Roving DIY lab lets kids test out ideas with cutting-edge tools

Aiming to step up the creative possibilities for kids across the US, SparkTruck is a roving DIY lab equipped with high-end design and rapid prototyping equipment.

DIY-focused kids may already have a place to showcase their creations online, but those efforts can’t help but be limited by the tools the children have to hand. Aiming to step up the creative possibilities for kids across the US, SparkTruck is a roving DIY lab equipped with high-end design and rapid prototyping equipment. Launched in June, SparkTruck bills itself as “an educational build-mobile” that has spent the summer traveling across the US with “cool 21st-century shop tools, spreading the fun of hands-on learning and encouraging kids to find their inner maker.” With origins as a project among a group of Stanford d.school students, the effort also involved a Kickstarter campaign along the way to raise funds for a truck and equipment, such as a laser cutter and 3D printers. Now, in the form of SparkTruck, the project is in the midst of a cross-country road trip targeting kids aged 8 through 12 with partnership from PBS’s Design Squad Nation and Instructables. The video below depicts the concept in more detail: With a backlog of well over 100 interested communities, the brains behind the project have recently come to the realization that “in order to have more of a sustained impact, this summer road trip needs to just be the beginning of a concerted effort to get these experiences and ideas to more communities,” a statement explains. Toward that end, it’s seeking partnerships and funding as well as the involvement of educational policymakers and influencers. Makers, educators, and legislators across the nation or even the world: one to get involved in? Spotted by: Dietfried Globocnik