Table of Contents

• Super Maker Camp

  • Butterfly LED Project

  • 3D Printed Rocket

• Historical Tech Tree

• Alchemy of Craft’s Road to Maker Faire

• Our Math Authors Attend Mathfest

Super Maker Camp

Last week, I organized a “Super” Maker Camp at the Innovative Arts Makerspace in Forestville, CA. We had 52 middle schoolers for the week. There were four core workshops that they did in rotation: blacksmithing, glassblowing, woodworking, and 3D fabrication. In addition, there were shorter hands-on activities on the first and last day as well as elective workshops such as sewing, mosaic tile making, and water marbling. Here’s a video that gives a sense of what the campers did at Maker Camp.

For our middle schoolers, I wanted to introduce some basic skills and have them produce something that they could take home. I was delighted that so many of the kids wanted to add a second session of blacksmithing and glassblowing, enhancing their skills. I told the kids that they can learn to do anything, but if they like doing it, they will get better; if they love doing it, they’ll become good at it.

Having instructors from the community made it all work. (I am an organizer but can’t do any of the things that the instructors taught). The kids really liked learning from two blacksmiths, a glassblower, an artist, a woodworker and a seamstress. Like Maker Faire, it’s a matter of finding the resources in your own community.

The camp was intense and the kids had to work hard. It was also hot outside. The best thing is that the kids really enjoyed the camp.

Two of the campers wrote a “thank you” card to the team. “Thank you guys so much for this absolutely amazing camp! We appreciate everyone who pitched in. Keep showing the world your incredible talents, and inspiring others to be what you all are… Makers!” The card was signed by two of the campers who said they were themselves “Proud Makers.”

I’d love to see others organize “Super” Maker Camps like this one.

Butterfly LED Project

When I visited Maker Faire Miami in the spring, I saw Butterfly LED Project at the Moonlighter FabLab run by Tom Pupo and Daisy Nodal. I asked them if they’d share the instructions for the project with me for Maker Camp and they did. Butterfly LEDs is a really fun, fairly easy project but it does require prep work.

The butterfly shape is cut from a template out of mylar on a laser cutter. A small, two piece cardboard body fits over the butterfly and holds a small LilyPad coin-cell battery holder. Campers attach the LEDs to the Lilypad and glue it to the cardboard body. They can also decorate the butterfly using markers.

3D Printed Rocket

One of the more popular activities was using the compressed-air rocket launcher by Air Rocket Works, which is sold in Maker Shed. A basic paper rocket can be built for launching but it takes time to build. We used a bike pump to pressurize the launcher.

The current issue of Make: has an article by Rick Shertle that has directions for 3D printing a rocket. We were amazed just how far the 3D printed rocket could go, literally, out of sight. The only downside was that once the kids saw how high the 3D printed rocket went they weren’t so interested in making a paper rocket.

Searching on Makezine, I found an article by Rick Shertle with instructions for a rocket built out of foam pipe insulation and duct tape. We did try it but results were disappointing — the rocket went about six feet in the air. I suspect that the seals along the side and at the top were not air-tight.

If you are want to plan a camp, or a fun afternoon with kids, there’s just a lot of good projects on Makezine, Makercamp.com and elsewhere on the Internet. The only advice is to test out the project before buying the materials and before getting the kids involved.

Historical Tech Tree

This fascinating project by Étienne Fortier-Dubois on the Substack Hopeful Monsters is an interactive map of technological history from 3 million years ago to today. He calls it the Historical Tech Tree.

Alchemy of Craft’s Road to Maker Faire

Thomas James has started a series of videos on his YouTube channel, Alchemy of Craft, detailing his build for the upcoming Maker Faire Bay Area. He talks about building “sci-fi themed light-up pillars” to exhibit at Maker Faire.

Our Math Authors Attend Mathfest

Joan Horvath and Rich Cameron, authors of Make: Math books, went to Sacramento last week and exhibited at Mathfest. They wrote a report, Makers at Mathfest, on Makezine. The article starts:

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I’d love to hear from you if you have ideas, projects or news items about the maker community. Email me - [email protected].