BPC Maker Club at the First-Ever White House Maker Faire!

On June 18th, 2014, two now 8th grade students (Jane & Sam) and I (science teacher) had the wonderful opportunity to attend the first ever White House Maker Faire.  Our invitation came as a result of our proposal describing our work with the Advanced Light Source earlier this school year, where we used high energy xrays to scan small samples, then 3D-printed them out many times their actual size.  (Feel free to check out the ALS news briefs following our adventures from the initial student field experience, through the Maker Faire results and our invitation to the White House!)

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Acknowledgements

I want to begin by recognizing the many people in addition to Jane and Sam that our invitation recognizes.  Thanks to:

• BPC students in our Maker Club for setting us up for success early in the year, successfully presenting at the East Bay Mini-Maker Faire and the Bay Area Science Festival, both in the fall of 2013.

• The entire BPC Class of 2015 for their enthusiastic participation in our 7th grade field trip to the Advanced Light Source (ALS) in November 2013.

• Dula Parkinson, Beamline Scientist, for patiently mentoring me during my IISME summer 2013 internship and having the vision to design and implement our November 2013 ALS experience, as well as his continued support through the data analysis / printing process.

• Howard Padmore, BPC parent and ALS Division Deputy for Experimental Systems Group, for his role in organizing the 7th grade trip, as well as his encouragement to apply to the White House Maker Faire.

• Justin Blair, scientist, for his help with data visualization and his 3D printer assistance.

• The Maker Club (again) for a very successful debut at the San Mateo Maker Faire in May 2014, especially to those 7th graders (Flynn, Abe, Alexander, Jane, Daniel, Sam, Kyra and Emily) who volunteered their time at our booth.  Also, Gigi, Alex, and Luka (all 6th grade) and Isaac (8th grade) for their help.

• Brook Drumm, founder and CEO of Printrbot, for helping us initially get involved with 3D printing, as well as his continued generosity and support over the years. 

• Finally, those BPC students who spent long, sometimes frustrating hours with our initial 3D printer back in 2010, which was far more finicky that our current machines: especially Adam (BPC Class of 2013) and Cole, Noah and Daniel (BPC Class of 2014)

I am sure we are leaving folks off this list, but the point is that the kids (and their teacher!) did not accomplish this on their own and we are grateful for the opportunities for collaboration we have experienced along the way.

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The excitement began exactly one week before the Maker Faire.  We received the email (below) 6 days prior to the event with scant details beyond we were invited and the event would occur sometime on Wednesday, June 18th.  In addition, we were asked not to discuss our participation until the morning of the event.  I've since learned this is how things roll with White House Events.  

Two days before the Faire, we received clarification that as "honored makers" we were able to attend the event, but we would not be presenting our project. Well, that certainly made packing easier!

Once the event was underway, we were thrilled to learn that President Obama officially declared June 18th a National Day of Making! Watch his speech below (or read the text here.)

There were about 30 makers set up throughout the White House's east wing.  Some of our favorites included MaKey MaKey, Squishy Circuits, the crowd-pleasing Robotic Giraffe, and LittleBits. 

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You can read the full version about our trip on our Maker Club blog by visiting BPC's Day at the White House Maker Faire.

Here's our media roundup re: our White House Maker Faire experience:

• White House Maker Faire participant map and list of attendees 

• MAKE Magazine, 7th Grade Students Show Off 3D Printing Project at White House (6.18.14)

• Berkeleyside, Berkeley 7th graders present 3-D project at White House (6.18.14) 

• ALS News, Youngest ALS Users Go to the White House (6.19.14) (also ALS photo collage)

• SFGate, Bay Area creators strut stuff at White House Maker Faire (6.19.14)

• 3D Printer World, 7th Grade Makers Invited to White House Maker Faire (6.21.14)

BPC Maker Club at the Maker Faire

The BPC Maker Club had a booth at the San Mateo Maker Faire last weekend, showcasing the work of the 7th grade science class: 3D printing data scanned at the Advanced Light Source.  (For more information, you can read more about the original project, follow the latest ALS-tagged blog posts on our Maker Club blog, or read the most recent ALS news feature.)

The Maker Faire is a "a family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement" and this year's flagship faire brought together over 1100 makers of all ages.   The Maker Club was thrilled that we were placed in the 3D printing section rather than in the Young Makers tent.  We don't know why this happened, but it gave the students an opportunity to network with some big names in 3D printing such as Formlabs, Ultimaker and Type A Machines.  In fact Sam, a 7th grader, was even inspired to engage eight different companies in a friendly competition of printing our eggshell file!

We are also grateful to Brook Drumm, Founder of Printrbot, for generously donating a new Printrbot Simple to us just a few days before the faire.  Brook was the one who helped us get started with 3D printing back in December 2011, and it is always a pleasure to stop by his booth and hear about what he is working on next!

Sam, Brook, Alexander

The kids did a great job and were awarded an "Editor's Choice" blue ribbon for demonstrating great creativity, ingenuity and innovation, and a "Best in Class" red ribbon in the Education division.

Congrats to the entire 7th grade class for the recognition of their work, especially to Flynn, Abe, Alexander, Jane, Daniel, Sam, Kyra and Emily, who worked the Maker Faire booth.  (Also, a shoutout to Gigi, Alex, and Luka (all 6th grade) and Isaac (8th grade) for showing up as representatives of Maker Club!)


Here are just a  couple of pictures from the faire.  Please visit our Flickr page (tag: makerfaire) for more!

And finally, it was exciting to have three functional 3D printers up and running all at the same time.  

If you find 3D printers as fascinating as we do, you may want to check out our blog, Tales of a 3D Printer, "like" us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter!

SNAPSHOT: Harnessing the Power of Maker Club as Tech Support

BPC's Director of Technology, Blake Hansen, offered Maker Club the opportunity to assist him with fixing our collection of broken Chromebooks from this school year.  He offered up tools and a few suggestions, and let the boys disassemble the machines and combine working parts to create functional machines.  The group was more than willing to participate.

The four boys planned, organized and collaborated; replacing cracked screens and motherboards with bent charger ports.  Through tenacity and creativity, the kids were able to put 3 functional machines back into circulation!

Student 3D Work Selected for A Serving of Shapes Museum Exhibit

In other 3D printing news, some kids (Daniel F, Abe & Jane - all 7th graders) and I took the train down to Santa Clara on Saturday, January 18th for a Serving of Shapes 3D printing workshop at Santa Clara University.  This event was facilitated by artist Corinne Okada.

Well, it ends up that Jane had her TinkerCAD design selected to be in the final exhibit at the de Saisset Museum!  Participants were asked to "reflect on the history of food in this region or their personal relationships, experiences, and associations with food, and to use those ideas as inspiration for creating digital 3D designs."  Here is a Jane's winning design!

"This is a chicken caged by a dollar. This represents big agricultural firms containing animals in smaller and smaller spaces, animals as a product, not as a life or a creature."