Needing to Be Nimble
Virtually Maker Faire 2020
May 22nd-23rd
What if we could diversify our resource-driven economy by escalating a knowledge-based one that thrives in a rapidly-changing, globally competitive world? To catalyze this transformation, education and teaching must change to align with children learning how to be self-starters, lifelong learners, innovators, and creative problem-solvers. Our not-for-profit, Brilliant Labs / Labos Créatifs mission is to ignite this change in youth and their communities. Even though Atlantic Canada is not that densely populated, our team of 36 has continuously been engaged in visiting numerous schools multiple days a week, facilitating diverse maker projects. However, due to the current global crisis, all of this came to a hard stop on March 9th, 2020. Realizing that our team could regrettably become vectors of disease as we hosted provincial events, we made a̶̶ t̶o̶u̶g̶h̶̶ the right call and switched completely to virtual yet meaningful engagement methods. We went from supporting students and educators in the physical learning spaces such as public schools and community makerspaces with materials and resources to support families in geographically distant communities in quarantine, including those who may not have access to the internet. With these amplified efforts we have been relentlessly designing and sharing new content, ideas and practices every weekday to creatively engage communities of students, educators and families.
This session will present an overview of how our organization nimbly and creatively transformed our conventional ways to tackle the unknown and continue fostering the spirit of making and learning during a pandemic.
