Educational platform MakeIT School

With a long-term goal, 2 years ago EnCata started developing an educational platform for schools called MakeIT School which was designed to make  tutorials, videos, books and materials available to educators and students and provide a venue for STEM enthusiasts to connect with teachers and share additional curriculum and ideas for fun experiments. Now we’re looking to expand this model worldwide.

MakeIT School is the equipped classes for use in schools, a simpler version of a dedicated fablab MakeIT Center for hardware startups to engineer and develop both early stage mock-ups, proof-of-concept (POC), and industrial grade prototypes. The first MakeIT School was opened in Minsk at Lyceum of Belarusian State University -the first engineering school in Belarus- in Dec 2019. It is a specialized prototyping shop where aspiring engineers, students and enthusiasts can try their hand and put together their own hardware project. The classes have 3D printers and other tools for prototyping. The process is fully organized by the Kanban software system based on the Lean manufacturing approach. The tools are stored on a board using the 5S system.

The system is connected to the central fab lab MakeIT Center via a cloud platform. Moreover, we designed a special training system for both teachers and students so they can work together from the ‘good idea’ stage all the way to a fully prototyped product in an ‘ongoing client project’ form, e.g. students can create a prototype of some robot just like that robot would be designed in a real engineering center by experienced professionals. MakeIT School also hosts various master classes, lectures and meetups. 

Thus, MakeIT School is literally the IoT-based box solution for STEM education with the following:

• basic prototyping equipment and tools,
• learning curriculum,
• LEAN organization.

With MakeIT School, high-school students will learn such practical technical subjects as:

1. Project management intro,
2. 2D drafting and 3D CAD modeling,
3. 3D printing,
4. Electronics and controller programming,
5. Prototyping,
6. The basics of Lean manufacturing

The current educational platform has courses adapted to youth for easier understanding in 2 languages (Russian and English) on the following:

• “From idea to prototype” - the course explains key points in project management, resource assessment, work planning and usage of LEAN tools so as to implement an idea. 8 training sessions, 20 hours.
• Work on CNC - a practical course on CNC machines (3D mill / laser machine) also includes CAD modeling training in Solid Works + CAD modeling. 17 training sessions, 42,5 hours.
• 3D prototyping - a practical course on 3D printing (SLA photopolymer technology and FDM filamentous technology) + CAD modeling. 28 training sessions, 70 hours.

We believe  that MakeIT Center is a unique solution which is now available to schools and we hope to share it on a global scale. MakeIT School classrooms will be built on the model of EnCata’s MakeIT Centers. 

We are planning to develop the MakeIT School concept further and make the educational platform more engaging, powerful and connected for the international educational community. We believe MakeIT Centers that will be open in different countries will unite regions and will lay a foundation for further contact and development between the regions.