This document provides programming and activity ideas for makerspaces, including ideas for robotics, circuits, 3D printing, and virtual/augmented reality. It also discusses tips for organizing, marketing, planning, and surveying makerspaces. Some key programming ideas mentioned are robot obstacle courses, story-based circuit design, 3D printing community projects, and hosting hackathons or startup weekends. The document emphasizes that makerspaces should provide a safe space for failure and experimentation to spark interest in fields like engineering.

1. Programming Ideas in
Makerspaces
BRIAN PICHMAN | EVOLVE PROJECT

2. Agenda
 Ways to Organize Your Space
 Marketing Tips and Tricks
 Planning for the Future
 Ideas for Your Space

3. Organizing Your
Makerspace
So many things…so little time.

4. http://renovatedlearning.com/2016/10/10
/how-to-create-makerspace-
organization-that-actually-works/

5. Highlights
 Ask the staff and patrons for input on how the space should be organized
 Put similar technology together?
 Should it be organized by Brand, different kits for different boxes, or organized chaos?
 Label the sets, kits, etc. so its clearly visible.
 Have a “in-progress” space
 Dedicate an area so users know who might be working on what.

6. Organization: Storage?
VS

9. Storage
 When storing your items, the goal is to make it visible.
 Clear Bins
 Avoid Cabinets without windows
 Accessibility
 You don’t want to hinder someone’s creativity, so allow for things to be easily obtainable.
 Does it have a home?
 If your patrons continue to move things out of the way to get to the same piece of makertech
each day; chances are you need to do some new storage and organization so the most
wanted the is most readily available.
 Let patrons define their space.

10. Overcoming Space Restrictions
 Maker “Table”
 Nominate a table and have a different
activity out each week.
 Could be a project that each patron adds
to, or an individual project that gets reset
at each completion
 Rotating Collection
 Share some “Maker-Kits” with fellow
libraries/branches and spread out your
activities across the area.

11. Overcoming Security Concerns
 Is it Really Needed
 Based on the studies reported, there is a
loss of .15% to .5% per year; or overall loss
rates of 4–8% when an inventory, or
inventory sample, is conducted periodically.
 Why do books go missing? Some are simply
miss shelved and will eventually resurface;
others are lost by library users, with the lost
item fees paid. Sadly, many are stolen,
though electronic detection systems do
minimize that risk
http://www.ala.org/tools/loss-rate

12. Organization: Instructions?
 Instructions:
 People read. Follow. Complete.
 No Instructions:
 People Fail. Try Again.
 People Innovate Something New
 Help
 People Fail. Ask for help. Succeed.
 People Innovative Something New

13. Organization: Rules?
 Rules can offer a sense of
 Security
 Peace
 Order
 Rules about Rules:
 Avoid the use of “No….”
 Choose colors carefully
 Use Positive Language
 Don’t write and post a rule about that one
incident that occurred

14. Poop is OK
 Hopscotch (an app that teaches you how
to program) talks about how kids were
building apps with the “poop emoji”.
 It is OK. At the end of the day, kids were
programming. They found it funny, so had
fun programming and expressed their
sense of humor.
https://blog.gethopscotch.com/poop-is-okay-
4b847bab1825

15. Marketing Your
Space
It’s a lot easier if you make
someone else do it for you.

17. Tips n Tricks
Facebook
 Engage
 Share the “fun”
 Offer Challenges
 Lots of Commenting / Liking
Twitter
 Influence
 Promote Milestones
 Major Innovations
 Ask for people to share

19. Self Promotions
 Recording Studio
 Add the outputs (videos, music, etc.) to the
collection
 Host movie nights, share the works.
 Programming
 Robots: Do a “robot night”
 Game: Do a “game night”
 Engineering
 Circuits: Build Displays / Wall Displays
 Robots: Build Displays / Demo Areas
 Art or Craft Orientated
 Display
 Allow things to be ”Borrowed”

20. Local Businesses
 Advertise What You Can Do For
Businesses:
 3D Print Prototypes/Fixes
 Space to make marketing materials
 Space to tinker
 Space to “Hang Out”
 Having something to “tinker” with while
brainstorming can actually help innovate.

21. Local Business Experts
 Turn local businesses into educators for
your space.
 Train staff/patrons on coding, engineering,
electricity, robotics, photography,
cinematography, and more!
 Get them to promote to the program
 If they have a strong customer base, they
will share what they are doing with their
customers…and in turn, advertise your
library.
 Open up your “phonebook” and look at
what’s local to your area.

22. Planning Your
Makerspace

23. Planning for Staff
 Staff Involvement
 Promoters and Challengers
 Encouragement of new ideas is key
 Staff Training
 Teaching non-technical people the
technical.
 Teaching the technical people empathy.

24. Planning for Future
 Work with school curriculum
 Find out what they are trying to focus on.
 Many of the tech gadget companies build
curriculum for free that matches what
schools accomplish through all the core
competencies.
 Start small
 Don’t have to buy multiples of a single
item. Get one as a “demo” and see where it
goes.
 Survey your users.
 What works
 What didn’t
 Remove the bad!
 Budget appropriately
 Or fundraise appropriately.

26. Survey Tips
 Short and Sweet (less than five minutes)
 Open Ended vs Closed Ended Questions
 Open Ended Questions usually involve “feelings” and less focus on the facts.
 What did you enjoy about the program?
 Close Ended Questions encourage a clear and direct answer.
 Did you enjoy the library program?
 Evaluating Loyalty and Satisfaction
 The average satisfied person will only tell 1 or 2 people how “happy” they are
 The average unsatisfied person will tell 3-6 people how ”unhappy” they are.
 Loyal users will return and encourage others to come.
 NPS Scoring

27. NPS

28. Promoters

29. Passives

30. Detractors

31. Calculating NPS
Counts # Percentag
e
Promoters 10 10/1
3
77%
Detractors 2 2/13 15%
Passives 1
Total Surveys: 13 NPS 77-15 = 62
62
Take percentage of customers who are Promoters and
subtract the percentage who are Detractors.
https://delighted.com/nps-calculator
Counts # Percentage
Promoters 70 70/100 70%
Detractors 10 10/100 10%
Passives 20
Total Surveys: 100 NPS 70-10=60
60

32. Top Brands – NPS is a Comparable Metric
 You can compare your score with other
industries; the scoring mechanism is
standard across.
 NPS is also an improvement plan. You are
now able to track and measure success (or
failure) in a repeatable fashion.

33. How to Survey and Ask Your Crowd
 Engage your respondents through effective surveys to drive the desired results
to your business.
 Make informed decisions
 Identify weaknesses and highlight new opportunities
 Overall, response rate to surveys is poor. You will need to focus your efforts on
determining the best way and level of frequency to send out surveys.
 IE Too many surveys = nuisance.
 Survey process is in constant refinement.

34. Survey Types
 Web/Email
 Telephone
 Paper
 In Person
 Let people know ahead of time a survey is coming. This will result in higher
response rates.

35. Survey Tips: Be Unique
 No one likes the mass generic
emails. Customize the invite
 Personal Greeting
 Branding
 Effective and Inviting Subject Line

36. Programming
Ideas
Other than Open Play

37. Robotics and Programming
Activity Based Ideas

38. Programming Ideas for Coding/Robotics
 Tactile Programming (programming without a computer)
 Mazes
 Get from Point A to Point B and avoid Obstacles 1, 2, and 3.
 Coding on A Computer
 Goal Orientated
 Make Character do XYZ
 Design Orientated
 Build a story and program to that story.
 Coding a Robot / Built Robot
 Obstacle Courses
 Races
 Battle Bots

39. Sphero Ball
MSRP: $130
Guide Through Library (Follow The Ball)
Play Tag
Painting Activities
Have the ball dance to music
Build obstacle courses

40. Dash and Dot
MSRP: $230
Control Dash & Dot to move, light up, make
sounds, and interact with each other. This
dynamic duo can do anything you set your
mind to.

41. Lego WeDo’s
MSRP $130
Lego Robotic Competition
Great opportunity to share creations.

42. Lego Mindstorm
MSRP $300
Lego Robotic Competition
Bit more advance – try to automate functions

43. VEX Robotics
VEX Robotic Competition

44. OZOBOT
Draw mazes for the robots to race through
Offer challenges (how many tricks can you
complete in x amount of time)
Story telling

45. Meeper Bot
A Lego Compatibile moveable robot.
BattleBots

46. Finch
MSRP: $99
Build an obstacle course for the Finch to travel
through.

47. Cubelets MSRP:
$160
Biggest robot vs smallest robot

48. MOSS
Fun robots that you can build and then
remotely control.

49. WINK
MSRP: $50
Fun activities to program a robot using
Arduino
Challenge Based Learning

50. Little Robot
Friends
Wireless connect and interact
Teach robot emotions

51. Hummingbird…M
SRP: $200
Hummingbird is designed to enable engineering
and robotics activities for ages 13 and up (10 with
adult supervision) that involve the making of
robots, kinetic sculptures, and animatronics built
out of a combination of kit parts and crafting
materials.

52. Cubetto
Program without having to use a computer!
Story telling
Getting from Point A to Point B

53. BeeBot / BlueBot
Program the robot through the directional
arrow keys on top of robot OR use the tactile
reader (for the BlueBot)
Build sequences to have the robot move, get
from Point A to B, navigate mazes, etc.

54. Teach Kids to Program
 Hopscotch
Programming made easy No typing. No
syntax errors. Just drag and drop blocks.
Hopscotch is an intuitive, friendly
programming interface designed for
everyone.

55. Circuits and Engineering
Activity Based Ideas

56. Programming Ideas for
Circuits/Engineering
 Simple Circuits
 Challenge Based: Process Driven (turning on a light switch)
 Story Based: Tell a story with interaction
 Maps: Create a map of the town and light it up.
 Complex Circuits
 Design Challenges (accomplish this scenario)
 Build “art” as an output.
 Circuits/Programming (Arduinos)
 Transition from “Lights and sounds” to “movement” to “interactive”

57. littleBits… MSRP:
$100-200
littleBits is an open source library of electronic
modules that snap together with tiny magnets
for prototyping, learning, and fun.
15% off for libraries

58. LIGHTUP
MSRP: $50
Learn about Circuits using an augmented layer
with an app!
You can also program the circuits through the
app.
Self paced learning and activities

59. Makey-Makey
MSRP: $49.95
Design games and use Makey Makey as the
controller.

60. 3D Printing and Prototyping
Activity Based Ideas

61. Programming Ideas for 3D Printing
 Basic
 Group: Build a design (or edit one) and see what occurs.
 Advance
 Build a Drone, 3D Printer, Robot
 Solving Issues
 Community Project to “print” models of buildings in town
 Printing prosthetics

62. 3 Doodler
MSRP: $100
Draw or complete designs
Have the completed works on display

63. Virtual/Augmented Reality
Activity Based Ideas

64. Programming Ideas for
Virtual/Augmented Reality
 At its core, its about “transporting” to another place
 You can re-build a lost city, relive a recent moment (recorded with a 360 Degree
Camera)
 Moving in a direction of Virtual/Augmented reality where interactions are taking
place on a new “layer” of reality.

66. Key Objectives (Recap)
 You want to be a fun environment.
 People and space are key
 You don’t have to have structure within your environment.
 Open play is great!
 Failure is OK
 Not all ideas work. Not all gadgets are awesome.

67. Pulling it all together

68. Start Up Weekend
 http://startupweekend.org/
 “No Talk, All Action.
Launch a startup in
54 hours

69. Code Camp / Hackathon
 Bring people together to:
 Code
 Hack
 Play

72. Movies, Art, Music, and More
 Let patrons publish their works in the
library.
 Set up “Etsy stores” (fundraiser?)
 Let people check out patron developed arts
 Host a:
 Battle of the Bands
 Film Festival
 Art Gallery

73. 73
 Safe To Fail
Environment
 Gateways To
New Ideas
 Provide New Tools
and Resources
 The Next Big
Entrepreneurial
Startup
• In school, your
younger
patrons are
not given
opportunities
to learn by
failure or
experimentatio
n
• You can spark
interest into
fields such as
engineering,
programming,
business
development…
and more
• Libraries are
about
providing
access. These
tools are not
always easily
accessible for
our patrons.
• What if your
library helped
launch the
next big super
star in the
competitive
tech
community?
Outcomes:

74. Places to Watch for Ideas
 Crowdfunding Websites
 Kickstarter/Indiegogo
 Consumer Electronic Show
 Living In Digital Times
 http://livingindigitaltimes.com/
 Social Media
 Be active (please).
 Community Start-Up Hubs

75. Questions?
 Contact me!
 Brian Pichman
 bpichman@evolveproject.org
 Twitter: @BPichman