Montgomery Catholic strives to educate the whole child. Whether it be helping students to excel in academics, athletics, arts, or their faith. Throughout the last year, we discovered the need for a “Maker Space.” With the help of MCPS Grandparent, Jim Lauridson, we have created a room dedicated to our students who see themselves as makers.
These are the kinds of students who would rather create than consume. They get joy and education by working with their imaginations and their hands. They are allowed to be creative in a non-structured and non-competitive setting. The goal of a Maker Space is to be creative, not to win.
Our Maker Space is a dedicated room for our students to be creative and use the tools and materials on hand to build primarily technical and artistic projects. Currently, our space consists of 3D printers, a laser cutter, soldering stations, electronic measuring instruments, parts, hot glue guns, Arduinos, Raspberry Pi’s, gears, motors, and sensors. Presently the Maker Space is being introduced to Middle School students through an elective which will consist of microprocessor and mechanical projects; radio projects starting with satellite tracking and leading to an amateur radio license, and an aviation project beginning with designing and building a micro-drone or a micro-fixed wing aircraft.
The next expansion of our Maker Space will be completed this winter and will include a radio tower on campus. With the addition of the tower, our students will be able to accomplish things such as bouncing signals off of meteors as they enter the earth, launching high altitude balloons with instrumentation, download pictures from the International Space Station, communicate with digital signals, be part of an emergency network, communicate with the Vatican’s amateur radio station (HV5PUL), and be the radio station representing Montgomery Catholic in international contests.
The possibilities are endless! We look forward to seeing what our student makers create!
