College Maker Spaces Offer Freedom to Create and Innovate

SALISBURY, Md., Aug. 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- You're a college student. You have an innovative idea for cleaning garbage from the ocean. But you need time, some private space and a few software programs.  Hopefully your college has a maker space for you and maybe some collaborators to help push the project forward.  In a maker space you have the freedom to explore, create, test, and maybe help save the world.

Maker Spaces have been around since 1995 when a group of people in Berlin joined forces to hack technology to nudge into doing things it wasn't initially intended for. The maker space gradually evolved into groups that regularly meet to create new solutions from cutting edge technology, or maybe some challenging artwork.

U.S. colleges and universities with maker spaces have dedicated environments where students can gather, use technology and work on boundary-stretching projects in the arts and the sciences, including engineering, biology and physics. 

The mind is the limit.

Maker spaces are flexible and unique to each institution.  What they do have in common are cutting edge equipment, comfortable environments and people with a penchant to push the limits.

Researchers at Great Value Colleges (GVC), a leader in the educational field, define a college maker space as "being something between a traditional classroom and a space where people meet up to use technology to create new solutions," explained GVC Editor Julie McCaulley. "They encourage creativity and novel approaches to global problems."

"A college needs to be able to do this with technologies, the arts, and its personal philosophy to be included in this list," McCaulley said.

GVC's methodology is included in its article, "50 Best Maker Spaces: These Cutting Edge College Collaborative Services Truly ROCK!" The article lists the institutions, the maker space environments and samples of cutting edge projects.

"As the nature of how and what we learn continues to evolve, university maker spaces will become more crucial, not only for students but also for the entire community," McCaulley said. "Maker spaces can provide the tools and support necessary for creativity to flourish and dreams to be realized."

These are the top 15 of the top 50 college and university maker spaces as identified by Great Value Colleges.

University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California

University of Washington
Seattle, Washington

Stanford University
Stanford, California

Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana

University of California, San Diego
San Diego, California

Kent State University
Kent, Ohio

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California

Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona

University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Harvard University
Boston, Massachusetts

Wheaton College
Norton, Massachusetts

Sierra College
Rocklin, California

Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA

Brandeis University
Waltham, Massachusetts

Lafayette College
Easton, Pennsylvania

For the full article:
https://www.greatvaluecolleges.net/best-maker-spaces/

The mission of Great Value Colleges is to help students get the best possible education for their money by presenting in-depth and well-researched college rankings along with information about scholarships and career options.

Contact: Julie McCaulley, Editor
Phone: 518-496-0845
Email: http://www.greatvaluecolleges.net/contact/

SOURCE Great Value Colleges