Where would you go if you wanted to learn how to build a bookshelf from scratch? Or if your child wanted to figure out how to make a robot? Some hobbies and trades — building furniture, creating robots, welding, blacksmithing — can require so much space, expensive equipment, and specialized knowledge that they can seem inaccessible. Enter makerspaces. These community resources serve to provide a common space where users can share resources to make trades, hobbies, and innovation available to anyone who wants to learn.
“A makerspace is a gym for tools. So, a lot of people have hobbies that employ power tools or specialized equipment to make things or to just fuel their activities. But very few people can afford to have them all. And even if they could, they don’t have the room to have them all,” says Patrick Marstall, a member of the Nova Labs board of directors. “We do, and makerspaces provide that service to people.”
Makerspaces can come in many forms — some are offered through colleges, sponsored by businesses, or run through libraries. They’re part of what’s known as the maker movement, a shift in interest toward a DIY mentality that has been growing for about 20 years.
Two prominent spaces here in Northern Virginia are Nova Labs in the City of Fairfax and Makersmiths in Leesburg and Purcellville, both nonprofits. While they provide space for adults to explore hobbies and innovate, makerspaces also host youth programs that introduce kids to STEM with hands-on applications that will stay with them throughout their lives.
Get Making
Here’s how it works: Members sign on with a monthly fee (it starts at $60 per month at Nova Labs and $50 per month at Makersmiths), which grants them access to the space and the tools, and classes to learn how to use them. The equipment ranges from embroidery sewing machines to high-tech laser cutters to machines that cut and weld metal.
The access to that equipment alone is a pretty sweet deal, but there’s more to it than that. There’s a sense of community and collaboration embedded in these spaces, encouraging members to work together on projects and learn more about different methods.
“We share the space. We share the tools, and then we share knowledge with one another,” says Mark Millsap, one of the founding members of Makersmiths. “And I kind of distinguish makerspace from hobby shop as, makerspaces are a location where a lot of innovation happens. We take traditional techniques, and we take another traditional technique, and try to combine them and make something entirely new.”
Millsap recalls one example involving two students from Woodgrove High School in Purcellville. They went to Makersmiths with the goal of creating a “turkey vulture abatement system” to scare birds away without harming them. Over the course of several months, they worked with Makersmiths to learn the skills they needed to build and program a robot to execute their vision. In the end, they created a robot that moved along a wire erratically to frighten away the birds.
“We taught them how to solder. We taught them how to use a little Arduino to move a motor, and every week there was just something new, and these gals would kind of come in and do something and ‘Oh my god, it worked!’ And their eyes would light up and get excited,” Millsap says.
Even outside of the shop, that community culture is strong — members of makerspaces can chat on group discussion boards to discuss projects, ask questions, and get to know their fellow makers.
Space to Innovate
Those tools and shared knowledge can empower people to solve problems and come up with new ideas, which often lead to something bigger than the projects they had in mind.
At both Makersmiths and Nova Labs, leadership says that the woodshop is one of the major offerings that draws people in — and that once they’re in, members often are attracted to the possibilities the rest of the space holds and get inspired to take their projects to the next level.
“It’s like you can walk up to somebody and say, ‘What is this?’ and then all of a sudden, light bulbs go off when you realize that what they’re doing, you could do with your little project. It’s amazing,” Marstall says.
A student once came to Makersmiths to build himself a desk when the pandemic shifted his school to remote learning. With the resources at the makerspace and his dad’s help, he learned how to construct a desk. Though it started as a solitary project, he didn’t stop there. He went on to build 200 more desks using the skills he learned in the process, forming the nonprofit Desks for Distance and giving them away to other kids in need. “This is a young man who started out trying to make something for himself. Then he thought of others,” says Diane Painter, a member of Makersmiths. “And it just grew.”
Businesses can get their start in makerspaces, too — members can use the space and equipment to create art or goods to sell, provided they don’t monopolize any tool for too long. At Nova Labs, there’s a designated space called the Innovation Center, where startup companies rent small office spaces. There, fledgling businesses work and have access to tools that can help get inventions or ventures off the ground.
“These are people who are trying to make a go of it on their own, starting their own business, and they find having access to Nova Labs’ tools within a few steps of them to be useful,” Marstall says. “They’re trying to prototype new products. They’re trying to figure out how to manufacture stuff.”
Young Makers
While makerspaces are typically for adults, the culture of exploration and innovation starts early with educational programs for youth.
At Makersmiths, kids can take part in a program called KidWind, a national renewable energy challenge that tasks children in different age groups to create wind turbines or solar structures. “The kids design, and they make, and they test the blades for these wind turbines. They learn the importance of gearboxes. And then they put it all together and they go to competition,” says Painter, who runs the team. “And the kids get so excited.”
At Nova Labs, there’s the Makerschool, a series of hands-on summer camps that incorporate STEM concepts into interactive lessons. There are specialized classes that focus on everything from space exploration to bridges and trebuchets to robots, all in fun, engaging sessions.
Nova Labs also offers the FIRST Robotics Program, a competitive program that teaches youth about how to design, build, program, and operate robots. It starts early, with a team for 5- to 8-year-olds who learn by using Legos, and progresses until the oldest age group, 14- to 18-year-olds, is building industrial-size robots to bring to competitions.
The program “uses the robotics platform as a pathway to get kids to learn STEM and apply STEM skills and get into robotics,” says Mary Thompson, who runs the robotics program at Nova Labs. “Think of it as a sport — because it is — but using robots and a team environment.”
These programs get kids excited about STEM concepts early, encouraging them to continue to use those skills as they grow up. “You’re giving a young person experience in using machining and tooling, especially if that kid is going to be looking at going to, say, pursue a mechanical engineering degree or industrial design, or robotics, or mechatronics,” Thompson says. “So, when these kids go to college, they’ve already got a leg up.”
Want to see makers in action? Nova Labs will host a Maker Faire this fall where community makers will gather to show off their skills. Learn about everything from robotics to blacksmithing to 3D printing from passionate people. Alexandria City High School, October 20
Feature image courtesy Nova Labs
This story originally ran in our May issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
