Nest Makerspace open house celebration with gingerbread houses as survey tools
The Nest Makerspace’s open house occurred last Saturday and it was centered on gingerbread house decorating with an invitation to share wishes for what needs a makerspace hale (house) could serve. Participants ranged from toddlers to elders and included college students, school teachers, working adults, and retirees. They decorated gingerbread houses constructed using my Grandma Sue Okada’s (my paternal grandmother) recipe. This receipe is the one she used for her annual cooking of hundreds of gingerbread cookies for her students, neighbors, friends, and family in Kahului, Paia, and Wailuku, Maui.
PROCEDURE
Introductions & story sharing: The workshop started with an opening sharing of who we were and each person shared a gingerbread memory. More than a few shared they had never made gingerbread or decorated gingerbread houses or cookies before. Two participants had cultural ties to gingerbread making as they have Austrian roots and shared wonderful stories of family gatherings to make gingerbread houses. One was a dramatic story of gingerbread houses being stored for years up on a high shelf and then, one day, all crashing down to the floor at the same time. This is a story that would never take place here in Hawai'i where many critters and the humidity would tranform a tasty structure left out uncovered quite quickly.
Materials selection:
After the story sharing, participants selected a pre-built house to decorate or selected a gingerbread house kit to assemble and then decorate.
A long table was set up in “salad bar” fashion with decorating materials and small cups to use. These materials included Ti leaves and flowering ginger leaves from the yard, Japanese iso peanuts, and a range of candy decorating materials. Frosting was provided at each table.
Wrap up sharing gingerbread village:
At the conclusion of the workshop, we took photos of the gingerbread houses on a single table and participants shared their thoughts in a simple survey.
Tour of makerspace hale:
We checked out the makerspace and I showed the new microscope, 3D printer, portable laminar flow hood, and laser cutter in the space. The dark field microscope and the pH meter ares generous donations by Sound BioLab. The standard microscope is a donation by the Pacific Biosciences Research Center in the Biological Electron Microscope Facility at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I am still setting up the space for use.
We discussed the various spaces that could be used for projects, including the deck and the space underneath the structure where I am currently growing local oyster mycelium in a woven palm container.
Emmi, a workshop visitor
SURVEY
As this place-based STEAM kit project moves forward, I will be exploring ways to survey people’s thoughts about the kit activities, as well as how this makerspace can be a supporting space to amplify the goals of the kits. A simple paper survey was provided at the end of the gathering for participants to fill out to share some of their thoughts on how they like to see this space grow.
OUTCOME
Survey results highlighted a desire for a place to relax, play, connect, be inspired and one wrote in a “place to make.” The sheets and talk story discussions also revealed a desire for garden spaces (in soil, as trellises , and as vertical gardens), places to sit and rest, spots of shade, a place to experiment in cooking, some signage for upcoming events, and sustainable practices like water catchment, solar panels, planting of native plants and mini aquaponics.
Above: participant gingerbread houses with rain gutter and rain barrel system and solar panels.
Above: a few participants gingerbread houses that shared stories of trellises, vertical gardens, and plants around the house. This was the celebration wrap up for the year and an open house for my new makerspace. I am now thinking about how to include a rain barrel, develop simple aquaponic, a hanging wall garden and grow materials for kits in a small garden area.
As I had an overlapping micro grant from Purple Mai’a to develop STEAM programming this past spring through fall, I created a Final report for Nest Makerspace 2023 workshops. The learning from this will inform the kits development this coming year as I select five workshops to develop into the kits and refine with the input of this project’s advisory board and the participants of a few kit prototyping workshops I conduct in 2024.
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