programmer board can take code does its own pulse width modulation (PWM).
sent from the computer and load it into the proper $ You must use an alternate servo library with
locations in the ATtiny85’s program memory. the ATtiny85. The standard Servo.h library
Note: There are other ways to program an does not work with the ATtiny85 because it
ATtiny85 using an Arduino UNO that can be found relies on a 16 MHz clock and the ATtiny85 uses
online, but we highly recommend the SparkFun an 8 MHz clock.
Tiny AVR Programmer because it is designed to
allow you to prototype projects directly on it. The library we find works best with servos is a
modified version of the smaller SoftwareServo.h
Setting up your ATtiny85 to talk to Arduino IDE library.3 George Swallow modified the Software-
The best guide to setting up your Tiny AVR Pro- Servo library and called it SoftwareServo1, with
grammer to talk to the Arduino IDE is the tutorial some improvements that make coding the servos
found on the SparkFun site.2 a little easier.
Coding with the Arduino IDE How does using the SoftwareServo1 library
Coding with digital inputs and outputs. For change the Servo code in sketches?
digital inputs like buttons and digital outputs This comparison chart shows the changes needed
like LEDs and buzzers, the code generally looks for a simple sketch. The code commands a servo
exactly like it does for any standard Arduino-like named “Tyrone” to move from 0 degrees to 179
microcontroller development board. degrees every 1.5 seconds or 1,500 milliseconds.
Using the Standard Servo Library Using Software Servo Library Notes
#includeSoftwareServo1.h> Change name of library

#include <Servo.h>
Int servoPin = “pin # of servo”; Same for both
Int servoPin = “pin # of servo”;
SoftwareServo1 Tyrone; Create and name a servo object
Servo Tyrone;
Int i; Set up variable refreshing
void setup () {
void setup () { Tyrone.attach(servoPin);
Same for both
Tyrone.attach(servoPin); Tyrone.setMinimumPulse(496);
Need to modify servo parameters
} Tyrone.setMinimumPulse(2245);
}
void loop () {
Tyrone.write(0); Same for both
void loop () {
for(i=1; i<30; i++) Modify delay using “for loop” that
Tyrone.write(0);
{ SoftwareServo1::refresh(); refreshes the servo position every
delay(50); 50 milliseconds, 30 times for total
delay(1500);
} of 1500 milliseconds
Tyrone. write(179): Same for both

Tyrone.writer(179);
for(i=1; 1<30; i++) Modify delay using “for loop” that
delay(1500);
{ SoftwareServo1::refresh(); refreshes the servo position every
}
delay(50); 50 milliseconds, 30 times for total
} of 1500 milliseconds
}
Making with the ATtiny85 Acknowledgements

One cool introductory activity is a kinetic sculp- With gratitude for encouragement and assistance
ture with LEDs and servo motors.4 We have been from our friends Per-Ivar Kloen and Jeannine
experimenting with using ATtiny85s in a kinetic Huffman. All the beautiful hand-drawn ATtiny85
sculpture activity inspired by the work of Jean- illustrations are through the kindness of one of
nine Huffman5 and the work of Per-Ivar Kloen my favorite graphic artists of the maker move-
& Marten Hazelaar (“Easy Electronic Circuits ment, Marten Hazelaar from the great country
with a Vinyl Cutter,” page 140). We are remixing of The Netherlands.
Jeannine Huffman’s kinetic sculpture panda.
We added 3D-print diffusers for the LEDs to Notes
inject a little fun! 1. Full downloadable ATtiny Physical Computing
You can program the sculpture with the Guide: docs.google.com/document/d
ATtiny on the Tiny AVR Programmer board and /1j8A7e_TzYgqrm-Z8aqnHQWNH
use a breadboard to test the connections. -5SzWI8R7GLIwK2TYag
2. learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/tiny-avr
-programmer-hookup-guide
3. playground.arduino.cc/ComponentLib/servo
4. fablearn.stanford.edu/fellows/blog/attiny
-adventures-exploring-mysteries
5. jeanninehuffman.weebly.com/paper-panda
-robot-prototype
Once the coding is done and the circuit is

tested, you can integrate the ATtiny chip into
your sculpture, making it stand alone. Here we
are using vinyl-cut copper circuit traces (using
Per-Ivar’s design) in a kinetic sculpture called
“Nemo & Dory Danger! Anglerfish!”
Easy Electronic Circuits with a Vinyl Cutter

by Per-Ivar Kloen
circuits with an ATtiny. (The ATtiny is a small and

cheap programmable chip.) The idea eventually
evolved into a technique for screen printing the
circuit traces.1 The break-out trace allows you to
easily connect to the pins of the ATtiny and makes
it easier for students to work with.
During the 2016 FabLearn conference, I met
Jeannine Huffman and fellow FabLearn Fellow
Susan Klimczak. They have been using the AT-
Using a vinyl cutter, you can make your own elec- tiny and paper circuits for their youth projects
tronic circuits of copper tape. It’s a very easy and for a lot longer than I have and do wonderful
extremely cheap way to create your own circuits. things! They were very excited to learn how our
ATtiny circuit trace was designed as I demon-
Idea strated it for them. During that conversation,
Building circuits made with copper tape is not a we also found that we shared an enthusiasm for
new idea. You can take small pieces of copper tape finding new ways to use programmable and ex-
and create a circuit by hand. But what if you pressive paper circuits with students, inspired
could design a more sophisticated and reliable by the poetic work of Jie Qi.2
circuit cut out of a large piece of copper tape Susan started to use our break-out trace, and a
using a programmable cutting machine like a few months later I got a tweet saying that she had
vinyl cutter? The only problem would be to find made the circuit traces by vinyl cutting copper
suitable copper material. The options are often tape. What? Wait! She uses this to make small
very expensive—too expensive to use for classes pieces of kinetic “art with a message”! Crazy!
with thirty students. Soldering also proved to be easy to do. What a
Out of frustration I searched other ways. great idea! (See “Tiny Adventures in Affordable
In particular, I wanted to program the paper Physical Computing” on page 136.)
Encouraged by Consumables:
Susan’s enthusiastic $ Copper tape 3 mm, 5 mm, and 100 mm wide
tweets and even $ Transfer film
more convinced of $ ATtiny
the usefulness of $ DIP 8 socket
her work, I gave the $ Surface mount (SMD) LEDs 1206
idea another chance. $ Solder
After finding a rea-

sonably priced roll of Tips and tricks
wide copper tape, we started to experiment. Creating a circuit takes four steps:
1. Draw the circuit.
What do you need? 2. Cut the design.
Making is about using materials, so we need to 3. Transfer the design and solder
buy stuff. The key piece of equipment needed for the components.
this technique is the vinyl cutter (although you 4. Program the ATtiny.
might also be able to cut circuits with a sharp
Drawing the circuit
knife). With a vinyl cutter, you can cut a lot more
You need a vector drawing program. I use Affinity
than just circuits. To have an idea and to be able
Designer for the designs and Adobe Illustrator to
to make it and hold it in your hands is a powerful
operate the vinyl cutter. I build the design in pieces
thing. There really should be a vinyl cutter in
and finally unite them into one circuit trace design.
every school; they are cheap and easy to use. It’s the
Remember to do this; otherwise, they will be cut as
ideal stepping stone toward digital fabrication.
individual pieces, and the circuit will not work.
One-time purchase:
$ Vinyl cutter (I recommend ordering Cutting the design
an extra knife.) While designing your circuit, do not draw line
$ ATtiny programmer traces that are too thin because the design may be
$ Tweezers cut all the way through. Lines thinner than 1.5 mil-
$ Power supply (adjustable) limeters are likely to break during cutting. Because
$ Power jack to crocodile clips adapter we use a 100-millimeter-wide roll of copper tape,
$ Soldering iron your design can be up to 200 millimeters long (the
width of our vinyl cutter, Roland Stika SV8) and It promotes problem-solving
100 millimeters wide. You always have some loss, As with any design or creation, you have to deal
so the actual size is a bit smaller. with constraints. Constraints really help with the
creative process. With the ATtiny the space for
Transferring the design and soldering your design is limited. The ATtiny is very powerful,
the components but it has a finite number of possibilities. When
After weeding—or taking off the extra copper making my prototypes, I had to solve a lot of little
pieces to leave only the copper circuit trace (which puzzles. How do I get what I want? Thinking,
is easy to do with tweezers), transfer the design trying, thinking again—that’s a powerful path to
with transfer film. You can stick it on plain paper learning, and it gets you focused.
or any smooth surface. Soldering is very simple. It became once again clear to me that the level
Put the tip of the soldering iron on the copper tape, of understanding I get when I make something is
wait for a second, and apply some solder. To solder quite different from when I learn from reading a
the socket or SMD LED, I place a little puddle of circuit on paper. When I was designing a circuit
solder at the place where I want the components for Charlieplexing–-using a microcontroller to
to go. Then, with the tweezers, I put the socket or control an array of LEDs–-I thought I understood
SMD LED in place. Just heat the solder again and the circuit by studying it on paper, but that wasn’t
everything flows together. If you make a mistake, the case. I finally “got” how it works only when I
just reheat the puddle and remove the component. actually built it myself.
The leftover pieces can be used to make an SMD
test strip. Just use strips of copper tape with a gap It’s iterative
of 2 millimeters on a piece of paper, then connect This is a very powerful point. Because we use
the power supply (3 volts) with crocodile clip leads, digital manufacturing, you can quickly make
and you’re ready to go. You can test all LEDs before your idea into a prototype and have it in hand.
soldering them in place. You can also test them You’ll soon find out if your idea works–-or doesn’t.
afterwards by keeping the crocodile clips in the That’s the fun part! Your concepts and ideas can
right place and powering each component. You can be tested in the real world. Did you do something
do this without having the ATTiny in the circuit. wrong? Then you can make changes quickly, redo
the circuit, and have a new prototype in your
Programming the ATtiny hands within minutes. This is the major advan-
If you have never programmed anything with tage of digital manufacturing. It’s shifted what
the Arduino IDE, there’s a little learning curve. It used to be just making skills to “thinking through
is really not that hard; you probably only have to making” skills. Paulo Blikstein calls this “the de-
do it once. All it takes is time and attention. You mocratization of invention” (2014).
can always ask others to help you. There’s always
someone around with Arduino experience, or you It’s affordable
can visit a neighboring Fab Lab, library, or maker- Affordable? Making takes money. That’s just
space to find folks that can help. the way it is. What I like here is that you have a
You can use the Arduino IDE to create pro- working project for about a dollar. Students can
grams for your circuit. If you are not familiar take their projects home. They can reuse the chip
with Arduino, you may use Circuits on Tinkercad. to create a new project for a few cents. Few tech-
It’s a simulation (with the ATtiny) and uses block niques are so affordable. For around $500 you are
programming. It’s really easy. Once you get your all set for a class of students, including the vinyl
simulation to work, you can download the pro- cutter—keeping in mind you can do so much
gram as an Arduino-compatible file. (See page 136 more with a vinyl cutter.
for programming details.)
It has a low floor
Why bother? You can already see the “low floor” between the
In the following paragraphs I explain why I’m lines in the easy way this project can start. The 2D
enthusiastic about this technique. drawing, programming, and the vinyl cutter—all
have a very low floor for beginners. And because Resources

it’s inexpensive, you can repeat the project and A treasure trove of ideas, materials, and techniques:
extend it with new challenges, criteria, and How to Get What You Want: Kobakant DIY
constraints that create new learning experiences wearable technology documentation.
for students. kobakant.at/DIY
Here you’ll find my designs and used code:
It has a high ceiling
dropbox.com/sh/zrf6ijlavrhrtye
The more students use these materials, the more
/AABU6-0QczbFhLU-zonCUeH7a?dl=0
imaginative and creative they can be, all while
learning new skills. Yes, you can learn program-
ming or understand electronic circuits better. Notes
But you can also use it creatively and expres- 1. dropbox.com/sh/nspx6oyf9hw5h17
sively. What could you do with the subject that /AAAr0-6fpdAVqhVwm5bxDow9a?dl=0
you teach? Can LEDs indicate the metric rhythm 2. technolojie.com
of a poem? Students usually invent unexpected
things when they have expressive freedom. Reference
Even though the ATtiny is very small, it is re- Blikstein, P. (2014). Digital fabrication and “mak-
ally versatile and powerful. At the end of this ar- ing” in education: The democratization of in-
ticle there are some helpful resources for ideas vention. In J. Walter-Hermann & C. Büchung
about the various possibilities of the ATtiny. (Eds.), FabLab: Of machines, makers and inventors.
Vinyl circuits and cardboard are natural part- Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript-Verlag.
ners. An ATtiny, a servo, Make Do fasteners, and
cardboard—imagine the possibilities!
What’s next?
I received a tip to use an ESP8266 module instead
of an ATtiny. It’s somewhat more expensive ($1.75
instead of $0.85) but much more powerful, with
more pins and Wi-Fi enabled.
You could also use the BBC micro:bit as a
“brain,” using crocodile clips to control your
design. However, this makes letting students take
their design home a lot more expensive.
Because the circuits bend, Susan Klimczak
suggested making bracelets. You can use a 3-volt
coin cell to power it (and a magnet as the clip
for both turning on the circuit and fastening the
bracelet). The advantage with this is that your
circuit traces can become the design. Imagine
beautiful patterns decorated with working LEDs!
I’m thinking of doing something with the AT-
tiny touch-sensitive pins—maybe a project that is
like a Makey Makey in function. It could be a proj-
ect about cells, for example, where if you touch
parts of the cell, it is programmed to light up an
LED next to descriptive text. I just have a feeling
there’s a meaningful activity calling my name.
3D Printing with Primary Students
by Angie O’Malley
When I started teaching my students about 3D through the process. Learning something new
printing, I limited it only to students in inter- can feel hard, and that’s okay!
mediate and middle school grades. I knew there
could be value in also having younger students
experience the process, but I wasn’t sure where
to start. In my experience, many of the apps that
transform 2D drawing to 3D files didn’t work
well enough to risk using them with whole class-
es of students. However, Tinkercad is stable and
easy to use, eliminating this issue.
$ Start with the basics. You don’t have to show

them all the capabilities in one session. Slowly
add to their repertoire as they gain confidence
and understanding.
$ Start with creating objects that allow for more
imagination than realism. Students are less
likely to get stuck on the fact that it doesn’t
look the exact way they had in mind. Some
Here are some tips on how to best teach ideas include: robots; an animal that doesn’t
3D printing using Tinkercad to primary exist; creating a hole with obstacles for a
students (ages five to seven): miniature golf course (using a marble as a
$ Have students work in pairs, sharing golf ball); or snowflakes
one computer. $ Have the 3D printer running so they can feel
$ Make sure students have prior usage of excited and inspired. While it’s printing, walk
computer/mouse/trackpad navigation. students through the process of how designs get
The fine motor movements of shaping and from the computer screen to a completed print.
rotating objects alone in Tinkercad can be
challenging for the youngest makers.
$ Before working in Tinkercad, have students
use patterns on a table to stack, rotate, and

otherwise manipulate shapes. Discuss terms
like rotate and flip.
$ Explain to them that computer-aided design
(CAD) programs aren’t always designed with

their age group in mind. Remind them to have
patience with themselves and their partner
Toy Hacking for Accessibility
by Angie O'Malley
One of the most impactful projects my fifth-grade stuffed animal and

students take part in is a project to hack toys to sewed it so just the
make them accessible for kids with disabilities. end of the jack was
This simple project, which results in toys that sticking out.
might otherwise cost families upwards of a hun- Students then
dred dollars, can be done for under one dollar. worked on creating
The toys, which began as a standard plush toy switches in a most
with a push-button to produce sound and move- basic and econom-
ment, were transformed into a toy equipped ical way. They took
with a 3.5-millimeter stereo jack. This new plug, two squares of recy-
which students installed, allows for any stan- cled cardboard and
dard adaptive switch to be plugged in and used. covered them with foil, then “sandwiched” the
This modification allows kids who already have two boards together with extra bare cardboard
specialized switches to plug in and play. In ad- placed in the middle. Students then took the
dition, the fifth-grade students made their own remaining half of the stereo extension cable and
tap switch that can be activated by a slap, tap of a taped one wire to each side of the “sandwich.”
foot, or nod of a head. The switch could now be plugged into the stuffed
To begin, students took apart the seam of the animal and activated.
stuffed animal, leading to the press switch. Once There is a lot of room here for modifications
inside, they cut the wires attaching the original and creativity. Challenge students to invent their
press switch. From here, they stripped the two own switches to meet the needs of various chil-
wires. Next, dren for whom your class is making the toys. Per-
students took haps a child can only use a foot tap, a head nod,
a 3.5-milli- or a breath sensor. Encourage students to create
meter stereo switches that will work for specific situations.
extension
cable and cut
it in half and
stripped both
cables. Then,
they took the
stereo exten-
sion jack and
wired it into the two wires in the stuffed animal.
My students used electrical tape to secure the
wires, but you may also want to solder them for a
more secure connection. Once the new jack was
in place, students tucked the extra wire into the
146 MEANINGFUL MAKING: Projects and Inspirations for Fab Labs + Makerspaces
Wood Block Phone Charger Workshop in Uganda

by Juliet Wanyiri
One Saturday afternoon, late teens, are currently studying carpentry, elec-
Yvette and I headed to trical installation, and metalwork at the center’s
Mpigi in Uganda, which technical institute. After leaving the institute,
is about an hour from most students want to become adept engineers
the capital, Kampala, and designers, which came through strongly as
representing Foondi we carried out the workshop.
Workshops. Watoto
Church Vocational Rolling up our sleeves and diving in
Training Institute in Our plan for the afternoon was to build a wooden
Mpigi is based at the heart of a village and is phone block charger simply by using a 12-volt car/
home to hundreds of students, most of whom motorcycle battery, a car phone charger, wood,
are orphans and some of whom come from the sheet metal, wires, and a 13-ampere fuse.
nearby villages. We put together
the tools and
materials, split the
students into two
teams, rolled up our
sleeves, and dove
right into the build-
it session. A build-it
is a guided design
activity aimed at
systematically teaching an engineering concept.
Many homes in the villages do not have access It also teaches the use of basic hand tools and
to electricity and use candles for lighting. While fabrication processes.
most people have phones, you need to pay 500 UGX
($0.20) to charge your phone in town. Like several
places in Uganda, boda bodas (motorcycles) are used
for transport everywhere. We thought, “What if
people could charge their phones using the battery
from a boda boda, which is more easily accessible
than a charging shop? What if boda boda drivers
could build or buy these portable mobile chargers
and earn some extra money?” We ventured out to
Watoto Church find out.
Livingston Sebyatika, one of the institute’s ad-
ministrators, gathered together fifteen students
from the technical school. These students, in their
The first step was to prepare the wooden ered up the phone. It worked! The students were
block. This is where the phone charger would be so excited that their first reaction was to build
plugged in, so we needed to make four charging more phone chargers and start a business selling
ports using a 7/8-inch drill bit. Alternatively, them in town. They could definitely see how these
you could use a brace and bits of the same size units would come in handy in the neighboring
(which is what we did later when we encoun- town and village.
tered a power interruption).
Reflections
Great tools make everything run more smoothly
and increase the chances that the outcome will
meet the design requirements of the build-it
activity. Our team is deeply grateful to the voca-
tional institute, which shared its tools with us
for the workshop.
At one point, one group’s
wooden block broke in half as
the participants were nailing the
pieces, and their first reaction
For conduction purposes we cut and bent the was, “That’s easy to fix. We’ll just
sheet metal to form cylindrical inserts for the hold it together with a metal
four holes that we had previously drilled. The piece and some nails.” And they
tabs from these cylindrical inserts would stick did. And it worked perfectly.
out of the board and form the negative terminal Having a smart, energetic, and driven team of
of the circuit. participants made the workshop have more mean-
ing and impact as they were eager to learn a new
technology that could solve a local challenge. What
also stood out was their dexterity and attention
to detail at every point of the build-it activity. It
will be exciting to see how their inspirations and
creativity will have an impact on their community.
Future plans
Foondi Workshops1 plans to continue working
with these students by following up on this phone
charger project as well as conducting more cre-
ative capacity-building sessions with them.
With the remaining sheet metal, we cut out the
We’re looking forward to holding more work-
positive terminal for the circuit. This sheet was
shops with relevant projects for the communities
nailed over the holes. A second sheet was then
we work with. We want to see more people make
nailed over the tabs for the negative terminal.
use of their hands-on skills and design back-
Lastly, we connect-
ground to develop tangible, appropriate technolo-
ed the positive termi-
gies for their communities.
nal using a wire and
Our workshops will continue to provide a plat-
13-ampere fuse to the
form for problem setting, designing, and proto-
battery. After ensur-
typing entrepreneurial-based ventures.
ing we had a complete
circuit and that there
were no short circuits, Note
we tested and pow- 1. foondiworkshops.com
Project Snapshots
Project Snapshots 149
This collection of projects contains some of the favorite projects of the FabLearn Fellows.
These are go-to activities that always work, projects that were especially engaging, or
tried-and-tested projects that showcase thoughtful educational practice and student-
centered learning with modern materials. The projects are short and free-form, capturing
the essential heart and soul of the project instead of trying to fit them into a one-size-
fits-all “lesson plan” template.
These project snapshots accommodate a wide variety of grades and experience levels;
vary in length and expertise needed; and use many dif ferent tools, materials, software,
and hardware. This wide variation may seem random, but it is deliberate. One of the
challenges of creating a coherent set of resources about making in learning spaces is that
there are so many variations in tools, spaces, time, subjects, and experience levels. We
have embraced the chaos with this grab bag of favorites.
These projects showcase the remarkable variety and range that happens in student-
centered environments rich in materials and imagination. To give this collection some
organization, we have sorted them loosely by grade level. The projects in the first section
have been identified by the author as suitable for all ages. The subsequent sections start
at lower grade levels and go up from there. These are suggestions, of course; in many
cases these projects can be leveled up or down by changing the tools, materials, time
allotted, or scaffolding.
We invite you to view these projects as starting points rather than complete recipes.
Some projects have resources to learn more, and every FabLearn Fellow has a page on the
FabLearn site (fablearn.org) where they can be contacted. Browse and find the ones that
speak to you. Many are works in progress, but that’s how making works! (Iterative design
isn’t just for kids.)
The following tables provide recommended age or grade, tools and materials, additional
supplies, and recommended software for the projects in this chapter. All ages and grades are
approximate; accommodations can often be made for different ages. Use your own judgment
to decide if these projects are appropriate for your own environment and participants.
GRADE- AND AGE-APPROXIMATE EQUIVALENTS

Level Grade Age
Lower Elementary PK–3 Under 8
Upper Elementary 3–6 8–10
Middle School 6–9 10–13
High School and Beyond 9–12 (and up) 13 and up
The next table provides examples of the types of tools, materials, and supplies used with the project snap-
shots. Makerspaces also typically provide students with traditional arts and crafts materials, standard tools
such as scissors and pliers, and computers, which are not listed here.
TOOLS AND MATERIALS
Tools and Materials Examples
LEDs, copper tape, conductive thread, conductive yarn,

Conductive Fabrication
conductive fabric, batteries, battery holders
Sewing Fabric, felt, needles, snaps, buttons, sewing supplies, sewing machine
3D printer; laser cutter; CNC router, engraver, or mill; vinyl cutter

Digital Fabrication
and associated consumable supplies
Tape, glue, scissors, art and drawing supplies, office supplies,

Craft
decor items, cardboard, paper, recycled materials
Resistors, small motors, capacitors, breadboard, wire,

Electronics
potentiometers, buttons, switches, soldering iron
Arduino or other microcontroller board, shields, sensors,

Microcontrollers
actuators, displays
Building Wood, metal, PVC pipe, nuts, bolts, screws, hand and power tools
Project Snapshots INTRODUCTION 151
ALL GRADE LEVELS

Project Title Page Tools/Materials Additional Software
Craft, conductive
Electric Pop-Up Cards 156 fabrication, digital
fabrication (optional)
Small toys and
Reverse Engineering 157
interesting objects
Rube Goldberg Chain-
158 Craft, building
Reaction Machines
A big vessel for wash-
ing the T-shirts once
Sunbeam T-Shirts 160 Craft the T-shirts are done,
T-shirts, cyanotype
printing chemicals
Anything you have
Tons of Stuff 161 Craft
a lot of
Upcycling Packaging 162 Craft, building
Craft, building,
Graphics software
Signs That Matter 163 electronics,
or word processor
digital fabrication
LOWER ELEMENTARY AND UP

Mini Makers:
164 Flour, salt, food coloring
Food-Grade Paint
Mini Makers: Houses 165 Craft, digital fabrication
Biomimicry 166 Craft
Craft, conductive
School Post Office 167
fabrication, building
Makey Makey Craft, conductive
168 Makey Makey Scratch, Minecraft
Crafty Controllers fabrication
Any robotics kit or
Hard(ware) Fun 169 Microcontrollers
electronic components
Craft, building, Motorized bug toys
Bristle Bot Maze 170
conductive fabrication (Hexbugs)
Craft, conductive
Glow sticks, golf balls,
Glow Golf 171 fabrication, electronics,
toy golf clubs
microcontrollers
Craft, digital fabrication
Board Game: Missing Tinkercad, MakeCode,
172 (optional), micro- Makey Makey (optional)
Pieces Provocation Scratch
controllers (optional)
Laser-Cut/Engraved Craft, digital Vector software such
173 Pin backings
Pins fabrication as CorelDraw
Materials or supplies
Graphic design software
not needed if students
Tracing Images for such as CorelDraw,
174 Digital fabrication are just practicing
2D and 3D Design CAD software such
tracing and not
as SolidWorks
printing anything
Blockly (block program
Robots (we used
Robot Storytelling 175 Craft, sewing on iPads for Dash and
Dash and Dot)
Dot) or Scratch
None required, but
Using Low-Resolution
some wireframing
Prototyping to Craft, conductive
176 apps can be used to
Learn Design and fabrication, sewing
create low-resolution
Solve Problems
app prototypes
Group Puzzle Frame 177 Craft, digital fabrication Teacher uses Inkscape
Anything you want,
Build-tionary 178 Craft, building but try not to
overcomplicate things
Choose-Your-Own-
Paper, pencils,
Adventure 179 Craft Twine, Scratch
dice, tokens
Role-Playing Games
UPPER ELEMENTARY AND UP

Craft, electronics,
Solar cells, geared Libre Draw (if designing
Solar Bobble 180 building, digital
motors, soldering iron their own bobbles)
Laser-Cut and Craft, conductive Scratch, vector design
Makey Makey Game 181 fabrication, building, Makey Makey software such as
of Operation digital fabrication CorelDraw
First-Hand Sewing
Project: Stuffed 182 Craft, sewing
Animal or Smiley Face
Interactive Body Craft, conductive Makey Makey or other
183 Scratch
Systems Exhibition fabrication, electronics physical interface
Adobe Illustrator
Locker Mirrors 184 Digital fabrication
or Inkscape
Conductive fabrication,
Talking
185 sewing, digital Makey Makey Scratch, Inkscape
Historical Quilt
fabrication
Mold making, casting,
Customized
186 Craft alginate, two-compo-
Rubber Stamps
nent silicone rubber
Earthquake Craft, building, Earthquake-
187 3D CAD software
Engineering digital fabrication simulating table
Dia de los Muertos Craft, building, CorelDraw or other
188
Laser-Cut Calavera Art digital fabrication vector software
Tinkering Building,
189 Inkscape or similar
with Spinners digital fabrication
Video camera or phone
with video capture; Video editing software,
cheap and plentiful e.g., iMovie (Mac/iOS),
building materials, e.g., Adobe Premiere,
Quick Cuts:
190 Craft, building, sewing cardboard foam core, WeVideo (free, cloud-
A Flash Film Festival
hot glue, scrap fabric; based video editing),
miscellaneous props or Adobe After Effects
(the stranger and more (if you’re fancy!)
unusual, the better)
Craft, conductive
MakeCode, Scratch,
Paper Bits 191 fabrication, electronics, micro:bit
or Snap4Arduino
microcontrollers
Any 3D modeling
PLA scraps, thin PLA
PLA Melts 192 Digital fabrication software if creating
prints, toaster oven
prints for melting
Cardboard Craft, conductive Box cutter knife, Optional: vector program
193
Fashion Show fabrication cutting mat for designing shapes
Craft, conductive Box cutter knife,
Hack Your Classmate 194
fabrication cutting mat
Craft, conductive
Shadow Tinkering 195
fabrication
MIDDLE SCHOOL AND UP

Food-safe PLA
The Cucumber Slicer 196 Craft, digital fabrication filament, saw, Tinkercad, Cura
glue or hot glue gun
Craft, electronics,
digital fabrication
Escape Room Design 197
(optional), micro-
controllers (optional)
Write It Do It 198 Craft
Sewing, Turtlestitch,
Algorithmic Art 199
digital fabrication Beetle Blocks
Craft, conductive
Prosthetic fabrication, electronics,
200
Hand Design building, sewing, digital
Craft, electronics, Beta kit (our own
Programmable Scratch for Arduino
201 building, Arduino-based physical
Pinball Machine or similar
microcontrollers programming kit)
Marbling Plywood Craft, digital 2D vector design
202 Wood
for Laser-Cut Parts fabrication software
Color printer, wood,
Pixel Art 203 Craft Mod Podge, acrylic Pixel-by-numbers app
paint and/or markers
Material Exploration Silicone, supplies Any 3D modeling
204 Digital fabrication
in Mold Making or silicone molds software
Arduino or Makey
Contact Mic Craft, conductive Makey; contact mic,
205
Synthesizer fabrication, electronics cigar box, rice, Slinky,
springs, cans, etc.
Craft, conductive
Office Supply Flair 206 Soldering iron
fabrication, electronics
Craft, conductive Internet research,
Repair Café in the
207 fabrication, electronics, e.g., ifixit.com, YouTube
School Makerspace
building, sewing tutorials for fixing stuff
Design software,
Recycling and
Furniture: chairs, photo/video software
Upcycling Furniture 208 Craft, building
workbenches, tables for documentation
for Your Makerspace
(time-lapse, etc.)
Building, digital Geodata acquisition QGIS, netfabb, Cura,
3D Maps 209
fabrication and processing or others
Turnery for Kids 210 Craft, building Wood lathe, chisels
Cordless screwdriver,
Round,
211 Building handsaw, hammer, yard- Inkscape
Arched Rain Roof
stick or measuring tape
MIDDLE SCHOOL AND UP (Continued)

Wet and dry art
Microfilms and Building, digital
212 materials; computer QuickTime
Microstills fabrication
for image capture
Creating Physical
Electronics, Raspberry Pi,
Interfaces to Minecraft 213 PiForge
microcontrollers Sparkfun PiWedge
with a Raspberry Pi
Cardboard Chair
214 Craft A lot of cardboard!
Challenge
Animating a Model
215 Scratch
of Myself in Scratch
Craft, conductive Hummingbird kit,
fabrication, mBot, Makey Makey, Scratch, Snap!,
Make History 216
electronics, building, Grove sensors for Tinkercad circuits
microcontrollers Arduino, micro:bit
Craft, conductive
fabrication, electronics, Vector graphics
Liver It Up! 217
building, sewing, program
digital fabrication
HIGH SCHOOL AND UP

Craft, conductive
Creative Capacity Cardboard and other
218 fabrication, electronics, SolidWorks
Building prototyping materials
building
Introduction to Microcontrollers,
219 Squishy Circuit dough
Physical Programming electronics
mBot off-the-shelf
Craft, electronics, robotics kit, LEGO WeDo
Creative Robotics 220 mBlock, Scratch
building 2.0, or whatever kind of
robotics kit you have
Spaghetti,
Spaghetti Tower 221 Craft
marshmallows
Computers, digital
Glitch Art— Word processor like
cameras, printer, photo
Happy Accident or 222 TextEdit; GIMP,
printing paper for final
Controlled Chaos? Photoshop, or Preview
exhibit
Above/Below 223 Digital fabrication Black adhesive vinyl Inkscape, Illustrator
Craft, conductive Adafruit Circuit,
Fashion Design
224 fabrication, sewing, Playground, or Processing
with Circuits
microcontrollers LilyPad Arduinos
2D vector design and
Tin Puzzles 225 Digital fabrication Altoids-type tin
3D modeling software
156 MEANINGFUL MAKING: Projects and Inspirations for Fab Labs + Makerspaces
K–12 Electric Pop-Up Cards

by Jaymes Dec
Students use paper engineering techniques and The results are often unique and fun. Also, since
paper circuits to create unique and fun greeting they are designed as gifts for others, students really
cards. This project can be done with a wide range care about the project. The cutting can be done by
of ages with appropriate scaffolding. hand or with a vinyl or laser cutter.
Tools/Materials Additional Software

Craft, conductive fabrication,
digital fabrication (optional)
Project Snapshots ALL GRADE LEVELS 157
K–12
Reverse Engineering
Students are asked to reverse engineer an object. practice design by sketching isometric views
Objects can be as simple as a paper snowflake or of the various parts that make the system work.
a toy, or as complex as a kitchen appliance or car They communicate their findings in a visual or
motor. They analyze and label the parts, explain oral presentation.
how the parts work together as part of a system, This activity takes at least one 45-minute
and present their findings. They may also be session if the object is small like a clickable pen.
asked to reassemble the parts successfully. At least three 45- to 90-minute sessions may
Students practice thinking like an engineer be necessary to reverse engineer a more compli-
as they analyze how parts work together. They cated machine.

Small toys and interesting objects
K–12
Rube Goldberg Chain-Reaction Machines
by Sarah Alfonso Emerson, Cassia Fernandez, Angela Sof ia Lombardo
with Giulio Bonanome and Alphonse Habyarimana
Rube Goldberg (or chain-reaction) machines are

built with the goal of doing something simple in
a very complicated way. They typically include a
chain of events, where each part triggers the next,
creating one long sequence. This favorite maker
activity is extremely flexible and fun. It teaches
physics, simple machines, and laws of motion.
It can be an introductory activity with physical
programming and building since it requires very
basic programming and building skills.
It reflects soft skills (like teamwork and prob-
lem-solving) and the gap between expectation and
How do you expect this part to work?, Have you tried
reality. It’s also a wonderful project for big groups
it?, or How do you think the two parts can connect to
of students with different backgrounds and experi-
let the reaction move on?
ence levels, or even for educator workshops.
Materials can be open to student choice, re-
The machines are often built in teams, so stu-
quired, or an interesting twist of giving each stu-
dents must think creatively and collaboratively to
dent team the same set of materials. There could
achieve success. Students have to integrate all the
be requirements to laser cut or 3D print some part
projects into one and help each other a lot to get the
of the machine.
collective project working. Humor is a crucial as-
Enhance the activity by adding programmable
pect of Rube Goldberg designs, so students should
elements. Use a microcontroller, motors, buttons,
be encouraged to bring their personalities into
light sensors, lasers, and LEDs. Each team’s
their designs and have fun. There are many online
section of the machine must start with a trigger
videos of chain-reaction machines for inspiration,
from the previous section, and end with an action
and the life of Rube Goldberg (a real person!) is
that triggers the next part. After programming
interesting. Students can even enter their projects
their machine sections, the groups connect all the
into official Rube Goldberg competitions!
sections together to create a big collective project.
At the simplest level, ask students to use a few
Expect this activity to take at least 90 minutes,
given or found materials to complete a simple
but it could go much longer or take multiple
task like dropping a ball into a cup. Increase or
class periods. (Make sure the machines can sit
decrease the level of difficulty by adding con-
undisturbed.)
straints or criteria like using at least two steps
and two simple machines, having students fill a
given square area, or use at least twenty different
energy transfers! Facilitators can help by asking

Craft, building
K–12
Sunbeam T-Shirts
by Per-Ivar Kloen
Create a print on a T-shirt using cyanotype print-

ing, which uses sunlight to make prints. Many
kits and tutorials are available online. Explore
shadows, gather materials from nature, explore
light bending—then create a T-shirt. Just add
some sunlight.
Cynotype printing is very versatile. It can be
used in biology (printing leaves, feathers), math
(making shapes with Logo or Beetleblocks),
physics (making focal points visible), and art
(because it’s beautiful).
This takes 30 minutes or more. This technique
is easy to combine with a vinyl cutter (e.g., for mak-
ing outlines), a laser cutter (making flat shapes), or
a 3D printer (shadow casting 3D objects).

Craft A big vessel for washing the T-shirts
once the T-shirts are done, T-shirts,
cyanotype printing chemicals
K–12
Tons of Stuff
by Mathias Wunderlich
Sometimes a makerspace has a chance to acquire given material. While this is not an activity that
“tons” of stuff for free—a hundred beautiful tiny we count on to build specific skills, the results are
bottles or thousands of similar wooden rods. often surprising and fascinating.
As a facilitator do you accept such gifts? Do you These projects can range from the simple
have storage space for it all? We do, and once in (completed in 45 minutes) to the more complex
a while we announce a featured activity in which (requiring several weeks).
students are asked to make something out of the

Craft Anything you have a lot of
K–12
Upcycling Packaging
Unbelievable amounts of plastic and compound

materials are used for packaging of food and all
kind of goods all over the world. Schools can help
to develop awareness of the environmental impli-
cations by having students make useful things out
of used packages. This helps kids to understand
limitations of scarce natural resources and the
concepts of economy versus ecology.
These can be mostly smaller and shorter proj-
ects, some of which can be done in 15 minutes,
others in about a week.

Craft, building
K–12
Signs That Matter
Signs in makerspaces can provide orientation, making signs for their classmates for use within
inspiration, and support. They should be uniquely the makerspace. These signs help orient students
designed for your specific situation, and they within the makerspace and can even feed students’
should look good. Some can be simple and clear, curiosity and imagination.
but in other cases they may contain mysteries, These tend to be smaller projects of under
jokes, or even riddles. Students can be engaged in 45 minutes.

Craft, building, electronics, Graphics software or
digital fabrication word processor
PK+
Mini Makers: Food-Grade Paint
by Christa Flores
This project helps introduce preschool makers to With this “paint,” young makers can dis-
art, science, and measurement. They can begin a cover the three primary colors that can be
love of chemistry by making paint from safe-to- combined to make the three secondary colors.
touch household chemicals. Using safe household They can describe properties of matter like
ingredients, three- to five-year-old makers can slippery and viscous.
make paint—a tool that helps them continue to By giving children open containers and the
be creative by experimenting with color, texture, right-sized measuring cup, they can practice
and chemical mixtures. All that’s needed are salt, measurement. You can also premeasure the
flour, water, food coloring, and a plastic bag. ingredients and put them into cups to just pour
1. Mix ½ cup of salt with ½ cup of flour. into the mixing bowl. You can use scientific terms
2. Mix salt and flour mixture with ½ cup of water. like a “smooth, homogenous mixture” when
3. Add food coloring to make paint colorful. describing the need to mix ingredients well.
4. Mix it all together and put the mixture into a You can introduce this project with literacy by
plastic bag. reading Mouse Paint by Ellen Walsh.
5. Cut the tip of one corner of the bag to squeeze This project can be done in 20–30 minutes, not
out the paint! including set-up and clean-up for the facilitator.

Flour, salt, food coloring
Project Snapshots LOWER ELEMENTARY 165
PK+
Mini Makers: Houses
by Christa Flores
Using two basic laser-cut cardboard shapes connect the shapes. Once the structure is sound
(a 4 ✕ 4 inch square and triangle) with precut holes and stands alone, additional decoration can be
for easy connecting, a three- to five-year-old can easily added to this sturdy platform. Houses are
make a wide variety of high-quality structures. In only one possible theme; you can use the card-
this activity, preschoolers learn shapes and angles board shapes as three-dimensional tangrams or
(square, rectangle, arch), structures and loads, 2D any kind of art or sculpture project that you do
and 3D modeling (spatial reasoning), counting, not want to glue or tape.
and fine motor skills. This activity took 45 minutes because we
Tiny hands can work with an adult or alone to began by reading We Were Tired of Living in a
make easy connections with these precut card- House by Liesel Moak Skorpen and Building a
board construction shapes. Use twist ties or pipe House by Byron Barton.
cleaners cut into three- to five-inch segments to

Craft, digital fabrication
PK+
Biomimicry
by Angie O'Malley
First-grade students complete a unit on biomim-

icry, including designing and prototyping their
own invention inspired by nature. We introduce
this unit by showing visuals and contrasting
many human-made products with objects found
in nature. We then play guessing games, showing
images of products made with biomimicry, and
guessing what item from nature it was inspired
by. Students start the design process by selecting,
drawing, and labeling something in nature, and
then brainstorm an invention with the piece of
nature in mind. Students finish the unit by pro-
totyping and presenting their invention.
Biomimicry inspires many inventions, and
even the youngest students can follow this concept.
Students learn the science behind biomimicry and
can practice the design cycle when inventing and
making their object. This project requires very few
materials, but if working with older students, it
could be enhanced by using sewing, building, or
robotic and electronic materials.

Craft
PK+
School Post Office
by Angie O’Malley
Each year, our second-grade students learn about as pulleys to get mail up and down stairs, scooters
community helpers in social studies. To integrate to deliver mail in the hallways, and catapults to
this into our innovation lab, the same students sling mail into classrooms.
are in charge of building and running a school This project brings together the whole school
post office. Students design stamps and paper community, and students can use any tools, mate-
circuit postcards to sell to the school community. rials, or technology available. Adults send mail to
They also build carrying and organizing devices their children, teachers send mail to students, and
that help deliver and sort mail. Devices students buddy classes send letters to their buddies. This
have made include backpacks, ramps for moving encourages literacy, community, and science and
and lifting heavy packages, and file sorters to sort design. Each year students look forward to their
mail by classroom. turn running the school post office.
Third-grade students also help with this as The activity takes approximately two to three
they study and then create simple machines such months of 45-minute weekly classes.

building
PK+
Makey Makey Crafty Controllers
by Angela Sofia Lombardo
Students are first introduced to the Makey

Makey with two Scratch projects: a Minecraft
Maze and a Conductive/Not Conductive game
(inspired by a similar game by Susan Klimczak
in Meaningful Making volume 1, page 107).
Students (or a group of students) have to think
about the kind of action they want to control
with the Makey Makey (e.g., movement, crafting,
destroying, shooting), then think about how they
want to control the action, and finally design the
final product on paper. Students then choose
between different types of materials to create
their own controller and play Minecraft in a
creative and crafty way. The next day facilitators
challenge students to play Minecraft using a
Makey Makey instead of a mouse and keyboard.
This is a good way to let kids play and discover
how a circuit works while exploring the conductiv-
ity of different types of materials. In addition, this
activity challenges kids to experiment as active,
collaborative, and creative beings in the physical
world as they do in Minecraft’s virtual world.

Craft, conductive fabrication Makey Makey Scratch, Minecraft
PK+
Hard(ware) Fun
In this activity students are introduced to robotics found this led to less interactive, inventive cre-
through a process of computational tinkering, ations. By adding the component wall, students
reflection, and design. This works for any off- heard many ideas about how things work rather
the-shelf robotics or electronics kit, microcon- than just sticking with their own theory. Shar-
trollers, or components. Step by step, component ing ideas is useful for reflecting on things and
by component, kids discover how the hardware finding inspiration. It was wonderful to see dif-
works and how to program it; then they create an ferent kinds of interactive games and so many
interactive project using both the computer and different ideas about how to use a component
the hardware. for final projects.
Each time a student discovers how a compo-
nent works, they have to write it onto a sticky
note and put it on the “Our Components” wall. At
the end of each discovery-tinkering process, kids
share their projects with the class, reflect on what
that component can be used for, and write ideas
on sticky notes for the wall. Facilitators read the
sticky notes to the entire class so that the group
can discuss ideas and develop even more theories
about how each component works.
This activity helps students learn the basics
of programming and robotics. It helps students
understand how to be creative with each compo-
nent so they can later design their own robotics
creations going far beyond the concept of robots
as “things that move on wheels.” Discovering by
themselves and tinkering with that knowledge,
students understand deeply how each component
works, how to be creative, and how to express
their ideas while working on something mean-
ingful through robotics.
In early iterations of this activity, we only
asked that students discover how to code with
the components but without any time to tinker
with that knowledge or share it with others. We

Microcontrollers Any robotics kit or
electronic components
PK+
Bristle Bot Maze
by Angie O’Malley
This maze unit is introduced to students by

having them first complete different types of 2D
mazes. Next, students map out their own mazes
on graph paper, and these mazes are enlarged
with a photocopier. Students then begin mapping
and using recycled materials such as straws, card-
board, and craft sticks to create walls.
Students are given a vibrating toy bug (we
used a HEXBUG toy) to work its way through
the maze, requiring students to make adjust-
ments to walls and angles so the bug would
successfully travel through the maze. Additions
such as copper tape and LED lights enhance the
maze. Students finish the unit by making their
own bristle robots.
This is a great beginning-of-the-year project,
allowing for team-building and collaboration.
This also allows for students to practice the
design cycle as they begin with a 2D map of
their maze and work up to a 3D working model.
This project requires a lot of modifications and
improvements as the motorized bug needs to
successfully get through the maze. In addition,
students are allowed to use any recycled materi-
als, so it gives elementary students an opportu-
nity to explore different materials in the lab.
This unit usually takes about six 45-minute
class periods.

Craft, building, Motorized bug toys (Hexbugs)
conductive fabrication
PK+
Glow Golf
by Angie O’Malley
Create an interactive glow-in-the-dark miniature

golf course. Students start this project by sketch-
ing golf course designs. Then, each student creates
a hole along the course, with moving obstacles and
light-up components such as ramps, tunnels, and
windmills. Students can use recycled materials,
glow sticks, an Arduino with a servo motor and
LED lights, and even a plastic golf ball with an LED
and battery placed inside.
This can be a fun community-building project.
Once students create the course, staff, parents,
and other students can play.
Bonus: Primary-age students can plug motors
and lights into the Arduino, a motivating way to
learn how that hardware functions. Intermediate
students work on more advanced Arduino pro-
gramming. You can use any microcontroller or
robotics kits you already have.
Students should be able to complete the project
in four 45-minute blocks.

Craft, conductive fabrication, Glow sticks, golf balls,
electronics, microcontrollers toy golf clubs
PK+
Board Game:
Missing Pieces Provocation
by Sam Phillips
In my after-school program, we have many

board games with missing pieces: player tokens,
funny money, dice, spinners. Instead of throw-
ing out these games, I use their incomplete sets
to provoke kids to create their own tools for
the game. I challenge them to brainstorm both
analog and digital/computational solutions to the
problem. For younger kids, this can be a terrific
context for introducing simple coding and 3D
design. For example, I’ve helped kids make
spinners in Scratch, game pieces in Tinkercad,
and dice with the micro:bit microcontroller
programmed with MakeCode.

Craft, digital fabrication (optional), Makey Makey (optional) Tinkercad, MakeCode, Scratch
microcontrollers (optional)
PK+
Laser-Cut/Engraved Pins
Students graphically design pins for people to wear

and laser engrave and cut them. The pin can be a
name badge with a fun emoji, a campaign mes-
sage, or a school logo. The possibilities are endless.
We use CorelDraw, but any vector design soft-
ware will work. This teaches students the basics
of a graphic design software as they design with
shapes and text. They differentiate between raster
and vector. They also get to learn how to safely use
a hot glue gun. Students love to have something
they can take home with them the same day.
This activity takes from 30 to 60 minutes.

Craft, digital fabrication Pin backings Vector software such
as CorelDraw
PK+
Tracing Images for 2D and 3D Design
I like to have kids practice tracing images so they

become more precise in their sketching on the
computer. Students learn how to import images
into CorelDraw or SolidWorks. Then, they
practice the various line tools in each program
for tracing outlines of the images. Starting with
simple images like a Batman or Wonder Woman
logo works well. This is good practice even if you
do not print or laser cut the sketches.
I like this project because it helps students
become proficient with sketching tools as they
sketch a popular image they are interested in.
Students who can trace quickly in the design
software become less daunted by the design
tasks of more complex projects.
This is a 30- to 60-minute activity.

Digital fabrication Materials or supplies not needed if Graphic design software such as
students are just practicing tracing CorelDraw, CAD software such as
and not printing anything SolidWorks
PK+
Robot Storytelling
by Nico Janik
Students turn a story into an algorithm, then This takes eight to ten 45-minute sessions.
program robots to act it out. This project was done
with Dash and Dot robots along with integrated
English Language Arts (ELA), coding, and art. Stu-
dents made costumes and “sets” for the robots as
part of the project. The story was written in English
class, coding was done in the makerspace, and cos-
tumes and sets were created during art class.
During ELA fifth-grade students were reading
myths and folktales. Our district uses Lucy Calkins’s
Units of Study; students were in the “Magic of
Themes and Symbols” unit. Students wrote their
own stories with their classroom teacher during
ELA time. In the makerspace students learned
about algorithms and applied this to their story.
They simplified the story to one or two characters,
and one beginning, middle, and end interaction.
Then they turned this into an algorithm on paper.
In the next makerspace session, students turned
their algorithms into block code on the iPads
(using Blockly). They had to code the robot to act
out the story with no help from the humans (after
hitting Start). During art, students designed their
“stage/maze” and costumes for their character.
Once back in the makerspace the whole unit
culminated in the Dash and Dot robots acting out
the story.
This project is a great example of integrating
multiple content areas and is very flexible. It can
go back and forth between classroom and lab
space, and different teachers can be involved.
It can be a simple story or, with more time, can
be made more elaborate with costumes, sets, or
more complex robots.

Craft, sewing Robots (we used Dash and Dot) Blockly (block program on iPads
for Dash and Dot) or Scratch
PK+
Using Low-Resolution Prototyping
to Learn Design and Solve Problems
by Kevin Jarrett
“Prototypes are not solutions. They are a way of day’s weather and the user’s style preferences.
asking questions.” —Snook Design Agency In another example, students imagined a “smart
Prototyping supports inquiry learning, an essen- locker” that would communicate with students
tial aspect of maker-centered learning programs, at home, telling them what books they needed to
especially those rooted in the application of de- be sure to bring in their backpack to be prepared
sign thinking. Students prototyping with found for school.
materials make powerful connections to the By asking students to fabricate easy-to-
intended users, each other, and the problem they construct models representing these ideas, the
are trying to solve. For example, students tasked resulting thought processes were deeper, more
with finding a way to make the morning routine nuanced, and robust. Best of all, low-resolution,
more efficient and less stressful designed an “looks-like” prototypes like these are easily con-
automated, internet-aware closet linked to an structed with ordinary craft and found materials,
app that would preselect outfits based on the keeping costs low.

Craft, conductive fabrication, None required, but some wire-
sewing framing apps can be used to create
low-resolution app prototypes
PK+
Group Puzzle Frame
A puzzle in the shape of a photo frame can bring

a class or a grade level together. Use Inkscape
to design the puzzle and a laser cutter to cut the
frame and puzzle pieces.
Each student decorates a piece, and they come
together to create a frame for a group photo of
the class. Make sure to put some kind of image
(I used a map) on the back so that students all
decorate the correct side of their piece and it will
be possible to put the puzzle together.
This is a great bonding activity for an icebreaker
or later in the year. It creates a reminder of the
unity of the class and only takes 20 minutes.

Craft, digital fabrication Teacher uses Inkscape
PK+
Build-tionary
by Sam Phillips
Build-tionary is like Pictionary, but you build

things instead of drawing them. To play, assign
each team (pairs or small groups) an object
(or series of objects) to build out of provided craft
materials within a given time constraint. You can
play for points (ask your class to make up house
rules) or just build for the sake of building.
This activity is a fun, quick diversion to sprin-
kle between longer-term projects, to fill some
spare time, or to use up material odds and ends
that are taking up space in your classroom. It
can also be a casual, low-stakes way to assess 3D
design techniques and to practice setting group
agreements as your students customize the rules
to fit their needs.
The beautiful thing about this game is that it
can fit a range of time constraints but typically
takes 15 minutes to an hour.

Craft, building Anything you want, but try not
to overcomplicate things
PK+
Choose-Your-Own-Adventure
Role-Playing Games
by Sam Phillips
There are a million ways to create and play complex rule sets and fabricate props to live-
choose-your-own-adventure games: aloud, action role-play their game stories. A lot of chil-
Dungeons & Dragons style; through making a dren love video games and want to learn how to
short zine booklet; or by coding an interactive make them. The easiest starting point that I’ve
adventure with Twine or Scratch. found is by creating choose-your-own-adventure
A choose-your-own-adventure game is always role-playing games in Twine, a coding platform
a co-construction between maker and player, that is less complicated than basic HTML. You
and can happen anywhere at any time. I play don’t need any special materials besides your
them every day walking to the park with five- to imagination, but paper and pencil, dice, and
eight-year-olds, and have seen older kids publish tokens are useful.

Craft Paper, pencils, dice, tokens Twine, Scratch
3+
Solar Bobble
by Susan Klimczak
Participants create and decorate personalized

solar bobbles, which are small kinetic sculptures
with a crank mechanism, geared motor, and
solar cell. They learn the difference between
nonrenewable and renewable energy with a
focus on solar energy. Participants learn how
a crank mechanism works and how to power it
with a motor and solar cell. Finally, they extend
their maker skills, learning how to properly use
a hot glue gun and a soldering iron.
This is a great expressive introduction to solar
energy. It is also a great troubleshooting exercise,
as the solar bobbles never work exactly right at
first, but the fixes are simple enough that children
feel a genuine sense of accomplishment when
they work. It’s an easy solder, so it is also a great
introductory activity to soldering.
We usually bring about twenty different solar
bobble tops to decorate for a 90-minute activity;
however, it can be extended to two 90-minute
activities if one is dedicated to designing and
laser cutting solar bobble “toppers.”

Craft, electronics, building, Solar cells, geared motors, Libre Draw
digital fabrication (optional) soldering iron (if designing their own bobbles)
Project Snapshots UPPER ELEMENTARY 181
3+
Laser-Cut and
Makey Makey Game of Operation
Students re-create the popular game of Opera-

tion. They design and laser cut a box to hold the
game. They laser engrave and cut an outline of
a body with holes for various organs. They use
conductive tape, foil-lined cups, and chopsticks
connected to a Makey Makey attached to a com-
puter. They code in Scratch to trigger responses
to game play.
This project teaches so much: you can incor-
porate body systems, coding, graphic design,
and digital fabrication. Students have a lot of fun
remixing the code (or creating it from “scratch”),
and they have lots of fun playing the game!
Allow for least three 60-minute sessions; it
may take a couple of weeks.

Craft, conductive fabrication, Makey Makey Scratch, vector design software
building, digital fabrication such as CorelDraw
3+
First-Hand Sewing Project:
Stuffed Animal or Smiley Face
Students learn a basic running stitch and/or a

whip stitch to create a felt-stuffed toy using either
a circle (for a smiley face) or a silhouetted pattern.
Students can design their own or use pieces
precut by the teacher. This is a quick project
to get students started thinking about the ways
2D fabric pieces can be put together to create a
3D shape with the addition of stuffing.
This activity gives quick results with basic
skills and materials. Students with some expe-
rience can complete this in less than an hour;
double that for beginners.

Craft, sewing
3+
Interactive Body Systems Exhibition
by Jaymes Dec
Students design an interactive Scratch program

about a body system that a user can walk right up to
and engage with. This program should educate the
user about some part of a body system that the stu-
dent finds fascinating. This could be a video game,
an interactive story, or other digital exhibition.
This is a culminating project for our body sys-
tems unit in life sciences classes in seventh grade,
and while some of the work also occurs in the tech-
nology classes, there is very little teacher direction.
Examples:
$ A video game, complete with controls, where
$ Use of other types of sensors: camera sensors,
the user becomes the food going through the heart rate sensors, sound sensors that a user
digestive system, encountering obstacles along can blow into, bend sensors, all of which pick
the way and doing their best to avoid digestion! up on the user’s actions and can be linked to
$ An interactive presentation showing a diagram
a Scratch program to trigger an action on the
of the body system with touchable elements laptop. For example, the camera sensor could
that reveal information about each part. detect the user’s body movements and trigger
$ Use of the laptop camera to interact with a
on-screen movement of a red blood cell around
program about the user’s body system. the body, blowing on the sound sensor could
$ User interaction through a Makey Makey
show the lungs expanding and contracting
device: hooking up a physical object like a during breathing, or the heart rate sensor
drawing of the body system, a sculpture, or could trigger a beating heart animation on the
3D-printed or laser-cut item to a Makey Makey laptop screen that matches the person’s own
board. The user presses on different parts heart rate.
of the object, which can trigger actions on
the screen in a Scratch program. For exam- At the end of the project, we host an exhibition
ple, pressing on a hand-drawn picture of the of the students’ work. This project takes several
stomach triggers the Scratch program to play weeks of science and tech classes—approximately
student-recorded audio about the function of five 1-hour classes per week.
the stomach in digestion.

Craft, conductive fabrication, Makey Makey or other physical Scratch
electronics interface
3+
Locker Mirrors
by Jaymes Dec
As an introduction to 2D design and digital fabri- to learn the basic tools of vector drawing such as
cation, sixth-grade students design and laser cut Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape, and using a laser
mirrored acrylic with etchings for their lockers. cutter or engraver.
Students love mirrors! When they see that they We completed this project over a six-week
can cut their own mirror in any shape they want period, spending one hour per meeting per week.
and engrave quotes or designs, they are motivated
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Keep Smilin
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Digital fabrication Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape
3+
Talking Historical Quilt
by Mark Schreiber
Create a touch-sensitive historical quilt that plays

recorded loops when each square is touched. Use a
Makey Makey (or touch-sensitive code for another
microcontroller) to trigger each sound loop. You
will need regular and conductive sewing supplies.
Have students record an audio narration of each
event in Scratch. Program each sound recording
to play when a key is pressed so by touching each
square a different narration will play. Laser cut
silhouettes on felt squares of each event and wire
together. This project helps integrate making into
the history classroom and is a great introduction to
computer science and physical programming. This
project can be used with other subjects as well—just
think creatively!

Conductive fabrication, sewing, Makey Makey Scratch, Inkscape
digital fabrication
3+
Customized Rubber Stamps
In this project students make their own rubber this negative form with 2K silicone to make the
stamps by using a two-step silicone casting method. final rubber stamp. The single letters of the first
At the same time they learn the principles of mak- mold can be removed from the base, sorted, and
ing products by casting liquid compounds, one stored for later use again and again.
of the main principles of industrial mass produc- In under 30 minutes students are able to cast
tion. To start they put single adhesive letters in a their own rubber stamps. A 45-minute class is very
line onto an acrylic glass base in order to form a comfortable for making one rubber stamp, even if
word or phrase. Alginate paste is applied, and this the first attempt fails.
becomes the first mold. The second step is to fill

Craft Mold making, casting, alginate,
two-component silicone rubber
3+
Earthquake Engineering
by Jaymes Dec
This activity was inspired by an activity developed at the Exploratorium Teacher Institute.
Students plan and construct buildings that can Note: You may use tape or binder clips to attach
withstand earthquakes. In the process, students gussets, shear walls, etc.
learn about various methods of designing earth- Testing Procedure
quake-resistant structures, then create their own A shake table will be used to simulate an earth-
skyscrapers with balsa wood sticks as the main quake to test the quality of your building design.
structural material. In technology class they use The goal is for your building to survive as long as
3D computer-aided design software to design and possible and as strong an earthquake as possible.
print custom connector pieces for the sticks. 1. Buildings will be taped to the table.
This ties in with our earth sciences unit on 2. The specified 150 grams must be sitting on top.
earthquakes. We built an earthquake shake table1 3. Film the test using PhotoBooth or Quick-
for this activity. The unit finishes with a compe- Time Player.
tition to see which building can hold the most 4. Time how long the building stays intact with-
mass under the stress of a simulated earthquake. out any part breaking.
Students really enjoy the competition aspect. 5. When the weight falls off or the building
Materials breaks in any way, the test is done.
Balsa wood sticks, 17 ✕ 17 cm paper for measuring Time to complete is three weeks of one-hour
the base, index cards, rubber bands, masking classes (about five classes per week)
tape, binder clips
Design Requirements Note
Height The structure must be at least 1. howtosmile.org/resource/smile
40 centimeters tall. -000-000-001-798
Function The top of the structure will be an
open-air parking garage and must
be able to hold 150 grams of mass,
even during an earthquake.
Area The base of the building must not
exceed 17 ✕ 17 cm.
Weight The building must be constructed
to be as lightweight as possible.
Connectors Design your own 3D-printed
connectors to hold the structure
together. No tape is allowed for
stick-to-stick connections.

Craft, building, digital fabrication Earthquake-simulating table 3D CAD software
3+
Dia de los Muertos
Laser-Cut Calavera Art
Students design elaborate Calavera-style skulls

using any vector-design software (we use Corel-
Draw) and laser cut them. They add colorful paper
behind the laser-cut holes. Then they attach the
skulls to a wooden pallet to hang on the wall.
These projects look amazing when they are
finished. Students have so much fun adding their
own flair to their designs. This project also brings
in a lot of culture.
The projects take at least three days of 30- to
60-minute sessions.

Craft, building, digital fabrication CorelDraw or other vector software
3+
Tinkering with Spinners
by Cassia Fernandez
In this project, students create their own design There are many other ideas that could be fur-
for a fidget spinner and explore how different ther explored in this project, such as adding LEDs
variables impact the way the spinner spins. The to create stroboscopic effects or exploring materi-
goal is not to reproduce a well-known model of als other than wood. If a laser cutter is available to
spinner but instead to experiment with different students, they can further optimize their designs
structures, shapes, and balances. With materials by creating their own personalized parts.
such as screws, nuts, and laser-cut gears and One hour and 30 minutes is enough for an
connectors, students can find their own ways to initial exploration, but depending on the time
explore the materials and create diverse designs. available and on the curricular connections to
Since changes in a spinner’s design can be be explored, it could take up to 5 hours.
made really quickly, the project allows for itera-
tion and personal expression, allowing kids to
feel confident about exploring new ideas and
to express their creativity. Also, since the mate-
rials are not expensive, students can take their
creations home and keep exploring them.
It’s also a good interdisciplinary project that
connects making to mathematics and physics.
After creating the spinners, the group can reflect
together about the variables explored and con-
nections that can be made to physics topics such
as friction and inertia.

Building, digital fabrication Inkscape or similar
3+
Quick Cuts: A Flash Film Festival
by Sam Phillips
Quick Cuts: A Flash Film Festival is a multiday

movie-making exploration where kids work in
small groups to devise, produce, edit, and show-
case short films in their community. Each team
is given a location (real or imaginary), a conflict,
a bag of mystery props and materials, a camera,
and free reign to construct costumes, travel to
various locations, assemble actors, and get their
project done before the time is up.
A film festival is a great opportunity for differ-
ent age groups to compete, collaborate, and cele-
brate together. When I coordinated this project,
we matched groups of middle- and high-schoolers
with college-aged mentors who were studying
cinema studies, so there could be opportunities
for near-peer mentorship and everyone could feel
supported. It also embeds making (prop making,
costume making, movie making) within a story-
telling context and ends with a natural showcase
at the end. The time constraint lends a nice mad-
cap energy to the whole proceeding, which leads
to a lot of quick decisions, compromises, and
creative problem-solving.
This kind of project works best when there’s
a very short time constraint with plenty of
unbroken time for getting the films made, for
example, in 24 to 72 hours, overnight, or across
a weekend.

Craft, building, sewing Video camera or phone with Video editing software, e.g.,
video capture; cheap and plentiful iMovie (Mac/iOS), Adobe Premiere,
building materials, e.g., cardboard WeVideo (free, cloud-based video
foam core, hot glue, scrap fabric; editing), or Adobe After Effects
miscellaneous props (the stranger (if you're fancy!)
and more unusual, the better)
3+
Paper Bits
by Per-Ivar Kloen
Paper bits are electronic parts on paper. They

can be used as an add-on component for micro-
controllers like the micro:bit. It’s aimed at “lower-
ing the floor” for physical computing by making
the components more understandable and easier
to use. The bits can be used in lots of different
ways, like doing science with sensors or making
an interactive object (e.g., a talking monument
in history class). For the lower grades consider
preparing the bits for them (which may be a
good project for the upper-grade students).

Craft, conductive fabrication, micro:bit MakeCode, Scratch, or
electronics, microcontrollers Snap4Arduino
3+
PLA Melts
by Erin Riley
If you use 3D printers, undoubtedly you have

encountered beautiful scraps. The drizzles,
mishaps, and glitches take on a mind of their
own and have the potential for upcycling into
new art objects. PLA filament (the most common
type of 3D-printer filament) can act like paint; it
can be sticky and viscous when heated to melting
temperature and used for flat design, or it can
be shaped into 3D forms when warm. In the lab,
we save PLA scraps, students often mixing them
with thin prints (under 3 mm thick) of their own
design, and melting them into glass in a toaster
oven. This process is a great use of throwaway
3D-printed material, including the tiniest of
scraps. The glossy, melted transformation of PLA
material is beautiful, and watching the material
change properties before your eyes, at a very low
melting point, is magical.

Digital fabrication PLA scraps, thin PLA prints, Any 3D modeling software if
toaster oven creating prints for melting
3+
Cardboard Fashion Show
by Per-Ivar Kloen
Make a catwalk. Have students (any age!) pick a playful way of getting to know each other. It’s a
song and make costumes out of cardboard. Let simple way of exploring the possibilities of card-
students perform, showing their creations on the board and so much fun! Laughs guaranteed!
catwalk while playing the chosen song. Add LEDs This activity takes a couple of hours mini-
and coin cell batteries for some extra spice. It’s a mum but can be spaced over a period of time.

Craft, conductive fabrication Box cutter knife, cutting mat Optional: vector program for
designing shapes
3+
Hack Your Classmate
by Per-Ivar Kloen
Make something to change, enhance, help, modify,

or . . . hack your classmate! Like a decision hat for
someone who has a hard time making decisions.
Turn the wheel and get your decision: yes, no,
maybe later.
Supply a limited amount of material like card-
board, or for something different add facial paint.
This activity is a good icebreaker with its simple
construction techniques, and a fun way to get to
know classmates.
Two or three hours is enough time to complete
the “hack.”

Craft, conductive fabrication Box cutter knife, cutting mat
3+
Shadow Tinkering
Students create a story for a shadow play, build This is a project that can span many ages. We
the puppets and sets, and perform the play. used this in a 2½ hour workshop for students at
To start, each student writes the following the University of Bologna Undergraduate School
three elements, each on a separate sticky note: of Education. This was a great project for these
a fantasy character, a tool or object they like, and future kindergarten teachers to see how fun and
a place they care about. All of the sticky notes easy it can be to create and perform their own
are shared on the classroom wall and then three stories, even without expensive technology. It
elements are randomly assigned to student was their first time playing with LEDs, and the
teams. Each team creates a story using the three facilitators give them no instructions on how
elements and starts to plan a shadow theater to light them up. Teachers working with very
performance. The teams tinker and experiment young children tend to think that technology
with different materials and tools to create will not be used in their classrooms—or is even
everything from theater sets to character pup- dangerous for younger kids. This project offers
pets. The sets and puppets can be built with any them the chance to experiment with technol-
kind of building or recycled materials, or include ogy as a creative tool and open their eyes to
electronics. Phone flashlights are very useful for the possibilities. One teacher wrote about this
this project. “creative confidence” in her journal: “During the
Each group will face challenges like how to construction we realized the difficulty of coordi-
work as a team, how to use the provided mate- nating light with the characters, but it was also
rials to represent their ideas, how to integrate a fun and creative experience, which allowed me
new ideas into the original one, and how to to put myself into play. In fact, once we en-
change their original idea when it doesn’t work countered the difficulty, we decided to modify
as expected. This can also be extended by adding some aspects of the initial design to make the
time, requiring more elements, or requiring the final product easier and clearer.” I hope they
stories to follow a storytelling framework like will spread this creative tinkering confidence to
Propp’s narrative framework. their students!

Craft, conductive fabrication
6+
The Cucumber Slicer
by Mario Parade
A summer program funded by the Federal

Ministry of Research and Technology supported
the integration and participation of people with
special needs in the development of small per-
sonalized tools. During the first workshops it was
discovered that many students lacked sufficient
gross motor skills needed to prepare food in the
kitchen. This included cutting vegetables such as
cucumbers, paprika, and zucchini.
One of the students’ ideas was to develop a
so-called safe cucumber slicer. Starting from a
cardboard model, a 3D model was developed with
Tinkercad and then printed on the 3D printer.
After several iterations, a successful result was
achieved—a slicer that can safely be used in the
kitchen. These little helpers don’t have to be elec-
tronic gadgets but can be simple adaptive struc-
tures that can be printed with any 3D printer.
The project took two hours to complete.

Craft, digital fabrication Food-safe PLA filament, saw, Tinkercad, Cura
glue or hot glue gun
Project Snapshots MIDDLE SCHOOL 197
6+
Escape Room Design
by Justin Brown
There are many approaches to introducing maker also not too difficult for anyone to actually solve
projects to students. We have found that plan- all the puzzles and escape. Users should enjoy try-
ning and building an escape room is very useful ing to break out of the room and not be confused
in developing both skills and the maker mindset. about what to do next. The instructions to users
Students gain mechanical skills, learn about the should be clear but still reflect the theme.
fabrication tools available, and become familiar By developing themes, lock time tables, and
with the user-centric mindset needed for success the physical locks/puzzles, students make worlds
in future projects. with purpose and get rapid user feedback. Making
Choosing a theme is one of the most important escape rooms allows both experienced and novice
parts of an escape room. There needs to be a reason makers to refine their craft while also not being
why the participants are in there for 60 minutes–a dependent on any platform, technology, or equip-
story that connects the puzzles, locks, and obstacles. ment. We use craft materials and electronics plus
There should be a title for the room and decora- supplies like locks, boxes, black lights, and UV
tions that set the stage for users. All of the challenges pens. If desired, 3D printers and microcontrollers
should logically work in the theme. Students also can be integrated as well.
need to sketch the flow of challenges for users. This I give the students six weeks to build and test
does not have to be linear; there can be multiple the whole room, culminating in a community
paths. Students should test their designs with users showcase. They have four in-class sessions to work
and document the results. These skills can be learned on this as a team (two 1-hour sessions and two
in more traditional engineering projects, but stu- 1½-hour sessions). About ten days before the show-
dents seem to “get it” better via the escape room. case we have a full test run so there is enough time
The end product should be fun. Students to fix problems and improve the experience.
should make sure the puzzles are challenging but

Craft, electronics,
digital fabrication (optional),
microcontrollers (optional)
6+
Write It Do It
by Justin Brown
Write It Do It (WIDI) is an international STEM teachers take to this assignment more than other
competition that focuses on technical writing. It traditional maker assignments. This also aligns
is a great way to engage English classes in doing with international Science Olympiad, which is
(or making). One student writes a detailed techni- pretty awesome.
cal description of how to make an assembly; then This can be done in one class period. When I
their partner (the doer) tries to re-create it. I have added the report format, I gave students two days
my students make a WIDI report the first time to finish that up. Rarely are the final products
they do it. This can be done with a wide variety of better if you use a full hour; 15 minutes to write
materials and tools. and 10 minutes to “do” works well.
WIDI is a great way to get students to build Tip: Have two models so each student can both
capacity in technical writing. I've seen English “write” and “do” once.

Craft
6+
Algorithmic Art
by Jaymes Dec
Students use a variety of Logo-inspired pro-

gramming tools to design and fabricate physical
objects that are evoked by geometric forms. Stu-
dents use Turtlestitch and Beetle Blocks to design
objects for embroidery, 3D printing, laser cutting,
plotting, etc. My seventh-grade students really got
into this, especially embroidery.
This is a very open-ended project and can be
tailored for different ages, tools, and materials.
Required materials are computers as well as one
or more embroidery machine, 3D printer, laser or
vinyl cutter, sewing equipment, and Turtlestitch
or Beetle Blocks software.
The project took eight to twelve weeks of one-
hour weekly meetings.

Sewing, digital fabrication Turtlestitch, Beetle Blocks
6+
Prosthetic Hand Design
by Jaymes Dec
As a science project when seventh-grade students

are learning about the bones and ligaments in
human hands, they design and make prostheses
that have to accomplish a series of tasks: pick up
a can, turn a page in a book, and a challenge of
their choosing. We have done this project the last
three years, and it gets better every year. The kids
use a lot of craft and woodworking tools. Each
year students have experimented with upping the
ante with motor-activated arms. Last year two
students made a wearable claw that was activated
by EEG sensors!
The project lasts about two weeks with kids
working about five hours per week.

electronics, building, sewing,
digital fabrication (optional)
6+
Programmable Pinball Machine
by Cassia Fernandez
The idea of this project is to build a pinball ma- through audio cables. We use Scratch4Arduino
chine that can be programmed to create different for the programming. This makes construction
kinds of interactions, integrating everyday mate- and programming easy; however, any Arduino or
rials with physical computing. Pinball machines robotics kit could be used.
can be explored in diverse ways, incorporating Allow at least 3 hours—up to 6 hours. It works
diverse features, technologies, and materials. It’s best when divided into 1½-hour classes.
a good starter activity for kids who are not very
familiar with physical computing since it creates
a high level of engagement and is suited for rapid
prototyping and tinkering explorations.
A great diversity of materials and technologies
can be integrated into this project. Everyday craft
and recycled materials, electronics, pegboard, and
building materials can be used. And since pinballs
can have so many different features, it’s a good
activity for tinkering, allowing people to focus on
different types of things in their creation process,
based on the resources available and on the things
that they find more interesting and fun to explore.
It is a great way to introduce programming in
a contextualized way so students can create pro-
grams to add new features to their machines with
high levels of motivation. This activity can also
create a great emotional climate in the classroom,
especially in the sharing moment when kids can
play with other groups’ machines and have free
time to enjoy their own creations.
We use a “Beta Kit,” which is a kit I co-created
to allow tinkering explorations in physical pro-
gramming. The kit is composed of an Arduino
with a shield that converts the pins to audio jacks,
and small boxes with servo motors, buzzers,
LEDs, lasers, light sensors, switches, and poten-
tiometers that can be connected to the Arduino

Craft, electronics, building Beta kit (our own Arduino-based Scratch for Arduino or similar
microcontrollers physical programming kit)
6+
Marbling Plywood for Laser-Cut Parts
by Erin Riley
With its absorbent surface, plywood is a great

material for marbling, offering the opportunity to
combine a traditional art process and softening
the look of machine-made parts. We can cut parts
on the laser cutter and marble them using carra-
geenan and waterproof drawing ink. Once dry,
the surface is porous again and can be remarbled
for additional stacking of texture and color effects.
Marbled wood also works well with engraving on
the laser cutter. We use quarter-inch plywood as
it is less likely to warp, and both sides can receive
the wet media.
Marbling is a process that everyone loves. The
behavior of the ink is somewhat unpredictable,
and wonderful results emerge at the intersection
of science and art.
The process of marbling can happen in one
45-minute period. For two-sided wood marbling,
do the process over two days or speed dry with a
hair dryer.

Craft, digital fabrication Wood 2D vector design software
6+
Pixel Art
by Erin Riley
In digital art and design, as well as in digital Our students mounted and sealed the printed
fabrication, knowing the difference and the grids on wood with Mod Podge and painted the
applications of raster and vector graphics is a pixel art grid with acrylic paint. Not only do stu-
foundational understanding. With the help of Erik dents enjoy selecting images to convert to pixel
Nauman, who created a pixel-by-numbers app in art, they are excited by the process of making as
Processing,1 students are able to convert images their pixelized image emerges from the blank grid.
into color-by-number pixel maps. Students This project could be done in two class periods
decide the density of pixels and range of color, and if working with small printed grids or could be
the program generates a numbered grid with color extended for larger-scale grids.
key. The grid is in vector form and can be printed
or exported for digital fabrication. Note
1. openblackboard.com

Craft Color printer, wood, Mod Podge, Pixel-by-numbers app
acrylic paint and/or markers
6+
Material Exploration in Mold Making
by Erin Riley
Additive technology gives artists the power to

explore form with precision and imagine 3D
forms that in some cases would be challenging to
create with subtractive approaches. Mold making
takes possibilities even further as the postprint
design step offers a whole world of art materials
for students to explore for making sculpture.
Students have been creating one- and two-part
silicone molds from 3D prints and casting plaster,
concrete, CelluClay, wax, and hot glue. Additional
materials used for surface treatments include
gold leaf, spray paint, glitter, and 3Doodler draw-
ing elements. The variety of materials to explore
with this process is endless!
Multiple class periods are needed for 3D
modeling and printing, making a silicone mold,
and casting materials.

Digital fabrication Silicone, supplies or silicone molds Any 3D modeling software
6+
Contact Mic Synthesizer
by Daniel Schermele
This project aims to create learning opportunities

for students to make natural connections between
vibration frequencies and key concepts of music
theory such as timbre and pitch. Students explore
amplification, timbre, and pitch with a contact
mic and found objects. Students then can record
the sounds on Scratch and create a program to
play back the sounds using either an Arduino or a
Makey Makey. There are many ways for students
to interpret this project. They are encouraged
to use the contact mic to explore new sounds
and decide what sounds they want to include in
their eventual “synthesizer.” The design of the
synthesizer is also individually based. You can
buy contact mics or make them using the many
instructions found online.
This is a good cumulative project that takes
at least a couple of weeks. It can be taught with
lessons that focus on creating found instruments.

Craft, conductive fabrication, Arduino or Makey Makey;
electronics contact mic, cigar box, rice,
Slinky, springs, cans, etc.
6+
Office Supply Flair
by Dan Schermele
Students learn how to solder by creating fashion-

able LED necklaces, headbands, and bracelets out
of paper clips and chosen craft supplies. Students
are also challenged to design solutions that incor-
porate a switch and a battery holder that allows
them to remove and replace dead coin batteries.
This is a great way to introduce students to
soldering that only takes one to two class periods.

Craft, conductive fabrication, Soldering iron
electronics
6+
Repair Café in
the School Makerspace
Repair cafés provide space, tools, and know-how

for people who don’t want to support the common
throwaway convention. Makerspaces in schools
are able to support such a paradigm change,
too—with kids as involved players. Local commu-
nity members are invited to repair sessions with
coffee and cake, where students, their parents,
and other volunteers help them to fix broken
devices, furniture, toys, etc. Engaging students in
repairing items develops their environmental and
self-consciousness in addition to their technical
and research skills.
This should not compete with commercial
repair services but be supplemental, for example,
in niches where commercial services wouldn’t be
profitable. We have run a monthly repair café in
our middle school in Germany 1 and have received
favorable notice by newspapers and television.
Note
1. fasw.de/repaircafe

Craft, conductive fabrication, Internet research, e.g., ifixit.com,
electronics, building, sewing YouTube tutorials for fixing stuff
6+
Recycling and Upcycling Furniture
for Your Makerspace
Sometimes recycling and refurbishing is a better refurbishing process, gaining an appreciation of

option than buying new items. Older furniture valuable materials like natural wood and tradi-
that is made of natural wood is often far more tional handcrafting. Additionally, they’ll use their
durable than modern products. While equipping furniture in a more respectful manner if they
a new makerspace, it can make sense to refurbish invest time and sweat in it.
old but durable workbenches instead of buying Extension: Document the process using time-
new ones. Students can be involved in the lapse photography techniques.

Craft, building Furniture: chairs, workbenches, Design software, photo/video
tables software for documentation
(time-lapse, etc.)
6+
3D Maps
Many kids have lost the connection to the geo- interest in geography by having them use a 3D
graphy and landscape of their region. They don't printer to print 3D maps of their hometown and
hike; they are just transported in their parents’ car surrounding landscape. We made a model of our
from point A to point B with their eyes on their neighborhood, consisting of thirty 3D-printed
smartphones. For such students, geography is a the- pieces, each 19 ✕ 19 centimeters, which represents
oretical science with little importance to their lives. an area of 10 ✕ 12 kilometers. Additionally we con-
Teachers who can acquire high-resolution structed a system for projection of different data
geodata of their region may spark their students’ to the surface of the 3D map.

Building, digital fabrication Geodata acquisition and QGIS, netfabb, Cura, or others
processing
6+
Turnery for Kids
Turnery (using a lathe) in our school makerspace other woodworking techniques, doesn’t require
is a very popular activity. Actually this very old much physical ability or experience to get quite a
technology has a high level of desirability for good result even at the first attempt. After some
students. It has the right amount of danger—it’s basic safety advice, even students as young as
not too safe, but it’s not too dangerous either. It fifth grade can work on their own pieces.
works with sharp blades, and kids feel the vibra- Plan for 45 minutes for first steps and the first
tions of the machine and the power of the mo- piece, then some extra hours to explore for rather
tor—it’s definitely learning with all senses. Most good results.
important of all, turnery, in comparison to many

Craft, building Wood lathe, chisels
6+
Round, Arched Rain Roof
by Mario Parade
In a workshop, eighth-grade students designed

and then built a round, arched roof. Although it
consisted of a few simple elements, it has been
very useful and is expandable for maximum ver-
satility. The basic building blocks are 5-meter-long
wooden slats and square plywood panels (approx-
imately 20 millimeters thick). After the construc-
tion and sketching of a prototype, some of the
wood was sawn to 0.5 meter and then screwed
in parallel with the plywood. Each subsequent
parallel element was screwed on at an angle until
a semicircular arch was created. The second arch
was made as a copy of the first arch without taking
any measurements. Covered with a tarpaulin, this
rain protection system stands on an area of almost
25 square meters and has survived two storms.
Our combined seventh- and eighth-grade class
planned and built the structure in our agricultural
area in one day.

Building Cordless screwdriver, handsaw, Inkscape
hammer, yardstick or measuring
tape
6+
Microf ilms and Microstills
by Erin Riley
Changing scale is a powerful design tool—one that This project gives students the opportunity to
can transport the viewer into a world that they do explore many variables that often occur in both
not recognize, or alternatively, one that invites us science and art curricula while creating opportu-
to look even more closely. Inspired by the work nities for a wide variety of outcomes. The vari-
of Pieter van Boheemen at the Waag Society in ables include distance from camera (foreground,
Amsterdam, I have created a laser-cut microscope middle ground, background), focus, 3D space in
for use in our art and science classes for capturing enclosure, still photos, films, wet and dry media,
still and video images. The design has two enlarged flipping the lens for greater magnification, mod-
stages, one for a foreground and background, use- ifying the enclosure or building a new one from
ful for painting and using wet media, and a place to scratch, material exploration, audio input, and
mount a smartphone for backlighting or displaying LED light intensity.
digital images. The enlarged stage offers a large This project is open ended. It could be a
surface area and space for painting and adding single-period project or could be extended.
materials into the composition.
For those without a laser cutter, a cardboard Note
and foam version was designed by Abraham 1. artofdigitalfabrication.com/resources. Shared
Orozco and is available.1 with permission.

Building, digital fabrication Wet and dry art materials; QuickTime
computer for image capture
6+
Creating Physical Interfaces
to Minecraft with a Raspberry Pi
by Kevin Jarrett and Trevor Shaw
Physical computing makes learning to code more

meaningful and engaging, and few things are
more engaging these days than Minecraft, so an
opportunity to mix the two is compelling indeed.
Students can create physical interfaces to
Minecraft with a Raspberry Pi, a SparkFun “Pi-
Wedge,” and a free web-based Raspberry Pi IDE
called PiForge.1 PiForge’s block-based program-
ming interface is powerful yet simple and easy
to use. Once a connection to the Raspberry Pi is
established, kids can easily learn how to code event
behaviors (e.g., a physical device state change like
a button press causing action in Minecraft, or an
event in Minecraft like crossing over a designat-
ed border causing an action on the Raspberry Pi
like illuminating an LED or sounding an alarm).
Along the way, students’ creativity soars as they
develop more and more complex programs.
Minecraft and this activity are both easy to learn,
so programming concepts like variables, looping,
conditionals, and more all come to life powerfully
and meaningfully, even for students who do not
play the game.
We did this project as part of a four-day sum-
mer camp. It could easily be broken into several
45-minute lessons depending on the depth of
programming desired.
Note
1. genlrn.com/piforge

Electronics, microcontrollers Raspberry Pi, Sparkfun PiWedge PiForge
6+
Cardboard Chair Challenge
by Wojciech Karcz
Building a sturdy cardboard chair is a great basic- Students need to figure out a design, tinker
level design challenge. Students learn about with how to connect cardboard, and iterate
mechanical properties of cardboard, which is through setbacks. We do this in middle school,
useful in many projects. The challenge is to build but it’s also a good design challenge for older
a chair that meets two conditions: (1) the chair students or adult workshops. It’s suitable for
must be built only using cardboard without any both teams and solo designers.
fasteners (e.g., no glue, tape, zip ties), and (2) it We typically spend three to four hours—and
must support a student’s weight while sitting. make sure you have a LOT of cardboard!

Craft A lot of cardboard!
6+
Animating a Model of Myself in Scratch
Students who have never programmed or used programming languages. Students work togeth-
a computer before learn how to make anima- er to write stories, organize them using sticky
tions, games, and stories about themselves using notes, and then animate them using Scratch. They
Scratch. Scratch makes it easy for students to present the stories to the entire class for feedback.
learn programming due to its use of building We plan to add physical projects to this class in
blocks; there is no need to memorize syntax and the future.
other complicated conventions found in many

Scratch
6+
Make History
by Per-Ivar Kloen
Students research a historical person, item, or

event that deserves a monument but doesn’t have
one. They design an interactive model of the mon-
ument that reacts to visitors or the surrounding
environment. This is a “low-floor, high-ceiling,
wide-walls” project that can be modified for dif-
ferent technology, materials, and student skills.
It can include writing a report or doing a presen-
tation or video. Students can choose their own
technology. We use the Hummingbird Robotics
Kit, mBot, Makey Makey, Grove sensors with
Arduino, and micro:bit; a variety of software such
as Scratch, MakeCode, and Snap4Arduino; and
Tinkercad for circuit design.

Craft, conductive fabrication, Hummingbird kit, mBot, Makey Scratch, Snap!, Tinkercad circuits
electronics, building, Makey, Grove sensors for Arduino,
microcontrollers micro:bit
6+
Liver It Up!
by Per-Ivar Kloen
Students research the functions of the human variations are possible as these objects can be as
liver. Then they make a product that explains simple or complex as there is time and technol-
these functions, animating and illustrating with ogy. It is also a project that can be spaced over a
found materials and electronics. It’s an easy way long period of time.
to tie the curriculum to a maker project. Endless

Craft, conductive fabrication, Vector graphics program
electronics, building, sewing,
digital fabrication
9+
Creative Capacity Building
Creative Capacity Building (CCB)1 is a course other materials, and to do sketch modeling of the
framework and curriculum of Massachusetts projects and 3D design in SolidWorks. During the
Institute of Technology’s D-Lab that trains par- workshop, participants were encouraged to use
ticipants to “create or adapt technologies that will the principle of design thinking to solve critical
improve their lives and strengthen their commu- needs in their communities. One of the projects
nities.” During the course of the CCB program at was an automated irrigation system, which was
Kepler Tech Lab in Rwanda, sophomore universi- expected to improve a farmer’s irrigation experi-
ty students came together to work on projects to ence by saving time and water used.
solve community needs in (1) energy, (2) agricul- This program took two months, one session a
ture, and (3) waste management sectors. Students week, three hours per session.
were invited to work on different designs and
prototypes of their projects using microcon- Note
trollers, electronic components, cardboard, and 1. d-lab.mit.edu/creative-capacity-building

Craft, conductive fabrication, Cardboard and other prototyping SolidWorks
electronics, building materials
Project Snapshots HIGH SCHOOL & BEYOND 219
9+
Introduction to Physical Programming
At Kepler Tech Lab in Rwanda we introduced

this physical programming class to our students
to let them explore and provide them with great
opportunities learning by doing that they couldn’t
otherwise get a chance to experience. Ninth
graders learn and explore different engineering
concepts in a year-long course. Part of the year is
spent on physical computing using Arduino. Stu-
dents work in pairs to learn what they can do with
Arduino such as controlling LEDs, servo motors,
LCDs, and more. They learn to code in the Arduino
Integrated Development Environment. In one
getting-started activity, students use Squishy
Circuit dough (homemade conductive dough)1 to
make their own names, using the dough like wire
and then decorating the names with LEDs.
Note
1. squishycircuits.com

Microcontrollers, electronics Squishy Circuit dough
9+
Creative Robotics
by Angela Lombardo
After a process of experimenting and learning Facilitators provided students with a “robot de-
about programming with Scratch and about how sign canvas” to help them brainstorm and discuss
the robotics components work, students are chal- ideas. The learning path was designed to offer
lenged to work in teams to create an interactive kids opportunities to experiment with taking a
robot. We used the mBot robot, but it could be different, more active role in their learning, creat-
done with any robotics kit. ing a safe environment where they could express
Each team had to present in four different their creativity and see themselves as inventors.
areas: (1) the actual robot, (2) scenery and sets Instead of following detailed instructions, stu-
for the robot, (3) a project journal, and (4) a video dents were encouraged to explore, document,
commercial. Robotics creations had to be “inter- and reflect on the result of their choices and their
active,” meaning people had to be able to play or own thinking process. It helped them learn how
interact with the robot. to manage time; how to work as a team; and the
To spark some ideas and inspire creativity, importance of prototyping, testing, and iterating
facilitators shared some videos and set up a “tin- while working on a project—skills that they can
kering zone” full of different kinds of materials. use in everyday life.

Craft, electronics, building mBot off-the-shelf robotics kit, mBlock, Scratch
LEGO WeDo 2.0, or whatever kind
of robotics kit you have
9+
Spaghetti Tower
by Angela Sofia Lombardo and Giulio Bonanome
Participants are challenged to work in teams to

build the tallest tower using only a few provided
materials in a set amount of time. The only
available materials are spaghetti, 1 meter of
tape, marshmallows, and scissors. The tower is
required to stand without human intervention.
At the end of the activity, participants reflect
on how the tinkering or design process can be
useful in a creative task and discuss the strength
and weakness of each process.
It’s useful to let students experience a rapid
prototyping process and to reflect on it. This helps
students understand basic concepts of physics and
engineering. This activity is a good icebreaker and
team-building activity. It’s fast, fun, and cheap.

Craft Spaghetti, marshmallows
9+
Glitch Art—
Happy Accident or Controlled Chaos?
by Anne Bown-Crawford
Students at any level of expertise with digital file. You should see a bunch of data jargon. The
imaging can learn to incorporate accidental or first part of the data is the header. If you edit
purposeful changes to a digital image file— the header, it will break the entire image—try
corrupting, removing, or replacing digital data to avoid that! Try adding symbols like %, $,
to change the look of a digital image, also called {, and } all over the file, or copy large parts of the
datamoshing or databending. data and paste them in new places, or delete
The process relies on editing the underlying information all over the file. Use the Find and
data composing digital images to create some- Replace function to delete and replace large
thing new. Conceptually databending presents batches of data at once.
opportunities to exploit the imperceivable sys- 3. Save the file, open it again with your image-
tems that control the digital world. editing software, and see what happened. Trial
and error is perfectly appropriate here!
This is usually a two- to three-day project
to start, with the opportunity to go deeper into
advanced glitching using the programming
language Processing.
Resources
Daniel Temkin’s Glitch Tutorials
danieltemkin.com/Tutorials
Eight Cool Tools for Glitching Images
bashooka.com/resources/8-cool-tools-for
-glitching-images
How to Glitch Images with WordPad
datamoshing.com/2016/06/26/how-to-glitch
Here’s how it works -images-with-wordpad
1. Save an image in an uncompressed file format How to Glitch JPG Images with Data Corruption
such as BMP, RAW, or TIFF. Uncompressed datamoshing.com/2016/06/15/how-to-glitch
files have more data to edit/bend/destroy than -jpg-images-with-data-corruption
compressed files, and the image is less likely to How to Glitch Images Using Processing Scripts
completely break when corrupted. datamoshing.com/2016/06/16/how-to-glitch
2. Reopen it with TextEdit or something similar. -images-using-processing-scripts
Scroll down at least a tenth of the way into the

Computers, digital cameras, Word processor like TextEdit;
printer, photo printing paper GIMP, Photoshop, or Preview
for final exhibit
9+
Above/Below
This project results in a series of vinyl graphics

that fill the wall of a hallway at school. Students
work in pairs to design for a space on a wall that
is divided in half horizontally, conceptualizing
a composition based on the theme “Above and
Below”—what may be visible and what is the hid-
den narrative beneath that story. Students then
work as a whole class to create a collaborative art-
work down the hallway wall, deciding what comes
first, second, third, and so on.
There are three critiques: conceptual develop-
ment critique, midpoint critique, and final cri-
tique. Students are asked to consider the elements
and principles of design for the composition:
contrast, picture plane, positive and negative
space, overlapping, and movement.
Students develop an understanding of the dif-
ference between raster and vector graphics. They
learn to draw by hand on paper with pencil, then
draw with a digital tablet, iPad Pro using Adobe
Sketch, or on the computer using Illustrator or
Inkscape. Student teams learn how to prepare their
files to send to a vinyl cutter and how to operate the
vinyl cutter loaded with black adhesive vinyl.
This project takes one to two weeks.

Digital fabrication Black adhesive vinyl Inkscape, Illustrator
9+
Fashion Design with Circuits
Go beyond the basics of soft circuitry design to

add the dimension of lights to clothing designs.
Lessons begin with designing patches or cuffs.
Advanced-level projects revolve around design-
ing for the runway—from beginning concept to
fashion show—with LED lights integrated into
the design. The culminating activity is a digital
fashion design runway show.
If programming is desired, the Adafruit
Circuit Playground or SparkFun LilyPad Arduino
can be used with software like Processing. The
book Make: Wearable Electronics by Kate Hartman
is indispensable to our program.
This can start and end within a couple of days
for the cuffs/patches or extend to a six-week proj-
ect for those designing for the runway.

Craft, conductive fabrication, Adafruit Circuit, Playground, Processing
sewing, microcontrollers or LilyPad Arduinos
9+
Tin Puzzles
by Erin Riley
Students are challenged to make a two-color

puzzle that fits within an Altoids-type tin. The
learning goals are designing for fit and considering
tolerance with 3D-printed parts. This requires
multiple class periods for each of the following:
3D modeling, prototyping, and final printing.
The process involves measuring, offsetting
shapes, extruding flat shapes into 3D form,
converting 3D models into G-code, and 3D
printing. Testing fit involves making very thin
(1-millimeter) prototypes before printing the
final pieces.
This project offers a high level of technical learn-
ing while not overworking the 3D printers. It offers
extra practice with 2D vector design going to 3D
modeling. The flat format is no fuss, no cleanup,
and is less likely to cause a bottleneck, which hap-
pens with larger, more complicated prints.

Digital fabrication Altoids-type tin 2D vector design and 3D modeling
software

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Meaningful Making:

Projects and Inspirations for Fab Labs + Makerspaces

CONSTRUCTING MODERN KNOWLEDGE PRESS

All marks are the property of their respective owners.

Caution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Hey, Kids—Follow the Directions!

Editors: Paulo Blikstein, Sylvia Libow Martinez,

Meet the Contributing FabLearn Fellows

Josh Ajima Anne Bown-Crawford

Justin Brown Jaymes Dec

Koffi Dodji Honou

Cassia Fernandez Alphonse Habyarimana

Christa Flores David Hann

Nico Janik Wojciech Karcz

Per-Ivar Kloen Angie O’Malley

Mario Parade Daniel Schermele

Nalin Tutiyaphuengprasert Juliet Wanyiri

Paulo Blikstein, Associate Professor, Columbia University

Constructionism many supporters. It was as if ministers of educa-

Find Your Zero Things:

Zero Things is a call to action for students, educa-

Lithophane 3D-printed MLK. Now there is one thing.

More search results.

Not only did we publish the student designs,

Hispanic and Latino Heritage and Culture collection on Thingiverse

It’s such a big deal to have a collection or

Hidden Figures tribute lithophane space capsule design viewership soars

Find your own Zero Things

It is not just about creating these models or

Share your zero things with the world

Digital citizens adding knowledge to the world

Real Tools, Real Life, Real Learning

$ʠ “You’re not here to learn; you are just here to

In search of that feeling, I went back to

Where Art Education Meets Maker Education

Making knows no boundary between discrete

Student centered Design is a common thread

2D/3D design and digital fabrication

Row 1: Vinyl-cut stencils, laser-cut wood and paper prints.

Row 1: 3D model and print in sections.

Deconstructed book with LED stickers

Circuit within book

Programming and microcontrollers

Radial designs on a WaterColorBot

TurtleArt designs Laser-cut gingerbread

Alternative photography Art and design education meets maker

Cyanotype using vinyl-cut stencils

Artwork using low-tech materials

Recycle-pile leather sketchbook covers Bookbinding

Recycle pile Drawing in an upcycled sketchbook Student focusing on detail work

Let’s Not Make Making Too Complicated

More precision paper-sushi crafting skills

Sushi-go-’round. What can I say—they

Designing Learning Spaces for

Every learner Trusting kids

Tools and inspirational materials together

Make cleanup easy after a productive and messy day of

Giving as a Core Value in Makerspaces

Whenever I go to a conference or a maker event,