{"id":1917,"date":"2024-10-08T16:01:40","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T20:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/?p=1917"},"modified":"2026-02-11T18:10:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T23:10:02","slug":"from-summer-sunshine-to-stem-making-makerspaces-reflections-on-a-season-of-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/projects\/from-summer-sunshine-to-stem-making-makerspaces-reflections-on-a-season-of-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"From Summer Sunshine to STEM Making: Makerspace’s Reflections on a Season of Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Divine<\/a>

Divine Uwimana \u201927 and Qi Wang \u201926 have an ice cream chat at Spoon Cafe on Spring Street with Makerspace Program Manager David Keiser-Clark.<\/p><\/div>\n

Written by: Qi Wang ’26, Divine Uwimana ’27, Divya Sijwali’ 28.<\/em><\/p>\n

What happens when you mix a dash of creativity, a sprinkle of STEM magic, and a whole lot of teamwork? Well, welcome to a summer at the Makerspace! Imagine learning how to 3D print parts for a science kit by day and swapping sketches on designs over ice cream by night. <\/span><\/p>\n

Divine Uwimana \u201927 and Qi Wang \u201926 worked in the Makerspace this past summer as student workers. They made significant progress on a Towards Inclusion, Diversity & Equity (TIDE) grant awarded to develop sustainable and reusable STEM learning kits for 5th-grade students in nearby under-resourced elementary schools.  <\/span><\/p>\n

In the summer, Divine and Qi learned Fusion 360 (computer-aided design software) and advanced 3D printing, including calibrating printers and determining the most appropriate hot-end temperature settings. They identified and associated <\/span>core curriculum science concepts<\/span><\/a> with their STEM kit models and learned how to use rapid prototyping to test and quickly iterate on conceptual designs. By the end of the summer, they had developed three STEM kit models. Their kits centered on storing variable amounts of potential energy by using 3D printed torsion springs, gravity, and rubber bands. Their goal was for a single set of common parts to support all three models.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

What Does Makerspace Mean to Them?<\/h2>\n
\"3D<\/a>

3D printed wind up car with an embedded rubber band power source<\/p><\/div>\n

Divine Uwimana \u201927 has worked in the Makerspace since the start of her first year at Williams. Divine believes that the Makerspace has offered her a place to learn and create. She said, \u201cI love seeing the product of my learning, and it’s motivating to know that my summer experience will help elementary students learn.\u201d As a math major, the Makerspace has allowed her to apply her skills in mathematics and be creative with them. She added, \u201cI\u2019ve also learned to pay attention to details and have noticed how you can see a huge difference when you change the smallest detail.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

While working on this project, Divine felt a deep sense of excitement and responsibility: it was fun to make the kits, but making them for the kids made them more meaningful. Developing these STEM learning kits was a way to blend her skills with younger students’ needs, hoping it would enrich their learning experiences. Every design and every print felt a step closer to making a tangible impact. As she dove deeper into learning Fusion 360 and fine-tuning her 3D printing techniques, she felt a sense of accomplishment in turning ideas into designs and then finally into design models. Seeing the pieces come together was incredibly motivating for Divine; the process showed how small adjustments, like changing the length or thickness of a model or adjusting temperature settings, could make a huge difference in the final print.<\/span><\/p>\n

The opportunity to work collaboratively in a focused environment manifested several \u201caha\u201d moments for Divine. She said that the most notable was having first-time opportunities to assemble a <\/span>mechanical Scotty dog kit<\/span><\/a> (created at Carnegie Mellon University\u2019s TechSpark Makerspace), a 3D printer enclosure kit, a wall-mounted tool rack, and a DeWalt shop vac. These assembly projects helped Divine conceptualize pieces that go together. It also helped her learn how to approach designing her own STEM kit models. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"3D<\/a>

3D printed gravity-powered car<\/p><\/div>\n

Qi Wang \u201926 started working in the Makerspace this summer. She appreciates the existence of the Makerspace at Williams because of its real-world application. She said, \u201cWilliams is a liberal arts college but also very prestigious. The courses here often are very theoretical, while internships trend towards being pre-professional. The Makerspace is a rare space in between these extremes.\u201d As a comparative literature major, she recognizes that Williams\u2019 courses focus on literature critiques rather than creative writing. The Makerspace offers a space for applied hands-on academic work that requires learning how to research and implement STEM concepts while utilizing her creative writing and thinking skills. Qi found this summer work filled a gap that had been missing in her education at Williams.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Qi also points out the invaluable opportunity of full-time summer work in the Makerspace. She said, \u201cDuring a typical semester, you see progress only after many weeks because you can only work for at most 20 hours a week as a student worker, compared to the summer, where we have been working 40 hours a week. I feel really good about our summer project in the Makerspace <\/span>because we\u2019re seeing so much success in just over nine weeks of work.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Qi believes that the connection between Comparative Literature and the Makerspace is a blend of storytelling and science, like finding the plot twist hidden in a machine or crafting a narrative around STEM. In Comparative Literature, she\u2019s used to dissecting stories, examining themes, and understanding every word\u2019s purpose. At the Makerspace, Qi found herself bringing that same attention to detail and creativity to projects, as if each STEM kit was its own story waiting to unfold.<\/span><\/p>\n

Creating STEM kits is like crafting a hands-on narrative for the elementary students who will one day use them. Just as she analyzes texts to bring out underlying meanings, Qi digs into her projects with a literary eye\u2014considering how each part fits, how each mechanism flows, and how a simple change in design can rewrite the entire \u201cstoryline\u201d of a STEM model. The Makerspace offered her a refreshing new way to put her analytical mind to work, letting her blend the theoretical with the practical and transform her love for literature into a hands-on learning journey.<\/span><\/p>\n

How Was Their Experience Working Together?
\n<\/span><\/h2>\n

Qi believes that working with Divine has been one of the best teamwork experiences she has had at Williams. She said, \u201cWe each have our strengths and have learned how to contribute our ideas to each other\u2019s established work. People often love to give advice, but we’ve figured out how to have our advice add value to our ongoing work.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve also enjoyed working on these kits with Qi and learned a lot from her,\u201d Divine said. \u201cShe was always willing to help and provide me with honest feedback. She always had a positive attitude and always made the working atmosphere fun and motivating.\u201d  <\/span><\/p>\n

In the fall semester, they will hand off their work to two first-year students to develop it further. Divine said, \u201cI am looking forward to seeing the impact of our work and to hearing feedback from both students and teachers at the Pownal Elementary School.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by: Qi Wang ’26, Divine Uwimana ’27, Divya Sijwali’ 28. What happens when you mix a dash of creativity, a sprinkle of STEM magic, and a whole lot of teamwork? Well, welcome to a summer at the Makerspace! Imagine … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3047,"featured_media":1918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[15,70,69,47],"class_list":["post-1917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-projects","tag-3d-print","tag-cad","tag-makerspace","tag-tide-grant"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3047"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1917"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2894,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions\/2894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/makerspace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}