The Maker Ed Institute brings together educators to build a community of practice in support of powerful maker education programs.

Update, March 30th, 2020: Unfortunately, because of the current pandemic risk, which endangers many people across the world, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the Maker Ed Institute this year. Because of the ongoing need for physical distancing, indefinite shelter-in-place measures enacted in California, and to protect the health and well-being of our staff, we cannot concretely plan to gather people in person at our Community Studio in June. 

Although the Institute will not proceed this year, we are offering remote, online support to educators and families for as long as the current situation requires physical distancing and widespread school closures. In the coming months, we also plan to facilitate a remote workshop opportunity. For more information, please read this recent blog post. 

Maker education is learner-driven and hands-on.

Through a combination of workshops, discussions, skill sharing, break-outs, reflection, and collaborative work time, we will deepen our practice, learn from each other, and design together for equity in our respective programs; the Institute is built upon Maker Ed’s core values: equity, agency, community, learning, and joy. 

As a participant, you will experience maker education firsthand, reflect on your experiences, collaborate with others, and apply what you learn to your own context.

Before beginning your application, please take a moment to preview the questions here, and plan on filling out the survey in one sitting. The application deadline is March 20th, 2020. If you want more information on the programming of the Institute or the application timeline, keep reading!

Apply to the Institute

COVID-19 Policy Update as of March 12th, 2020: In light of recent developments around the spread of COVID-19, we are monitoring local public health recommendations about group gatherings and assessing the situation on a daily basis. At this time, we are cancelling public events in March, postponing our planned April workshops, and moving cautiously forward with our scheduled Summer Institute. The deadline to apply to attend the 2020 Institute is still March 20th, 2020. We will continue to review recommendations from public health agencies over the next month, and will make a final decision about whether to host the Institute by April 10th, 2020. For more information, please refer to our Cancellation Policy. 

Testimonials from 2019 Institute Participants

Who Should Attend?

The Maker Ed Institute is well-suited for teams of educators of all experience levels who are looking to further develop their maker education practice in schools, libraries, museums, makerspaces, and other educational settings. We encourage you to gather a team of colleagues from your organization or community.

Programming Details

The Institute focuses on:

• Designing for equity and sustainability
• Program design – based on our Making Spaces program
• Curriculum and activity development – based on our Approaches to Maker Education and workshop
• Documentation & Assessment – based on our Open Portfolio Project, Beyond Rubrics, and Documenting for Assessment workshop

Location and Dates

The Maker Ed Institute will be hosted at the Maker Ed Community Studio in Berkeley, CA from Monday, June 22nd through Friday, June 26th, 2020. Breakfast and lunch will be provided daily, and we will host a networking dinner in the evening of Tuesday, June 23rd. 

Specific times are listed below:

• Monday: 10am – 4:00pm
• Tuesday: 8:30am – 7:30pm (with dinner) 
• Wednesday & Thursday: 8:30am – 4:00pm
• Friday: 8:30am – 3:00pm

Fee Scale

Priority for attendance at the institute will be given to teams who are at least fifty percent people of color. We believe that our movement is made stronger, more effective, and most relevant for our learners and communities by the leadership of practitioners with a wide array of perspectives and experiences. 

In addition, our institute is most effective for teams from an organization or community who have mixed roles (e.g. librarian, teacher/educator, administrator/principal). Group size will be limited to four participants from a single community or organization.

Maker Ed offers the institute on a sliding-scale fee basis. If you are accepted to the Maker Ed Institute, you will be able to register for the amount you can pay. We do not have funding to support travel and housing costs. The following fees are per attendee.

• Full Price Ticket + Scholarship Fund Contribution – $2000 – The full price of the institute registration fee, AND a contribution to the scholarship fund for educators in need.
• Full Price Ticket – $1500
• Two-Thirds Ticket – $1000
• At-Cost Ticket – $750 – The cost of materials and food for the institute.
• Discounted Ticket – $550

Application Instructions

The Institute application includes six short essay prompts (<250 words) for you to reflect on your program and work. If you are applying to attend as part of a team, you will also need to gather some basic contact and demographic information from all of your team members before starting your application. Before beginning your application, please take a moment to preview the questions here, and plan on filling out the survey in one sitting.

Are you ready? Great! Click on the button below to begin:

Apply to the Institute

 

Application and Registration Timeline

• Application posted: January 17, 2020 
• Application deadline: March 20, 2020
• Applicants will be notified by April 10, 2020*
• Registration deadline: April 24, 2020
• Payment deadline: May 8, 2020

• Waitlist Spaces will be released by April 27, 2020
• Waitlist Payment/RSVP Deadline: May 15, 2020

*This timeline was updated on March 12, 2020.