My busy conference week (both Illinois Computer Educators and National Association of Independent School) is now concluding as I await to board a flight home early Saturday morning to return home. It has been an exhausting and exhilarating week full of great learning.

Today, however, will not be a day of catch-up and rest. Instead, upon my arrival home, I will be quickly turning leaving to head to my school’s annual benefit. This year, the focus of the spot auction, a direct appeal for a specific school project, is to help fund the transformation of our current computer lab into a Maker Space, an Innovation Lab. This space will support a new emphasis on our new STEAM curriculum we are introducing next year.

In order to “show” parents what this space will look like and why it will benefit their children, we are going to create a pop-up Innovation Lab/Maker Space in the entryway to the benefit. I am going back to set this space up. Two members of Workshop 88, a local maker space are bring two 3D printers which will be creating a design. We are setting up two Makey Makey/Arduino stations, one which will have a bowl of fruit and the piano program, allowing parents to play with their food before dinner. The second station will have tin foil, play doh and project to a screen so parents can become the controller for Pacman. We are also creating a general build station, with straws, feathers, cardboard, glue, and tape for general builds.

Like the pop-up restaurants which inspired me, we are having this space open from the times the doors open at 5:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. Then, through the generosity of our parents and friends of the school, we will be building a similar space, permanent, at the school.

While I am a bit sluggish this morning, I am sure that the adrenaline “making” this space will fuel me throughout the day.