Cleaning: Kits, Clips, Controllers.....Controlled Chaos!!

So I've been super busy (I feel like I keep saying that)!  Over the weekend (after my kinetic sculpture exploration) I picked up my copy of Zero to Maker.  I purchased this book back in the spring and just haven't had the time to read it.  Now is the perfect time!  This book is amazing and it has given me new drive to push myself to prepare my space for Making for the school year.  As you may already know this is a huge task, however the benefits of having a space for the students at my school to Make has become almost mandatory for me!!  

So, my first step was to start cleaning out the back room where I am hoping to set up a permanent Makerspace for students to use.  I am taking over this room from a Physics Teacher and before that it was used as a Physical Science room (which was a very hands on class with drafting and woodworking).   I can hardly begin to express to you the amount of "stuff" that was in that room, it was difficult to even move around.  I unearthed some wonderful treasures!!  The amount of kits that I found is crazy.... solar kits, solar car kits, wind mill kits (with and without motors), mousetrap dragster kits, trebuchet kits, circuity kits, electricity kits, balloon buggy kits, Mindstorm Lego kits... the list goes on!  After reading about the value of kits in Zero to Maker and how they can help us as Makers build our basic skills, I was absolutely thrilled to stumble upon all of this!!!  Some of the other great things that I found were a huge amount of hobby motors, alligator clips, Attack remotes (with servos!!!) and a huge amount of hand and power tools!!  

This is all very exciting, so many awesome materials and tools to work with and I don't even have to pay for them!!  One of the biggest motivations for me to take over this space (besides creating a Makerspace) was to start using the tools that have been laying unused for YEARS!!  The added bonuses were the kits and materials that I didn't even know where back there.

I'm still working on the cleaning up the space, but here are some before and after pictures:

It's kind of difficult to tell (taking the before pictures was very difficult because there was so much stuff!) but I have cleared out a massive amount of the clutter.  In total, I removed 7 cabinets from the room, a desk and a nasty old couch (thank goodness!).  I was able to clear out  a nice space in the middle of the room for a work table as well as a table (which you can't see in these pictures) to go against the wall which will have a computer work station with a vinyl cutter, printer/scanner and 3D printer! 

I think that I pretty much dove into this as my final project!  I am so excited and cannot wait to finish cleaning and put the final touches on the space (for now, it will definitely be an ongoing process).  Next up, cleaning and setting up the front classroom and figuring out the logistics of making the Makerspace available to all students in the school!!  So much to do, but feeling driven to get it all done before the start of the school year!