The FAB PLAY conferences are open to all educators and organizations hoping to deepen their experience of teaching and learning in Fab Labs and Makerspaces, and share their expertise back to the larger community. Although there will be some sessions on machines and techniques, the overall goal of the institute is for all participants and presenters to learn from each other and obtain new ideas to implement in their own space. Experienced and new users of all skill and ability are welcome.
FAB PLAY
CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & FAB ED NETWORK
Hosted by the Fab Play Maker Educator Institute of Hawken School
We just completed another gathering for the summer of 2022. Take a look at the sessions and the resources to learn more about what we accomplished.
This year we got back to TOOLS! Back from COVID, we dust off some of the equipment and present new ways to use the tools in your makerspaces more efficiently and effectively. We worked with other educators across the network to skill-build and level up experiences while sharing project ideas, instructional techniques, and amazing resources.
During our 2020 Summer Institute, we had an opportunity to dive deeper into Social Justice in Makerspaces. Check out the link below for some additional information and resources shared during our institute sessions and guest panel.
In 2019 we held our first annual conference and immediately started to form a network of like-minded educators looking to improve their skillsets and learn best practices from each other. Visit the link to read more about the first Fab Play conference. It was so much fun!
TOPICS
What we can do during this time of uncertainty, injustice, and a pandemic
What ideas we can cultivate during the summer
What Maker Education will look like in the fall?
KEYNOTES
Developing a Maker Mindset
Making as an Act of Representation: A hands-on Protocol to Challenge Cultures of Power
Social Justice in Making: Building our Empathy and Action Skill Sets
Assessing for Creativity
IGNITE
SPECIAL PROJECT SHOWCASESProjects that demonstrate a Maker Mindset
School wide and Community Projects
Diversity, Equity and Social Justice Projects
K-8 & High School Project Showcase
BREAKOUT SESSIONS AND WORKSHOPS
Setting up for Making safely at Home
PBL & Design Thinking in the K-5 Classroom
Improvisational Design & Mindset
Best practices on a Makerspaces & Fab Labs
Elementary Science Integration
Woodshop & Workshops
3D Printers and TinkerCad
Maker-Centered Learning, habits, and dispositions
Digital Fabrication Machines (Laser Cutter, Vinyl Cutter, CNC Mill, 3D Printing)
July 2020
We hope this note finds you and your loved ones healthy and safe. We write to you today to share our hope for connection as a maker community during this time of social, political, and economic unrest and to offer our support in the ongoing fight for equity and justice for our black and brown community and for the health and wellness of all of our citizens. Knowing it is time for us as a nation to deepen our understanding, we want to create space in this community for work that can guide us toward this higher understanding and a more just future.
We know the ideals of the Maker Movement and FabLabs are by nature innovative, nimble, and a powerful learning format for enacting real change in the designed and built world. We believe that in this spirit, our role in maker education is to lead these innovative practices that will create a better future for our students and all of society; in particular, we hope to put tools in the hands of our students of color who have been underrepresented in STEM careers for far too long.
With these recent topics heavy on our minds, we have revised and updated our format for this summer’s FabPlay Institute. Given Ohio Governor DeWine’s recent protocols for gatherings and considerations of best practices for any participant’s health and safety, we will no longer be offering an in-person gathering this June as previously advertised. We have instead shifted to a virtual conference format to connect as a community, to take place this July. We hope all participants will collaborate in creating the conference experience, building a flexible and unique format to our meetings as we did last summer. We will offer a mix of planned prescribed sessions, unconference-style flow time to allow you the space and time to gather and make, and individualized meeting times for those seeking further ideation, project, and maker skillset development.
Please find the details of this year’s Institute structure below. As we work to finalize our workshop sessions in the coming weeks, we plan to offer a variety of topics that you are familiar with and also plan to include time to think through and discuss social justice, equity, and inclusion as it relates to making. We sincerely hope everyone here will participate in moving this conversation forward.
