Making do through making is a decades if not centuries-old literacy shared by a wide range of consistently underserved cultural groups including many Latino groups (referred to as Rasquachismo). Over the last nine years a form of rasquachismo called digital fabrication or making, has sprung up due to an interest in sustainability, community, and going beyond the consumption of mass-produced items. By 2005 making, makers, and makerspaces in North America combined cultural, social justice, and socio-economic notions of rasquachismo with electronics, computer science, and Western design aesthetics, the result was a proliferation of spaces for designing, modifying, and creating personally relevant artifacts.
The path from repurposing tires as planters, from hacking code modifications to making an app, from modifying a sensor to making custom electronic wearables follow a trajectory that resonates with the core CEHS mission of giving our graduates the power to touch lives and strengthen communities. A makerspace instantiates CEHS values and competencies by providing a cross-disciplinary avenue for creativity, community engagement, and innovation.
In the last five years Henzlik hall has been moving incrementally into the 21st century. The work in the entrance and the conversion of the old gym have created new interactive spaces. The re-establishment of the Pixel lab and the video studio in the back of the new space have helped create a 21st century work environment. All classrooms throughout the building have a basic technology setup for the first time. Parallel to these developments Henzlik 46 became an experimental classroom with a flexible learning space and an apple TV wireless connection. We suggest the next step is the establishment of a makerspace for education and the human sciences.
More details at: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B53zfPTjFPYdMmFFZGhtQVpFUWM&usp=drive_web