Makerspace Instruction Support

Help your students engage with your class to spur creativity, problem solving skills, and a deep engagement with the course materials by adopting the tools and technologies of the maker movement and virtual reality. No matter the discipline, level of expertise, or technical or creative focus, we offer our knowledge and experience to help you integrate hands-on learning in your courses to accomplish your learning objectives. We can:

  • consult with you on your syllabus, course projects and assignments 
  • host a session for your class in the Hill Library Makerspace, other library spaces, or virtually
  • visit your classroom to talk about library resources or offer hands-on learning experiences
  • provide individual project assistance to students by appointment to help them understand and complete hands-on assignments.
  • host final project presentations and galleries

Contact us now to get started!

Here are some of our most popular instruction offerings:

(Have other ideas? Collaborate with us to make something new for your class.)

 

3D Design for 3D Printing

(Synchronous, In Your Classroom or Online) 

demonstration of Tinkercad interface

This session covers the basics of 3D Design. We use a free online tool, Tinkercad, to show one of the fastest ways to go from idea to 3D print. Students then have the opportunity to submit the models they design for us to print. Students can choose whether to pick up these printed models at Hill Library or have them mailed home.

Critical Making with LoFi Prototyping

(Synchronous, In Your Classroom or Online)

Lofi Critical Making Kit with small manipulatives pipecleaners etc...

We give your students a low-fidelity critical making prototyping kit (pipe cleaners, LEDs, batter, rubber bands, coffee stirs, etc.) to support a critical making assignment or a rapid prototyping design challenge. We follow this up with two online synchronous sessions. In the first session we introduce the idea of critical making and the Makerspace as well as go over what’s in the kit and share some making ideas. In the second session, we run a series of brainstorming activities followed by small group breakouts where we can answer specific making questions and help students get started.

 

Designing and Delivering Virtual Realities Online

(Synchronous, Online)

Web XR Workshop preview and toolset

This fun, colorful coding session introduces the absolute basics of html markdown used for web development through the design of a 3D web experience. Using an open-source markdown tool and online editor, we design interactive 3D scenes and animations without ever leaving our web browser. This session is a fun way to introduce basic web development concepts and develop familiarity with the 3D web content that is more and more prevalent online. No previous experience with web development or programming is required!

Multi-user Virtual Realities

(Synchronous, Online)

Web VR Environment in Mozilla Hubs

In this session, students follow along using simple web-based tools to prototype a 3D scene that can be accessed from desktop, mobile, or VR devices. This scene is given a persistent URL and can serve as a meeting space with multi-user interaction. This session requires no prior knowledge and is accessible to non-coders and programmers alike. This session easily incorporates course-related thematic elements into scenes- work with us to build out case-by-case additions to this exercise to center pre-existing course materials. No previous experience with web development or programming is required!

Have other ideas about how we can work with you? Collaborate with us to make something new for your class.

About material costs

The Makerspace is able to provide materials for most courses under a certain size. For larger courses, feel free to reach out to us to figure out how we can support you.

Librarian(s)