Turn your kids into Makers. Start a DIY Club

Here's an idea to jump start a Maker movement at your library:
Start a DIY club! https://diy.org/stories

As described in the May 20, 2012 New York Times article by Nick Bilton:

"It was refreshing to discover a new start-up called DIY, which offers a do-it-yourself — or maker, in Valley jargon — community for children.

DIY is seeking to be like a Boy Scout troop for the modern day. Instead of teaching children how to tie a clove hitch that seems fit for teenagers in the 1920s, DIY, a Web site and mobile app, will encourage children to build things, document them with an iPhone or iPod, and then receive rewards for their work.

I hasten to add that DIY isn’t just for boys. Zach Klein, DIY’s chief executive, said, “It’s really important to us that the tree forts allow boys and girls.”

Children will soon be able to learn to program and make cardboard birdhouses, soda bottle safety glasses, duct tape wallets and toothbrush robots that scurry across a desk like alien life-forms. All these projects will allow children to earn virtual badges, which will appear on the site. They can also receive embroidered, physical badges in the mail."

On another note, for yet another inspiration from a young Maker, Caine Monroy, check out Caine's Arcade, the real life cardboard arcade from East LA:

https://vimeo.com/40000072

Not to be outdone, The PHILS club at the Duxbury Free Library is working on a cardboard world which, after seeing Caine's movie, we want to make interactive.

The power of sharing ideas cannot be overestimated!

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LIBRARY AS MAKERSPACE

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