OUR STORY & Foundational values

The Barton MakerSpace was a gift given to the University from Glen and Polly Barton.

Glen and Polly Barton’s gift provided to establish a MakerSpace in BECC for students to tinker and be creative. 

The Barton Vision:

Throughout their youth, many of the engineers comprising today’s senior ranks in industry grew up tinkering – making, repairing and reverse engineering whatever they could get their hands on. In the past, some screwdrivers, a soldering iron and determination allowed one to repair or examine everything from a television to an automobile. 

Today’s products are not designed to provide such access. When a product breaks, one simply discards it. Therefore, middle and high school students rarely have the opportunity or resources to tinker. That is why today’s teachers observe students who have developed terrific software and gaming skills, but lack even a rudimentary experience with the tools and techniques to build… 

The Makers’ Laboratory has it all, allowing students to imagine, envision, create, innovate, play, learn, experiment, collaborate, share and most of all dream of possibilities. 

A further part of their vision is to have Bradley work with middle and high school students, particularly those from the Quest Charter Academy. They "want these young people to get a taste for college and create a motivation for them to participate in some form of higher education. Glen is also interested in the practical experience created in a Makers Lab. Glen is a “tinker” by his own description. He wants students to take things apart and put them back together, he wants them to learn by doing."

The Caterpillar College of Engineering and Technology & The Foster College of Business, sandwhiched into the Business and Engineering Convergence Center have two other pieces that we think enable a more perfect collaboration: Fab Labs and Convergence

Fab Labs:

What is a Fab Lab? (From fabfoundation.org and fablabs.io )

A Fab Lab, or digital fabrication laboratory, is a place to play, to to create, to learn, to mentor, to invent: a place for learning and innovation. Fab Labs provide access to the environment, the skills, the materials and the advanced technology to allow anyone anywhere to make (almost) anything.

The Fablab Network is an open, creative community of fabricators, artists, scientists, engineers, educators, students, amateurs and professionals located in more than 100 countries and 1,750 Fab Labs across the globe. Fab labs offer a wide range of educational programs for all age groups and professional digital fabrication services for various types of organizations.

Basically, the Fab Lab Network, of which we are now a part of, provides a consistent set of equipment and resources to share ideas and things to make around the world. We are also using the Museum of Science and Industry’s Project Grid and Belt system to help us to define self-directed projects and tasks for users to become experts on different pieces of equipment.

Convergence:

The Bradley Business Engineering Convergence Center naturally needs some convergence. The Makerspace is an ideal space to make this happen. The board will have students from FCB and CCET coming together to jointly develop and manage the Barton Makerspace/ Bradley Fab Lab. The goal is for the students from both colleges to come together as ONE team drive the enterprise. 

Founding Mission/Vision/Values 2019-20, developed by the first Barton MakerSpace Student Board:

Founding Mission: To foster a community of future creators and leaders. Make a sense of convergence between the majors to unify and learn from one another.  Bring the community together to teach using the tools and knowledge that the lab has to offer.

Founding Vision: To see the majors and the community come together to learn and create. With the help of this lab, there will be a space for people to create objects they once thought were not possible and meet people who can help them create them. We want to see people interacting with others that they usually would never talk to by having a competition or having some sort of seminars for people to get to know each other.

Founding Values: Creating a safe environment for learning and a more connected sense of community. 

Our Curriculum:

Following in the footsteps of our Fab Lab guide, the Museum of Science and Industry, we are creating a “belt system.” The “belt system” is a self-guided curriculum divided into a series of tasks at different levels following a karate belt system: white→yellow →orange… →black. Tasks are attainable based on the previous skillset and instructions. Completing the tasks build mastery in the subject until, at the black belt level, one is ready for independent study and can mentor others. The Museum has shared all sorts of great stuff with us - if you want to know more, to check out the training video that we did with them. It’s on the google drive under Board Info→MSI Training Videos (it is long - one of the tasks is to create our own version in 3-5min chunks!)