Maker Ed is thrilled to welcome the Children’s Science Center as a new 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 the Children’s Science Center in northern Virginia in the summer of 2015. The guest post is written by the wonderful makers and educators at the Children’s Science Center. Click here to learn more about becoming a Maker Corps Member!
The Children’s Science Center is exploding with excitement to host two Maker Corp Members this summer at our brand new facility – the Children’s Science Center Lab, opening in June at Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, Virginia. The Center seeks to address a significant unmet need: Northern Virginia is the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. without a hands-on science center or children’s museum. As we transition from our operating as a museum without walls to opening our first physical site, the Center will play a key role in building excitement and generating support for the Maker Movement.
The Lab will have four experience zones: Experiment Bar, Inspiration Hub, Discovery Zone, and Tinker Shop. The Tinker Shop, as the name implies, is a space devoted to making, creating, building, testing, deconstructing and rebuilding.
Maker Corps Members will be responsible for creating a safe and comfortable environment alongside the Lab staff to guide visitors in hands-on investigations. They will engage directly with our visitors, particularly in the Tinker Shop and in our learning center, guiding activities such as exploring electronics and circuitry, robotics, taking apart electronics, creating simple and chain reaction machines, and building and testing objects and aerodynamics with wind tubes in order to nurture and inspire future makers and engineers.
Maker Corps Members will work in conjunction with the Center’s education and Lab staff to develop and implement hands-on and innovative programs at the Lab. The Lab offers a flexible platform for dynamic programming and experiences to encourage repeat visits by our constituents while also allowing the Center to actively test ideas and concepts for our future world-class children’s science museum. To maintain this standard of high quality experiences, Maker Corps Members will be greatly involved in program development for all our Lab spaces, but especially at the Tinker Shop.
The Children’s Science Center Lab offers a truly unique experience to Maker Corps Members. Participating Maker Corps Members will have the opportunity to influence the activities and programming of the Lab from its very beginnings. Maker Corps Members will gain insights into the process of opening of a new facility, the practical aspects of program design, and curriculum development from the ground up. They will participate in developing and piloting Maker programs and activities that can be used at our future full-scale museum. Moreover, Maker Corps Members will participate and contribute to our unique For Kids by Kids design philosophy, where we seek to incorporate the ideas and feedback of our core customers, children, into our program and exhibit designs.
We anticipate the Children’s Science Center Lab will be a very popular destination this summer (our first!). We are looking forward to providing a highly visible and unique opportunity to share making with our community. We want to take advantage of this opportunity by providing the highest caliber maker programming. We are grateful to Cognizant and the Maker Education Initiative for helping us achieve this goal.
Our mission is to instill a love of learning STEM in all children by providing unique opportunities to explore, create, and be inspired. We are seeking enthusiastic and imaginative Maker Corps Members to support our mission at the Children’s Science Center Lab. We invite prospective Maker Corp Member to apply here.
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