Longtime Boing Boing pal Tara “Tiger” Brown co-founded LA Makerspace, the first kid and family-friendly makerspace/hackerspace in Los Angeles. Today, she shares word of a terrific new crowdfunding project:
The LA Makerspace has a Kickstarter to raise money to train LA Public Librarians how to run workshops in electronics, robotics, programming, film and Minecraft. We have all sorts of staggering stats around why we need to outside the school system for kids to learn anything…90% of Los Angeles Unified School District 8th graders test below proficient in science and 82% are below proficient in math. It’s insane.
And we have more info on why hands-on learning like with maker workshops like the ones we run can improve all of that.
We are providing professional development for librarians because our vision is for every librarian at all 73 LA Public library branches to be trained in running workshops which means that you can go to your local library and take these free workshops and gain amazing skills.
Minecraft LA Makerspace is partnering with the Connected Learning Alliance to run Camp Minecraft with curriculum developers from Institute of Play who are experts in designing gaming experiences for kids. One of the tracks is to teach kids how to program in Minecraft. So, we’re taking the hottest game and pairing that with the hottest topic, teaching kids to learn how to program. And for free. By comparison, ID Tech Camp charges something like $2k for Minecraft camp.
Sounds pretty great to me. Here’s where to kick in.