Making at Home
Cardboard and recycled materials
Craft Materials - Variety of tapes, glue gun, cardboard scissors, foamboard cutters, different types of glue, yarn, string, paints, markers, binder clips, paper clips, popsicle sticks, rubber bands, , pipe cleaners, brass fasteners, plastic ties, etc.
Electronics - Toy motors, buzzers, and LEDs as well as batteries and connecting materials such as copper tape, conductive office supplies such as paper clips, fasteners, pipe cleaners. You can also purchase kits from LittleBits, Squishy circuits, Chibitronics, or snap circuits.
Programming Languages - Scratch (great as an introduction to programming), Python, TurtleArt
Programmable Worlds - Minecraft (Now, Minecraft Education version is available to all the students through their DOE accounts - Learn here how to get started with Minecraft Education)
3D Design - TinkerCad.com (3D model for 3D printing, Legos and Minecraft, or learn coding, or circuits), 3D printer
Physical Computing - Bee bots, LEGO WeDo, Makey Makey, Sphero (There are plenty of more great options out there)
Vinyl cutter - Cricut, precision cutting of various materials for 2D and 3D applications
Sewing machine
Soldering iron - For more durable inventions
These are just some tools that are frequently used in makerspaces. What are your interests? Do you have any maker experts at your home who could teach you a new skill? (jewelry design, knitting, woodworking, ...)
Explore instructables.com to find projects for any type of making and tinkering. It is also useful to explore it before deciding what materials or tools you would like to invest in.
How Stuff Works – Diagrams, videos, and podcast explanations of how things work. Originally this site mostly featured machines and technology, it now encompasses a wider array of health, lifestyle, culture, and other possibly inappropriate categories.
Tinkering Studio Projects – Thoughtful and well-documented crowd-pleasing projects from the Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco’s Tinkering Studio.
Make Magazine Projects – Projects in electronics, craft, science, art, robots, and many more categories in all ranges of challenge.
Record your process! Sketch. Write your ideas and instructions on how to accomplish them. Take photos of projects as you create them. Documenting your work will help you with future projects, and will serve as a portfolio to showcase your creativity and what you have done and learned.
Digital Journal - Google Slides and Google Sites are two platforms that work well as a digital portfolio.
Traditional Journal - A notebook with no lines or grid works the best. Find your own style of notetaking.
What to record in the Makerspace Journal
Designs
Blueprints, plans
Ideas
Research
Interviews
Observations
Important concepts and knowledge
Reflections
Makerspace Journal Guidelines
Make sure your journal entries are easy to understand for someone who does not know anything about your project.
Start a new entry with a date and a heading/title
Immediately add any new unique ideas/concepts/observations to your journal with a heading/title and date.
All your work should be in the journal (For example: If you made sketches, glue them inside your physical journal or take photos of them, and insert them into your digital journal.
How to record it
Writing
Drawings
Tables
Diagrams
Using color
Make it your own
Additional Guidelines for paper journals:
Never remove pages from your physical notebook (even mistakes can be helpful in the future)
Never erase or remove a material you added to the journal
If you made a mistake cross it out with a single line (Do not erase)
Number all the pages