Designed for a high school in Ohio, this resource illuminates 10 principles for community, materials, and environment of a community makerspace. It draws from interviews with the d.school, Brightworks, Columbia College, and MAKE. Done in partnership with Experience Institute in 2015.

1. Community, materials, environment.
Ten principles to guide Beavercreek studio and makerspaces.
FEBRUARY 2015

2. COMMUNITY MATERIALS ENVIRONMENT
Cultivate a culture
of trust and engagement.
Listen to best practices,
but co-create your own
traditions and rules.
Identify your kit of everyday
supplies to empower
small group collaboration.
Display materials for easy use
and to inspire imagination.
Remember prototyping happens
in many scales and mediums
Consider how the tools will be
used, not just the tools themselves.
Develop thoughtful storage
to encourage multiple users.
Make presentation and
display of work easy.
Customize your studio
over time to fit your
community needs.
Use signage and norms
to promote good
citizenship.
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These ten principles were developed from
research of best practices and three case
studies. Special thanks to MAKE, Stanford
d.school, Brightworks, and Columbia College.
Ten Principles
To guide the outfitting and set-up of
Beavercreek studios and makerspaces.

3. Cultivate a culture
of trust and
engagement.
Culture is more important than
equipment or curriculum. This
concept echoes in the ethos of all
successful school makerspaces.
Creative problem solving requires a
mutually supportive environment
where students can get messy and
think big. It’s a place where students
look to peers and adults– such as
teachers and community partners–
as collaborators.
Trust
Breed a trust-based environment by sharing
responsibility and cultivating respect.
Engagement
Foster engagement through a culture that celebrates
critical inquiry, creativity, and investment in authentic
work.
Creative Confidence
Build on the natural ingenuity and imagination of
teachers and students. Empower the ability to
generate and act upon ideas.
PRINCIPLE ONE
COMMUNITY

4. “The most important
message we can send is
that every child is
trustworthy.”
GEVER TULLEY
Brightworks &
Tinkering School Founder

5. Voices of engagement
“I want us to be second to none in
solving real-world issues.”
-Beavercreek Administrator
“The more you can fight your
natural instinct for control the better”
-Charlotte Burgess-Auburn, d.school
“Always question what [tools] you are
afraid to let the students use and why.”
-Josh Frank, Brightworks
Eastwood Middle School, Perkins+Will Design
BrightworksSchool

6. Listen to best practices,
but co-create your own
traditions and rules.
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all
makerspace. The problem-solving
and creativity of a community
shapes a studio’s culture and
environment over time. The best
creative environments come from a
balance of rigorous research and
thoughtful organic implementation.
To cultivate the latter, individuals
must be empowered to be stewards
of the studio on behalf of the school.
PRINCIPLE TWO
Values
Identify values, mindsets, and behaviors that your
school studio embodies.
Norms
Articulate clear guides for behavior and operations
to facilitate safety, knowledgeable use, and
collaboration.
Rituals & Traditions
Allow the culture to leave it’s mark by developing
your own unique practices.
COMMUNITY

7. IMAGES
Creative “Recommandments” from the prototyping room at the d.school. A sign from the fabrication lab at Columbia College.

8. We’ve gathered
a list of books
to support
your studio’s
reference library.
bit.ly/beavercreek-makerbooks

9. Identify your kit of
everyday supplies to
empower small group
collaboration.
When a studio has ready the basic
tools needed for daily facilitation
and group work, new collaborative
behaviors are formed. Give
individuals and teams easy access
to the basics that will allow them to
sketch, share, and make.
Consistency
Keep basic tools available and designate
a consistent storage solution.
Visualization
Supply tools that facilitate visual
communication to promote collaboration
and presentation skills.
Modeling Behavior
Demonstrate collaborative behaviors
by developing capable facilitators.
PRINCIPLE THREE
MATERIALS

10. ”[You might ask:]
‘What’s in your tool kit?’ ‘What’s in your treasure chest?’”
CHARLOTTE BURGESS-AUBURN, d.school workshop curator

11. A reliable facilitator station
supports confident teachers
and simple transitions.

12. Display materials for
easy use and to inspire
imagination.
The best creative studios and
maker labs spark imagination. The
easiest way to do this is by
celebrating materials. Invite
students into the studio experience
by making materials easy to see and
access. Introducing novel tools and
materials will stretch your students’
skills and imagination.
Access
Remove barriers to access (e.g. open containers)
Visibility
Make materials visible so that students can “see”
rather than “read” what they have at hand
(e.g. open, clear, or translucent containers)
Resourcefulness
Think creatively around the types and sources of
materials. Unexpected fun materials stoke creativity.
Collecting recycled materials can involve the
community and reduce expense.
PRINCIPLE FOUR
MATERIALS

13. Visual labels encourage easy recall.
“Presentation of materials really does matter…
[students must be able to] see it and grab it.
You need to leverage recognition over recall.”
-Josh, Brightworks

14. Open storage encourages easy access.

15. Sometimes just celebrating materials in
the space can spark imagination.

16. Remember prototyping
happens in many scales
and mediums
A foam model of a city. A
performed skit for a new
innovation. A 3D-printed object.
These are all prototypes, but they
look very different. In creative
problem solving, making takes on
many forms. When resourcing your
space, consider stocking supplies,
tools, and props that encourage
diverse outputs.
Lo-fi Prototyping
Lower-fidelity or light prototyping refers to rough
representation of ideas with basic materials such as
paper, cardboard, or clay.
Experiential Prototyping
Using space, characters, and storytelling to act out a
situation or idea. Often requires basic media tools.
Digital Fabrication
Using computer-based modeling programs and
specialized equipment to produce a model or product.
(eg. 3D printing, laser cutting, milling)
PRINCIPLE FIVE
MATERIALS

17. Sometimes a sheet,
clothespins, and props
make a great stage for a
creative story.

18. Consider how the tools
will be used, not just the
tools themselves.
A tool is never just a tool. Each piece
of equipment has a unique collection
of accessories, storage needs, and
maintenance requirements. In
creating an easy, intuitive experience
for a wide range of users, it's
important to consider how the
spatial setup will accommodate for
all of these factors. When reviewing
equipment decisions, experts
suggest creating a mental checklist
to make sure everything has a place.
Storage
Consider frequency of access to
determine type of storage needed
(short term, long term; size).
Placement
Every resource (tools, materials, manuals)
needs a place. Storage and set-up is a
significant consideration of studio upkeep.
Requirements
Whether electricity, computing power, or ventilation
– high tech tools often require additional set-up
considerations.
PRINCIPLE SIX
MATERIALS

19. “How can your space promote good citizenship
of your shop without words or instructions?”
JOSH FRANK explaining the custom drill/charging stations
Brightworks Workshop Leader

20. Creating stations supports organization.
Below, the fabrics and sewing area of the prototyping lab at the d.school

21. Use signage and norms
to promote good
citizenship.
The way you set-up your studio can
promote behaviors of safety and
respect. This is done in both explicit
and tacit ways. Simple ways to
achieve citizenship are through:
established norms around safety and
cleaning, clear signage, intuitive set
up of tools and accessories.
Safety
Establish clear universal safety norms.
Respect
Create an environment of mutual respect
for tools, materials, and collaborators.
Cleanliness
Share the responsibility of studio tidiness
as a community. Make it as universal as safety
in everyday norms.
PRINCIPLE SEVEN
ENVIRONMENT

22. “Mindset is important.
What does the space tell
you to do?”
JOSH FRANK
Brightworks Workshop Leader

23. IMAGES
(1) Safety poster from MAKE (2) Basic prototyping room rules and an easy access first aid kit.

24. d.school studios have signs with basic set up & breakdown instructions
Facilitators can customize their space and be considerate of the next user.

25. Make presentation
and display of work
easy.
At the core of collaborative cultures
is the ability to communicate clearly
and often. Whether it is the simple
sketching of an idea, an informal
peer-critique, or a formal community
presentation. Allow for multiple
modes of presentation within the
studio environment. This supports
an ongoing creative conversation
about work in progress.
PRINCIPLE EIGHT
ENVIRONMENT
Final presentations at d.school:
A stand-up community critique.

26. A hallway is transformed into both a presentation space and
gallery for 2D and 3D work at Columbia College in Chicago.

27. Develop thoughtful
storage to encourage
multiple users.
It’s challenging to create an
environment that is both welcoming
and manageable. This is common in
school-based community-use
spaces. An easy way to cultivate
ownership and shared use is to be
thoughtful about storage solutions.
Consider the needs of the following
users: core teachers, approved
extracurricular groups, and curious
independent teachers and students.
Curricular needs
Prioritize the needs of everyday users.
Provide ample supplies for core project needs.
In-progress projects
Allow for sustained projects to be safely preserved
within reason. (Critical thinking and problem-solving
takes more than 55 minutes!)
Extracurricular groups
Invite in users after the school bell rings
by giving them safe (unobtrusive!) space
to store core materials.
PRINCIPLE NINE
ENVIRONMENT

28. Wheeled, locking carts support the needs
primary student groups within the d.school.
Larger initiatives get small, semi-private bays
that open to the main studio.

29. Project lockers at Columbia College.

30. Customize your studio
over time to fit your
community needs.
A studio is a space that learns over
time. While shiny new equipment
and furniture is exciting, it’s the
process of making it yours that
brings it to life. Experts emphasized
being intentional with your studio
environment, especially in the first
years of operations. This might look
like a custom-built storage solution,
a ‘hack’ with velcro, or
experimentation with spatial layouts.
Listen, tinker, and evolve to fit your
unique needs.
Flexibility
Be open to change and experimentation
with studio learning experiences and operational norms.
Sharing
Facilitate easy sharing of feedback, needs,
and ideas amongst teachers, students, and facilitators.
Evolution
Allow experiments and insights to shape
future versions of your studio resources and norms.
PRINCIPLE TEN
ENVIRONMENT

31. Even the act of adding
wheels to something
can be transformative
in a simple way.