Staff photo by Connor Cummiskey Students use a miter saw to cut wood for their woodcrafting projects. Pictured from left to right, Kami Sillivent, April Rose, Isabelle Miller, Julia Stozall and Taylor Grant

LAFAYETTE — Lafayette Charter School (LCS) has found a successful way to engage students in hands-on projects after school.

During the 2016-17 school year, LCS began offering a makerspace program. On Tuesdays and Thursdays after school, students can go to the gym to sew, program robots, craft woodworking projects and disassemble small engines.

“We found in general kids spend a lot of time in front of computers, TVs and stuff these days — they do not do a lot with their hands,” technology coordinator Lindsey Johnson said. “It used to be that kids had a grandpa’s workshop. They would come and build birdhouses with him and stuff like that, but it seems that is becoming less and less common. So we are trying to provide the space where kids can do things with their hands.”

A makerspace is essentially “a place where people can just get together and make things,” Johnson said.

Community members, or in this case students, can gather at makerspaces to pool resources and make whatever they desire.

The makerspace was inspired by a growing popularity of workshops in schools and communities across the country.

The workshop helps kids learn how to use basic tools and techniques, plus it is good for developing problem-solving skills, Johnson said.

“When you are laying out a project, you got to plan it out on paper first and you got to measure, you got to cut, you got to make everything come together, and just about always there will be something that does not quite line up right, is not quite the way you think it is going to be, and you have got to fix that problem on the fly,” Johnson said.

After averaging 12-15 students each session, LCS has decided to continue the project next year, with a few changes.

“I think we are going to focus on a lot more projects to get kids started in skill-building activities,” Johnson said.

This year, the school mostly gave students free range to do what they want, which worked for some students but left others without direction.

Next year, the two-hour sessions will be split in halves. The first will be a project staff think-up to develop specific skills. Then during the second half, students will be able to build what they want.

Johnson expects more projects involving wooden toys with moving parts, increased sewing opportunities and interdisciplinary work.

Johnson also hopes to have a dedicated room. This year students had to move equipment in and out of the gym, which meant they had roughly 30 minutes less each session to work on projects.

“We are just providing access to something that a lot of kids do not have at home, because not everyone has an old lawn mower engine they can say ‘hey, take this in the garage and take it apart, see what is inside,'” Johnson said.

Connor Cummiskey can be emailed at ccummiskey@nujournal.com.