Mobilized Makerspace
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
An old public transportation vehicle turned into a Makerspace with full equipments required and travels the Europe in order to teach the basics of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to students. Throughout this projects mainly primary and secondary schools will be visited, and with the help of the pre-prepared kits it is planned to bringing a new vision to students. These mini educations are either related with robotics or severe world problems such as over pollution of plastics.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
Nowadays, one of the main purposes of European countries is teaching the basic principles of STEM fields and basically their combination robotics to students as slight changes in students' points of views during primary education can have paramount effects on their whole life in a way that it is not quite possible to achieve later on. This objective is mandatory for reaching a world with full of bright, successful, and public-conscious people.
What we are planning to do is gathering people with outstanding backgrounds and let them meet with students of different countries, it is aimed for the mobilized makerspace to travel nearly without stopping and carrying the necessary equipment for the mini education sessions. Although the main objective of this project is scientific and technologic development it is crucial for such projects to have a social component. What we are eager to do is not only letting students understand basic concepts but directly providing them a philosophy of life. This can be achieved in many ways but as examples two of our mini education programs can be given, which are the pseudo-codes and 3-D printing.
Firstly, in our pseudo-codes educations what we are planning to teach is not just the principles of pseudo-codes but a social view; after teaching the principles in one or two hours, the students will reach a certain level that they can solve basic problems with thinking like a computer. At this point the stories which will be given as problems will be simple but not totally theoretical for example the journey of a child who tries to save lives of caretta carettas.
Secondly, the machine we designed (but used by others in different forms) takes plastic wastes and turns them into filaments. What we are planning to teach students as well as how 3-D printers work is the significance of plastics wastes, it is not mandatory for people to buy filaments it is possible for them to produce it by their own wastes.
Key objectives for sustainability
Sustainability is such an important concept in terms of letting upcoming generations to take advantage of the blessings of the planet Earth maybe even it is crucial for their survival. Although what planet Earth offers cannot increase how humans put the planet Earth on the line is becoming a serious problem, as the resources are limited, and humans are damaging the planet’s itself via their high production of greenhouse gases and the effects of mass WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) which are used often.
This is why humans must start to be careful what they produce and how they produce it as well as being careful about what they create as waste; therefore, the only sustainability which must be met is not the sustainability of this project but also World’s.
First of all, if sustainability of this project is the case it is not such hard to be met; as this project’s implementers are students and its interlocutors are students, too it is not difficult to provide the human resource required. Universities and some special high schools would be willing to contribute to this project; as owners of this project, we also are members of an FRC team, and it is such suitable for us to know what other students who are deeply connected to STEM community are interested and would be interested.
Secondly, if the sustainability of the planet Earth is the case one of our projects is such a great example to solve it or for the realistic scenario educating the upcoming generations in terms of this problem. Our 3-D printing education not only teach participants how these machines work, how to control them, how to design etc. but also teaches the importance of the plastic wastes which is a great threat for sustainability - these wastes are often produced during 3-D printing, too. The machine we designed takes plastics wastes and turns them into usable filaments, which is a great example for the term sustainability.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Whatever the topic of a project is if it is related directly to humans, without any doubt ours is, it is crucial for it to be aesthetically pleasing and present an experience which is deeply personal; it is because sustainability of this project is dependant to the feedbacks and review of its participants. Not only for its continuation but also for the ultimate goal we seek, which is surely pushing the upcoming generations forward and letting them realize what is happening around them that also will be the severe problems of them when they become the ones authorized, we are determined to present a remarkable experience.
As we are students, who are giving STEM based educations to younger students for more than 3 years, it is not hard for us to know what draws the attention of the younger students; what they want to hear is not some problems that are not probable for them to encounter but the ones that are truly living. The intimacy of the topics of the educations is one key to this experience.
Secondly, yes one of the most major points of human related projects is aesthetics; and for example, when someone is using 3-D printers they do not want to print a figure that would not impress them, rather they would want to print the best form of their favourite superhero. And this is why we want to predesign our figures in the best from possible with the guidance of the creators of these figures itself if there is such a chance or if we can create one.
Functionality, aesthetics, interest, likeability they all are truly subjective topics, but we know that when the conversations are sincere, when the problems are from their own lives, when the solutions are come up from themselves; whatever they do it is nothing but desirable.
Key objectives for inclusion
When a project is directly related to human it is one of the most important problems, the inclusion. It may be hard for someone to find the true person to address and to educate; but this project has a characteristic which overwhelms this situation. There is nothing that limits our destination, we are eager to travel wherever our help is needed this is why we are not offering STEM based educations in a room of a crowded building in a metropolis but offering it in the backyard of the students’ schools even if they are located in a rather small town.
Even we are also the members of the so-called generation Z, we dare to admit that the upcoming ones are connected to STEM in a way that nobody ever projected, nobody ever were. And it is a great pleasure to see that it will not be a necessity for someone to cry “Sapere Aude” as the ones coming were even daring to know when they were born!
The people who are waiting at their homes to turn back their schools are eager to learn more than ever, and what is this if not an opportunity to enlighten them? When the mentors are there and willing to educate as well as mentees are there and willing to be educated, the problem inclusion becomes nothing but a solved one. This is what we want to do, take the worst affect of the COVID-19 pandemic, students who attend their lectures at their homes far from their friends far from their teachers, and turn it into an opportunity no one ever had.
Innovative character
We, humans, are trying to educate the new generations for more than a thousand of years and the point we reached at this very moment is not something predicted but it does not mean that we reached to the end, on the contrary it shows that the path in front of us is not ending, it extends as we reach more. Therefore, one thing which is a must to carry the flame of this unending journey of progress is taking the steps no one has ever took, and this is exactly what we want to do.
What we tried till today was giving the lectures in the most academic way possible to the students whatever their ages are, we did not try to make them realize the problems we caused such as global warming, the enormous amounts of wastes but now we are. We do not need to teach kids how to write a pseudo code with a problem presented which is about a truck driver who tries to find the shortest route between five cities, but what can we do is presenting a child who tries to collect the caretta caretta eggs in the fastest way possible in order to save them. Why we are not teaching them that the wasted plastics are destroying this planet, our home and how to recycle them as well as using them to 3-D print.
We cannot assume the upcoming generations understand what is told in the same way we understood, as they are not. They are different, we have to be different, we have to change, and this is what being innovative means. We will not change our attitude in terms of teaching them by no means for the advantage of ourselves but for them, if they are more excited and put their efforts to be a part of it when they encounter something temporary, in this case the mobilized makerspace we introduce, why we are not doing so? And what we shall and what we want to do is this.
