Academic Makerspace Courses
Academic Makerspace Courses provide makerspace operators and managers with a solid foundation of the most common maker equipment. Participants will get an in-depth examination into the entire process of equipment selection and purchase, installation, staffing, training, and use to maximize your students’ hands-on access while minimizing risks, hazards, and costs.
Get hands-on practice with the following maker technologies: drill presses, band saws, measurement tools, FDM 3D printers, laser cutting/engraving, thermoforming, soldering, CNC machining, circuit board milling, vinyl cutting, and sewing machines.
Past Courses
- Creating & Maintaining Safe & Effective Makerspaces that Matter to Students – March 21-23, 2016
Participant Survey Results and Survey Outcomes - Rapid Prototyping Technology – July 18-22, 2016
- Making Makerspaces – August 8-10, 2016
Past Symposiums
1st International Symposium on Academic Makerspaces
ISAM is a collaborative effort of the Higher Education Makerspace Initiative (hemi-makers.org)
ISAM 2016 was held November 13th-16th, 2016
| Program | Proceedings | Presentations | Videos |
| Download | Download | Download | Claremont: Welcoming culture Berkeley: Community outreach Olin: Refresher videos CWRU: Hiring student staff MIT: Student-driven best practices Yale: Campus-wide impact KTH: Start up and IP rights Old Lyme: Highschool makerspace |
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Upcoming ISAM and complimentary milestones:
- Formation of the Global Academic Maker Society – in Fall 2016
- Makershare – Central database of Maker knowledge, best practices and resources – Coming Fall 2016
- International Journal of Academic Makerspaces and Making – Calls for paper propsals coming December 2016
ISAM 2016 Synopsis:
ISAM joins the people, knowledge & inspiration that fuse to catalyze higher education makerspaces which maximize their impact on (i) the student learning experiences and (ii) alumni success. We foster community, networking, interaction and learning between people who are passionate about making. This community includes, but is not limited to, student and faculty advocates, upper administration/leadership, government policy makers, educational researchers and makerspace managers and other practitioners.
Why ISAM? Higher education makerspaces impact the efficacy of student learning in fields that include science, engineering, mathematics, music, entrepreneurship, medical/biomedical, architecture, mathematics, literature, and more. These spaces have demonstrated an ability to foster highly beneficial interdisciplinary interactions and supportive peer communities that extend beyond the boundaries of a makerspace. This nascent field is fast growing, and now is the time to gather people and knowledge together so that resources are best used to rapidly and broadly infuse makerspaces into higher education. ISAM was created to make this happen.
ISAM will gather, and make available, knowledge and best practices that may be used to form student maker communities, get students excited about using these spaces, perpetuate a culture of safe, fun and responsible use, measure/maximize educational and social impact, and to select appropriate practices, programming, safety policies, training, staffing and equipment. ISAM believes in providing a balance of different approaches to creating, running and maintaining makerspaces that yield measureable impact. This is facilitated via:
(1) Short courses that cover principles and practices
(2) Invited experts that provide insight into emerging areas, concepts and research
(3) Technical papers and poster presentations that disseminate the most recent advances
(4) Community discussions around core topics and new developments
(5) Community building and networking/making events