Students Exhibit Work at Maker Faire

Students in Ariel Kitch’s Middle School Technology Class were invited to showcase their creations at the iconic World Maker Faire on October 2. Hosted at the New York Hall of Science, the exposition — in its tenth year — brings together makers and educators of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels. Friends students exhibited animatronic robots that they built with the Carnegie Mellon Maker Kit as part of their eighth grade technology curriculum: a theremin musical instrument (Yunari ’20 and Colin ’20) and even an automated fortune teller (Miranda ’20).

Hosting a booth at the Maker Faire is no small feat and quite a time commitment; in addition to time spent creating their projects, students also committed to roughly 20 hours setting up and covering the booth at the Faire. Aside from the time commitment, Ariel believes that the Maker Faire provides valuable real-life experience that could potentially interest students pursue careers in technology. Ariel, herself, only decided to pursue a career in technology after hands-on tech training in college.

“I didn’t actually get interested in technology until I started working at my college radio station as the News Director and I learned to record and edit audio on the computer,” she said. “Learning to code as an adult was really a revelation for me because I realized how much I enjoyed using computational logic to solve problems.”

 

Ariel believes that the use of tactile, three-dimensional, material-based learning is imperative to holding student interest in a subject. “Materials are very important to me. Some of the best learning experiences I had as a student involved projects where I had the responsibility of working with materials in order to bring my own ideas to life. I definitely see that same sense of accountability and excitement when students are allowed to work with their hands and solve challenges in the classroom.”

Ariel is excited to get into the new K-6 Makerspace that is being built through the Campus Redevelopment Project. The new Makerspace is anticipated to be ready by the Fall of 2019. She sees these spaces as holding boundless opportunities for both students and teachers: an opportunity for students to acquire experience building with technology, and for faculty members to discover a new way of interdisciplinary learning that incorporates both elements of technology and more classical subjects.

Thank you to all of the students (both past and present), parents, and faculty members who helped in the preparation and presentation of such a successful event! Click here for more information on the World Maker Faire.