Learners love to tinker at building. A #MakerSpace should have a variety of building block materials. And I am talking beyond cardboard and cardstock and paper (have LOTS of that). When you get creative, pretty much anything is a building material (cups, straws, bottle tops…), but I am thinking along the lines of sets/kits/pieces that are designed for building. Maybe you will see something here that you didn’t know about…if you know one that I don’t mention, please let me know. Building time can be whatever time you allow, it doesn’t have to be for a project. It can be solely for blowing off steam or opening up the creative parts of the brain or brain breaks.
There is the basic Lego (& all the knockoffs) and K’Nex . You could go old school with Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs and Erector sets and wooden blocks. There are many others to try : Zoobs , Magna Tiles work even if you dont have a metal door/wall to put them on, or you could go with Magnetic Blocks, Magnetic Sticks , Keva planks or Timber planks, Plus-Plus , Qubits , Strawbees have their own connectors or other Straw Construction set (though you could always use coffee stirrers and pieces of pipe cleaner), Brain Flakes (???name???) , Brain Flakes flat, centimeter cubes (or MathLink cubes or SnapCubes by another name) ,
If you have a 3D printer, STEMFIE has 3D files available for you to print pieces/parts/kits. These are the parts to print for a rubberband driven car for example :
If you have a laser cutter, here are some DIY files to cut that you connect with popsicle sticks to build whatever you want.
(link coming)
This Tinkercad file allows you to design and 3D print or laser cut some basic rectangular shapes (bars and plates) of whatever dimension you need as well as whatever hole size you need for connectors (like nylon screws or attaching to Lego’s or other blocks – different manufacturers have different size holes)
(link coming)
I think we can agree that the possibilities and options are endless. They are good for ALL ages, just have some out and around for learners to work with, whatever you can get through purchasing or donations.