Participants will gain valuable knowledge about the maker movement and its integration into education. Guided by readings, online videos, and instructor facilitation, participants will gain hands-on experience designing and safely fabricating in 2D and 3D with makerspace tools such as laser cutters and 3D printers; and creating new products with electronics, textiles, and coding/Arduino. In collaboratively developing a new product or revising an existing one to solve a real-life problem, participants will demonstrate fluency in all phases of the design and fabrication process.

Participants will begin the semester learning about design thinking skills, habits of mind, ways of thinking, being reflective about how we think, and common language for design thinking in STEAM. They will be immersed in hands-on-minds-on activities that will help unlock creative potential. Participants will examine how industry leaders like Apple, Google, Samsung and GE apply and document the design process to obtain patents and protect intellectual property that brings the theory of design elements and principles to bare in the marketplace.