2019-08-23 SPLAT Curiosity Report: Maker Mindset 2019

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Editor’s Note: SPLAT members know you don’t need a makerspace to have a maker mindset. I am excited to present this special issue of The Curiosity Report with some of their thoughts on making and a maker mindset. Regular issues of The Curiosity Report will return on Friday, September 13th with the launch of our fourth volume- tell your friends!

The Cardboard Box

This article was going to start out as a book review on a graphic novel that was about making and the imagination children have when they build, but this quickly became an exploration into the necessity of creativity, invention, and making in our everyday lives!

I recently read The Cardboard Kingdom by Chad Sell. It is a story of a neighborhood of kids who transform ordinary boxes into colorful costumes, and their ordinary block into cardboard kingdom that they build from their imagination. Sixteen kids encounter knights and rogues, robots and monsters. This title also touches on themes of triumphing through adversity and making negative situations into positive outcomes. I think the book latches onto that magical feeling one gets when you are creating, and using your imagination to fuel the process of making. Reading this book made me want to live in this type of community where people work together, collaborate, cooperate and create. It is like magic! For example taking ordinary branches and making them into a log cabin for a fairy garden or taking a bathrobe and an umbrella and becoming a wizard from Harry Potter.

Making can be fun and whimsical but making can also be essential to our survival. I recently came across Japanese DIY survival videos. Japan gets hit by typhoons, tsunamis, and earthquakes and the residents have to be safe. So they launched these mini DIY projects for safety called “How to Craft Safety”. The necessity of making knows no bounds and can be the difference in helping survive a lackluster afternoon to a natural phenomena!

– Eric Hovey, Ada Community Libraries

Ode to Unproductive Creativity

Being good at something is nice –
You can earn money, praise, and instagram followers
And people will follow your advice –
Probably even send you flowers.

But, I’m here with a new edict:
Do things you like to do BECAUSE you like doing those things.
Not because practice makes perfect.
Not because spending lots of time doing something will make you better
And you are just that sort of go-getter.

Do it because you like it.

Learning a new skill is exciting
And if you’re like me you start fantasizing
about all of the ways you can start monetizing
And start an etsy shop before you’ve knitted your first sock

It’s really pretty amazing
How connecting LEDs
Teaches computational thinking
And putting paint on a canvas
Releases oxytocin, and learning
new things forms additional neural pathways in your brain

But none of that matters,
Because just throwing paint splatters
And making something that won’t ever serve a purpose
Is completely and totally valid

Heck, you can even write poems that loosely follow a Pindaric ode structure
But then because you’re trying to make a point about the process of making something, not the thing itself
You can throw the rules out the window and change into just one really long run-on sentence about how capitalist definitions of worth shouldn’t dictate every creative act in your life and part of maker culture is making mistakes, and prototypes, and putting googly eyes on things to make yourself smile and calling it art. (really wish I could split this so all the line breaks rhyme)

So here’s to the approval junkies and achievement addicts:
Lets all engage in more unproductive creativity
Make something that doesn’t serve a purpose
Learn new skills that have no extrinsic value
Create terrible art, and robots that don’t work, and poems that don’t rhyme
And encourage people in our maker spaces to do the same

– Alex Johnatakis, Caldwell Public Library

Makey Makey Mayhem

One of my favorite maker tools to set up when a group visit’s the UI’s makerspace, The MILL, is the Makey Makey. This fun and creative tool lets you build a controller for a computer using anything that conducts electricity. My usual choice for this is bananas, but people and aluminum foil are also great choices. At the spring Make It! Training, I learned from a presenter that Play-Doh would work, too! I was really excited about another conductive material, especially one that was fun but wouldn’t waste food (all those thrown away bananas were weighing heavy on my conscience). Well, when I went to the craft store to pick some Play-Doh up for a workshop the next day, all they had was modeling clay. Same thing, right? Nope- as a frustratingly knowledgeable 8th grader told me the next day, modeling clay is oil based so it doesn’t conduct electricity (Play-Doh is made of salt and water so it does). Luckily, a colleague of mine had brought in some back-up bananas so we continued that day just fine. I learn something new all the time in the makerspace and mistakes are part of that process. And now we have some extra modeling clay (email me with project ideas)!

– Jessica Martinez, University of Idaho Library

Checking into the MakerSpace

Our library makerspace has been off and running for three years now, but with a permanent location and a growing array of gadgets for everyone, we are shifting into high gear. We are continuing to foster the idea of inclusion for all ages and abilities, and inviting every community member to come take part in their makerspace. The one hiccup that was giving us pause was how to keep records and a good count of patrons using the MS. Tucker, our MakerSpace Manager, came up with this great idea: have patrons create their own lanyards, and scan them selves in and out of the MS. This gives the kids ownership of the lanyard, and they love to beep themselves into the system. Here is an image for example. Good luck Library Folk!

– Rasheil Stanger, Valley of the Tetons Library

What is a Maker?

In this day and age, the first thing many of us think of when we hear the term “Maker,” we think of 3D printing, robotics, and all the other really amazing STEM activities we want to have in our Makerspaces. While this is all very much “Maker,” there are other types of “makers.” Our Teen Services Coordinator, Kimber, inherited a brand new Makerspace, but had a vision of something greater for the teens in our community. Making a central community center for teens to make their own space.

The Teen Lounge, as we call it, has become popular with as many as 78 teens visiting in one day! The most popular activity in the Teen Lounge is really just hanging out, listening to music, and the newest addition – a pool table. While at first glance, this may seem to be a far cry from a Makerspace but Kimber has created a space for teens to make their own space. Some days, they want to do crafts, other days they want to do fun science type projects without even knowing that they are learning something new. And some days, they just want to make connections. Teens MAKE what they want, under the supervision and guidelines of the library, of course!

The dynamics of the Teen Lounge vary throughout the year. During the school year, the Teen Lounge attracts a younger crowd. In the summer months, older teens come in and out throughout the day. Each age group has their interest, but the space itself is available for each group to make their own. There have been times when the room was full of 13-year-olds making slime and experimenting with different ingredients to see how they worked together. Upperclassmen have enjoyed making connections with each other and finding common interests, thereby making friends. Sometimes they work together to make the Teen Lounge into a hub of activity, creating a demand for extracurricular activity at the library.

Kimber and her crew of teens have MADE their own space – a place to relax, a place to have fun, a place to learn, and a place to connect. They have become the Makers of their own world. A Maker can be anything you want! A Maker can 3D print, paint, make slime, even creating a space for anything you want.

– Vanessa Thiele, East Bonner County Library District

SPLAT explores the ever-evolving library world and supports library folks as they adapt to meet the needs of their communities. Library folk throughout the state of Idaho volunteer to serve on the Special Projects Library Action Team (SPLAT). Learn more about SPLAT at splat.lili.org

SPLAT is brought to you by the Idaho Commission for Libraries and was made possible, in part, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (LS-00-19-0013-19). The views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.