Advice about MakerSpaces/HackerSpaces

[Matt Pattison]

Hi,

I am a teacher about to start at a new school as a robotics/coding/etc. teacher. I learnt of CCHS from the NodeBots group and have attended NodeBots day a couple of times now, as well as a few NodeBots group sessions at CCHS. 

I'm fairly knowledgable about teaching and programming, but I am keen to know more about MakerSpaces/HackerSpaces, 3D printing, laser cutting and the like. I would like recommendations on:

• The best 3D printers and laser cutters, for a school budget, and why they are good. This is more for my personal knowledge than immediate need - the school already has a pretty good setup :)
• What 3D modelling / CAD software to use (I've used TinkerCad and Fusion360 trial version, which I believe is free for students)
• Suggestions on educational robotics kits (again mainly for my own interest, the school already has some pretty cool stuff)
• Suggested activities that would be suitable and exciting for an average high school student, of either gender, with limited coding knowledge and no electronics background. Bonus points if the kids will learn something useful. I'm currently using crufti.com as a starting point (the website of Anna Gerber, NodeBots guru), as I just saw her great talk at CampJS and had a good talk to her afterwards about project ideas.
  

Any pointers on any of the above areas would be greatly appreciated. I will try to collate any recommendations that I am given on a webpage, and reply back when I'm done with a link to a summary of what I have learnt. I gave a short talk about teaching kids to code on the weekend at CampJS and I will also include some of the many suggestions I got from CampJS attendees on the webpage.

Thank you very much in anticipation,

Matt