ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Dear Colleagues,

I would love to get your reflections about the essence of the maker
movement and its influence on museums for a presentation I will be doing
with Peter Crabbe of the DuPage Children's Museum and Dan Meyer of the
Museum of Science and Industry this Wednesday. It's a panel discussion and
FabLab tour organized by John Peplinski with the Chicago Museum Exhibitors
Group (details below if you're local).  Questions we will be addressing in
some form:

1) What non-museum resources (specific web sites, Maker Faires) have you
found most useful to you in your work and play? (Sparkfun.com,
Adafruit.com, etc.)

2) What aspects of the maker movement (whimsy? peer mentoring? access to
tools?) are game changers for the way we think about learning--and what are
you doing to translate that to a museum context?

3) What does the maker movement mean for exhibit fabrication (any exhibits,
not just maker spaces)? Is anyone using Arduinos, 3D printing, open-source
software/hardware, partnerships with Hacker spaces, new technologies they
discovered at a Maker Faire, etc. to improve the exhibit design fabrication
process? Are you incorporating something from a Maker Faire into your
exhibit hall?)

Feedback would be much appreciated, and I'll be happy to compile thoughts
and post a link. The audience is an assortment of exhibit professionals
representing a wide range of familiarity with the subject (museum staff and
museum consultants plus some guests from a hacker space). Meeting & RSVP
info is at this URL if you're local--Wednesday Jan 30 6:30pm

Program invitation
http://www.cmegchicago.org<http://www.cmegchicago.org/downloads/CMEG-winter2013MSI.pdf>.
Partial
program description:

Learn about the Maker movement and how insights and technologies championed
by the Maker community
are being used within museum environments. Through the interest and
intelligence of a growing community of
hobbyists, hi-tech technologies such as 3D printing, automation, and
robotics have become increasingly accessible
and affordable. Coming together to form Hacker spaces, these hobbyists
encourage growth, reinvention, and
sharing with an emphasis on creativity and fun. The Maker culture can
inspire the design and fabrication of an
exhibition or be implemented directly as a visitor experience.

As a thought-starter I'm posting a quick note I got from Eli Kuslanski when
I asked him for a his thoughts:

The opportunity for makers labs in science centers is to create a next
generation of inventors, to instill in all the spirit of the true
nature innovation with its signal noise and error, and to create
awareness in difference cognitive models between left and right
directed thinkers. To get the full benefit of these labs and to
position their participants for the future they need to be about the
convergence of both digital fabrication and digital media.

--

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