Last week, I ran a “Super” Maker Camp at the Innovative Arts Makerspace in Forestville, CA. We had 52 middle schoolers for the week. We had four core workshops that they did in rotation: blacksmithing, glassblowing, woodworking and 3D fabrication. Each core workshop was 2-1/2 hours in length and there were two workshops each day. In addition, there were shorter hands-on activities on the first and last day as well as elective workshops such as sewing, mosaic tile making, and water marbling. I hope the video gives a sense of what we did at Maker Camp.
I found local instructors who did a great job working with the kids, showing them how to do something and then letting them do it themselves. I believe the instructors got as much out the camp as the campers.
For our middle schoolers, I wanted to introduce learning some basic skills and have them produce something that they could take home. I was delighted that so many of the kids wanted to add a second session of blacksmithing and glassblowing, enhancing their skills. I told the kids that they can learn to do anything, but if they like doing it, they will get better; if they love doing it, they’ll become good at it.
What I enjoyed seeing was the focused energy of the campers, physically and mentally. Blacksmithing and glassblowing, in particular, can be dangerous because campers are working around a forge and an open flame. We did have a few minor burns, but I think that’s part of the learning experience as well. For most of them, Maker Camp offered them hands-on learning experiences that they would not get in school.
I was also struck by the social experience for campers. The interactions that kids have doing this work in a group (and within smaller groups) are really valuable. Compare doing this work by yourself alone. These social interactions are part of what makes a makerspace special, the secret sauce.
Two of the campers wrote a “thank you” card to the team. “Thank you guys so much for this absolutely amazing camp! We appreciate everyone who pitched in. Keep showing the world your incredible talents, and inspiring others to be what you all are… Makers!” The card was signed by two of the campers who said they were themselves “Proud Makers.”
The camp was the first event at the Innovative Arts Makerspace, which we built on the campus of what will be the Academy of Innovative Arts. The school opens tomorrow (Wednesday) with its first class of freshman. My chief design goal was to get students the opportunity every day to work on projects in the makerspace; these students will have at least 90 minutes a day to do that. I’ll be writing more about the Academy of Innovative Arts in future posts.
This was the first Maker Camp that I organized myself. At Make:, we have had a Maker Camp program since 2012 encouraging those who organize camps to add Maker projects. The summer is a great time to explore making as informal learning. I was happy to experiment creating a camp for middle schoolers and I was happy to see it turn out so well. While it is a lot of work to run a camp, it’s also very satisfying to see kids care about their work and each other.
