Our Vision
Helping new makers 3D print
FOUNDING STORY
Be A Maker Club is a testament to the pester power of a child. Zef’s daughter insisted that she wanted to learn to use a 3d printer and laser engraver. When they could not find a facility nearby Zef bought them and started teaching her in their garage. This is how Be A Maker Club was started.
That pester power has now helped thousands of new users get started in making.
Be A Maker Club Trivia
While teaching children to use hand tools to make, we had to advise them to stay a safe distance from each other as they worked. We used to joke that we needed a sign that said ” Caution: Children Are Making”.
So, the orange cone seemed like a good logo to represent us.
ACHIEVEMENTS
- Social Impact Fellowship by the Kravis Lab at Claremont McKenna College
- 48% of students enrolled are girls in our makerspace classes
- A textbook chapter on 3D printing in K-12 education published by Pearson in collaboration with Nova Southeastern University. Check it out here.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
Our online platform is based on the pioneering social research experiments by Dr. Sugata Mitra – Self Organised Learning Environments (SOLEs) and the Granny Cloud where he demonstrated that retentive learning takes place through accidental or incidental discoveries.
3D printing (Additive manufacturing) is creating economic and career opportunities the same way computers and the Internet did for the last 2 decades. Using open source software and 3D printers based on the RepRap philosophy, we want to increase adoption of 3D printing so that anyone can start making.
The technology that we are building to help new users has two goals:
- Increase access to fabrication machines without users needing to purchase them
- Reduce the cost of fabrication for new users, so they can keep making
