Reflections on Being a Makerspace Mentor

It's hard to believe that the 2017-2018 school year is coming to a close! This year, I had the privilege of serving as a Makerspace Mentor at the Ashland Innovation Center. I've learned a lot from the programs ranging from 3D Design to Robotics.

As a mentor, I am involved in planning the curriculum for each session. In the beginning of the year, I was really nervous. I would meticulously plan out each day, only to have the plans ruined by either moving too fast or too slow. So from working with the
kids this year, I learned that I don't have to plan each day down to the minute, and a loose plan of each day is best. However, it's also important to have extra activities planned in case some finish early.

Another lesson I learned is that we learn best by doing. Especially after school, elementary school aged children don't want to sit through another lesson or powerpoint. By giving the kids more time to explore, I noticed that the kids were more interested and seemed to learn more. For me, this meant taking a step back and not flying to the rescue to solve every little problem.

This year, I worked with an awesome group of kids and a fantastic group of fellow mentors. It's been really fun this year and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again in the fall. Have an awesome summer!

PS: Check out the Ashland Innovation Center's new website!

How to 3D Print from Tinkercad to the Creator Pro

Have you ever wondered how to print your 3D Design from Tinkercad to the Creator Pro? Find out by watching the video below.

GRAPHTEC Cutting Plotter CE6000-40: Vinyl Cutter

GRAPHTEC Cutting Plotter CE6000-40

 Vinyl Cutter

             The Graphtec CE6000-40 Vinyl Cutter is a very interesting and amazing machine that is available here at the AIC Makerspace. With this machine, you are able to express your ideas in vinyl form, as you are able to create your own designs to be printed. The Graphtec Vinyl Cutter can make your dreams a reality!

  

Photo Gallery of the Vinyl Cutter!

A few of  things the vinyl cutter can do are listed below:

Photo By Chris Connors

• Labels! In a classroom or even your own home, vinyl stickers can be used as signage an labels. The signage in a classroom can indicate where things are located and exit signs etc.
•  Decorate projects and walls with a vinyl cutter. The design that comes out in the vinyl sticker paper is in the control of the user, which allows for endless possibilities.
•  T-shirts- A commonly used method of transferring your design onto a t-shirt is called silkscreening. This is simply the transfer of an image onto a t-shirt through areas blocked off in the vinyl. A tutorial on silkscreening with vinyl by maker Chris Connors is listed here: https://makezine.com/projects/make-36-boards/vinyl-silk-screen-printing

What we have already used the vinyl cutter for in the MakerSpace:

The Almost finished Plinko Board
Photo by Chad McGowan

      For Ashland Day, a few mentors (including me) got together to create a game for the kids to play while outside. We came up with the idea of a Plinko board; a game that is based on the luck of a ping-pong ball going through a series of obstacles made of nails to get a prize. To decorate it, we put vinyl stickers on the Plinko board, and it made the game look 100x better. For the sign, we printed out vinyl letters to paste on some cardboard, which looked very neat and complete because of the vinyl. 

         

          The Graphtec Vinyl Cutter here at the AIC Makerspace is one of our most prized possessions. As shown, it has proved to be a very useful machine for the mentors and will continue to prove so, as we start new projects with the Vinyl Cutter. Not only this, but the students that come by to the afterschool Makerspace programs will also be able to use this amazing machine, while the mentors get to watch their ideas come to life.