'Maker Space' Allows Kids To Innovate, Learn In The Hospital
All around the country, computer hackers, artists and other do-it-yourselfers are meeting up in "maker spaces," to share tools and build cool stuff together, such as robots or musical instruments. Maker spaces are popping up in all sorts of places: school auditoriums, libraries, under tents at community festivals, and now, even at the hospital.
At Vanderbilt University's Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital in Nashville, Tenn., the maker space comes in the form of a large metal cart, carrying materials and tools young patients can use to create objects. The hospital services patients from all over the region, and many of those kids routinely experience long hospital stays.
Emily Neblett, 17, is one such patient. Neblett has cystic fibrosis, so she spends a lot of time in the hospital.
"There's not really much to see from around the hospital from the room," she says. "It's just sick kids, and nurses and doctors."
Hospital stays can be isolating for kids, and keeping up with schoolwork can get tricky. That's where Gokul Krishnan comes in. He's a Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt's Peabody College of Education, and he has created a mobile maker space.
"Many patients who have chronic illnesses are not allowed to leave their room due to safety reasons and cross-contamination issues," Krishnan says. "That's why we bring the mobile maker space into the patient's room."
The space is a metal cart filled with the equipment and materials you would need for small-scale engineering projects.
"On the cart, I am looking at flashing lights and colorful drawers full of circuits, wires, Play-Doh and a huge, white 3-D printer," Neblett says.
At first she wasn't into it, but then Neblett realized there was one thing she really wanted.
"I decided to make the doorbell just because my nurses or anybody that would come in the room would never knock," she says. "So I put a sign on my door that said, 'Ring My Doorbell.' "
But to get that bell, she had to build it herself.
The point of this maker space isn't just to give kids with long hospital stays something cool to do. It's a pilot program designed by Krishnan to solve the problem of teaching science and math skills to kids inside hospitals.
Emily Neblett poses with the first version of the mobile maker space at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.
The project started when Krishnan met Brandon Bradley in September 2013. Bradley was in the children's hospital getting treatment for leukemia.
"I was planning on for my senior year just taking my math and reading classes and filling the rest of the slots up with engineering classes," Bradley says. "I asked my homebound teacher if she knew anybody, and she said that she might know some people, and a couple of weeks later, Gokul walked in."
"He was the first person I actually interacted with as a volunteer," Krishnan says.
Brandon made a "nurse nightlight."
"It would just light up the toilet and trash areas," Bradley says, "so if the nurses came in at night and they opened up the door and flipped the lights on, it wouldn't wake up the child that was asleep."
Krishnan credits Bradley as a co-founder of the project, which started a serious trial this winter at the hospital. One cart has become two, and pre-med students are now being trained to expand the project further.
"I think that the cart is an amazing thing," Neblett says. "It made my hospital stay the best hospital stay I've ever had."
Krishnan's pilot program creates a new role for patients. Now they can be inventors, and be part of a global maker movement.
This story was produced by Youth Radio.
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Transcript
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
We're going to hear about a pilot program that's allowing kids who are hospitalized to become inventors. You may have heard about maker spaces, locations where people gather to network and work on projects together. Artists, computer hackers - all sorts of do-it-yourselfers meet up to create things. At Vanderbilt University's Children's Hospital in Nashville, the maker space comes in the form of a large metal cart. Youth Radio producer Noah Nelson followed the cart alongside one 17-year-old patient.
NOAH NELSON, BYLINE: Emily Neblett has cystic fibrosis, so she spends a lot of time in the hospital.
EMILY NEBLETT: There's not really much to see from around the hospital from the room. It's just sick kids and nurses and doctors.
NELSON: Hospital stays can be isolating for kids, and keeping up with schoolwork can get tricky. That's where Gokul Krishnan comes in. He's a PhD student at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College of Education, and he has created a mobile maker space.
GOKUL KRISHNAN: Many patients who have chronic illnesses are not allowed to leave their room due to safety reasons and cross-contamination issues. And that's why we bring the mobile maker space into the patient's room.
NELSON: The space is a metal cart filled with the equipment and materials you would need for small-scale engineering projects.
NEBLETT: On the cart I am looking at flashing lights and colorful drawers full of circuits, wires, Play-Doh and a huge white 3-D printer.
NELSON: At first she wasn't into it, but then Emily realized there was one thing she really wanted.
NEBLETT: I decided to make the doorbell just because my nurses or anybody that would come in the room would never knock. So I put a sign on my door that said ring my doorbell.
NELSON: But to get that bell, she had to build it and maybe accidentally learn a little about math and engineering along the way.
KRISHNAN: So what's this? This is the...
NEBLETT: It's the button.
KRISHNAN: Button - and what comes next?
NELSON: The point of the maker space isn't just to give kids with long hospital stays something cool to do. It's a pilot program designed by Krishnan to solve the problem of teaching those all-important science and math skills to kids inside hospitals. The project started when Krishnan met Brandon Bradley in September of 2013. This is Brandon who is in the hospital getting treatment for acute myeloid leukemia.
BRANDON BRADLEY: I was planning on for my senior year just taking my math and reading classes and filling the rest of the slots up with engineering classes. I asked my homebound teacher if she knew anybody, and she said that she might know some people. And a couple of weeks later, Gokul walked in.
KRISHNAN: He was the first person I actually interacted with as a volunteer.
NELSON: Brandon made a nurse nightlight.
BRADLEY: It would just light up the toilet and trash area so if the nurses came in at night and they opened up the door and flipped the lights on, it wouldn't wake up the child that was asleep.
NELSON: Krishnan credits Brandon as a cofounder of the project which started a serious trial this winter at the Nashville hospital. One cart has become two, and premed students are now being trained to expand the project further.
NEBLETT: I think that the cart is an amazing thing. It made my hospital stay the best hospital stay I've ever had.
NELSON: Krishnan's pilot program creates a new role for patients. Now they can be inventors and part of a global maker movement. For NPR News, I'm Noah Nelson.
SIEGEL: That story was produced by Youth Radio. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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