SparkFun's Community Partnership Program facilitates hardware donations to applicants who are using maker technology to improve their communities. Here are some quick stats from 2017:
- Total applications: 665
- Total awarded Community Partners: 174
- Top five states represented: Colorado, California, Florida, New York and New Jersey
When we launched the program in January 2017, we had no idea what kind of interest we’d receive or what kinds of requests would come through. We had an overwhelming number of school and youth organizations apply, citing causes like maker education, supporting girls in STEM fields and increasing opportunities for students to prep for real-world careers. Here are some of our observations from reviewing over 600 applications.
Young makers put social issues front and center
For many of us, the maker movement is still a cause in and of itself to get behind, but through our Community Partnership Program we saw projects from makers of all ages aimed at solving other social issues. We saw students at DSST Cole High School in Denver that will be monitoring pollution during construction on a local freeway, and a group of students from Ohio State University’s Toy Adaptation Program at the College of Engineering hack popular toys to become assistive tech devices.
Support for girls and women in STEM comes mostly from extracurricular programs
In addition to the diverse range of social issues represented in the applications, a vast number of them sought support for initiatives designed to support girls and women in STEM fields. We’ve seen some incredible programs across the country that leverage e-textile tools like LilyPad to bring together sewing and circuitry, including the Society of Lady Makers in Atlanta and the Marston Science Library at the University of Florida. Some of our 4-H partners have used conductive paint to create interactive art, including one wall mural that played recordings of students' musical performances.
We've also seen partners introducing women and artists to electronics through hackathons like the all-female Break to Make at the University of Southern California, and Hack Music LA at the LA Philharmonic.
The global maker movement is alive and well
We had no idea we’d receive so many applications from around the world, most notably from students in India, South Africa and Nigeria. We heard from a nonprofit in Lagos, Nigeria, that provides free prosthetic devices to folks with upper-limb discrepancies; an amateur radio operator running an aerospace program in Port Elizabeth, South Africa; and a college student in the Netherlands using the LilyPad Vibe Board and other SparkFun hardware to create wearable devices that detect and reduce tremors for individuals with Parkinson’s Disease.
All over the world, teachers and students shared with us their commitment to use maker technology to teach 21st century skills and solve problems in their communities.
Robotics is your first priority.
Everyone is building robots! Well, not everyone, but the term “robotics” was mentioned 803 times in Community Partnership applications this year, while “coding” was a close second at 774 mentions. We saw a handful of swarm robot projects, autonomous vehicle projects and robots that can perform specific tasks, like picking up certain objects.
Many teachers expressed the challenge of introducing robotics to students when they themselves have very little experience, and shared how valuable simple tools like the SparkFun Inventor's Kit for RedBot or the micro:bot expansion kit for micro:bit are to beginning robotics. We saw a lot of robotics activity at the high school and university levels, as well as a lot of early interest at elementary and middle schools. Lesson learned: More resources for teaching robotics are in high demand! If you haven't already, check out the new version of our flagship SparkFun Inventor's Kit, where building an autonomous robot is the culminating project.
STEM thrives in the summertime
Holy STEM summer camps, Batman! Big shout-out to all the schools and libraries spearheading STEM summer camps for kids — you are all heroes! From soldering and soft circuits, to conductive paint and programming, during the summertime it’s likely you’ll find students leveling up their skills. Campers at The Refuge in Sunbury, PA, learned to solder by making badges to play an electronic game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Students at a Mariachi music camp at Oregon State University shared their recordings via an interactive mural created with a Bare Conductive Touch Board, conductive paint and copper tape.
Students are getting access to real projects at real companies more than ever before
Well, one thing’s for certain: SparkFun hardware was well-represented at SpaceX’s first collegiate-level, hyperloop design competition. Over the course of last year, we saw an uptick in the number of student applications for corporate- or government-backed projects and competitions, from NASA to SpaceX and, of course, FIRST Robotics.
Increasingly, we’re seeing closer ties between schools' STEM-related departments and local businesses or government agencies for purposes of professional training, helping students gain relevant job experience and leveraging students’ ingenuity to solve innovation challenges. One example was a team from the Engineering and Science University Magnet School (ESUMS) in Wallingford, CT, that won the International Paradigm Challenge for their Wasteless Urban Composter design.
Do you have a cool project you’ve been looking to get funded? Do you want send us some photos of your build in exchange for free hardware? Take a minute to apply to our Community Partnership Program here.
Please. For the love of god. Don't start using these terrible click bait titles.
I don't believe "6 Things We Learned from..." was intended to be a click-bait title. I can certainly understand how it can be viewed in that way, but it was our intention to be transparent about the key points of what we learned from the past year of starting partnership programs and what transpired to help intrigued parties know what we are up to.
It is unfortunate that we live in an age where this can be viewed as click-bait thanks to many other sites (not in the electronics industry) that try and regurgitate common knowledge. The point of this post was just to share what WE learned trying out a new way of operating with new and interested groups of people rather than stating facts as to how someone else should tackle the issue. That's the beautiful thing about learning new things, it's constant and we like sharing.
TL;DR, Not intended to be a click-bait title, we aren't going to start using click-bait titles, but we do like sharing our experiences with all of you! :)
I think the content of this article is great, and I come to the sparkfun site almost every day to read new articles. That said, I think the title (just the title) is following a bad trend. Can't wait to hear the one weird trick that EE professors hate! Just kidding :P, keep up the good work.
Haha, I understand. We'll keep an eye out for the future and cancel that "One Weird Trick" article we were working on!
sort of relevant tangent based on this part "Many teachers expressed the challenge of introducing robotics to students when they themselves have very little experience"
Several (5+) years ago I helped with a teacher continuing education for a week during the summer. During this course we taught K-12 teacher how to use lego mindstorms and how to integrate them into their classrooms and education plans. The teachers were able to use this class to meet continuing education requirements (for the state or other certifications) and learn more about robots and technology. These classes ran from 8 ish to 5 ish for a week. This course was run by one of the professors at Colorado School of Mines but he has since retired.
Have you considered teaming up with CU or another local collage to offer teacher continuing education courses where they can learn about technology and also get credit?