The creative minds of young and old were immersed into the five STEAM subjects at the TOM Makers Long Weekend in Bundaberg.
Children as young as five and even grandparents took part in the free workshops held at the Community Lifestyle Support (CLS) AT Hub and Makerspace.
East Bundaberg State School Year 5 student Dion Wright was enjoying the weekend event with his grandparents and he said it had been a lot of fun.
“My favourite part was the 3D printing workshop,” Dion said.
“I had a 3D scan done of my body and I found it hard to stop laughing as the scanner went around my face.”
The 3D printing workshop run by Steph Piper the co-founder of Elkei Education, a program aimed to inspire 500,000 young Australian girls to explore the curiosities of science through our electronics kits and supporting local STEM role models.
Steph gave a hands-on journey into the world of 3D printing and was constantly quizzed on the workings by enthusiastic and inquisitive minds in the workshop’s audience.
Community Lifestyle Support CEO Damien Tracey said the exciting series of interactive and learning experiences was well received by community members who shared a common approach and focus to the STEAM learning.
“We had about 40 people through on Friday night and it’s going really well,” Damian said.
“I think the youngest person we have had through was a five-year-old, right up to grandparents.
“We ran two workshops at the same time one for the kids and another for adults, but what’s ended up happening is that they have blended and all are working together, and that’s really good to see.”
Learning new skills at TOM Makers Long Weekend
Damien said the idea of the TOM Makers Long Weekend was to inspire people in the Bundaberg Region to become involved in STEAM and making.
“We have a lot of makers here in our community,” he said.
“Here we have everyone here from boiler makers who are now doing electronics, coders who are doing CMC inductions and it’s starting to make familiarity within the space and areas outside their comfort zone.”
The maker long weekend offered a series of ten workshops run by TOM Queensland to upskill the local maker ecosystem in tech topics such as VR, electronics, arduino, 3D design, 3D printing, accessible gaming, CNC routing, CNC laser cutting, media production, switch control, and lean product management methodology.
For people who missed out on registering for this event, the next TOM Makethon will take place in March next year at Community Lifestyle Support.
- Earlier report: Innovators to upskill at TOM Makers Long Weekend
