Maker Corps 2015 at Chicago Children’s Museum

Maker Ed is excited to welcome back Chicago Children’s Museum as a Maker Corps Host Site in 2015. For the third year of Maker Corps, Maker Ed will collaborate with more than forty organizations to host Maker Corps Members throughout the summer to bring maker activities and approaches to the communities that they serve.

Below is a glimpse into what Maker Corps will look like at Chicago Children’s Museum in 2015. Click here to learn more about becoming a Maker Corps Member at Chicago Children’s Museum.

Chicago Children’s Museum & Maker Corps 2015

Chicago Children’s Museum is happy to announce its third summer with Maker Corps. Chicago Children’s Museum is a place where families and caregivers with infants and children are encouraged to create, explore and discover together through play. Our mission is to improve children’s lives by creating a community where play and learning connect.

We are excited to bring two Maker Corps members into our community for the summer of 2015. Maker Corps Members will be working in our Tinkering Lab (TL), Chicago’s first DIY maker-space for families. Maker Corps Members spend time working with families and camp groups who visit TL, which can involve helping facilitate drop-in programming, managing our general workshop space, or working one-on-one with a child who has a specific vision to create a machine or vehicle that really works.

In 2014, Maker Corps Members Maddie and Jose delved into catapults. They researched, developed, prototyped and facilitated a drop-in tinkering programing for families, aptly named “Fling it.” Children visiting our Tinkering Lab were able to create, test out, modify, retest and tinker with the idea of making things that fling.

We are interested in bringing on passionate tinkering educators who have an awareness and sensitivity in interacting with diverse populations, and who are flexible and responsive to work with an ever-changing museum visitor-ship. Maker Corps Members will further contribute to Tinkering Lab by continuing to develop tinkering drop-in programs. An additional layer to developing programing is helping prototype activities that can be replicated by other facilitators with a wide variety of experience and strengths.