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4-H Makerspaces & the Fix-It Mindset Project

Program Contact: Yakima County 4-H Program Coordinator
(509) 574-1600 • yakima.4h@wsu.edu

Makerspaces and the Fix-It Mindset encourages youth to tinker with their technology, find new ways to mend and repair items in their home, and to tackle difficult problems with creativity, ingenuity, and confidence.

Objectives

Youth will:

  • Develop a mindset that encourages creating, inventing, and exploring new technology fearlessly
  • Understand that most things can be fixed with a little ingenuity, basic technical and tool skills, and creative thinking
  • Learn how to find tutorials, walk-throughs, and technical guides on the internet to assist in making and fixing things
  • Gain an appreciation for visible mends and fixes

Paperclips, a pencil, string, and a black container with a bee on it sit on a marble tabletop with the letters DIY on plastic tiles at center

4-H Makerspaces & the Fix-It Mindset Curriculum

Available through the Extension office and online.

Junk Drawer Robotic Level 1: Give Robotics a Hand

In the Junk Drawer Robotics curriculum, youth are challenged to build robots from everyday items. None of the levels requires or uses computers. There are Facilitator Guides for three levels. Youth use a Robotics Notebook to record their learning experiences, robotic designs and data from their investigations. One facilitator guide is needed per group, while each youth should have their own notebook.

In Level 1 – Give Robots a Hand, youth explore and learn about robot arms. Concepts covered include pneumatics, arm designs, and three-dimensional space. Big ideas include form and function, scientific habits of mind, and engineering design.

Junk Drawer Robotics Level 2: Robots on the Move

In Level 2 – Robots on the Move, youth learn about locomotion through exploring, designing, and building mobile robot ROVs and other subsystems. Youth learn about friction, electronic circuits, mobile robots, simple machines, and buoyancy.

Junk Drawer Robotics Level 3: Mechatronics

In Level 3 – Mechatronics, youth will explore sensors and analog and digital systems. The track introduces simple electronic components; youth will build basic circuits to see how the components work. They will investigate basic elements of programming and instructions for robotic computer control.

Junk Drawer Robotics: Youth Robotics Notebook

There is one Robotics Notebook for the three levels of the Junk Drawer Robotics curriculum. The notebook encourages youth to think and act like scientists and engineers. In their notebook, youth will record their ideas, collect data, draw designs, and reflect on their experiences. It also provides specific information for the challenges. Each youth should have his or her own Robotics Notebook.

Washington 4-H Records, Forms, and Guides

For youth members

Coming soon!

For adult helpers and club leaders

Coming soon!

State 4-H Robotics Project Resources State 4-H STEM Project Resources
At left, a robot head on a tabletop that stretches the length of the image. Around the robot head float tools, a pencil, a pen, a paper airplane, and gears. At right, a stack of books, a beaker, a pen and pencil over the beaker, and a lightbulb hovering over the books. At center, the title "Makerspaces & the Fix-It Mindset" in black on a light blue background

Helpful Resources

Activity Ideas

Spark Activity: Exploring 3D Design – Illinois 4-H (PDF)

Have you ever thought about inventing something? Do you have an item at home that serves a purpose, but could be made better if it were changed just a little? 3D design and 3D printing solves those problems by letting you design and print your own creation!

4-H Science Explorers “Scientists Live” Career Series Recording Access Registration Form – Wisconsin 4-H

“4-H Science Explorers–Scientists Live” is a virtual career series open to youth, grades 8-13, their teachers, and their parents. The series is recorded live via Zoom each spring and features “scientists” from a variety of fields. Access all of the recordings from previous years by completing this registration form. Currently, 32 half hour episodes are available! You may be contacted via email or U.S. mail to complete a short survey about your experience with the recordings later in the year. Your feedback at that time will be greatly appreciated.

Washington Specific Reference Material

Coming soon!

Other Reference Material

From 4-H Programs

4-H Tech Changemakers – National 4-H

4-H Tech Changemakers is a unique, community-centered program that puts youth into positions of leadership by empowering them to teach digital skills to members of underserved communities across the country.

4-H and the Maker Movement

The Maker Movement is thriving, and 4-H programs have the opportunity to get involved and keep 4-H relevant. “Making” is gaining traction as a strategy to engage young people in building their science abilities. Collectively joining the Maker Movement would accelerate 4-H’s national STEM goals and initiatives while enhancing the abilities of youth as they make innovative breakthroughs.

WeMake 4-H:  Everyone Can Make – New Jersey 4-H

WeMake is a non-profit organization that is trying to spread STEM and Maker education among kids. Our mission is to prove that if given the opportunity, every kid, irrespective of race or socioeconomic background, can learn crucial skills, gain knowledge, and think uniquely to make ground-breaking contributions to the world. We aim to close the opportunity gap and to promote STEM/Maker education, especially in underprivileged and special needs students, and to encourage more kids to explore options in STEM.


From Higher Education Institutions

 


From Related Organizations, Journals, and Professionals

Tinkering with Technology: A Library Workshop to Support 4-H Youth Development

When University of Idaho (UI) Extension brought the Idaho 4-H Teen Conference to UI’s main campus, the conference organizers collaborated with UI librarians to organize a workshop in the library’s newly established makerspace, the Making, Innovating, and Learning Laboratory (MILL). In the MILL, the students used cutting-edge technology to foster new or existing interests in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). This article describes how Extension and 4-H youth development professionals can team with librarians to use library makerspaces to introduce 4-H high school students to STEM technologies and digital literacies that will be necessary for jobs of the future.

Once You Develop a “Fix-it” Mindset, You Can Repair Nearly Anything – CarParts.com Blog

Building A Tinkering Mindset In Young Students Through Making – KQED, PBS, NPR

The Value of Tinkering – Scientific American

Celebrating National Inventors Month – National Inventor’s Hall of Fame

Did you know that May is National Inventors Month? This annual celebration was created to promote “the positive image of inventors and the real contributions they give to this world.”

The Rube Goldberg Institute for Innovation and Creativity

Includes contests, resources for hosting your own maker events, and articles on how innovators have been inspired by Rube Goldberg.  There is a kits and projects section of the organization’s shop.

Invention Convention Worldwide Independent Inventor Program – the Henry Ford Museum

We envision a world in which all young learners have access to innovation, invention, and entrepreneurial learning to gain the confidence and skills to control their own destiny and help shape a better future.


 

Kits, Projects, and Activities from National 4-H

Educational Kits & Activities

Created for grades K-12, many of our research based, nationally peer reviewed curricula have corresponding materials kits which can help activities and the learning process come to life! From the worlds of robotics, electricity, theater and wind power, our materials kits are the tools that #InspireKidsToDo and help keep the learning going.

4-H Maker Space Cart

Roll it into your classroom, lab, club meeting space, community center, library, or anywhere else your group meets for the ultimate Maker/STEM/STEAM solution. With over 40+ STEM projects this cart can easily support hundreds of kids. Each cart includes everything you need for the cart – wheels, gears, dowels, etc. and tools to help create almost any project you can imagine. The cart also comes with a stock of replacement supplies for over 18,000 components in total! To personalize your cart, you can decorate and redecorate the sign with dry erase markers.

For a complete list of all components included with the Maker Space Cart, see the Maker Space Cart Components List!

To enhance the learning experience, check out the Activity Library with “Go Guides” to get you started on a build, with labs and challenges tied to the Next Generation Science Standards to connect learning to the fun. Activities are available for youth in grades K-12, with more specific ages on each activity. Youth will learn science and engineering concepts through experimentation, grow their understanding and evolve projects through the design & engineering process. The Maker Space Cart provides ample opportunities for amazing true STEM projects for as little as a few dollars a kit (average project cost: $1.37 – cost is based on students working in groups of 2-3 and taking projects home.)

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