Press release from Asheville Museum of Science:
The Asheville Museum of Science (AMOS) announces the award of a grant from the Glass Foundation to further the museum’s goal of becoming a hub for innovation and learning through making and engineering. Thanks in part to this generous grant, the museum has a fully operational makerspace, which includes 3D printers, a laser cutter, electronics, microprocessing and robotics.
Makerspaces are learning spaces, either physical or temporary, that provide the tools, materials and ideas to create, invent, tinker, hack and build to learn. The growing international movement to approach Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM), using high-tech tools to learn real world problem solving and design, is a form of engineering or problem-based science that is currently thriving. Using computer aided design (CAD) tools to work with Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines is a great way to introduce the complexity of making to a young audience while they practice spatial reasoning, mathematics, and problem solving to make creations that matter.
Makerspaces are no longer the proprietary spaces of engineering schools at top universities — they are popping up in museums, libraries, elementary, middle and high schools all over the world. AMOS aims to not only participate in this growing method in education, but to lead the way in determining best practice and authentic assessment in makerspaces, through offering teacher professional development, enriched afterschool programs, early childhood STEAM education and teen leadership programs.
Please see our website calendar for weekend intensives on 3D printing, laser cutting, LEGO robotics, Arduino projects and more! The next available course will be on 3D printing basics on Saturday April 28, 9 a.m.-noon.
For more information about AMOS, creating, maintaining or running a makerspace please contact Christa Flores, cflores@ashevillescience.org.
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