As Garrett Ellison, president of the MakerHub Club, walked into the Early Childhood Education Preschool located at College of Western Idaho’s (CWI) Nampa Campus Multipurpose Building, the students knew it would be a good day. Ellison entered in a monthly STEM Action Center drawing and received a makedo cardboard construction toolkit. Makedo is a toy construction system that allows individuals of all skill levels and ages to make any item imaginable of any size from a flower to a fort, a mask to a maze. He donated his winnings and the clubs technical skills to the preschool hosting two workshops with plans to make it a monthly activity.
The mission of the MakerHub Club is to promote creativity and share technical skills. The club hopes to do so by sharing their 3D printer, housed at the Nampa Campus Library, and vinyl cutter at the Nampa Campus Academic Building Tutoring Center. Ellison hopes to eventually have a 3D printer at the Ada Campus Pintail Center library and Canyon County Center as well. The CWI community will be able to order 3D prints or have custom stickers made with the vinyl cutter by completing a Google form and paying a small fee to the club.
The club has also partnered with classes at CWI such as Eric Mullis’s 3D Art and Design course and Susan Aydelotte’s Calculus course. Mullis’s 3D Art and Design students were assigned to create abstract art pieces using a program called Tinkercad. Students then partnered with the MakerHub to get all 20 of their designs 3D printed. Aydelotte’s Calculus students were assigned to calculate the theoretical volume of a vase. Two students from her class partnered with the MakerHub to get vases 3D printed to test their practical application guesses.
Learn more about MakerHub, 3D printing, vinyl cutting, and partnering with the club by contacting Garrett Ellison at garrettellison@my.cwi.edu.
