San Mateo, CA, May 15, 2013— The Maker Education Initiative (Maker Ed) celebrates its one year anniversary at Maker Faire Bay Area with an event on Thursday, May 16, 2013 from 2-3 pm.
Maker Ed was created by Dale Daugherty, CEO of Maker Media and founder of Maker Faire, as the non-profit, educational arm of the maker movement. Dale states, “The biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity for the Maker Movement is to transform education. One way that the Maker Education Initiative will approach this is by working to help existing organizations, such as libraries, to build the capacity to engage and develop young makers. Empowering makers of all ages to play an active role in introducing students, and educators, to making will be a key component of these efforts.”
The mission of Maker Ed is to create more opportunities for young people to make, and, by making, build confidence, foster creativity, and spark interest in science, technology, engineering, math, the arts—and learning as a whole. Maker Ed plays a national leadership role in developing a maker network of institutions, youth serving organizations, statewide afterschool networks, corporations, foundations, and makers seeking to accelerate and deepen the Maker Movement.
The Maker Movement has the attention of President Obama. At the launch of his Educate To Innovate campaign to improve STEM education, he expressed: “I want us all to think about new and creative ways to engage young people in science and engineering, whether it’s science festivals, robotics competitions, fairs that encourage young people to create and build and invent—to be makers of things, not just consumers of things.” At last month’s White House Science Fair, Maker Ed announced its summer campaign to engage thousands of children in making through a skilled cadre of corps members placed in 34 host sites around the country. The Maker Corps program will train more than 100 Corps members in 19 states and the District of Columbia.
Maker Ed is tremendously grateful to its newest partner, Google for Entrepreneurs. “Google for Entrepreneurs is incredibly excited to partner with the Maker Education Initiative to help kids across the country build and make,” said John Lyman, Entrepreneurship Manager at Google. “We’re looking forward to helping communities of makers grow and can’t wait to see what they create.”
Cognizant Solutions, Inc. will support six Maker Corps host sites to help corps members develop problem-solving skills, while gaining experience serving as leaders in diverse communities. Maker Ed will report on the progress of its Maker Corps commitment next month at the Clinton Global Initiative America conference in Chicago. Last June, President Clinton announced Maker Ed’s potential impact on STEM education in the lives of girls and underrepresented populations in the United States.
Maker Ed’s programs promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines with children. Maker Ed is proud to continue the success of the Young Makers Program in partnership with science rich institutions and talented STEM professionals in the San Francisco Bay Area. This Spring alone, over 550 youth and mentors participated in the program of which 245 will exhibit their projects to the public at Maker Faire Bay Area. The program grew from a three-year partnership with the Exploratorium, to include Lawrence Hall of Science in the East Bay, The Tech Museum of Innovation in the South Bay, and the Bay School in San Francisco.
In the next year, under the guidance of our new Executive Director Paloma Garcia-Lopez, Maker Ed plans to expand its programming to include an online project library, recommendations of best practices, and program models to engage low-income children in making. Paloma expresses, “Learning from an early age that designing new things requires the ability to work with a variety of skill sets, is an important lesson. Makers young and old, exemplify a workforce that is creative and adaptable. It’s our job to tell that story, promote the maker-mindset in schools, and grow more makers, more mentors, and more spaces! This is exciting and time sensitive work.”
Maker Ed’s first anniversary event will take place on the grounds of Maker Faire, surrounded by Education Day activities. Education Day is sponsored by Intel for the second year. As a founding sponsor of Maker Ed, Intel supports a cross section of programs that help provide access to tools and instructional support that allow young people, particularly girls, to engage in making activities at home and in the classroom. Maker Ed could not achieve its mission without Intel’s support.
Maker Ed could not do its work without the generous, mutli-year support from its founding sponsors Cognizant, Intel, Pixar Animation Studios, and Maker Media.
About Cognizant
Cognizant is a global leader in business and technology services that help clients bring the future of work to life—today—in a business environment that is being transformed by a new generation of highly distributed and virtualized business models; cloud and mobile technologies, and born-digital workers and consumers.
About Intel
Intel, the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products, and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Founded in 1968 to build semiconductor memory products, Intel introduced the world’s first microprocessor in 1971.
About Maker Media
Maker Media is a global platform for connecting makers with each other, with products and services, and with our partners. Through media, events and ecommerce, Maker Media serves a growing community of makers who bring a DIY mindset to technology. Whether as hobbyists or professionals, makers are creative, resourceful and curious, developing projects that demonstrate how they can interact with the world around them. The launch of MAKE Magazine in 2005, followed by Maker Faire in 2006, jumpstarted a worldwide Maker Movement, which is transforming innovation, culture and education.
About Google for Entrepreneurs
Google for Entrepreneurs empowers entrepreneurs around the world through programs, partnerships and Google products. With over 50 programs in 110 countries, the team seeks to grow entrepreneurial communities and equip entrepreneurs with skills and resources to pursue their big ideas. To learn about the programs, or grow your own skills through free online courses, visit Google.com/entrepreneurs or on Google+ at Google.com/+GoogleForEntrepreneurs.
About CGI America
President Clinton established the Clinton Global Initiative America (CGI America) to address economic recovery in the United States. CGI America brings together leaders in business, government, and civil society to generate and implement commitments to create jobs, stimulate economic growth, foster innovation, and support workforce development in the United States. Since its first meeting in June 2011,CGI America participants have made more than 100 commitments valued at $11.8 billion. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will improve the lives of three million people, create or fill more than 150,000 jobs, and invest and loan $354 million to small and medium enterprises in the United States.
Press Contact Information:
Rachel Alper
703-798-2128
Friends and members of the press are invited to attend the event May 16th at the San Mateo Event Center. Please rsvp to Rachel@makered.org to be included on the security list.
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