Reynoldsburg Battelle Fab Lab

What's A Guru?

A Guru is a student that has proven that they have mastery on every machine at Reynoldsburg's FABLAB. How do they prove that they have mastery on each machine? Well, they must publish a project step by step for every machine in the Lab. This project must be fully self-guided and have the quality and care a professional would put into it. But these students don't just jump into creating mastery projects, there is a process they have to go through.

Note: Apprenticeship, Journeymen, and Mastery are for specific machines, but being a Guru is having MASTERY on each machine. You can be an Apprentice on one machine, but be a Journeymen or Master on another. It all depends on how the student chooses to progress through the process.

Step 1: Apprenticeship

Students have to observe a Guru or teacher run the machines and shadow them through an entire project, taking notes along the way. This step is the shortest because students can only learn so much by watching. The Guru's in training must understand what it is like to go through a project from start to finish. This helps the beginner to avoid preventable mistakes. Students also have to demonstrate their knowledge of the step by step process of how to use each machine. Once they do this they will become an apprentice on that machine.

Step 2: Journeymen

Next, students must work on projects with a Guru or teacher. They can only work on machines that they have become an apprentice on, and whenever they are working on a machine a Guru or teacher must be present to ensure that the machine is being operated safely. The Teacher, or Guru, watching over the soon to be Journeymen, is there to ensure the machine is being operated properly and to advise or help the student if needed. Completing a supervised project makes them a Journeymen on that machine.

Step 3: Mastery

To become a Master on one of the machines, a Journeymen has to find a public platform, like youtube, to publish a walk through about their project for that machine. Journeymen publish step by step instructions on how they did it. Every step completed on that project has to be documented. This includes what they have done, why they did that, what problems they encountered, and how they fixed them. Images and files must be attached to what they post. For the student to be fully counted as a Master they also have to have the teacher approve that their final project and documentation is done proficiently. Students that have Mastery on one or more machines have proven that they can be trusted with the Lab equipment because safety is the FABLAB's number one priority.

What's left?

The last and final step, if you are a Master on every machine, is to create your badge. This badge must be created by using 3 computer operated machines in the Lab. How they do this is up to them because they have already proven that they know what they doing. This is the one last challenge before they can take on the responsibility of being a Guru. They have to create two identical badges, one to keep with them as proof of the effort they put in to get that badge, and one so the FABLAB can show off how proud they are of their new Guru.

Guru Responsibility

Being a Guru doesn't just mean you are trusted to use the FABLAB's equipment unsupervised. Gurus are also responsible to be the supervisor for everyone else in the Lab. They are expected to be able to teach other students how to use the equipment safely, make sure anyone that is operating a machine is doing so properly and safely, and to make sure that everyone is doing their part in keeping the Lab clean. Those who become Gurus are not just a Guru because they are amazing at using the Lab equipment, but also because they are extremely well behaved, responsible, and intelligent people. Gurus are also great student teachers and leaders.

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