Educators at Maker Faire
The site of World Maker’s Faire, the New York Hall of Science, began its existence as an attraction for the 1964 World’s Fair. That same year Isaac Asimov’s predictions of the future were prescient; he predicted a move away from manufacturing jobs to an information age, he also predicted that the creative class would be the ruling class but that only a handful of lucky individuals would be able to truly create. This last vision is one that the founder of World Maker Faire, Dale Dougherty, has worked to change to a vision of inclusion and equity.
Members of the NYC DOE and MFSC Maker Ed Cohort were invited to attend the Make: Education Forum the day before the 2018 World Maker Faire. At the forum attendees heard from speakers on embracing Maker Education (Dale Dougherty, MAKE), how Maker Education impacts students across NYC (Lori Stahl-Van Brackle, NYC DOE, and Carlos Moreno, Big Picture Learning), and learned about a new vision for the future in which education is the key to transforming society by preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow (Sarah Boisvert, Fab Lab Hud). Other speakers included MFSC Maker Ed Cohort guest member Niti Parikh from Cornell Tech’s Maker Lab, and Mohammed Haroun from Columbia’s Makerspace.
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Following lunch a selection of workshops let educators be Makers and play with Beagleboards, or Construct with Cardboard. Ultimately the message attendees came away with from the day was to be Champions for Making in their classrooms, schools, and communities.
The following day, attendees got to see, in action, the impact of Making as the 9th Annual World Maker Faire opened to the public. From the Young Maker’s Space where schools such as UA Maker had tables set up with student designed projects to teach, to the Fabric Arts workshop in the Design Lab at NYSci, the hands-on opportunities to Make were abundant. There were also amazing technological innovations on display and projects that educators or young Makers could develop, such as the Tiny House. Saturday’s attendees also got to hear from the Myth Buster Jr. cast, including Adam Savage. Below are some favorite moments from NYC Educators who attended.
