Maker Faire Showcases Student Ingenuity
Posted on 04/23/2021
“It’s incredible what you can accomplish in a couple months.” These words from St. Thomas Aquinas High School junior Megan Kibalo encapsulate the energy of the third annual Maker Faire. Often referred to as “the greatest show-and-tell on Earth,” Maker Faires have taken off around the world because they allow students the opportunity to show off the products of their know-how and imagination.''

Students passionately demonstrated their projects that ranged from stained glass to cast metals to catapulting robots to life-sized board games to facial recognition programs to hydraulic arcade claw games, just to name a few.

The finished projects that dazzled attendees were the culmination of an ongoing, collaborative process involving both fellow students and teachers, with sparks of inspiration being struck as recently as a couple months before the big day but in some cases as far back as a couple years prior. Dan Mulvihill along with Maker Faire Co-Coordinator Casey Walker have created an intricate network of support and inspiration for students of wide-ranging interests. Along with their own expert abilities and oversight, they’ve also trained a group of STEM Techs, who form the backbone of this initiative. Those STEM Techs assist the students who frequent the Makerspace after school, pairing up based on interest and know-how in order to offer guidance, inspiration, and technical help. “In a lot of ways, the Makerspace has become self-sustaining,” Mulvihill observes. As the date of the Maker Faire approaches, the STEM Techs and faculty coordinators hold “Brainstorming Bashes,” in which students who want to participate can gain inspiration and hone their ideas. Through collaborations like these, the STEM program at STA has continuously advanced and expanded along with the passion and creativity of everyone involved.

Maker Faire 2021