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Maker City

Home Education June 2023

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a group of people sat down at KWMC The Factory

Since the pandemic, there has been a significant increase in young people who are being home-educated. As a response to this social change, we decided to run a Maker City project throughout June. This was specifically for home-educated young people and their parent-teachers to come to KWMC The Factory and take part in alternative STEAM education. This also included offering Continuing Professional Development for the parent-teachers. Creating a space where young people and their parents could learn and create together felt truly inspirational.

A parent-teacher and young person stood over a heat press

We designed a variety of activities which allowed the young people and parent-teachers to learn both collaboratively and independently, experimenting with hands-on proto-typing and engineering tasks, leading to sophisticated digital fabrication.

A young person on a macbook using tinkerCAD

The cohort thrived in our community Maker Space, and we witnessed the group bloom in skills, confidence and a sense of empowerment. By the end of the month, the group had 3D-designed boats using Tinker CAD, learnt how to operate Sphero robots, designed an entire city based on their personal social action passions, laser cut name badges, built propeller boats to race across a swimming pool and designed, UV printed and heat-pressed their own family flags.

A group of people outside of KWMC The Factory showing what they have created.

We have built strong relationships with this local cohort and are hoping to continue working together in the future. Thank you for all the helpful feedback we received from both parents and young people. Here is one of our favourite quotes;

‘The combination of discussion, design and practical activities worked well. I gained an understanding of new software and different machinery which is available to use. We wish there were more home-ed sessions, we loved it – thank you!’

parent-teacher
A parent-teacher and young person at a desk looking at a computer screen and drawing

Maker City Winter Term!

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Our Tuesday night Maker City cohort is gaining great confidence both personally and in using the software and hardware in The Factory. This has been fantastic to see. We have been focusing on social action and incorporating that into different creative sessions. Guiding the young people through the design process from generating ideas in groups to discussing them openly and presenting their ideas publicly. From sketching and prototyping to designing on software and making the final products using The Factory kit.

Through our ongoing research project with UCL, we have recruited a team of young researchers from our core cohort. They have been learning about what makes equitable maker spaces; undergoing various research tasks to help understand and develop the Maker City program. The co-researchers both participate in research studies as well as design and facilitate their own research. 

As well as our after-school session, Maker City has been running weekly sessions at Knowle DGE secondary school through the winter term. Years 10 and 11 have been working together to learn digital fabrication skills. The cohort decided to use their new design skills to develop their own dungeons and dragons gaming world. One young person started designing dice on TinkerCAD which we printed on our 3D printer. The cohort also laser-cut their own personal character pieces in a variety of 2D and 3D design methods and started designing their own game board. 

The young people have been thinking about how to bring the community together and this new design project has allowed them to create a new Knowle DGE gaming community with other students; creating a safe space, thriving with creativity and possibilities which benefits young people’s mental health significantly. 

The young people at Knowle DGE have also learnt how to create stickers using Inkscape and a vinyl cutter. Liam is passionate about nature and green spaces in Bristol and designed squirrel stickers as part of an environmental project. Although he is worried about the climate crisis, Liam made us all smile by telling us about the squirrel near his home which he has seen navigating the zebra crossing like a human – twice!  

 
We can bring lots of our digital fabrication equipment into schools for Maker City sessions and at the end of the term we invite our school cohorts to The Factory to experience the rest of our equipment in action. This term we also ran our school program with Parson’s Street Primary School and Holy Cross Primary School.

At the end of March, we hosted the end-of-term showcase. There was a magical energy in the building as young people took their family and friends on tours around The Factory; showing them their projects and teaching them how to use the kit.  

Our partners from ARUP, Arcadis and Mott Macdonald joined us to support the young people and be part of this celebration. Professionals from each organisation have been mentoring the young people throughout the year, working closely with them to help them build on their ideas and connect their projects to real-world applications. These mentors will continue working with the young people and in July they will collaborate with us to run our once-in-a-lifetime work experience program.

If you are interested in signing up for any of our after-school sessions or have any questions, please email jumpstudios@kwmc.org.uk.

This Term at Jump Studios

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Creative Hub

This term at Creative Hub we have had the pleasure of working with an external artist; David Beech who works at Bristol’s Ken Straddling Collection. David has worked alongside the Jump Studios Staff to create an amazing 10-week programme based on his project ‘My Family and Other Objects.’

We asked the young people to select a personal object that they thought told a story about them, their family, their culture, or their community. Using this object as inspiration, they are creating their own art pieces to exhibit at our Jump Studios Showcase.

The young people have explored what ‘the arts’ means to them. Through taster sessions and self-led practice, the young people have been able to tell their stories. They have used digital drawing, animation, photography, pixel art, Minecraft, sculpture, jewellery making, and even more traditional techniques.

We took a visit to the Ken Straddling Collection on Park Row this November. Everyone got a coach from Knowle West with cameras at the ready and sketchbooks in their hands to capture the experience and use it to inspire their projects.

As part of this project, the young people have had the opportunity to start their Bronze Arts Awards as an exciting way to show their participation in local creative arts as well as gain a qualification. The young people have created such a marvelous variety of work.

On Monday the 12th of Dec we invited friends, families, artists, and associates to join the young people for a beautiful end-of-term celebration. The young people gave tours around the exhibition space and shared their creative journeys with their guests. Families and friends were able to enjoy all of the art being exhibited, join in with some creative activities, as well as try out KWMC’s new Virtual Reality headsets. There was an incredibly special atmosphere as the community came together to share this celebration and we were touched to hear feedback from everyone who came.

Thankyou for this amazing club and fantastic opportunities.

parent

Thank you for giving my children the creative outlet – they love it here.

parent

Maker City

This term at Maker City, we wanted The Factory to become a space that the young people trusted, felt ownership over and felt inspired by. We wanted to build their confidence around the programme, around the space and within the new group dynamics.

The term started with lots of fun opportunities to learn how to use different digital design programs like Inkscape, Sketchbook, and TinkerCAD. They then used those programs to start making products with different briefs using the laser cutter, 3d printer, digital embroidery machine, UV printer, and vinyl cutter.

Throughout the term, the young people were able to meet their mentors from Arup, Arcadis and Mott Macdonald and have their say on the design of Bristol’s Castle Park. The young people thrived using their knowledge and opinions in this real world application and we saw the relationships between the young people and the mentors develop throughout the term as they worked together to tackle the brief.

A group of young people also onboarded the Maker City Youth Council who have been working with our partners and researchers; UCL and attending research sessions this term which will be continuing throughout the year. The young people have been proud to share their Maker City stories and help design their own research to understand Maker Spaces like The Factory. Last year Maker City young people co-designed a survey with UCL, which the current cohort filled out this term.

Using the theme of recycling and upcycling, we planted a social action seed that the young people explored with seriousness and curiosity. The young people were able to bring in items from their homes; using their new digital design skills to upcycle them. We wanted everyone to start understanding the design process this term and through, master classes and permission to fail, the young people practised; researching, prototyping, designing, redesigning, working independently, as part of a team and creating using all of the tools available to them at The Factory.

When we asked young people what they had learnt this term we were told; ‘I have learnt about the environment,’ ‘I have learnt how to use Inkscape,’ ‘I have learnt that the laser cutter is incredibly useful when cutting intricate pieces,’ ‘I feel excited,’ ‘I want to do more.’

The young people took ownership of their projects and as their designs started unfolding they worked together incredibly as a team to help get everyone’s products finished. By the end of the term, some of the young people were able to use the machines confidently and could help each other to print their work.

The young people chose to come to Filwood Community Christmas Market with the KWMC staff on their weekend to show their work to the community and tell other people what they had been working on this term. It was amazing to see the pride and excitement the young people had over their work and how confident they were to talk to the public about Maker City.

The end-of-the-term showcase was another beautiful celebration where friends and families came together with the young people to enjoy an exhibition of their upcycling projects as well as take part in some digital fabrication activities with the young people. The young people took ownership of the space; giving tours of the building and showing their friends and families how to use the machines to print off Christmas stickers and baubles to take home.

Some of the parents left feedback on the question: What have you noticed since your young person started at Maker City?

It’s amazing what we can see, how happy my daughter is here. She’s enjoyed every meeting with KWMC. Thank you all!

parent

My child is always excited to come to Maker City, very enthusiastic about all the activities and very lucky to have participated in it. It has been an amazing experience. – thank you!’

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Sound Wave & Sound Wave +

Across this term in Sound Wave, the young people have been exploring different creative activities around music. A few weeks ago, they planned and recorded their own podcasts that looked at a range of topics including music, football, and the climate crisis.

As well as creating their own music using software such as Garageband and Sound Trap, they also designed their own album artwork through Canva. We had a fantastic range of designs that really showed the young people’s creativity and personalities. As well as this, they created their dream playlist of songs and shared this with the group.

It has been great to see what the young people have made and see their confidence grow through the term. It had also been amazing to see them explore all the creative aspects of music from the recording and songwriting to the designing and sharing of music in the group.  

It’s been great to learn and improve music making skills.

young person

Our Soundwave showcase was really fun. We prepared the space together with the young people showing their songs on laptops and their songbooks out for viewing on tables. When the parents and caregivers arrived, the young people took pride in showing them around the space, playing them songs and reading them lyrics from their songbooks.

Ben’s dad was the first to arrive and he spent over an hour together talking through Ben’s process and listening to his songs. It was really special to see how engaged they were with the process and Ben’s Dad left us with some wonderful feedback.

“Inspiring how the young adults have expressed themselves so artistically and clearly. Thank you for all the support and enrichment!

ben’s dad

Lily came in just for the showcase. It was so nice to have her come as we had so much of her work on display. Her parents were really in awe of the space and what she had made over the weeks here with us. Lily wrote a beautiful song about her best friend who has been in hospital. We were so impressed when she wrote it and her parents were also really amazed at the vulnerability she showed in her writing.

“Thank you for helping Lily to better understand music and song writing! She has loved coming here and is keen to come back!

lily’s parents

A huge thank you to all of our funders for making this term possible.

Interested in registering for after-school sessions and more next year? Click here or follow us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Jump Studios In Schools

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Maker City at Oasis Academy Connaught

We had the pleasure of running Maker City with the year 6’s at Oasis Academy Connaught this school term.

Maker City is a STEAM (science, tech, engineering, arts and maths) programme aimed at inspiring young people to design and create products using state-of-the-art technology such as laser cutters, 3D printers and sticker machines. We focus on collaboration, creative problem solving and social action to work together to design something that would be useful for ourselves and our community!

It is amazing for us to be able to meet young people in their school environment and offer a different approach to education; broaden their horizons and show them what is available in their local area and how they can be involved.

For the school sessions, we brought iMacs, drawing tablets, and robots to work with. At the end of the term, we bought the young people to KWMC The Factory where they could see their work being made using our other equipment, have a tour of the space, and get stuck in with our hands-on engineering activities.

Sound Wave at Parsons Street Primary School

This term we have run three Sound Wave taster sessions at Parsons Street Primary School with two year 6 classes. We were able to bring in percussive instruments and laptops for the young people to use in the sessions. In our first session, we kicked things off by playing a conducting game where everyone in the class would have a piece of percussion and one young person would come to the front to conduct the room. They could affect when people played and how loud or quiet, they played their instrument. The enthusiasm from the year 6 classes was great to see and we had multiple volunteers all wanting to have a go at conducting.

We introduced the young people to composing and creating their own music using loops on Garageband. In a short period of time, the young people showed their amazing creativity and quickly took to building their own songs with loops and were really excited to show the rest of the class what they had been working on in the session.

Our Sound Wave taster school sessions have also included young people creating their own podcasts! In these sessions, the young people worked in groups to come up with a theme for their podcast, something that they are passionate about or want to talk about. Then after some planning, and writing down a few key points they moved on to recording their podcast on software such as Garageband or Sound Trap. They also looked at creating some theme music or a jingle for their podcast which could be from loops or recording an instrument. Again, we saw amazing creativity from the year 6 classes at Parsons Street and a willingness to share their work with us which we always love to see at the end of sessions.

If you are interested in having any of our sessions at your school, please contact jump@kwmc.org.uk.

If you are interested in signing up for any of our after-school sessions or have any questions, please follow this link or email jumpstudios@kwmc.org.uk.

October Half Term At Jump Studios

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Maker City

With Halloween on the horizon, local young people came together for a day of spooky STEAM shenanigans at KWMC The Factory. From pumpkin carving, and clay sculpturing to making their own Halloween stickers and laser-cut frames, they did it all.

Photography

The group of young people learned composition theory, and how to operate a professional DSLR camera. They participated in a photography expedition to the Northern Slopes, learned how to edit images, and hosted a public photography exhibit at Knowle West Media Centre in only two days.

The building felt alive as young people shared a collection of 2D photography collages, digital images and visual storytelling presentations. A collection of their work is going to be up in the main studio for people to come and see in their own time!

If you are interested in signing up for any of our after-school sessions or have any questions, please follow this link or email jumpstudios@kwmc.org.uk.

Work Experience 2022

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This year we launched our Maker City Industry Work Experience programme. We worked with 16 local young people and partnered with engineering businesses: Arup, Mott McDonald and Arcadis to focus on making a change in our city!

We started the week at KWMC, getting to know each other and setting out what to expect for the week ahead.

In the afternoon, we held taster sessions in photography, music and content creation – ran by our team here at KWMC.  These taster sessions focused on building their creativity and confidence by using tech to capture and tell stories through different platforms. We were able to share insight into how we use arts, tech and digital media in our day-to-day jobs here at KWMC!

Facilitators Meg and Jack leading the session at the start of the week.

After the first day, the participants felt that they had gained confidence in their creative skills and their ability in using them in the workplace. They also talked about how they had a better understanding of the work and change that KWMC aims to make and were excited to go into the city and put their skills to the test!

On Day 2 we visited Arup, the young people were amazed by their beautiful office, which even had a big tree inside! They spent the morning working with the mentors from Arup to undergo a budgeting and prototyping activity. Using little resources, the groups worked together to design a new cutting edge bridge for Bristol.

The mentors explained that their jobs rely on thinking outside the box when designing landmarks that already exist and that factoring in material costs is super important. The young people got a lot out of this activity, they felt they had a good amount of time to think through their ideas and having a budget really added another dynamic which gave them further understanding. The afternoon was spent hearing from different members of the team about what their day-to-day lives at Arup look like, they shared some exciting new projects with the group and listened to inspiring talks about how to get into the industry.

On Day 3 we visited Mott McDonald, this work experience was based around boat building. The mentors led a challenging task where the participants worked in pairs to create motor boats that could sail in a paddling pool! It was lots of fun but also very insightful and their prototyping and engineering skills were put to the test. The group also got to meet a wide range of staff from Motts. In the afternoon, there was a round-robin where the staff, all the way up to the CEO, shared one exciting project they had worked on. The participants had loads of brilliant questions and left feeling excited for the next trip to Arcadis!

Day 4 was all about the site visit! Arcadis is working on developments at Temple Meads Train Station and the participants got to go out to the site and visualise their ideas for designing a state-of-the-art train station! Their ideas included, a farmers market, a stream train restaurant, a rooftop bar with a rooftop garden and a local gift shop where artists can sell their products to people passing by.

Once they had visualised the space, they got all their ideas down on paper and presented them back to the staff at Arcadis, who were very impressed with the level of detail and creativity!

We loved having the young people take part in our week long Maker City Industry Programme, where not only did they get a taste of working life at five different venues across the city, they were able to feed their ideas and opinions into real life projects happening here in Bristol!

Maker City Industry Programme inspires young people to get creative with their STEAM skills and put them into action! We will also have spaces on our regular Maker City Industry Programme from January 2023 on Tuesday evenings at KWMC The Factory, you can register your interest now by filling out this form and selecting Maker City – you will be added to the waiting list and offered a place nearer the time!

Week 2 of work experience

Work experience at KWMC is a life-changing opportunity for young people to immerse themselves in a professional creative industry and broaden their horizons to an imaginative world full of possibilities. At KWMC, we encourage young people to learn in a self-led, trusting environment. Rather than showing young people how to perform specific chores, we encourage young people to express themselves, learn new creative skills and thrive in areas in which they feel passionate.

To start the week, the young people completed a manual-of-me sheet. This is a self-exploration tool which we use at KWMC for people to think about their interests, their learning and working styles and how they like to communicate with a wider team. We shared our manuals with each other to help build a trusting and productive working environment.

Recruitment for our programmes is a huge part of the work we do here at Knowle West Media Centre so the cohort spent one day out in the local community, leafletting for our Jump Studio’s Summer Program. The team really enjoyed this task and portrayed a lot of confidence and care while learning about Jump Studios and sharing this with the wider community.

The photography workshop allowed young people to learn the basic theories behind photography as well as take part in a practical challenge where they used DSLR cameras and practised directing and capturing to create a photography collection used to advertise products.

The film workshop allowed young people to learn about the different job roles available in the film industry. The young people started building production companies in small groups, learning how to script write, and storyboard short film scenes as well as using graphic design skills to design and create logos.

We ran tutorials on how to design using Wacoms, Inkscape, Canva, Sketchbook and other general Mac software. These skills were used throughout the week and the cohort had the opportunity to create products using KWMC’s laser cutter, vinyl cutter and heat press, focusing on Social Action and design which helps the wider community.

Throughout the week the cohort was able to start their Bronze Arts Awards. This meant that while gathering new skills and exploring new creative practices they were also able to work on their own personal projects and gain a qualification.

We will be running Work Experience again next year in July, register your interest for Work Experience 2023 here!

The Jump Studios Summer Programme 2022

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Maker City

Jump Studios star-jumped into August with an action-packed Maker City week at KWMC The Factory. The programme’s first day began with exciting tasters of the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) world we were about to explore.

The young people were given a tour of the building and shown live demos of the diverse technology we have available at The Factory. Excited by the laser cutter and the vinyl cutter; the young people tried their hand at making their own personalised stickers and wooden name badges, learning how to use Inkscape and transfer files onto the machines. They even learnt how to drive Sphero robots and created their own 3D mazes to race them around.

As well as tasters of the technology, Maker City Day 1 delved into Social Action; practising interactive activities to ignite conversations around interests and passions within their community. This led us to our first ‘Build Your Bristol’ challenge where the young people were given a budget for simple materials to design and engineer a prototype of something that Bristol would benefit from as a city.

Day 2 of Maker City continued with the fight for Social Action as we went out as a group into the local community and started highlighting things that we noticed. The young people were aware of the positive infrastructure around them and were equally aware of the things that were missing or that they would like to change. Passionate conversations arose about the environmental and social needs of the people and the area and how they could start making positive changes.

The group noticed social issues; large amounts of litter on the ground and overflowing bins, a lack of greenery and dull signposting. They discussed how these issues made some of them feel unsafe and unwelcome on Filwood Broadway. The young people started to think about the technology available at KWMC The Factory and how machines like the laser cutter or the vinyl cutter could be used to create bright colourful signs for the high street and how the CNC machine could help build more bins for the community.

When we got back to the Factory the young people started thinking about the Social Action Campaign they wanted to focus on throughout the project. They came up with snappy slogans and designed their own protest placards using digital drawings on their computers ready to be cut out on the laser cutter. Some of the slogans included; ‘This Is Not Freedom’, and ‘Protect Our Planet.’ The young people thought about products they might want to create to support their social action campaign and created prototypes of their designs.

One young person designed a pill-shaped magnet with their slogan on it to spread awareness about the current anti-abortion laws in America. Another young person wanted to focus on improving people’s lifestyles in Bristol by designing a free transport bus. One even designed an ocean-cleaning boat which gathered plastic from the top of the ocean as it moved.

The ideas were courageous and diverse, looking to help people and the environment in a variety of creative and innovative ways. Other STEAM tactile design activities were carried out on this day to help the young people develop their STEAM practices and influence their Social Action campaigns. The young people created personalised kaleidoscopes and embroidered their own tote bags to take home.

The third day of the programme is when we bought everything and everyone together. The young people processed their ideas from prototypes to their final products and created PowerPoints on Canva to explain their Social Action journey in a colourful and accessible way. Gathering all of their hard work together, the young people set up KWMC The Factory as an incredible exhibition space and invited friends and family to come along to enjoy their incredible creations.

Sound Wave

We ran our Sound Wave summer programme in the second week of August at Knowle West Media Centre. These three days consisted of young people taking part in drumming circle workshops, jamming together and creating their music using a mix of instruments and music software.  

Day 1 of the programme introduced the young people to different ways of creating music. We had workshops from our associate facilitators/musicians around lyric writing, using synthesizers and finding inspiration when writing a song. In one activity everyone shared a song that they really enjoy and connect with then gave a few reasons why. We found there was an eclectic range of songs and styles within the group and the young people were able to use it as a springboard to start creating and making their own music!  

Day 2 started with some group games that included learning how using different sounds in your music can change the feeling of your song. The young people would hear a sound and have to walk to a spot if they thought it was a High end, Midrange or Low end sound. We then went into a group jam with young people trying out different instruments and taking turns to conduct the group. We saw great group dynamics with everyone taking part and giving it a go.  

After everyone was warmed up the young people started creating their own songs using software (Soundtrap, Garageband or Logic) and instruments of their choice. We were then able to showcase the amazing work that was made. Parents and staff were invite to the main studio of KWMC, where the young people had their laptops and headphones ready to play the songs they had created. It was amazing to see the creativity that they all have.  

If you are interested in signing up for any of our after-school sessions or have any questions, please follow this link or email jumpstudios@kwmc.org.uk 

Mental Health Awareness Week At Jump Studios

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This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and at Jump Studios, we have been incorporating mental health into our programme of after-school sessions throughout the entire of our last term and as we are in the opening stages of this term, we thought this week would be a good opportunity to revisit the theme.

We engaged with the theme by using games before designing and creating things that are associated with the young people’s reflections on mental health.

Based on the 5 steps of Mental Health and Wellbeing, we began sessions with a physical warm-up where the group intentionally walked around outside ‘Taking Notice’ of their breathing and their senses.

One-by-one, we introduced the other 4 steps.

When the word ‘Give’ was called out, the young people gestured to one another and gave each other a smile. When the word ‘Connect’ was called out they would walk up to the person closest to them and touch elbows. When ‘Be Active’ was called the young people did a star jump and for ‘Keep Learning’ they made a gesture to symbolise learning.

This exercise gave the young people a moment of their day to reflect and connect with themselves and their friends.

The theme continued into our sessions as they design and created projects based on Mental Health.

We have frequently found that the topic of mental health is always well received and treated with complete seriousness and maturity by the young people of Jump Studios, which is an exciting prospect to know that the next generation are so in touch with a topic that has potentially been neglected in the past.

We look forward to continuing this theme throughout the work we do with the young people at Knowle West Media Centre.