Start Making! is a program developed by the Clubhouse Network to engage young people all over the world in Maker-inspired activities. With this guide, you will discover how to plan and coordinate Start Making! projects in your home, at your school or library, or in a community center, after-school club, or makerspace. You’ll learn strategies for engaging young people in creative thinking, developing individual and team projects, and sharing and reflecting on their creations. Each chapter includes a list of supplies you’ll need, step-by-step instructions for completing the projects, and prompts for stimulating discussion, curiosity, and confidence. These fun do-it-yourself (and do-it-together) projects teach fundamental STEAM concepts — science, technology, engineering, art, and math — while introducing young people to the basics of circuitry, design, coding, crafting, and construction.

Projects Included

• Make paper cards and creations that light up
• Play music using a MaKey MaKey keyboard and Scratch programming
• Join together to make paintings with light
• Design and construct 3D sculptures
• Build a vibrating art-bot that makes drawings
• Sew fabric creations with wearable circuits

Meet the Author

1. Danielle Martin

   Danielle Martin served as Knowledge Manager and led the Start Making! program across the global Clubhouse Network. She started her Clubhouse career as a Coordinator at the Charlestown, MA Boys & Girls Club and previously served as an AmeriCorps VISTA supporting community-based media and technology programs. After obtaining a Master in City Planning degree from MIT, she co-created a research group within MIT's Center for Future Civic Media, Department of Play, mapping mobile technologies and youth activism methodologies. Now she manages programs for Team4Tech.org, focused on advancing 21st century education in underserved communities by engaging U.S. based technology volunteers and IT solutions in collaboration with local non-governmental organizations.

2. Alisha Panjwani

   Alisha Panjwani is a designer and educator interested in exploring experiential and experimental ways of integrating storytelling, craft, wellness, play, and interactive technologies to create participatory learning practices. Her practice centers on nurturing children's creative confidence with new technologies and encouraging their involvement in creative acts within their communities. She completed her Master's degree in Media Arts and Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked as a research assistant in the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab. Before coming to the MIT Media Lab she was working as a Design and Research associate at Project Vision, an international research initiative based in India that focuses on developing appropriate instructional strategies and technology-related tools that foster creative cognitive architectures in young children from urban poor communities.