Maker Ed is thrilled to welcome Great Lakes Science Center as a returning 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 Great Lakes Science Center in the summer of 2015. The guest post is written by the wonderful makers and educators at Great Lakes Science Center. Click here to learn more about becoming a Maker Corps Member!
Great Lakes Science Center & Maker Corps 2015
The Great Lakes Science Center is excited to be returning to the Maker Corps program in 2015! Great Lakes Science Center is not just a science center: we are also a NASA Visitor Center, the founding home of MC2 STEM High School and the Cleveland Water Alliance, home of the Great Lakes Steamship William G. Mather, and a partner in the Great Lakes Network, a group of science centers, zoos, and aquaria collaborating on Great Lakes education.
With its story of Rust-Belt transformation and growing expertise in additive manufacturing, Cleveland provides a rich opportunity for connecting making to more “traditional” STEM careers, such as manufacturing and engineering. Our Maker Spaces include The Spark Space, an on-site classroom maker space including a 3D printer and laser cutter, and our Mobile FabLab – the first of its kind outside MIT. Great Lakes Science Center’s mission is to make Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math come alive, and we believe Making is one of the best ways to do this. Making at GLSC focuses on our themes of structures, energy, and motion as well as the engineering design process. The GLSC maker mindset encourages students to “fail forward” via iterative improvements and open ended projects.
This year, like last year, we will host 2 Maker Corps Members. In 2014, Maker Corps Members developed curriculum for summer camps, acted as camp leaders for Maker Camps, helped develop programming for our grant-funded Cleveland Metropolitan School District 7th grade program, helped with our Great Science Academy after school program, and developed and delivered maker programing to daily museum guests.
In 2015, our Maker Corps Members will help support our summer programming for elementary and middle school children including camps, robot workshops, and our mobile FabLab. Additionally, Maker Corps Members will work closely with Education and Exhibits staff to help envision and develop ways to infuse making into the museum’s daily visitor experience.
Maker Corps Members will help develop and/or teach week-long summer camps that are Maker or FabLab-themed. Fellows will work together and be paired with another Camp Instructor to share Maker ideas and strategies. Camp topics will include such titles as “Maker Studio” “Spark Space: Rocket Adventure,” “Imaginate,” and “Dream it, Design it, Do it” and will serve grades K through 12 both onsite and at one of several off-site locations within the Northeast Ohio community.
Great Lakes Science Center will be providing our Maker Corps Members with a stipend for the summer, spring training from Maker Ed, materials and FabLab tools for tinkering, opportunities to write informal science activities, being a part of a community of museum educators, and the chance to flex your creative muscles making STEM come alive in Cleveland!
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