Creating, curiosity bring benefits to schooling and economy, experts say

ROGERS -- Nurturing the ancient human drives to create and explore can improve Arkansas' economy and transform schooling for every age, educators and other experts said Monday.

The state's second Makers Summit, organized by the Scott Family Amazeum and other local groups, drew hundreds of entrepreneurs, tinkerers and educators from the elementary to university level to learn how to encourage making and testing tools and ideas. The summit was part of the multi-day Northwest Arkansas Technology Summit at the John Q. Hammons Center that included the Women in Technology Conference on Monday and concludes today.

The concepts of makers and maker spaces often apply to would-be inventors looking to prototype, test and refine crafts and products. The Greater Bentonville Chamber of Commerce and The Innovation Hub in central Arkansas helped organize the event, which was meant partly to showcase the maker resources popping up in Northwest Arkansas.

Fayetteville's Chamber of Commerce opened a fabrication lab last year with equipment for classes and the general public, for example. Northwest Arkansas Community College hopes to add its own lab, career and workforce education, vice president Tim Cornelius told the summit. Multiple school districts work with the college, Northwest Technical Institute and business owners to provide hands-on experience for what can be well-paying careers such as welders and electricians.

But attendees agreed making and sharing ideas is useful throughout life and in essentially any context. Several school teachers and officials spoke about trying to encourage the approach by emphasizing curiosity rather than test scores.

"It's not a new idea, but it gives us a flag to rally around," said Joel Gordon, the hub's executive director. "It's exploding, it's on fire, and it's infused in our economy."

Tiffany Nixon of Springdale and her son, Austin, embody that push in many ways. Austin Nixon studies computer engineering at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and got interested in the field as he was tinkering with his insulin pump and blood-sugar monitor for his diabetes.

Usually the pump and monitor aren't linked, meaning Austin Nixon would check his blood sugar and adjust his pump manually. By programming a small processor on his own and 3D-printing a case for it -- with several tries and some help from others -- now he can link the monitor and pump and record his blood-sugar data.

Austin Nixon credits his mom and like-minded friends for not tamping down his exploratory drive.

"I think it's kind of in all of us," he said, adding he wants to use his skills to help others in some way.

He plans to volunteer at the NWA Creative Hub, a maker and collaboration area Tiffany Nixon is helping to set up at a Jones Center facility in downtown Springdale. The Teen Action and Support Center will share the space as well. Tiffany Nixon said she hopes it'll be ready for kids and adults like her son in the next few months.

"He had a problem, and he learned he could do it on his own," she said, adding the maker approach empowers others in the same way.

Several schools have taken up the cause with more unstructured guidance, such as by giving students a problem or question and letting them tackle it from every angle they can think of. The approach helps teach critical thinking and encourage kids' interests, said Jeff Wasem, principal at Bentonville's new Creekside Middle School.

Carrie Beach, a science and pre-engineering teacher at Bentonville's Washington Junior High School, said during one of the summit's break-out sessions she was burned out because of the focus on testing until her school worked with the Amazeum to inject maker principles into her instruction.

Now her students have done such projects as making a quilt demonstrating the interconnectivity of the ecosystem and building trays and trailers to help students with disabilities carry their lunches and supplies.

"Making is a different way of thinking," Beach said. "It helps us to see the potential in kids. It also, more importantly, helps them to see that they have potential."

The theme carried over to the women's conference, which included sessions on invention and innovation, artificial intelligence and the relative lack of women in technology fields. In one session, Julie Hansen, executive adviser for a California computing company called Salesforce, recalled a company program to encourage young girls' interest in programming. She had them consider running a dog care business and all of the details required.

The girls soon thought about ways to track the quality of the care and the dogs' moods, perhaps with a little sensor on their tails to check how much they're wagging them.

"That's brilliant," Hansen said happily.

NW News on 10/17/2017