MPHS MakerSpace will operate to increase the amount of making and interacting among students in our district. The engineering classes will operate the MakerSpace as a project facilitation center (PFC) while acting as the district’s engineering firm. Teachers, students, administration, maintenance and other community members will submit a “Makeit” request on our website describing their proposed project. The requests will be emailed to the engineering teacher for review and those that are feasible will be assigned to a team of engineering students. The MakerSpace will serve these students as an idea and prototype laboratory. Some projects will be carried out to completion by our engineering teams using available tools while others will be handed off to another entity for professional-level completion after the engineering students have done their part. The engineering classes will also facilitate projects occurring in other classrooms. These projects will have many opportunities for multi-level integration and it will be our challenge to find and utilize these opportunities.

Examples of independent senior engineering projects (these are already started/proposed):

-Electronic Medical Records simulator for Health Professions Classes

A student is creating a program to be used in our nursing classes so students can experience medical record keeping.

-Automatic shutoff/refill for Science Department’s water deionizer

Our science department has a water deionizer that must be manually turned on and off.  A team will design and build an automatic fill device.

-Ventilation solution for Anatomy class dissections

The school is looking at solutions for increased ventilation for smelly labs and a team of engineering students will assist by submitting design options to administration.

-Sous Vide cooker for Culinary classes

A student wants to design and build a sous vide cooker for the culinary class.

-Repair/Upgrade 3D Printer

The district has a 3D printer in need of repairs and potentially some upgrades.  A student has committed to this project.

-WiFi enabled temperature sensor/alarm for cafeteria freezers

Another local school has requested a sensor that can send an alert when food storage temperatures rise.  This is the first in a series of Internet of Things projects.

– Budget friendly science equipment

Teams will create standard science equipment at a substantially lower cost.

– Accounting for engineering

The accounting class will handle the accounts for the engineering class and send a report each grading period.

– Radio station and recording studio design

Our district has a license for a low power FM broadcast station.  Depending on a few factors, the sophomore engineering class will design both a broadcast station and recording studio.

– Solar house designed by engineering class and built by construction and electrical classes

An engineering team will research and design a mobile solar house and it will be built by the electrical and construction trades classes.

– Parts requested by the maintenance department

The maintenance department often has to source replacement parts that could be made by our students like specialty covers or plastic components.

– Fishing knot strength tester

A student on our fishing team built a device to accurately and repeatedly test fishing knots.

Examples of projects planned or already occurring in other courses:

-Writing and binding books in English

English teachers have expressed interest in creating books as a writing project in English.

-Building kites in Geometry

Geometry students are using their mathematical knowledge to build kites that will be flown with guests from our elementary schools.

-Building animal shelter beds in a math class

This is a project done in a math class in a previous year.  Students found a way to make over 150 pet beds for the retail cost of 3 commercial beds.  They built these and donated them all to local shelters.

-3D/interactive timeline for history classrooms

History students can create something that represents their learning and use them to create a timeline of objects.

-Gas Law demonstrations in Chemistry

Students are tasked with demonstrating a property of gasses in chemistry class.  They are encouraged to use found items and to be creative in their presentation.

-Rollercoaster construction in AP Physics

AP physics has a multiyear rollercoaster construction project.  The MakerSpace hopes to assist in this by facilitating the manufacturing process.

-DIY musical instruments in Music

Band students will make their own musical instruments and compose music for them.

– Advertising classes advertise for major projects?

Advertising classes will create the publicity materials for our projects.