Makerspace Inventory Reflection

For this week, my group created a makerspace in a fictional high school library, Dominican High School Library. 

We decided to use the fictional high school library we created together in class. Teenagers are a great audience/patron to create a makerspace for. Our makerspace focused on STEM resources including 3D printing, digital music, robotics, coding and circuits, and filmmaking.  We focused on some start-up pieces for these ideas. We created a fictional makerspace but used real-life applications such as what we had experienced at libraries/makerspaces. We used what we have seen in libraries; what we would love to have in our library and what makes sense. Luckily, my group members have makerspaces in their individual libraries. So, we were able to pull ideas from those already established makerspaces. 

The first step in creating a fictional or real makerspace is planning, planning and more planning! We began by describing the physical layout of our library and where our makerspace would be built. We also created a description of what our makerspace would look like. How would it be arranged? Where would the equipment be placed? 

We also needed to create an inventory of the equipment in the makerspace. We needed to decide how we wanted to spend our $3000 budget. Did we want to purchase a few, high qualities but expensive items? Or instead did we want to purchase a large quantity of more affordable priced items?  We decided to do a mixture. We purchased one expensive item-a 3D printer (almost seems a must for makerspaces!), iPAd.  We also included a mixture of more affordable pieces --Lego's, garage band app, Little Bits, Sphero. By including high and low priced items we are providing options and flexibility for our patrons. We will continue to grow and add to our makerspace but as a beginner 

makerspace has plenty of options. I think it is important for a makerspace to grow organically and thus not happen all at once. It will give students an opportunity to learn and discover the initial programs in the makerspace. Then, eventually new pieces can be added and more discovering can happen! 

Dominican High School's Makerspace Inventory List