Visiting a Local High School Makerspace

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Met today with Faith Caplan, who teaches in the Engineering Academy at Cordova High School, one of the college’s feeder high schools not far from our new Rancho Cordova Center.  Faith showed me around her lab, we talked about her courses and programs, and I shared with her the outline of our MAKR courses and certificates.  I also had the opportunity to talk to her Makers Club students about some of their projects.

Makers Club at Cordova High School

Looking forward to figuring out ways we might work together. Some ideas include sharing curriculum, creating opportunities for FLC’s Math and Engineering club to connect with their club, establishing a “sister lab” relationship like the one we’ve got with Georgetown Makerspace, and maybe working together on projects or events.

Makers Club at Cordova High School

More Progress, Again on Two Fronts

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Old cabinets removed from the Innovation Center, which means that hopefully the flooring will be installed soon.

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Ian Wallace (Theater Arts) and his crew are making progress on the aquaponics system. Another day or so of work, and we’ll be able to start piecing together the electronics and other systems.

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A Sister Lab – Building Regional Capacity

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Wendy and Mike Appleby teach at Georgetown School in Georgetown, CA, where they’ve been developing the Georgetown Makerspace and associated programs.  They’re starting a new gear-up phase, so I invited them to visit the Innovation Center the other day.  They brought their son Sam, and we did some 3D printing, cut some stickers on the vinyl cutter, and set up a plotter job on the X-Carve.  We talked about different ways we might work together, and decided on a “sister lab” concept.  We kicked around some ideas for a partnership plan, to include sharing information and resources,  maybe collaborating on some training, and hopefully hosting Georgetown School students for field trips and work days once our space is built out.

Measuring with Sam

I work chiefly with adults, and it never ceases to amaze me how very competent some children are at using digital tools.  After a brief introduction, Sam quickly figured out Tinkercad, and designed some sweet accessories for his action figure, though it took a few rounds of prototypes to get the scale right.  Applied mathematics!

Aquaponics Project Progress!

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After a rather lengthy pause in the project, owing mostly to institutional rhythms, Cameron Hoyt (formerly a student, now an employee of the college in the Theater Arts Department) and his crew began work on the structural skeleton of the aquaponics display.

Aquaponics Project