Does your child love to tinker with various materials and supplies? Do you think there is something deeper to your child’s yearning to put things together or take things apart? Do you wonder if your child’s artistic endeavors also have design or engineering potential? The Wayland Young Makers Club may be a great opportunity to enable your child’s creative expression.

Wayland Young Makers, organized by Wayland parents Robin Jones and Mark Greenlaw, is a small group of 10-12 middle-school aged children who are led by an experienced educator / engineer. Students will work on creative projects including 3D modeling and 3D printing, working with electronic circuits and Arduino micro-controllers, and programming in Scratch and other computer languages. Children will spend 100% of their time making cool and creative things, and along the way learn about materials, design, prototyping, and creative process. The program is intended to spark interest in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) by doing fun, hands-on, cool projects.

The program is themed on Maker Faire and the Maker Movement, which focuses on do it yourself (DIY) and DIWO (Do It With Others) projects involving computers, electronics, robotics, digital fabrication, metalworking, woodworking, crafts, hydroponics, e-textiles, and other disciplines.

The Wayland Young Makers group is starting on Sunday January 27th, from 1 – 4 pm, and will run for 8 sessions approximately every other Sunday through early May (with a few exceptions due to the vacation week). A few spots remain open for any interested boys or girls between 6th grade and 9th grade. The group will meet in a classroom at First Parish Weston. Tuition for the program is $480 per child, which includes costs for the instructor, tools, materials, and facility rental. For more information, e-mail either Robin Jones or Mark Greenlaw. Based on the degree of interest from Wayland Parents, future programs may be offered.