On Tuesday, May 7th, UTeach Maker had their monthly cohort meeting and Spring 2019 Maker Showcases. The evening kicked off with a maker playground, where participants in UTeach Maker and their mentors shared projects they have been working on. Lauren from MathHappens shared her laser-cut math manipulatives, including a new elastic Cartesian plane that folds to become a parabola. Caroline shared a dress that she sewed, plus Jean and Juliet let other play with their creation that allows students to visualize sine waves through pulleys, string, with a radian unit circle.

On Tuesday, December 4th, UTeach Maker was proud to showcase the work of three new UTeach Maker Fellows at our Fall 2018 Maker Showcase. Members from the UTeach Maker Consortium, made up of representatives from Boise State University, University of Houston, and West Virginia University, along with Stephanie Chang and Jakki Spicer from the Maker Ed Initiative were in attendance for the event. 

On Tuesday May 1st, UTeach Maker hosted out monthly cohort meeting featuring the Maker Showcases of our Spring 2018 UTeach Maker Fellows. The evening started off with an opportunity to our UTeach Makers and Mentors to share projects that have been working on in a Maker Playground. Lauren Siegel of MathHappens shared some of her laser-cut manipulative for teaching about mathematics, Alex Morrison invited people to participate in sewable project that she will be hosting at the 2018 Austin Maker Faire, Jason Harron shared 3D laser-cut art based on Voronoi diagrams, Mao Leonard demonstrated projects she has created in Scratch, Halle Herzog dazzled with her brightly colored threaded flowers, and Arami Rosales defied gravity with her magnetic levitated vehicle track.

Shelly and Jason hosted a UTeach Maker Showcase workshop on Sunday April 8th to help prepare our upcoming graduates from the program for their portfolio review. About half of the current cohort were there to discuss what they wanted to include in their maker philosophy, to try-out ideas for their maker-centered lessons, and to work on designing their maker projects.

It was standing room only on December 5th as we celebrated our Fall 2017 Maker Showcase. Our UTeach Makers, mentors, friends, and family were in attendance to listen to our seven new UTeach Maker Fellows share their growth as makers. Split into three rooms, our UTeach Makers presented how they developed their showcase website in terms of what they have learned about maker education, their philosophy behind making, how they have been involved in the maker community, and what they had created as a maker project.

After two semesters with UTeach Maker, Paige Arneson and Hannah Spock were excited to show everybody the progress they had made by presenting their Maker Showcases. Highlighting her passion for biology and sewing, Paige presented her e-textile circulatory system. Her design involved using conductive thread, fabric, sewable LEDs, and a Lilypad Arduino that would light-up to demonstrate circulation in the human body.