This week Makersmiths was represented at two educational outreach events. The first was Inspire Loudoun, a full-day conference for teachers at Riverside High School (a Loudoun County Public School). Member Erin W and her daughter entered the hard fought Battle of the Bots competition competing with their "bots" against two teachers. Even though our two Makersmiths contestants lost the battle, they had fun learning to guide their robotic balls under their custom-made cup bots around the gym floor trying to bust opponents' balloons secured to their bots. Diane P. manned the Makersmiths' exhibit table and handed out over 100 brochures and summer events & classes calendars to teachers and administrators who came to the table to see laser cut, 3D printed and wood-turned items that our Makersmiths members had made. The best "draw" to the table was Mike W's Photo Booth. Administrators loved the idea of having families take pictures during back-to-school, PTA and other school events and have the photos sent to them and the school that shows attendance at school events. Here is Josh A (Makersmiths member and educator for LCPS) using the Photo booth.

The second outreach event was LearnerPalooza 2018 held at Lord Fairfax Community College in Frederick, VA. Diane P represented Makersmiths and had the opportunity to meet with the executive director of VSTE.org (Karen Richardson) and Remy Pangle from James Madison University's Virginia Wind Center to talk about how Makersmiths can sponsor middle school and high school student teams for the Virginia KidWind Challenge hosted by Shenandoah University in March 2019.  Learn more about this event at https://virginiakwc.wixsite.com/kwcva.  If interested in having your children (grades 4-12) involved, please contact diane.painter@makersmiths.org.