Welcome back to our ongoing series highlighting “What’s Happening” at our Maker VISTA sites. Each monthly post will quickly introduce what our subsites have been up to during the past month (or two!), and include a link for more information.
Maker VISTA is dedicated to eradicating poverty and supports Maker Ed’s mission to create more opportunities for all young people to develop confidence, creativity, and interest in science, technology, engineering, math, art, and learning as a whole through making. Maker VISTA members develop the capacity ofpartner subsites to enact this mission by building infrastructure, expanding partnerships, securing resources, organizing maker education training, and linking communities to the maker movement.
To learn more about the Maker VISTA Project, click here.
To learn more about our Maker VISTA Members, click here.
Summer camps have started! Things are pretty busy at Assemble, with summer programs kicking off and people in and out of the space all the time. Maker VISTA Members have been working on turning Assemble into a participant in the summer feeding program funded by the department of education. This means the youth in their program who qualify can receive free, healthy lunch and snacks!
Both Maker Camps at Digital Harbor Foundation are in full swing. It’s given DHF a chance to meet new youth and bring on new staff members this summer. MegaLab is morning focused on MakerCamp 3D Printing sessions & afternoon focused on iMovie Workshop for DHF Youth members. NanoLab is both morning & afternoon focused on Film Making for grades 1 – 5. This camp also has the help of Maker Corps Members to inspire the next generation through education and to make an impact in the community. To keep tabs on the incredible projects both MegaLab and NanoLab youth will create this summer follow DHF on Twitter & Instagram.
During the first month of service for our new Maker VISTA Members at the Ravenswood City School District, they had the opportunity to attend an exciting press conference at Brentwood Elementary School. Journalists came from the Silicon Valley Business Journal, ABC 7, San Jose Mercury News, Univision, and Palo Alto Weekly to hear Superintendent Gloria Hernandez-Goff and STEM Coordinator Robert Pronovost give statements about Ravenswood’s Makerspaces. Meanwhile, happy students explored their various robotics, coding, and design stations.
OC STEM has a new partnership with Project Access! In the efforts of community outreach and relationship building, they are now partnered up with Project Access, an affordable housing provider throughout California, Arizona, and Colorado. Because Project Access will have afterschool programs, OC STEM will offer professional development services so that children from these sites can have access to STEM opportunities through maker experiences.
Another Bay Area Maker Faire has come and gone, and both Maker Ed and Lighthouse spent the whole weekend surrounded by youth, over 900 makers and tens of thousands of attendees.
Maker Ed VISTA Members bounced back and forth between our Young Makers booth and the Education Stage. Over at Young Makers, over 100 youth showed projects that ranged from a homemade Skee Ball game to a model hydraulic bridge. At the Education Stage, Maker Ed hosted 2 days worth programming and speakers. Learn about Maker Ed’s experiences here.
Lighthouse Community Charter School had a chance to exhibit the hard work and creativity that their students put into making projects over the past several months as well as get new makers engaged in fun. They helped participants of all ages make marble mazes, cardboard hands, buttons and circuits. See the detailed post here.
Leave a Reply