Library as Incubator Project

http://www.libraryasincubatorproject.org/

6 Strategies for Funding a Makerspace The Maker movement continues to gain momentum. At this year's White House Science Fair, President Obama invited Super-Awesome Sylvia from Auburn, California to exhibit her water color robot as a representative of the Maker community. At the same event, the Corporation for National Service announced its commitment to place Americorps VISTAs in Maker movement organizations across the country. Maker Ed is placing those Maker VISTAs in makerspaces to help build their capacity for engaging low-income students as makers. In this spirit, we are starting to see more and more makerspaces springing up in schools across the country. If you are a teacher experimenting with making projects in your classroom, here are some successful fundraising strategies we've seen educators use to fund a makerspace for their school community.

Detroit Public Library The HYPE Teen Center is a place where the passions of young adults are inspired through the spirit of invention, creativity, learning, and do-it-yourself (DIY) culture. The HYPE Makerspace within the HYPE Teen Center was created through a generous grant from the Cognizant – Making the Future initiative in April of 2012. Young adults work in groups with expert instructors during our weekly workshops. Once teens learn the basics of various skills, they are then allowed to go beyond the set curriculum and create new inventions and art of the teens’ vision. Detroit has always been home to inventors and visionaries, and the HYPE Teen Center serves to nurture the next generation of great Detroiters.

Advocating for Makerspaces in Libraries Since I first started my Makerspace at Stewart Middle Magnet School in January 2014, I have received a lot of positive feedback. I’ve given talks, presented at conferences, and shared about our experiences through my blog and through social media. Some of the questions I am most frequently asked are: Why should makerspaces be in the library? Westport Library Welcome to the MakerSpace — a place for creation, collaboration, innovation and entrepreneurship. Now in its THIRD year, the MakerSpace has expanded, thanks to a generous grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the federal agency that is the main source of support for libraries and museums nationwide. 3D Printing Calendar Designing a School Makerspace Makerspaces, STEAM labs and fab labs are popping up in schools across the country. Makerspaces provide hands-on, creative ways to encourage students to design, experiment, build and invent as they deeply engage in science, engineering and tinkering. A makerspace is not solely a science lab, woodshop, computer lab or art room, but it may contain elements found in all of these familiar spaces.

FFL Creation Lab Stop in and make something today at the FFL Creation Lab, a digital media lab. What: The lab includes the following technologies: 3 3D printersMac & PC computersGreen screen wallVideo cameraPodcasting equipmentAdobe Creative Suite 6 - Production PremiumiLife Creative Suite And more! Starting a School Makerspace from Scratch With the National Week of Making behind us, you might be ready to start a makerspace in your school -- but not know where to start. Will purchasing a costly 3D printer and the latest robotics kit ensure learning and maker success? What are some steps to starting a successful makerspace from scratch? Step 1: Immerse Yourself in Maker Education Before you can build your own community of makers, you need to join one! Immerse yourself in makerspaces by joining a summer maker camp like Exploratorium's Tinkering Fundamentals or the virtual Camp Google for cheap and easy STEM ideas, but most importantly: make stuff!

Places The Places section will provide information about setting up, resourcing, and staffing physical makerspaces in a variety of community contexts. We are also organizing a directory of self-described Makerspaces. Makerspace will design and develop physical workspaces in a variety of community contexts that serve a diverse group of learners who do not all share the same resources. Resources ISTE 2015: Takeaway Tips for a Library Maker Space Maker station at the ISTE Librarians Digital Age Playground at the 2015 ISTE conference in Philadelphia. The maker movement was front and center at the 2015 ISTE conference—and that’s a good thing for me. After following maker initiatives with great interest for some time now, I have the opportunity to design a maker space this year for 6th–12th grade students at my school, Worcester (MA) Academy. A search of this year’s program at ISTE, held June 28 to July 1 in Philadelphia, using the term “constructivist learning/maker movement” resulted in 67 related sessions. The ISTE Librarians Network hosted a maker station at their Digital Age Playground and convened a panel on library maker spaces, featuring elementary and middle school librarians, a school administrator, and the coordinator of a public library maker initiative. Vendors and exhibitors demonstrated tools, lessons, and ideas for maker spaces.

Directory Sometimes the biggest challenge in connecting with other Makers is trying to finding a Makerspace near you. Where do you start? Makerspace.com is establishing a world-wide directory of Makerspaces to encourage the growth of Maker communities all over the globe. By adding your Makerspace in this listing, you not only become part of our searchable database for Makers seeking like-minded people in their area but you also contribute to our study of the Makers Movement as a whole. Makerspaces in the Media Center For most people when they hear the words location, location, location they think real estate. I think of school library media centers. In almost all schools the media center occupies the largest amount of real estate on the campus.

Victory Branch Library Makeiteers Wanted! Ada Community Libraries are proud to be a part of a pilot project of the Idaho Commission for Libraries to create MakerSpaces in Idaho public libraries. We call it our Make IT space. To find out more about Make IT spaces in Idaho, please visit our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/MakeItIdaho. We are looking for some great people to help put on some Maker programs! Creating School Library Makerspaces While there is no clear, single definition to the term makerspaces (Burke, 2013; Fontichiaro, as cited in Bell, 2015), there are commonalities existing in terms of features, functions, goals and activities that makerspaces provide. A makerspace is a place where people gather as communities to be innovative, create and collaborate, to share knowledge, tools and resources (Britton, 2012). Makerspaces have transpired from the maker movement which has been popularised by Make magazine and Maker Faire founder Dale Dougherty. These creative spaces emphasise the ‘do-it-yourself’ philosophy while promoting a richer engagement and curiosity within the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths (STEAM) disciplines (Dougherty, 2013) and encourages students to pursue careers in these fields, but also to create their own jobs and industries (Peppler and Bender, 2013) that may not exist yet in a rapidly changing information and technological world.

Makerspace SDPL Labs: A Third Place for Creative Expression Our friends Monnee Tong and Uyen Tran at San Diego Public Library are the fearless teen (and tech!) advocates behind our series on the SDPL IDEA Lab. Today, Monnee gives an overview of how the IDEA Lab works– from equipment & software, to partnerships, to staffing. Enjoy! ~Erinn by Monnee Tong The IDEA Lab—it started with an...