makecast

Make:cast talks to Jake Sugden and Josh Manley who are the teachers of CAD Class.

On Pulleys and Pirate Ships: Learning CAD

A lot of makers struggle to learn CAD. Why is this keystone piece of software such a challenge to learn? One reason is that you have to find projects that motivate to you to do the work of learning. Another is finding other people who can help you throughout the process. This is what I […]

Continue Reading
Customizing Adaptive Tech for People With Disabilities

Customizing Adaptive Devices for People with Disabilities

Microsoft’s Bryce Johnson and John Helmes Join Make: Editor Caleb Kraft Bryce Johnson works at the Inclusive Tech Lab at Microsoft who is one of the co-inventors of the Xbox Adaptive Controller and the Surface Adaptive Kit. John Helmes is an industrial designer at Microsoft who began creating and customizing devices for his daughter, Jara, […]

Continue Reading
If Kids Really Knew STEM

If Kids Really Knew STEM

Jasmine Florentine’s new book introduces making and STEM to middle-schoolers. The book, “Hex Allen and the Clanksmiths”, creates a fantasy world where real problems are solved by hands-on skills. Jasmine is driven to help young people understand STEM, not just as a field of study, but as an opportunity to apply their creativity as well […]

Continue Reading
Jason Pohl in his home workshop

Jason Pohl: From Designing Video Games to Orange County Choppers and Beyond

Jason Pohl calls himself a “pretengineer” because he’s self-taught. Trained as artist, his design work has taken him from creating video games to actually designing and fabricating parts for Orange County Choppers. He moved into CAD design and working with CNC machines, creating custom parts for motorcycles in-house. Jason has boundless energy and enthusiasm as […]

Continue Reading
AMA Live Showcase

Meet the Award Winners

Meet the winners of this year’s Amazing Maker Awards. Our top winners came from the US and Canada, Turkey, Japan, and Germany and they are as young as 14. Their projects represent social impact, art, technical achievement and education. This is an audio recording of our October 4 Live Showcase in which I talked to […]

Continue Reading
Amy Zell on Make:cast

The Wherewithal to Change Things Through Making

I’d like you to meet Amy Zell – mother, librarian, grief counselor, and maker. In this episode, she talks about the power of making to change things, to change people. She credits Casey Shea, a Sonoma County maker educator, with telling her about “maker empowerment” at the Fab Institute in Pittsburgh in 2018. She understood […]

Continue Reading
Lotka Volterra model

A Better Way to Learn Calculus

with Joan Horvath and Rich Cameron Author/Educators Joan Horvath and Rich Cameron join me to talk about their new book, Make: Calculus, which take a different approach to teaching and learning calculus. This book, like their previous book, Make: Geometry, relies on creating visual models created with Legos or 3D printers to teach Calculus concepts […]

Continue Reading