Cardboard boxes, paper towel tubes, masking tape, pliers and wires, gears and hot glue guns – winter trimester at Peconic Community School is inspired by Making and the Maker Movement as we gear up (pun totally intended) for the second annual Create: a Maker Fair, hosted here at the school, Saturday, March 25th from 10 am to 2 pm.

Local “Makers” will present workshops and demos at this family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness in celebration of the Maker Movement. The community and family event will feature robotics and legos, coding and felting, origami and art, musical and theatrical performances, and more. Part science fair, part county fair, Create: a Maker Fair is an all-ages gathering of tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, engineers, science clubs, artists, and students.

In the meantime, PCS Makers from Early Childhood through Upper Primary are taking things apart and putting things together, confronting problems and asking each other questions, making sense -- and nonsense! -- of the objects in their rooms, and generally mixing things up to figure things out.

And, Peconic Community School will use our blog space to document this semester’s experience with Maker Education. We hope to: offer a brief overview and history of Making, Maker Fairs and the Maker Movement; consider the value of Maker Education in a progressive school setting; chronicle the Making happening in (and out) of our classrooms; and update the community on our preparations for Create: a Maker Fair, to be held March 25th. Hope you'll join us!