Breaking down the "age-appropriate" barriers to tinkering

Adult and teen explore wearable electronics together.

Sometimes I feel we have let our passion run amok in terms of "developmentally appropriate" sensitivity in planning programs. Isn't it just as much fun to have excited adults join turned on teens and enthusiastic elementary students in exploring the possibilities of Little Bits electronics, sewing, soldering, cardboard construction?

Why can't we have more intergenerational experiences in our Makerspaces?

Do we have to segregate by age so finely?

Dad and son explore the Hour of Code together...

At the Duxbury Free Library, some of the push back is going to be driven by our new effort to have more experiences available casually and not so much in a program format.

Having a "Little Bits" Bar and table with Legos and other construction experiences available for the casual library visitor could be an enticement to sign up for a class or Tinkering session. We have lots of teens and children who are hanging out waiting for a tutor or a parent to arrive. We have parents and older adults who are casually visiting. Why not give them an experience that engages their curiosity and pushes them to ask questions?

Raising chickens in your backyard was
presented by an entire Duxbury family.

We haven't started this initiative yet, but we're talking about it....

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Makey Makey Floor Piano

If you are looking for a short, low cost project to do with your Makey Makeys, this one is sure to be a big hit. It's a great small group project as well as an eye catching interactive display in some noisy area of the library (as long as you can keep library staff sane). This was made as part of our Tinkering Tuesdays lab. We had low tech cardboard construction, 3D printing, and the Makey floor piano going on simultaneously. It took us about 1.5 hours with 3 teens helping. Materials List: Aluminum Tape $12 Duct Tape (any color) $2 Makey Makey $50 CAT cable (there's one lying around your library trust me) or just use regular wire Wire strippers 12 x 12 x 1.5 in puzzle piece exercise mat $12 white 6 x 8 tarp (but could be smaller) $12 Computer with internet running Scratch This video shows a demonstration with step by step picture instructions and a more detailed video explanation. I got the idea from two sites that I used for consult: Ed Tech Junkies & Mak...

Our most popular makerspace/STEM/Library of Things

As of April 2018, we did a kit circulation report. We had 106 kits which have circulated 1,047 times since it's inception in 2015. Here is the top 10 list of most circulated. These include hobby kits, puzzles, cake pans, instruments, science robots/STEM, and American Girl dolls. The ukulele kits (we have one soprano and one concert kit) have been around the longest and have circulated 106 times total. Just remember someone should change the strings yearly and definitely include a tuner (we like the snark) as new strings on a uke take a while to break in. Surprisingly our meditation toolbox comes in second with 51 checkouts. It is just some CDs and a DVD. This one has also been around since the inception of our kits. Next up is our virtual reality headset toolbox. It is a Homido Virtual Reality headset. If that is too pricey, I recommend Google Cardboard. Our sewing machine comes in 5th. Knitting is a great idea fo...

3D Printing Signs for the Library Collection

Last weekend, I went to the annual Tee-Off mini golf event at the Brookline Public Library. As a first time visitor, I was mini-golfing with my phone at the ready. Special thanks to the AMAZING librarian rockstar Robin Brenner for so many great ideas. It truly is worth a visit just to see her teen room. Here are a few 3D printing/marketing ideas to takeaway: Having a 3D printer filtration cart would be wonderful in our library. Look at the price if you dare. Right now I have to go downstairs to retrieve prints because we are concerned about the fumes and little hands touching anything while the printer is on. I have a video camera set up downstairs using an iPad 2 and the free app called Presence for monitoring but sometimes I do forget to keep checking the presence website while I'm on the desk especially since it makes this annoying beeping sound to say, "Are you still watching?!"..As the sign reveals on the cart, the propensity to want to lean or...

LIBRARY AS MAKERSPACE

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