By Hetgar Peralta, 11th grade at Lighthouse, Intern at the Wonderful Idea Co.

The Lighthouse School Maker Faire is an event that happens every year at Lighthouse around the end of the school year. The students have a chance to present their projects from their classes, to show their fellow peers or any visitor what the student made. It doesn’t matter if your in 4th grade or in 12th grade, if you have a wonderful project, you can attend the Lighthouse School Maker Faire.

I was a student that was attending the Lighthouse School Maker Faire, because of my internship at the Wonderful Idea Co. I had to tell people how to use color bots, and facilitated the stop motion filming table. It was fun to see other people’s projects while I was working, and it was fun meeting, and getting to know the younger students at Lighthouse. At first the day was slow -nobody was showing up- because it was a Friday morning, which means classes are either taking tests (or maybe nobody wanted to come?).

Students interacting with the Color Bot

But in the afternoon, people decide to come and check the Lighthouse Maker Faire as a class, and the place got packed! I saw how people got excited to see what people made, I also saw a lot of people interacting with other people’s work. But in my station people were mainly interested in the color bot: I mean why wouldn’t people be interested, it’s a robot that can paint from your program! There was still some people going to the stop-motion center, but people loved the color bot. I’ve been in the Lighthouse Maker Faire, a total of two times from when I was in the middle school side. In both cases I was just watching the projects, not making nor helping. But this time I was a part of the Lighthouse Maker Faire for the first time, which was a new fun experience for me.

If you want to create your own School Maker Faire at your school or organization, visit the Maker Faire website.