COMMUNITY
Maker Community
The Maker Community is a significant aspect of is the community of people that work together and collaborate. Being apart of this community promotes the sharing of new ideas because of everyone's different backgrounds and experiences in Making.
Engaging in the Making community is so important to me and my growth as Maker. Being involved promotes the exchange of diverse ideas and new perspectives in understanding and problem solving. Becoming a Maker has allowed me to connect with new people, learn and grow to develop new skills. Some of the activities that I have participated in I never would have imagined doing. Some of the people I have met, I probably wouldn’t have crossed paths with. That is the essence of the Maker community engaging others to make personal connections and learn from one another.
MAKER COHORT MEETINGS
UTeach Maker Cohort Meetings
As a part of the UTeach Maker Program, you are paired with a Maker Mentor and several other Makers in a group of similar field. I was paired with Alex, who has an interesting background of Making and relating Science to the Arts. As apart of this group along with other Makers, we collaborated each cohort meeting, working and mastering new skills. Each meeting we were introduced to new ways to implement Making into my classroom. I also participated in several different workshops that allowed me to collaborate with other people in the Making community as well as learn new skills.
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GIRLSTART
As a part of the UTeach Maker Program, I was able to have the opportunity to have an internship at Girlstart. Girlstart is a non-profit organization that provides hands-on project-based lessons for school-aged girls from 4th-8th grade. I worked with the afterschool program at different schools in the Austin area. As well as participating with the STEM CREW, where we introduced different Making skills to the communities at events such as Science Fairs, and other community nights.
Annual Girls in STEM conference
Each year there is a Girls in STEM conference where students in the Austin area come together and learn new skills and activities as well as see different career paths in STEM. Seeing women of different backgrounds come together to show young girls that they can achieve anything they put their mind to is very empowering. This event is something I look forward to every year.
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THINKERY
Thinkery JellyFish Project
My Maker Mentor, Alex, is involved with many projects at different museums and relating them to STEM education. At Thinkery there are science nights were families can enjoy learning, making and science.
Jellyfish in a Bottle is an activity in which students will be creating “jellyfish” by using plastic squares and placing them in bottles filled with colored water. The plastic floating in the water is meant to simulate the movement of a real jellyfish swimming in the water. The purpose of this activity is to demonstrate buoyancy in a fun way while also informing children of the negative impact that littering has on the environment. Plastic bags in the ocean may appear to be jellyfish to animals who prey on these sea jellies.
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LOW ROPES WITH ANN RICHARDS SCHOOL MAKER SPACE
I had the amazing opportunity to work with some students at the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders. They made obstacle courses from a simple design, to a model to actual project. I loved this opportunity because the students had their own agency on what they wanted to make and how they made them. This type of activity was made possible by implementing Maker into education.
MAKER WORKSHOPS
DRONES, DRONES, DRONES
In this workshop I learned:
● About the components of drones.
● Practiced flying and controlling a drone.
● Discussed the integration of tinkering, and problem-solving into STEM activities. This workshop was challenging because it was an example of hands-on inquiry.
● Consider how drones can be used in the classroom to teach math and science principles. When flying the drones we had to consider angles, wind, trajectory etc.
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