Thinkering: Mobile Maker Lab Hits the Road To Find High Demand

While budget cuts leave schools struggling to fill classrooms with bare essentials—including paper and ink—it’s a challenge for many teachers to bring creative activities into the classroom. To fill this void, in zooms SparkTruck, a DIY modern crafters' fantasy on wheels. This educational build-mobile arrives filled with an arsenal of paints, cardboard, adhesive googly eyes, craft feathers, glue guns, sewing machines, 3D printers, and even a laser cutter. The SparkTruck is touring schools across the country, on a mission to put the spotlight on hands-on learning.

The creators of SparkTruck hope to inspire grassroots change in an educational system increasingly emphasizing standardized tests. Above all, the truck is an educational playground for its target audience: 7 to 13-year-olds getting phased out of hands-on learning opportunities in schools.

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The brainchild of six designers, educators, and engineers at Stanford University's d.school, SparkTruck grew out of a class project. As the team members spoke to educators, visited schools, and watched creativity get sucked out of education's standardized system, they hatched a plan. They raised initial funds via Kickstarter and grants, purchased an 11-foot step van and tools, and in partnership with PBS’ Design Squad Nation and Instructables, embarked on SparkTruck’s “Sparkin’ Across America” road trip in June. To ensure the project's sustainability, the team asks that the communities help fundraise as well.

The SparkTruck is currently in the midst of its 14,408 mile, four-month journey, rolling into schools, camps, and museums across the nation to lead workshops. Projects have included designing logos for laser-cut stamps to assembling vibrating robots clad in foil, pipe cleaners, paper, and pom-poms. According to SparkTruck co-founder Jason Chua, the response to the approach has been unanimously positive.

“We’re hitting 31 different states, and we figured there must be really big differences in how students engage,” Chua says. “What we found overwhelmingly is that when you get kids out of classrooms when they’re used to sitting in a room all day long and put them in a hands-on situation, they really engage, and they really enjoy it. It’s been true in every place.”

The SparkTruck team is bringings workshops to local educators as well. “There are a lot of teachers out there interested in progressive, hands-on learning in the classroom," says Chua. "But it’s difficult to get support from administration and parents. We’re hoping to be something teachers can point to and say, ‘Look at these kids and look at the technology. This is what I’ve been trying to tell you.'"

The team has hosted nearly 40 workshops, and plans to reach 2,024 students by the end of their trip. SparkTruck’s journey is far from over though—it has a waiting list of 192 educators eagerly courting it's next stop.