by David Hill
Editor

Last year, the Thief River Falls Education Foundation funded the creation of a Makerspace at Lincoln High School in Thief River Falls. Makerspace is a collaborative work space inside a school, library or separate public/private facility for making, learning, exploring and sharing that uses high-tech tools to no-tech tools. Last week, the school, in collaboration with staff from Digi-Key, began introducing students to Makerspace.

Stacey Leake, technology integration specialist, said Makerspace is a great way to introduce students to creative ways to solve problems and engage in science, engineering and tinkering.

Northwestern Minnesota is known for its tinkerers. Without those tinkerers, there would be no Polaris, Arctic Cat, Digi-Key or Steiger tractors.

Times have changed and so too the tools used by tinkerers.

Last week, Kevin Walseth, business eco-systems development manager at Digi-Key, worked with students using a micro:bit and block code. What’s micro:bit?

Micro:bit is an open source hardware ARM-based embedded system designed by the BBC for use in computer education in the United Kingdom. To simplify it for those of us not too familiar with the inner-workings of computers, a micro:bit is a fully programmable computer that’s smaller than a credit card.There’s no question that computers are having an ever-growing impact on our lives, and what has educator’s in the United States worried is that students in the U.S. are lagging behind other developing countries when it comes to interest in and education for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

No one has to look any further than Walseth’s job to gauge how important companies believe it is to engage students in STEM.

Walseth admits that his title is a bit confusing, but his responsibilities at Digi-Key include developing all things Makerspace related, which Walseth further defined as “creating cool projects and connecting education to technology.”

If you want more evidence of how important Digi-Key believes engaging students in science and technology is, Kyle Meier and Ashley Awalt were also with Walseth at Lincoln High School last week. Meier and Awalt are technology context developers. Again, the emphasis is on connecting education to technology primarily through creating projects and reaching out through blogs and social media to educators and students.

On Friday, Nov. 30, students at Lincoln High School were exploring hands-on learning with Walseth on micro:bits, creating Prowler Paws that light up with Awalt, and operating a 3D printer with Meier.

Leake was very excited about the project. She thought students were very interested and excited to work with in the Makerspace lab, which for Lincoln High School, is in the Media Center. It provided them with a unique hands-on experience, which may very well lead them down a new and exciting career path.