The six month anniversary of the Makerspace Studio at the Mary Ellen and Robert McKee Boys & Girls Club Branch is this Saturday, Nov. 20. Club members have been able to learn and use advanced technology, like 3D printing and robotics, and the Branch will continue its educational STEM programs in the room.

The Branch had a “soft opening,” of the Makerspace on May 20, 2021, according to Jarrin Rozenblad, the youth development supervisor. The Branch still has restrictions about visitors who are not parents in the building, but eventually they’d love to get more community support.

“Fountain Hills has such a diverse community of people,” Rozenblad said. “We’ve had great volunteers come in in the past and do programs with us from photography to dance to gardening. So, we’re hoping to get people with STEM backgrounds to do some programming with the kids.”

There are no restrictions on what the kids in the club can do, and one of the first activities done in the makerspace was a partnership activity with the group Techbridge Girls. The organization’s goal is to increase girl’s interest in technology, but it is open to everyone. The organization provided the Branch with free educational material, and the first activity was held with kids from third, fourth and fifth grade.

Rozenblad says that the Branch will continue its relationship with Techbridge Girls, but also mentioned that it the only STEM specific partnership. Rozenblad hopes to get help from hopefully hiring additional staff and making more community partnerships. They would provide in depth learning and can potentially enrich the kids learning experience.

Rozenblad has been in the Makerspace with kids at least once a week this school year. The Branch rotates their kids through different activity rooms, but one challenge is the fact that most of the technology in the room takes a lot of time to use properly.

The room can fit about 15 kids, and they share the equipment. The kids share iPads when they control Sphero robots and drones, and Rozenblad said that sharing hasn’t been an issue.

Rozenblad said the Branch has all the info and data to run all their equipment. The McKee Branch was the second of the Greater Scottsdale Branches to have a Makerspace, but eventually every Branch will have one. Because of that, every Branch also received a guide to all the equipment in the Makerspace studio.

The club members have done a lot of cool activities in the Makerspace, but Rozenblad admits they have barely used the glow forge and Mars farm. The Mars farm is set up, but nothing has been planted yet because the time commitment is hard to meet with the current number of staff.

The Branch’s mission is to enable all people to reach their full potential, but the McKee Branch needs community support so it will reach its full potential. The club is waiting and hoping for restrictions to be lessened so they can safely bring in volunteers to help teach the kids.