Making Safely In Our Spaces

Making Safely in Our Makerspaces

Many people ask us how we manage our Makerspaces under the philosophy of open access to all, while ensuring user safety. 

As it turns out, these two ideas are not mutually exclusive - fabrication software, machines, materials, and tools can be daunting, and without proper introduction and support from a member of our Fab Play team, would feel inaccessible, while also posing safety hazards to our students. 

If we want to have spaces that eliminate the need for permission, feel open and accessible, and are in frequent use, we have to put safety at the forefront of every use of our spaces. One way we ensure this is that our spaces are always staffed (Nick DiGiorgio can be found in the Upper School Fab Lab, Anna Delia is housed in the Lyndhurst Innovation Lab, and TJ Gainley manages our Upper School Woodshop). Several Hawken teachers also host their classes in our Lab Spaces (Lower School Science, Middle School Computational Thinking, Upper School Engineering, Robotics, and Architecture). This trained adult presence in the space allows a point person for contact and support every time someone enters the room, and we also act as a built-in collaborator for your creative project. 

We have found that labeling all our equipment with safety cards and a red-yellow-green dot system allow for clear indicators to visitors and students in the space. The machine is named, there are some basic icons indicating safety equipment like eye wear or ear protection, and a color indicating the level of independence a student can use with the equipment (totally independent, with a teacher's awareness, and with a teachers very close supervision). Where we've been able, we provide 5-10 minute training videos on each machine in our lab so students and teachers can have a sense of the way a machine works, and safety notes. Our safety cards were inspired by Maker Educator Stu Lowe.

We usually start group activities to our space with an orientation to the space and equipment. We want students to feel empowered to make the space work for their ideas, and visualize all the ways the equipment and materials can come together to make their project vision a reality. We keep lots of safe, green-dot materials right at arms length all over the lab, so there is always plenty of material to build and tinker with that is completely safe for our students all the way down to preschool. 

If you are a student interested in taking on more of a leadership role in our spaces, we also host certification meetings for equipment in the Middle School, after school programming to learn a machine more in-depth from 3-8 grade, and have an Upper School Student Intern Program.  

We have posted a little below about some of our machines, tools, and equipment - but feel free to reach out to us with questions at makerspace@hawken.edu.