News

On Sunday 12/9, UTeach Maker joined with students from Topper Teach at St. Edwards University to create programmable snow globes using circuit playground technology. A grant from The Powell Foundation made this partnership possible. Students from both programs worked together all afternoon making their unique creations. From snow globes featuring Wonder Woman and The Hulk, to those featuring Rudolf and Santa, each was a unique and personal creation.

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 Sunday November 18th, Eric Schneider, founder and CEO of PATCHR.io was back for the second part of the create your own printed circuit-board (PCB) workshop. After the first workshop, UTeach Makers uploaded their PCB designs that were created in PATCHR.io. Over the past month Eric and his crew reviewed the designs for errors and milled them on their Bantam Tools desktop PCB milling machine.

We had a great turnout on Tuesday, November 6th for our monthly UTeach Maker cohort meeting. The theme of the month was Collaborative Lesson Planning to think about ways that maker-centered lessons could be developed for mathematics, science, and engineering classrooms. Lauren shared an example of a laser-cut wheel that could be used to help teach trigonometry identities.

On Sunday October 21st, Eric Schneider, founder and CEO of PATCHR.io was in-house to teach how to create printed circuitboards (PCBs). This workshop took making with electronics to the next level by introducing the software and skills needed to make a custom circuitboard with LEDs that blink and fade. Eric provided numerous examples of circuitboard that could be worn as badges or pins, such as french fries with yellow LEDs or a light-up Christmas tree.

On Tuesday, October 2nd UTeach Maker met at Ann Richards Middle School for Young Women Leaders for a textile workshop that focused on sewing and embroidering. We had over 30 people in attendance for an evening of learning how to hand embroider, use sewing machines, and automated embroidering machines. The evening kicked-off with dinner and a chance for makers and mentors to check-up to find out what has happened over the first month of school.

On Sunday September 16th UTeach Maker held its first weekend workshop of the Fall semester. Using our new Silhouette Cameo 3, about a dozen UTeach Makers were in attendance to create their own vinyl stickers. The afternoon kicked off with boxed lunches in the Step 1 classroom before moving to the workroom to learn about cutting card stock, vinyl, and other materials. After a brief demonstration from Jason on how to cut lettering and shapes for bulletin boards, UTeach Makers had their chance to design their own creation.

Welcome back UTeach Makers! On Tuesday, September 4th, we hosted our first cohort meeting of Fall 2018. It was great to see everybody well-rested and energized after the summer break. We have several new makers joining us this semester including UTeach students Christina Hull, Helena Castle, Ivy Claire, Kristiane Smith, and Kyla Kalugdan. Niaz Aziz, Austin Batson, and Derek Casares are UTeach grads currently teaching who will also be a new part of the group. That makes 24 – a big fun group!!! Congratulations to Caroline Anderson for winning the UTeach Maker Summer Challenge. She received a Chibitronics Love to Code Starter Kit as well a custom laser-engraved water bottle.