Maker Ed

Maker Education Initiative

Learning to Be Brave and Breathe: An Interview with Reyna Hamilton

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Learning in the Making: Live! invites guest hosts of color on as equal and valued partners and collaborators, so that they can tell their stories and showcase the amazing things they are making and doing! This is because youth of color deserve to see engineers, scientists, mathematicians, artists, creators, and makers of color! In this series, we interview our guest hosts to learn a little bit more about them.

Maker Ed chats with Reyna Hamilton: a versatile educator, maker, and tinkerer; Manager of School Programs at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science; and guest host on Learning in the Making: Shapes in Nature Parts 1 and 2. Read more…

How to Assemble & Distribute Home Make Kits

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This is the fifth in a series of blog posts focused on how hands-on learning can be made accessible at home. To date, kits have been distributed to 750 families in Oakland through Oakland Unified School District’s “Grab and Go” food distribution sites, drive-through graduations, and delivered to families’ homes. This work would not have […]

“Keep Your Inner Child Alive”: An Interview with Cassia Izaac

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Learning in the Making: Live! invites guest hosts of color on as equal and valued partners and collaborators, so that they can tell their stories and showcase the amazing things they are making and doing! This is because youth of color deserve to see engineers, scientists, mathematicians, artists, creators, and makers of color! In this […]

How Not to Give Up on Students: An Interview with Ariel Marchante Ortiz

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Learning in the Making: Live! invites guest hosts of color on as equal and valued partners and collaborators, so that they can tell their stories and showcase the amazing things they are making and doing! This is because youth of color deserve to see engineers, scientists, mathematicians, artists, creators, and makers of color! In this […]

Learning in the Making: Storytelling

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Everyone has stories to tell. These stories could be true or could come entirely from your imagination. Who are the characters? What world do they live in? What challenges do they face? Authors have the power to share their vision of a different world. Storytelling also connects us to our history and our ancestors. By creating stories we help other people see different ways of living. In our activities over the next two weeks, we will engage in some imaginative world making — where we will create fantastic characters and settings that expand our imagination of what is possible and what is important. Read more…

Pandemic Proof: Four Stories of Youth Making and Activism

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This is the fourth in a series of blog posts focused on how hands-on learning can be made accessible at home. This post is by contributing writer Dion Evans. To date, kits have been distributed to 750 families in Oakland through Oakland Unified School District’s “Grab and Go” food distribution sites, drive-through graduations, and delivered […]

From the Creators of Learning in the Making: Live!

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Maker Ed staff members Dora Medrano Ramos and Linda Le share why they created Learning in the Making: Live! as a powerful response to the persistent omission of youth of color and educators of color from the dominant narratives surrounding maker education. As many people across the United States come to grips with the violence resulting from this erasure — and with the anti-Black legacies and realities of policing and public education — Dora and Linda publish their personal statements of intent, originally composed on May 8th, 2020. Read more…

Statement from Our Executive Director in Support of Black Lives and Police-Free Schools

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Power, white supremacy, and capitalism are used to actively neglect, oppress, and murder Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC). I stand in solidarity with the organizers of Black Lives Matter and the Movement for Black Lives and support the direct action of revolution in the streets all around the world. The police in the United States were created to hunt down, arrest, and maintain control over formerly enslaved Black people. This legacy cannot be forgotten in the wake of the murders of Ahmaud Arbery (Georgia), Breonna Taylor (Kentucky), George Floyd (Minnesota), Tony McDade (Florida) and the countless other Black people that have been killed due to racist police violence and white vigilantism. Read more…

Pandemic Proof: An Interview with After School Educator Meisha Marshall

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The advent of COVID-19 has forever altered life as we know it, and the lives and learning of students all across America.

However, it is during times like these that heroes and heroines are born, those willing to serve and support others despite general communal fear. These are the people that sacrifice their own health and safety for the protection and safety of others. 

Today’s Maker Education Initiative interview consists of a casual conversation with such a person, Meisha Marshall. Meisha is an advocate for youth in East Oakland needing alternative ways of learning, and she explores cutting-edge ways of ensuring they have access to tools that support their mental and physical health and development. Read more…

Learning in the Making: Stop Motion Animation

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Ever wonder how your favorite cartoon characters come to life? It is done through the process of animation. Stop motion is one style of animation, and it’s really simple! Instead of drawings, artists use objects to create their illustrations. This week our guest host Bárbara Yarza will teach us the basic principles of stop motion animation as we explore our stories of self. Read more…