Makers Makers All Around

This past weekend, the Foundry Fellows travelled to the NYC MakerFaire together. "The MakerFaire is an event created by Make magazine to "celebrate arts, crafts, engineering, science projects and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset". Of course this was an amazing opportunity for our team of Fellows because we were able to see people from all over the world come together to participate in STEAM related activities.

It was quite remarkable to see so many Makers in one location showcasing their projects, curriculum, and various resources. I was encouraged to see numerous educators understanding the importance of STEAM Project Based Learning and their passion for sharing information with others.

Being a visual artist, some of my favorite parts of the MakerFaire event were indeed the artists. There was so much amazing work to spark creativity from photography and paintings to drawings and sewings. I was so in love with the patch pictured below. It was created by a Maker who decided to take up sewing one day and has now created an entire business with his traveling sewing machine!

I bought this patch from the traveling custom patch sewer to encourage a friend in his pursuit of playing the guitar. He sewed it right in front of me, which was pretty cool! One of the things I LOVE about Making is that Makers have the power to create things that can inspire, encourage, empower and quite possibly change the world.

As a Fellow, I am honored to be in the position of building capacity for "Making" or Project Based STEAM Learning in schools in order to prepare students for 21st century life and work.

One of my greatest takeaways from MakerFaire was the understanding that ANYONE can be a maker! I was in the audience for several presentations that encouraged educators to dive in and start Maker Camps or Maker Projects within their schools even if they did not consider themselves to be "techy" or have experience with engineering and science. It was so freeing to take the pressure off of and just be encouraged to be who I am. I believe this freedom will empower me to be in a better position to help my teachers and students. I will encourage teachers to think outside the box and creatively overcome challenges that try to keep them from effectively delivering project based learning experiences surrounding STEAM.

I am looking forward to sharing information and resources I discovered at MakerFaire with my teachers but more than that, I'm looking forward to inspiring them to champion making and STEAM like I was inspired being surrounded by Makers Makers All Around!