By Doug Baldwin
The maker movement in the United States isn’t just a hobby; it’s having a significant impact on school curriculum development and growing local economies. To celebrate making, innovation, manufacturing and maker culture, residents throughout New Jersey will come together on Saturday, March 21, 2015 in over 145 community locations across all 21 counties, including at libraries, schools, museums, colleges, and independent makerspaces.
NJ Makers Dayis designed to be a statewide single-day event that celebrates, promotes, and in many cases may introduce maker culture, as well as the values associated with making, tinkering and STEM-based learning. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “employment in occupations related to STEM — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — is projected to grow to more than 9 million between 2012 and 2022. That’s an increase of about 1 million jobs.”
Makerspaces across the state are having a significant impact on education and job skills development by providing access to people, information, resources, and tools that facilitate making to a wide variety of skill levels. Popular equipment in these spaces include 3D printers, single board microcontrollers like Arduino and Raspberry Pi, robotics, digital media production, computer programming, textile and handicrafts and more.
“We are ecstatic to be able to coordinate this type of programming to communities all over the state,” said Doug Baldwin, Emerging Technologies Librarian at Piscataway Public Library. NJ boasts many locations with makerspaces and studios, and our state has demonstrated a commitment to supporting creation, development, and innovative play.
We hope you can join us in not just supporting but truly celebrating maker culture, and all those entrepreneurs, small business owners and young makers who are the driving force of our future economy, by participating in the first N J Makers Dayon March 21, 2015!
Sponsorship for this project comes from littleBits, AC Moore, Buildtak, Sparkfun, Birdbrain Technologies and Soldering Sunday. As a Game Changing Sponsor, “littleBits is thrilled to be participating by providing 50 Kitsto sites across NJ. Makers of all ages and abilities will be able to snap their ideas to life and invent anything. We’re excited to see what you create!”
NJ Makers Day is a coordinated initiative in partnership with LibraryLinkNJ, Piscataway Public Library, Hillsdale Public Library, Gloucester County Library System, ManufactureNJ, Middlesex County Workforce Development and the New Jersey Small Business Development Center.
For more information about NJ Makers Day, please visit www.njmakersday.org.
