AETN, Northwest Arkansas Fab Lab workshop for middle school girls planned May 20
by May 2, 2017 8:43 am 326 views
AETN Arkansas STEM Girls and the NWA Fab Lab in Fayetteville will host a free workshop for middle school girls, from fourth grade to seventh grade. The “Explore and Discover Workshop” is scheduled for May 20 at the NWA Fab Lab at 21 W. Mountain St., Suite 123, in downtown Fayetteville.
The event will feature three learning sessions. Participants will get an introduction to the microcontroller Arduino Nano. The group will connect LED lights and a sensor and learn to make them work together with “simple code,” according to a press release from the Fab Lab. Each girl will take home an Arduino and a few components so she can continue experimenting with it on her own, according to the release.
The workshop will also feature lessons on laser engraving and 3D printing. Participants will be involved in the process, from design to print, according to the Fab Lab.
“By giving access to young girls, we hope to open doors and spark new ideas to take learning and imagination to new heights,” the Fab Lab press release said.
According to the Fab Lab, its mission is to “provide access to the tools and resources to educate, innovate and invent using technology and digital fabrication to allow anyone to make (almost) anything and thereby creating opportunities to improve lives and livelihoods around the world.”
The vision of the Fab Lab is to be part of “a robust community of Fab Labs that dramatically advances the interest and participation in science and technology careers, collectively creates a new generation of entrepreneurs, inventors, and artisans, and proactively reunites education and training — art and the artisans, industrial production — plus personal expression in a nationwide effort that focuses on and contributes to the resurgence of American innovation.”
Set in motion by the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, the Fab Lab is a nonprofit founded last year. It is a part of the United States Fab Lab Network and part of the Fab Foundation, a 450-member group, according to the Fab Lab website.
AETN Arkansas STEM Girls provides workshops and special event to engage girls in the potential of careers related to science, technology, engineering, art and math.
More information about the “Explore and Discover Workshop” is available by contacting Tiffany Dixon at [email protected] or 521-1710 ex. 224.