Loading...I love the whole maker movement and have been thinking through ways to make it easier for more folks to get involved with it, especially in schools.
One idea that’s gotten a lot of traction is maker spaces. There are some great resources for setting up a school maker space like Makerspace Play book from Maker Ed and this article from Edutopia.
Maker ed activities vary wildly from digital activities like app creation or video making that require computers to specialized activities like 3D printing or robotics to more everyday making such as crafts, cooking, or design.
While some environments lend themselves to a more permanent kind of space for making and tinkering, many times I find myself looking for a more portable “maker kit.” This could be a box of materials that could be carried around from place to place.
In fact, planning for an annual maker day here each year, I put together a box of materials specific to the activities we’ll be doing. Over the years, I’ve begun to put together a list of things that are generally useful in maker activities.
A start at that list with some options is here in a google doc so that others can add to and comment on it.
What about you? What would you like to see in a maker kit? How would you put together a maker space? What else can we do to make tinkering and making activities easier for everyone to engage in?