Category: Maker Ed Staff
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Introducing Andy Willis, Maker Ed’s new VISTA Leader
Oh, hello there, maker and maker education community. I’m Andy, the new VISTA Leader for Maker Ed. That means I have the honor of supporting and building the capacity of our VISTAs for the next year. This blog is my attempt to introduce myself, which I should immediately admit is somewhat futile as I’ve been…
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Meet Danny, Maker Ed’s New Community Coordinator
When I was in elementary school, I built a Honey I Shrunk the Kids-style shrinking helmet. If I remember correctly, the materials included an old bicycle helmet, at least one roll of silver duct tape, and the pieces of a VCR I had unceremoniously dismantled. I did not know what “making” was. I had never heard of…
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Introducing Justin Boner, Maker Ed’s Program Coordinator
Before joining the Maker Ed team in January, I had enveloped myself in the fascinating study of Greco-Roman antiquity through its languages, drawing insight and inspiration from its complex, disappearing cultures and its many, distinct but overlapping histories. This leap from the library of humanistic scholarship to the hands-on laboratory of making is not as far…
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Meet Jessica, Maker Ed’s New Education Community Manager
I found myself on the floor of the Tinkering Studio in The Exploratorium on a Tuesday morning in autumn 2014, paired with a high school math teacher and armed with the task of making a marble go as slowly as possible. I was invigorated: I had a partner, I had a goal, and I had…
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Meet Amanda! – or – How to Break a Christmas Gift in Record Time
One Christmas, I received the gift of my (then) dreams: a see-through alarm clock! I was always curious about what made things work and how they were assembled — and this clock was a perfect work of art! With its different colored gears and hard exterior just begging to be cracked open, it was a…
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Introducing Jan Schmitz, Maker Ed’s Office Manager
Hello from my desk at Maker Ed offices…right on the edge of Emeryville and Oakland. Literally. My left foot and right foot can be in different cities under my desk! Before applying for the Office Manager job here this past spring, I had not heard of the maker education movement. When I began to understand…
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Introducing Jakki Spicer, Maker Ed’s Director of Development
My father was a tinkerer. Not that you’d know it in our house, where he routinely broke everything he set out to fix (my mother learned exactly how much it cost to repair an engine into which windshield wiping fluid was poured into the antifreeze chamber). But he was a scientist who made the kind…
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Hi! I’m Chloe
I can’t tell you how many times my roommate of 5 years now has said to me, “You have too much time on your hands”. This is her default response whenever she’s found me taking apart a computer monitor, frankenstiening whatever ingredients I could find in our kitchen into some kind of dessert, creating…
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Introducing Trey Lathe, Maker Ed’s Executive Director
My first foray into making was in 3rd grade. As I was walking to school one morning, I noticed a spider jump out from a funnel-shaped web with a trap door to grab a beetle. I was intrigued that something as simple as a spider could make something as complex as a trap door. I…
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Introducing Tiffany Y’vonne, Maker Ed’s New Program Manager
Greetings Maker Ed Community and Visitors- It is a pleasure to introduce myself by letter and make your acquaintance. My gathered thoughts are snippets I send to you––a nod to the passing art of letter writing––for the personal note of which I strive in community. Consider this a personal invite to my mind of…