Melbourne based Industrial Designers Jethro Pugh and Sam Nikolsky are part designers, part engineers, part makers and totally committed to bringing cutting edge tools and technologies to schools, clubs and into the hands of children across their native Australia.
Pugh and Nikolsky have created The Maker Machine, a mobile makerspace that will travel across Australia to local primary schools, libraries and youth clubs giving the kids inspirational hands-on workshops, teaching subjects like art, maths and science in new and exciting ways.
As they say on their project site, “In our workshops children sketch ideas that come to life as robotic creatures. The workshop promotes inter-curricular thinking, collaboration, teamwork and problem solving through experimentation.”
The Maker Machine project has already enthralled the kids around Melbourne but their ultimate goal is to be able to take the project on the road across to as many schools and communities as they can around Australia.
They point out, “Having seen the positive impact of taking some really cool tools such as 3D printers to schools, we want to purchase more equipment so that the entire class can interact and utilise these.”
To that end, Maker Machine are attempting to raise funds on the crowdfunding platform, Pozible. Much like the 3D print tech start-ups’ favourite, Kickstarter, Pugh and Nikolsky are reaching out to like-minded individuals to help fund their educational project, with a variety of rewards depending on the value of the donation.
As a father, maker and self confessed tech-geek, I love to see projects like this flourish, giving kids tools, inspiration and realisation that they can create a funkier future.
Check out Maker Machine’s project homepage at: makermachine.com.au.
The crowdfunded project is available here: pozible.com.au/makermachine.
