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Hey Charlie and Eric,

I'm sure universities and colleges will be interested in partnering with
local science centers and museums on projects like this.  At UC we're
working on research-based initiatives to make fascinating things to
investigate living matter. Some groups are designing synthetic molecular
circuits, fusion reporter genes, and bioinformatics visualization
algorithms. Mentoring and hands-on systems biology experiments for high
school and undergraduate students are on-going summer activities. I look
forward to hearing more about collaborative DIY projects. Design, build, and
test programs in diverse areas of formal/informal STEM education, including
biology, offer great opportunities.

Happy New Year.
Best wishes,
Barry

Barry Aprison, Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer, Biological Sciences Collegiate Division
Education and Outreach Director, Institute for Genomics & Systems Biology
Committee on Genetics, Genomics & Systems Biology
Chicago Center for Systems Biology
Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery, Rm. 10114
The University of Chicago
[log in to unmask]
312-659-8848 c
773-834-2787 w
www.chicago-center-for-systems-biology.org
On 12/30/10 2:01 PM, "Eric Siegel" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
> 
> Hey Charlie:
> 
> All fair points made with your characteristic certainty.  And that is in fact
> part of the point.  Things look a certain way from San Francisco, but they
> look different elsewhere.  So while the current maker culture may in fact have
> the roots you describe (though there are glassbowers in Seattle who might
> quibble, and probably several dozen other making enclaves), the real question
> is how to extend it beyond the bay area gang.  To me, that suggests looking at
> communities of makers that are both older and broader than the one you are
> describing.
> 
> The other day I was at a funeral service in queens for the husband of a
> co-worker. Before the service I was talking to her nephew, a 30 something
> african american man from queens.  He's an auto mechanic: he got into it as a
> kid, all he wanted to do was draw cars and hang around people who were modding
> cars.  He loved engineering, but couldn't hack the math the way it was taught
> in school, went into the service, came out a master mechanic, and is working
> at a pretty high end shop in queens.
> 
> I know another kid obsessed by guitars, takes them apart, puts them back
> together, swaps out components.  There are guitar making camps all over the
> country, he would have a ball in one of those.
> 
> I don't know how these stories begin, or how to generalize from them.  But I
> know that they extend well beyond the bay area in the 70's. So what we hope
> will become the defining feature of our work in the maker arena is to include
> people who are not part of the story you are telling, but who are part of a
> wider community of people who are passionate about something that they can
> build.  I don't want to speak for Dale, but I think he shares that interest,
> which is why he started Maker Faire's in Detroit and Queens, NY.
> 
> Definitely STEM and Burning Man.  Get the President out there onto the playa,
> and he'll give a speech, and it will be off to the races.
> 
> Happy New Year!
> 
> Eric
> 
> On Dec 30, 2010, at 2:07 PM, Charlie Carlson wrote:
> 
>> Hi Eric, 
>> 
>> Thanks for sharing the report.  It looks really nice and I like making.
>> 
>> I would observe however that I, and every scrap of research, that I know
>> demonstrates that hands on learning is a vital component of human development
>> (since before we were human) and that access to materials and unfettered
>> options, and mentorship characterize liberty,freedom and brain development.
>> Is this something new and recently discovered?  Probably not; more likely
>> it's not new at all. The report, unfortunately reminds of the "back to the
>> land," get to our roots movement of 1960's and a host of past social
>> engineering strategies that characterize and eventually stifle human and
>> social development.
>> 
>> I think it unfortunate that report itself reflects a lack of balance and the
>> smallest glimpse of historical perspective.  While I share many of the
>> thoughts, observations, conclusions about the beneficial nature of hands on
>> engagement and its relationship to science, engineering, and math, it seems
>> unfortunate to cast the Maker Culture independently of its roots. It is more
>> than a background. It is more likely than not that the development of the
>> make culture and its focus in the Bay Area emerged from the presence of
>> California's free-wheeling tolerant attitude, a young demographic UCB,
>> Stanford, UCSF, the Exploratorium, expanding economy and wealth, and to wit
>> the greater context.
>> 
>> Next it will be STEM and Burning Man.
>> 
>> All the best in the New Year,
>> Charlie





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