Maker Faire Austin 2008 Education


Maker Faire inspires, educates, and entertains curious and creative learners of all ages. Maker Faire celebrates arts, crafts, engineering, green design, music, science and technology and brings together communities who embrace the DIY (do-it-yourself) spirit. The first Austin Maker Faire (in October 2007) attracted over 20,000 people. This family-friendly, two-day event with bicycles, crafts, recycled art, rockets, robots, and more is put on by O'Reilly Media, a highly regarded technical media publisher known for Make and Craft Magazines and its annual Web 2.0 Conference.

In the past, we have had many youth at the Faire, both as exhibitors and attendees, and this year we have several ways in which teachers and students could come to the Faire to build, craft, hack, play, and make.

New FREE Maker Faire Tickets for Teachers
We offer complimentary tickets for Saturday or Sunday to in-school, full-time teachers (of 15 or more students at any level from preschool through university). You will receive a confirmation that will serve as your entry when accompanied by a matching, currently valid teacher ID or comparable proof of employment. To get your ticket, sign up for our growing community of educators.

Visit our Maker Faire Teachers' Lounge
We'll have a special area at Maker Faire for teachers to come meet our education staff, Makers with school-related content, and each other. You can also get tips on the no-to-be-missed Makers from other teachers.

Group Discounts
All groups of 10 or more people can use code MFEDU to get 50% off the ticket price at checkout. Offer expires October 17th, 2008.

Bring a Little Bit of Maker Faire to Your School
Invite Makers to come inspire your students! Makers will be visiting schools near Maker Faire on Friday, October 17th. Welcome us for an hour-long visit, and we'll knock the socks off the students and teachers with the unusual projects and the creative artists, scientists, and engineers -- the Makers -- who conceived them. There is no cost to any school or organization.

Download and print a poster.

Print Maker Faire posters
to put up in your classroom.

Prepare Your Students for a Visit to Maker Faire
We have offered special discounted Maker Faire tickets to qualifying groups (see above). We have created a handful of resources to prepare your students to come to the Faire to build, craft, hack, play, and make.

  1. Meet A Maker: Project Notebook (thanks to Saber Khan)
  2. Make Up Your Mind: Project Brainstorm
  3. Did It Yourself: Submit Your Idea
    Submit your very own project or article idea to Make: or Craft: magazines

Participate in "Educators Maker Faire"
We have a group of Makers who are organizing educators at Maker Faire and using Maker Faire as a learning environment for professional development and sharing educational resources. They aim to "[create] publicly usable products for educators and students accessible worldwide." See their Maker Faire entry for more details.

Do Maker Faire Projects with Your Students
While our submission deadline for being an official exhibiting Maker has passed, you and your students can still strut your stuff at Maker Faire.

Enter The King of Fling Catapult Contest! Build a real, working catapult and enter it in our competition on Saturday, October 18th. Catapult-building is fun, exciting, and as easy (or as intricate) as you want to make it. You and your students can compete against and cooperate with other Makers to produce a catapult with the most accurate hurling capabilities.

Whether or not you can bring your students to the Faire, you can try out some of these projects from the Pages of MAKE: and CRAFT: magazines. We have made this selection of projects available free online for your use in the classroom.


For more information about any of these programs, please contact

Michelle Hlubinka
Education Director

Why Teachers Say They're Coming to Maker Faire:

"My students participate in science fair every year, and this is the ultimate science fair!" -- Denise, a high school science teacher

"I'd like to experience the Maker Faire to see how well I could incorporate its message to my students. I'd like to find out for myself if it's suitable and manageable to fit into my curriculum." -- Stacey, a fourth-grade teacher

"I brought a few students to last year's Maker Faire in Austin, and they were very inspired by what could be accomplished through applying imagination and inventiveness to often readily available materials." -- David, a high school math & science teacher

"My students are very interested in combining Science and Math in interesting ways that get us away from the textbook." -- Michael, a fourth-grade teacher

"I would love to have the opportunity to make observations and learn new ways to bring Math and Science alive in the classroom. My students have limited resources and experiences and when provided with fun educational ideas then the exploration will start taking place giving them an opportunity to grow." -- Fifth-grade math and science teacher Gloria

"I loved my first trip to the Maker Faire last year! I was inspired as an artist and an art educator and left with with a ton of new ideas to take back to the classroom." -- Katherine, a primary school art teacher

"Form meeting function / arts and invention." -- Rebecca, an elementary school art teacher

"I try to impress upon my students the need to be inventive and creative. Last year I absolutely loved Maker Faire and all the ideas that sprang into my head from the experience. Moreover, I was able to try some new things out for myself and ended up getting into some new hobbies because of it. -- Caitlin, an elementary school art teacher

"I have been a crafter for a long time. Given the limited operating budget for public education, this comes in handy when I need to be creative with developing tools to engage the audience (door prizes, activities, classroom materials, etc.). Students served by special education need all kinds of adaptive materials that need to be created by teachers. I bring examples of these to trainings. I'd love to get more ideas to use in my work with teachers. Maker Faire looks like just what I need to expand my skills!” -- Elizabeth, a professional development specialist in special education

"I want to check it out and see people applying science math technology to solve everyday challenges and have FUN doing it.” -- Brandon, a 5th Grade teacher


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