Maker Faire 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 second Bay Area Maker Faire (in May 2007) attracted over 45,000 people and featured 500 Makers. 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 based in Sebastopol which publishes Make and Craft Magazines and sponsors the 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 premiered resources for learners and educators and four new offerings in which teachers and students could come to the Faire to build, craft, hack, play, and make.

Sign up for our growing community of educators to receive information about upcoming field trip and other Maker Faire-sponsored outreach opportunities.

New Special Preview for Teachers
Education Day culminated in an open house preview just for Bay Area teachers, 4pm to 6pm, at the San Mateo Expo Center.

New Special Preview for Students
Working with our sponsoring companies and local schools, we introduced an Education Day on Friday, May 2nd, the day before the Faire. This was an opportunity for students to Meet the Makers and get a behind-the-scenes look at the Faire as it was prepared. Students also solved an engineering challenge with Nate Ball, host of the popular PBS show Design Squad. The program was designed for students in sixth grade and older on the following schedule.

  • Middle School: 10am to noon
    (arrive by 9:45)

  • High School: 1pm to 4pm
    (arrive by 12:45)

New Group Discounts
For Saturday and Sunday, we offered special Maker Faire ticket pricing to qualifying groups whose tickets were purchased by April 25, 2008.

New FREE Maker Faire Tickets for Teachers
We offered complimentary tickets for Saturday or Sunday to in-school, full-time teachers (of any level from preschool through university) who made the request by April 25, 2008.

Why Teachers Say They're Coming to Maker Faire:

"Our Science Fair is similar to Maker Faire. Students have to build and design different machines and invention. Coming to the Faire would be inspirational and show how adults are DIYing to change the world." Saber Khan, Charles Armstrong School, Belmont

"I have students who learn engineer skills, principles and practices. They work in teams to build significant engineering projects such as solar homes, huge trebuchets, rockets and robots. We also enter botball competitions." Irene Teninty, Oak Grove High School

"The Maker Faire Education Day would be a wonderful opportunity for our creative students to meet with Makers and to talk to Makers about their creative processes.... I know our students will be inspired to Make! This is exactly the kind of experience that will carry over through their summer, and the new school year until Maker Faire 2009!" Yen Weick, CA Virtual Academy, San Mateo

Others, such as Shelley McHugh of Skyline High in Oakland cite a need to make a lot of their own science equipment, and how Maker Faire provides some excellent examples of what Jane Nikkel of San Lorenzo High School calls "low-cost, high-interest projects" to do in classes.

Download the poster.