Let’s join in the celebration of innovation, ingenuity & creativity of the youth we work with during the National Week of Making May 16-22, 2022. Making gives youth opportunities to engage in social and emotional learning, creativity and innovation, and STEM learning together. May is the perfect time to celebrate and connect to the larger maker movement that has swept through our country.
If you’re not really sure what this maker movement is, check out this TEDx Talk by Mark Barnett that explains the maker movement and how it connects to schools and summer programs. It is a great introduction, or message to share with potential partners. And here are four ways you can celebrate the National Week of Making in your program:
- Have fun making together.
- Have your own maker faire.
- Create something unique and celebrate the innovation and creativity of the youth in your program by creating your own Rude Goldberg machine.
- Start your own maker’s club in your afterschool program.
You can have fun making together. There are many great ideas for simple projects to try out from the Exploratorium’s Tinkering Studio, but one of my favorite things to tinker with is a grape smasher. You can check out our Design a Grape Smasher video to see how staff encourage youth to embrace active STEM learning and persist and learn from failure as they learn to use the principles of simple machines to create their own grape smasher. See how making and tinkering come together with good facilitation and fun when youth build their own grape smashers.
You can have your own maker faire. Make magazine has created resources for putting together your own School Maker Faire where your students are the stars. And Click2SciencePD has some great resources to help you build relationships with STEM-rich partners in your community that can help you make it happen.
You can create something unique and celebrate the innovation and creativity of the youth in your program by creating your own Rube Goldberg machine. Did you know that Rube Goldberg drew crazy machines but never actually built them? But there is some crazy fun that comes from trying to build a contraption that makes a simple task complicated and funny. Check out these resources from Click2Science that are designed to help your staff support youth as they try again and again and get frustrated with the process.
You can start your own maker’s club in your afterschool program. Use these tips from Make to help you get started. In 2017, Click2Science created a series of webinars that focused on fostering making experiences that help youth learn and see themselves as problem-solvers. Check out these webinars and find ideas for training staff and making activities you can use right away.
Creating a Making and Tinkering Summer
Making and Learning – Bringing it all Together
Selecting STEM Activities for Maker Spaces