DreamYard Maker Institute 2017
Hello everyone! Megan here!
Over schools out week I had the opportunity to be a part of an intensive, three-day training for maker educators at DreamYard in the Bronx. During this training we focused on the Making through an art-based social justice lens. Makers from all over NYC and as far as Philadelphia linked up in the South Bronx to deepen the understanding of their teaching and making practices, share knowledge with one another, and most importantly, to have fun!
The first two days were spent discussing what making is, and who are makers. Would you consider figures like W.E.B. DuBois, Madam C.J. Walker, or Grandmaster Flash as makers? If you look closely enough, you can see that their biggest contributions and creative works were a result of them overlapping their community’s needs with their personal resourcefulness and creative expression. In many ways, they are all makers!
As participants of the DreamYard Maker Institute, we learned how to rapidly develop and prototype new workshops, taught one another new skills, and learned how other local Makers/Artists (Like Salome Asega and By The Flamingos) have infused their cultures and identities into creative technologies. In our peer-to-peer skill-share I even got to teach my colleagues how to use TinkerCAD and how to do a nail art technique called water marbling.
The Maker Jam was the wrap-up to the Maker Institute. In our own small groups, we developed quick, 10-15 minute workshops in which the visitor could answer a framework question. It was really cool to see how each group used rapid prototyping to ask and answer questions like “Who am I?”, “What is my superpower?”, “Where am I from?”, and “Who do I admire?” One of my personal favorites was the “Hometown Photobooth” where my compatriot Ella showed me how to utilize greenscreen technology to combine a photo of me (or my disembodied head) with a photo of my hometown (or outer space).
What I liked the most was that the DreamYard focuses on culturally relevant teaching. I also appreciated that both NYSCI and DreamYard actively work to broaden the definition of “making” and who is seen as a “maker.” I hope that one day I can create Science Ambassadors workshops that honor prominent local figures and their contributions to the Maker Movement.
If you liked this post, you might also want to check out these fine people:
DreamYard | Iyapo Repository | By The Flamingos