With support of Flanders Make, FabLab Genk will organise free STEM (international abbreviation for “Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics”) workshops for elementary and junior high school; and more specifically for pupils from 10 to 14 years old aimed at inspiring them to choose a study within these fields.
The past months, different formats for these workshops were conceptualized and tested. This entailed experimenting with little bits – electronic building blocks developed for easy prototyping – and the infrastructure of FabLab Genk. The result are three different workshops:
- Create and make your own story using a zoetrope!
A zoetrope is a system to make a movie, consisting of an upright cylinder with vertical openings. When the cylinder rotates you can see the drawings -attached to the inside of the cylinder wall – through the openings. Since the drawings are short to see, it looks like they flow into each other, creating the illusion of moving images. - Create and race with your own car or plane!
Although nowadays robots do most of the work, cars and planes were used to be assembled by people. And there are lots of parts! Did you know that modern cars are made of approximately 14,000 parts? Or that as many as 850 people at a time can fly with the largest passenger aircraft in the world? That’s why we’re going to get a better idea of how cars and planes work by putting together a model of a car or plane! - Create and play with your own instrument!
Do you like playing the guitar or did you always want to spin records as a famous DJ? In this workshop, you can create your own musical instrument and compose an own song! ‘Strum’ the ‘strings’ of your homemade electric guitar or run a crazy DJ show for your classmates.