It’s easy to bring more STEM and coding to your After School program!
It’s easy to bring more STEM and coding to your After School program!Complete the form above and we’ll be in touch with the quick steps to get your kids coding, building robots, and launching rockets this semester!
To say thank you for connecting us with your After School Director and getting a MakerState program started at your school, we will rebate you your registration fee for the first semester of that program.
MakerState After School programs are ready to go for your school. We provide:
- Our award-winning “Challenge” Project-Based Curriculum.
- DOE background checked & trained Maker Fellow Instructor(s).
- The materials and gear to support the program.
- A Makerspace Report every session which explains to parents and administrators what STEM project the students built.
- A Pop Up Makerspace, which your young makers plan and deliver, to share their STEM-mastery, maker-learning projects with the wider school community.
Start a STEM Makerspace program in your school/community!
- If you have a location suggestion for a program that is not school-based, let us know and we can bring the program to your community center or place of worship.
- A minimum of six kids are necessary to start a program.
- You can share the course descriptions below with your fellow parents/educators and choose which one you’d like us to deliver.
- Most courses last for 12-18 weeks with weekly 60-90 minute sessions.
See below for programming descriptions which you may choose from for your desired After School programs:
Makerstate Winter/Spring 2024 after school programs
Junior Engineers (INTRO)
Students will use a combination of DIY projects and educational kits to interact with the basics of engineering principles. Introduces younger students to hands-on, building projects with a fun-first approach to social and STEM skill development using creativity and critical thinking.
Junior Engineers (INTERMEDIATE)
Students will learn to enhance their skills through activities that build upon the previous semesters ideas and concepts. Introduces younger students to hands-on, building projects with a fun-first approach to social and STEM skill development using creativity and critical thinking.
Inventor’s Club
Students will build fun, hands-on projects to practice creativity and problem solving to identify solutions to everyday problems in the world around them. We’ll use the scientific method and the Engineering Design process to guide us through STEM learning in each project.
Rocket Scientists
Students will build projects that highlight the evolution of aerospace vehicles and technology. We’ll use the scientific method and the engineering design process to guide us through STEM learning in each project
Robotics Themes
Beginner Bots with LEGO WeDo & Ozobot
We’ll create hand-drawn, art-based programs using colors and shapes to guide our robots through basic tasks. And then we’ll build our own bots and code them to solve exciting challenges like mazes, arena games, and bot battles. This hands-on course is all about creativity, fun-first engineering and real-world problem solving.
*A one time robotics materials fee per student applies to this course.
Bot Masters with LEGO Mindstorms & Micro:bit Microcontrollers
We’ll construct our own Micro:bit microcontroller-based circuit computers that combine with cardboard creations, and we’ll also build and code our own sensor robots to explore, gather scientific data, and defend the planet. It’s all about hands-on creativity, fun-first engineering, and real-world problem solving with obstacle courses, bot battles, and mazes.
*A one time per student robotics materials fee applies to this course.
My First Code with MIT’s Scratch Jr.
Young programmers will be able to create their own interactive environments and 2D game projects using this visual coding program developed by MIT. This is a fun-first introduction to coding and computational thinking with physical games, building activities, and introductory coding concepts.
My First Code with Kodu
Students will play and build their way to a love of coding by building artistic worlds full of mountains, rivers, deep forests and creatures that explore and begin to create on their own! This is a fun-first introduction to coding through 3D world-building and game development (requires Windows computers).
Coding Club with Minecraft
Students will build their own code that allows them to interact with and change their Minecraft world. We’ll use the LUA computer language to code our own games and projects using problem solving, logic, and incremental design.
Coding Club with MIT’s Scratch
Students will be able to create their own 2D games using the Scratch software developed by MIT to teach kids the fundamentals of programming. We’ll code our own games and projects using problem solving, logic, and incremental design. This is a fun-first introduction to coding and computational thinking with physical games, building activities, and lots of playtesting of our own games and apps.
Makers & Creators
Art combines with technology to turn playful physical creativity into STEM learning. This is all about self-expression and social-emotional development through the creation of artistic projects using fun-first technologies.
Random Arts of Kindness
Let’s get outside and create playful, “maniFESTive” art that pays kindness and positivity forward in the community through whole-child identity and empathy development in the arts. We’re growing and serving at the same time!
Digital Designing with Minecraft Storytelling
Budding designers will combine 3D art and creative writing to craft their own stories in worlds they create and edit. We’ll practice growing skills in art, writing, and presentation to craft our own heroes, stories, and worlds in Minecraft.
Digital Designing with Tinkercad
Let’s immerse ourselves in the creative process, designing models with our hands in clay and foam and shareable 2D plans and 3D models, with 21st Century skill-building computer-aided design toolsets.
Everything you always wanted to know
about starting your school’s own
STEM/makerspace program.
- Why Every School Should Have a Makerspace
- The Four Critical Career Skills that Your Children Need in the Future
- How to Get Started: Make Your Own Experience First
- How Can I Tell If It’s a Good STEM/Maker Program?
- How to Launch or Level-Up a STEM/Maker Program in Your In-School, After-School, or Community-Based Program
- Resource Guide to Set Up Your Own STEM/Makerspace Program
- Starting a School-Based STEM Makerspace: How Four Parents Did It
- Top Ten Tips for Parents in Starting a STEM/Makerspace
- Why STEM Programs Are Needed for Our Kids
- Our Learning Standards: Fiero & Flow
- Books that guide MakerState in its approach to student-centered STEM learning
