Submitted by New Richmond Schools.
The New Richmond High School’s Makerspace is a place where students are limited only by their imagination.
On any given day, students might be filming a commercial for a marketing campaign, building a physical representation of a word problem for geometry, repairing a 3D printer, building a homemade lie detector out of Arduinos for forensics class, just to name a few projects, according to Makerspace Facilitator Megan Whitacre.
Two sewing machines are among the available equipment. Up until recently, both were unused until freshmen Logan Rombold and Malachai Coulter wanted to know how they worked. One of the two machines was donated by Makerspace assistant Elley Lansaw-Powers. The machine was given to her by her mom but was never used, Lansaw-Powers said.
To learn more about the sewing machine Logan said he needed help and decided to FaceTime his “best friend” – his grandmother, Judy Hession. Following her good instructions, Logan and Malachai got the machine working and even made stitches on fabric.
The students said working on and learning about the sewing machine was a lot of fun. Malachai likened the experience to “working on a car.”
For Ms. Lansaw-Powers and Ms. Whitacre, it was another great day in the Makerspace. Students are scheduled in the space during several periods of the day. Some students come in during their study periods. The Makerspace provides students with the tools and equipment to complete classroom projects or to experiment and explore on their own.
According to John Frye, Director of Students and Staff Services in New Richmond, the Makerspace and the Makerspace classes were established to encourage innovation, creativity, problem-solving, and imagination. The Makerspace is filled with 3D printers, a laser cutter, poster printers and a state of the studio to be used for many purposes. The Makerspace is also equipped with sewing machines, fabric cutters, pipe cleaners, paint, popsicle sticks, and good old tape and glue. While we live in a high-tech world the applications used to solve problems don’t have to be high-tech, the solutions can be good old-fashioned requests for help from someone you know.
“We are proud of Logan and appreciative of his grandmother who helped get the sewing machine working,” Mr. Frye added.