Mobile Makerspace Design
We're currently working on a project to develop a series of keycard access cabinets equipped with maker resources for our programs. The carts will be super convenient for assisting with facilitating our programs, and we think they could lay the framework for an amazing new frontier in teaching our students. Specifically, we think that with these carts we can expand access to equipment outside of normal class hours and expand our ability to get volunteer resources.
What's the most important part of STEM education?
STEM education is all about making and doing. Students learn engineering and technology skills most effectively when they can dedicate time to practice the fundamentals of the craft.
To do this, students need resources that are:
- Conveniently located
- Frequently accessible
- Supported by knowledgeable volunteers
The biggest limitations we have observed during our current community makerspace programs are lack of availability of the equipment outside of volunteer hours and inaccessibility of neighborhoods for our volunteers. Limited student access to resources and mentorship reduces the ability to learn. As in any afterschool program, learning is limited to a few hours per week because students can’t access the equipment after-hours. Based on our experience, extended access will boost student interest and motivation, but few programs can provide such access. STEM resources are consolidated in central places and only accessible when teachers or volunteers are available.
Many of our most effective programs are very close to where our volunteers live.
This poses a huge barrier to access to students who live far away from our volunteers. Having these carts will help to make these resources more accessible even if we can't get a volunteer on location as frequently as we'd like. The carts will serve as scalable, modular makerspaces, designed specifically to enable responsible, off-hours, self-directed education. We'll also be able to connect students to remote volunteer mentorship from STEM experts.
Our project will increase effectiveness of STEM education by overcoming the barriers of access for both volunteers and students.
Cart designs
We've already built a detailed equipment spec and budget for our project. In addition, we've built some amazing cart design mocks, which we're so excited to share. Check them out!
3D printing cart
This cart will house all the equipment needed to run all of our 3D printing, laser etching, and plastics shaping projects. Our highlight projects include personalized ID badges and toys, and an amazing model car design competition.
Feature Highlights
- 2 cloud-connected 3d printers
- Laser etching machine
- 4 plastic extrusion 3d pens
- Mounted PLA spools
- Plastic shaping tools: Hot knife, heat gun, shears, pliers, etc
- 8 tablets incl. printer control software
- Whiteboard on the back
- Sealed equipment with keycard access, remote connection, and scheduling software
- Appropriate safety equipment
- Heat gloves, eye protection, air filters
Arduino electronics workstation
These carts will allow us to run our Arduino robotics programs. Highlight projects are our home electronics system and our robot soccer courses.
Feature Highlights
- Soldering irons and breadboards
- Variable DC power supplies
- Multimeters and wireless oscilloscopes
- Rasberry Pi laptops with Arduino programming software
- Sealed equipment with keycard access, remote connection, and scheduling software
- Fume extractors and safety glasses
- Full assortment of electrical components
- Additional storage for equipment and extra parts in underneath cabinets
Features of our Mobile Makerspaces
In this section we'd like to highlight some of the features of this project that will really set them apart form anything we've been able to find.
Compact and distributed
Our goal is to make the carts available even when our volunteers can't come to a site. Makercarts can be conveniently stored in school libraries or community centers and can be supervised by adults who might not be experts in using the equipment.
Expertly Crafted Hands-on Classes
For the past 5 years, @rtifice has been building electronics and maker courses that we've been sharing with our students. We have 3 full years of weekly, volunteer led curriculum available to introduce students to making. You can see some of our class instructions right here on our blog.
Key card access
One key innovation is our key card access system, which we've built using a previous grant from the Chicago Hive network. This keycard system will will open up access to equipment on their own time, empowering them to engage outside of normal class time. We'll engineer the carts so that students only get access to the tools with appropriate safety clearance for their skill level.
Remote video chat
Another innovative proposal is to equip the cart with a secure tablet for video chat between students and remote mentors.
Previous programs have brought remote mentorship from tech experts to out-of-the-way schools. Our cart's video-chat enabled tablet removes barriers between students and remote mentors in the makerkspace environment in a previously unexplored way.
Affordable and efficient
One of the best things about @rtifice is that we're a fully volunteer organization. That means no middle-men and administrators sucking up the money that should be going to fund tools and programs for our students. We've designed with a mind toward using low-cost, off-the-shelf equipment, and minimize waste. We can make our carts with no labor cost, and provide them at 10% the pricetag of for-profit competitors.
Why did we decide to take this project on?
Our mission is to increase the preparedness of students for STEM careers, by increasing high school graduation, college admittance, and pursuit of STEM majors, each of which has been repeatedly shown to produce material economic benefits. STEM afterschool programs increase these rates substantially. An analysis by a robotics education afterschool program, Project Exploration, showed a twofold increase in high school graduation, college graduation, and STEM majorship among their population. Using conservative assumptions on our population (from BLS and AfterschoolAlliance.org), we would expect to help 9 students graduate high school who would not have, and lead to 6 students graduating college who would not have, of whom 2 would have a STEM major, resulting in a net benefit of $213,000 per year for the rest of those individuals lives. Beyond graduation rates, the advantages of technology access and knowledge will positively shape the students we reach in immeasurable ways.How could you help?
We're currently trying our best to get grants to build this equipment and launch classes all around the south side of Chicago. But that said, every dollar we bring in will always help us to . If you think you could. Remember, we do this as our passion, not for a living. Every penny that we bring in goes to funding the programs we run in schools and our tech center. We're a registered 501-c-3 so your donation is also completely tax deductible.
If you think you can provide any support, your donation will help us bring these into the south Chicago community.
Thank you for reading, and let us know in the comments what you think of our idea!
