This document summarizes the first meeting of the Alliance for Promoting Maker Culture in Hong Kong (APMAC-HK). The mission of APMAC-HK is to promote making as a means of sustainable human development. It plans to include teachers, academics, students, suppliers/vendors, and volunteers. The meeting discussed STEM, STEAM and making education and how making can develop skills like problem solving, collaboration and interdisciplinary thinking. It also addressed providing infrastructure to support maker spaces in schools and potential maker projects for schools.

1. Alliance for Promoting Maker
Culture in Hong Kong
(APMAC-HK)*
1st Meeting
Dr. Clifford Choy
School of Design, PolyU
23 Jun 2017
* Name is still tentative and subject to change

2. PolyU Design
www.sd.polyu.edu.hk

3. https://www.polyudesignshow.com/

4. Mission Statement
• To promote “making” as a mean for sustainable human development
• A group for those who are interested in promoting maker culture in
Hong Kong
• Plan to include teachers, academics and universities’ students,
suppliers/vendors, freelancers, volunteers and others
• Not plan to be a formal association/organization at this moment, to
reduce admin overhead

5. STEM, STEAM, Make, Design

6. STEM Education (1)
• Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics
• According to EDB (2015, Dec):
• We aim to further develop among students a strong knowledge base in step
with the latest changes in these disciplines, and strengthen their ability to
integrate and apply knowledge and skills, so as to nurture their creativity and
innovation, collaboration and problem solving skills, which are essential
skills and qualities required in the 21st century. The learning activities of
STEM education also help students develop the essential qualities associated
with an entrepreneurial spirit.
Educational Development Bureau (2015, Dec) On-going Renewal of the School Curriculum – Focusing, Deepening and Sustaining: An
Overview. Retrieved from http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum-development/renewal/Overview_e_2015Dec.pdf

7. STEM Education (2)
• Creativity and Innovation
• … creativity as the capability or act of conceiving something original or unusual,
while innovation is the implementation or creation of something new that has
realized value to others
• Creativity isn't necessarily innovation
• Creativity provides the basis for innovation
• Entrepreneurial Spirit
• … is a mindset. It’s an attitude and approach to thinking that actively seeks out
change, rather than waiting to adapt to change
• … is also associated with taking calculated risks, and sometimes failing
• Problem solving
• What about problem identification?

8. http://all-that-is-interesting.com/mankinds-most-useless-inventions
http://www.imore.com/iphone-6s-plus

9. STEAM
Yakman, G. (2008). STEAM education: An overview of creating a model of integrative education. In Pupils' Attitudes Towards
Technology (PATT-19) Conference: Research on Technology, Innovation, Design & Engineering Teaching, Salt Lake City, Utah,
USA.

10. STEAM
• STEM + Arts
• Arts - “ How society develops,
impacts, is communicated and
understood with its attitudes and
customs in the past, present and
future “
• Society, culture, belief, religion,
politics, …
http://www.petronastwintowers.com.my/facts

11. http://artofislamicpattern.com/resources/educational-posters/
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/geom/hd_geom.htm

12. 落手造 Making (1)
• Turning ideas into tangible/perceivable form
• “Vision” to “execution”
• Driven by intrinsic interests, not extrinsic rewards
• Fun? Needs?
• Learn, create, share
• Emphasize on creativity, inventiveness, resourcefulness
• Emphasize on how to learn, explore and experiment

13. 落手造 Making (2)
• Materials, Tools, Processes
• Not “vocational training”, but also involve life-long learning skills
• Learn to learn, self-learning, problem-solving, exploration, experimentation and
critical thinking
• Engage with physical materials
• Develop tacit knowledge
• Through making, students explore and apply STEM/STEAM knowledge
• Not entirely about innovation and startup

14. Youth in Innovation, San Mateo Innovation Week 2016, 19 May 2016

15. “making”
The Experiential Learning Cycle [Kolb and Kolb, 2005]
Kolb, A., Kolb, D. (2005, May 15) The Kolb Learning Style Inventory – Version 3.1 2005 Technical Specifications. Retrieved from
http://learningfromexperience.com/media/2010/08/tech_spec_lsi.pdf

16. Attributes being developed through making
• Communication
• ask questions, ask for help, ask for resources, tell others what you have learnt/achieved
• Learning through peers
• Problem solving
• Collaboration
• Interdisciplinary thinking
• understand any single discipline cannot solve all problems
• Growth mindset
• Can-do mindset
• ”Problem”/”Opportunities” identification

17. Why Design?
• “Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing
existing situations into preferred ones.”
• “… design … makes ideas tangible, it [design] takes abstract thoughts
and inspirations and makes something concrete.”
• Designers think through making
(Herbert Simon, 1981, as cited by John Hesket, 2009)
(Mat Hunter, 2014)
Heskett, J. (2009). Creating Economic Value by Design. International Journal of Design, v3, n1. Retrieved from:
http://www.ijdesign.org/ojs/index.php/IJDesign/article/view/477/243
Hunter, M (2014) What is Design and Why it matters? Retrieved on 5 May 2015 from http://www.thecreativeindustries.co.uk/uk-creative-overview/news-and-
views/view-what-is-design-and-why-it-matters

18. http://www.rachelreynard.com/design-process/
“making”

19. Why Design?
• Problem exploration (clarification) and solution exploration
• Less on what you can do, but more on why you should do
• Understanding users
• Not exactly ”problems”, but also “opportunities”, “insights”, “issues”
• More meaningful if making is associated with people, not just making
for the sake of making

20. Meaning in Making
• “Making” should be based on intrinsic interests
• How to make it meaningful to students when making?
• How to develop their abilities to “empathize”?
• Four Levels of Making:
• Making for self
• Fun, self-use, solve your own problem, …
• Making for someone you are familiar
• For your best friend, for your parents, …
• Making for others
• For your classmates, for your neighbors, …
• Making for social good
• For disadvantaged group, for local community, for sustainability, for change, ….
• “Making” provides an engaging way for individual to learn and apply STEAM knowledge

21. How to make?
What can be made?
What to make?
Why to make?
STEM, STEAM, Make and Design
• Knowing possibilities with personal and
digital fabrication technologies (strength
and limitations with each ”technology”,
what can be done by combining multiple
of those)
• Develop tacit knowledge in using
different materials, tools, processes
• Understanding “users”, identifying opportunities
• Evaluate, identify issues and improve
STEM/STEAM
Design

22. Two Aspects of Interests from Schools
• Infrastructure to support Environment to support maker education in
schools and communities
• Project ideas for schools

23. Infrastructure to Support Making
• Space, tools, machines
• Tinkerspace, Makerspace, Hackerspace, Fab Lab, Makerlab, Techshop
• Traditional tools
• Digital Fabrication lab
• Software (e.g. Blender, GIMP, Rhino, …)
• Materials, kits, platforms
• E.g. Material Resource Centre (PolyU JCIT 5-th floor)
(http://www.sd.polyu.edu.hk/en/j.c.-innovation-tower/material-resource-
centre), Strawbees, Makedo, Lego, Fischertechnik, Arduino, BBC micro-bit, VEX
• Learning resources
• Blogs, tutorials, discussion forums, youtube, ….
• E.g. Instructables, Adafruits, Stackoverflow, …
• Sharing and collaborative platforms
• Git, WordPress, Google doc, Google hangout, YouTube, Vimeo, …
• Events for sharing of knowledge
• Exhibitions, science fair, fun fair, Maker Faire

24. Current and Coming Questions from Schools
• How to start STEM/STEAM/Maker programme?
• How can STEM/STEAM/Maker programme be integrated with existing
curriculum?
• What tools to purchase in STEM lab or Maker lab?
• What to do with the STEM/STEAM/Maker lab?
• Who can help to support students (and teachers) in using those tools
in STEM/STEAM/Maker lab?
• How to sustain STEM/STEAM/Maker projects in school?

25. Some of my views (1)
• Schools should develop project directions which share among a group
of teachers, with support from senior to junior teachers
• Possible to sustain the project directions for longer time as led by teachers
• More resilient to changes (e.g. students graduating, teachers leaving, …)
• Possible to develop expertise and ”go deeper”, and develop own contents,
rather than purchase from outside
• Possible to identify expertise in communities (local, universities, overseas) to
collaborate
• Tools should be purchased to support project directions, not just for
show-off

26. Some of my views (2)
• For a makerspace, you need a manager/director, who knows how to
connect people and expertise, not a technician
• He/she can help students to explore and clarify their problems
• Seems like an experienced industrial designer is a good choice
• He/she can help to connect with those with specific technical knowledge
and/or resources to support individual projects
• Technical support can be obtained through part-timers
• Develop a community of makers in the lab/space who can share their
knowledge with students “in-situ”
• Find a reason for makers to stay in the lab/space, so as to maximize chance of
interacting with students

27. Make Big programme
• ”Making, beyond STEM/STEAM”
• Proposed Contents:
• Makers’ Day – may be starting from Sep 2017
• SciFest 2018 – tentatively 17 Mar to 25 Apr 2018
• Maker Faire Hong Kong 2018 – may be before Easter
• “remake learning” in Pittsburgh

28. Make Big programme
• Sustainability
• Collaborate with Material Resources Centre and colleagues in PolyU Design
• Sustainable materials
• Sustainable lifestyle
• Sustainable development
• Understanding human eye
• Collaborate with PolyU School of Optometry and PolyU Design
• 3D printed human eye model
• Model demonstrating how our human eye works

30. Make Big programme
• Evergreen Education Foundation collaboration
• Connecting students in US, mainland China and Hong Kong
• Competitions with ShenZhen Schools
• Cardboard warfare
• Rube Goldberg Machine Contest
• Other competitions
• Electric g—kart
• FPV racing
• Mini-4wd
• ROV
• Automata exhibition
• Interactive media/installation
• Music equipment