Maker movement on the rise

Students at Nightingale have been increasingly making, creating, and innovating, thanks to the maker movement that is on the global rise. Hundreds of videos on Youtube, Nifty by Buzzfeed, and Instructables.com encourage and promote the idea of making things by hand or even using the aid of 3D printers, with materials that can be found at home. Additionally, microcomputers like Raspberry Pi and Arduino boards, are giving kids the opportunities to learn computer programming languages as they bring their concepts to life.

So, why the sudden interest? Back in 2009, former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, signed an act that brought $4.32 billion to K-12 schools all over America. The act is known as American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that was an effort to promote STEM Education and create Education reform. These moneys have trickled down to States and Local School districts who are currently using these funds to increase opportunities for students to become creators and innovators.

In response to these efforts, Nightingale has adopted elective courses where students collaborate to investigate problems, plan solutions, design and build prototypes, and present their solutions to business professionals that give them real world advice in order to possibly create a sellable product. However, its not just about making a profit or product, its about the process of how they got to a solution.

In the future, Nightingale plans on creating maker spaces available to students during nutrition and lunch hours. This means that if you have an idea for a product, you might be able to build it in the Maker Space labs.

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