March 8th, 2018
FabVille will be back next week and will be CLOSED tonight. In the meantime, find a video tutorial on Fusion 360 for your viewing pleasure. See you next week!
Introducing SkillUP Somerville: Digital Badging for Skill Building
We've launched SkillUp Somerville to support the out-of-school and adult lifelong learning programming happening in our City, primarily in the areas of digital and science literacy. The Skill Up platform allows for micro-credentialing through digital badging; training providers like our very our community members (Katie and Bissrat!) detail the skills and competencies learned and projects completed in a course. Class takers who successfully complete a course can then share their accomplishments, highlighting 21st century tool use competencies like CNC routing at FabVille or creative graphic design skills at Somerville Media Center.
Are you an organization providing skill training here in Somerville or to Somerville residents? Interested in offerings digital badging to class takers with SkillUp? Contact Nick Schonberger @ nschonberger@somervillema.gov and Skill Up!
Our latest Canva badge. Offered by our community partners at Somerville Media Center. Read more about the creditenials here!
Meet our FabVille Community Members
In the first three weeks we've been open, we've seen 52 attendees, half of which are first timers to FabVille. We've held 2 intro classes: 3D Jeweler Making, DIY nightlight making, and next up: Arduino Robotics! Stay tuned for news and updates to classes by signing up for our newsletter and checking our calendar of events page.
Now that we're back, we're thrilled to have three dedicated community managers leading programming and project assistance. These three individuals bring a wealth of experience and knowledge in the maker movement and education. Here they are!
Bissrat
Bissrat is a bio engineer turned educator who is passionate about increasing accessibility to the maker movement. She grew up in California before moving to Boston for graduate school. In her free time, she enjoys painting, yoga, building/tinkering, and cooking.
Katie
Katie was a critical theory nerd before she decided to make the leap from books to building stuff. After a long flirtation with public radio she stumbled happily into the world of maker education. She enjoys tinkering with electronics, teaching people how to 3D print, and building stuff in the shop.
Will
Will worked in alternative education, ice cream, architecture, and software design before founding Parts and Crafts in 2009. In his spare time he enjoys doing pretty much the same things he does at Parts and Crafts — writing software, teaching friends, building things, playing and designing games.
Boston Design Week Maker Night
Thank you to everyone that came out Wednesday night for the Boston Design Week's Maker Night here at Fabville. We had a nice group of people learning the basics of laser cutting acrylic and vinyl sticker cutting. Stay tuned for more events!
Welcome Willoughby Street Neighbors!
Tonight was really great in the lab. We had a couple people from Willoughby Street come by and tour the space and make really interesting things. Folks were designing on the computers in inkscape, drawing with markers, cutting out stickers and laser cutting key chains. It was a blast!
Laser Testing
I got some test cuts done to the acrylic. These will help us print a test on every new material to know what to expect when cutting.
There will be updates
This was a good week at the fab lab. We’ve gotten several machines up and running and we had our first open hours on Tuesday. We even got some stickers made.
