BLC18

Bringing makerspaces to schools has been a growing trend in the last five years. There is a general agreement that makerspaces have two fundamental advantages making them conducive to learning: strong engagement, and the involvement of creative thought processes essential for the 21st-century. However, there are many barriers to bringing makerspaces to classrooms at scale. Makerspaces often depend on programming skills or hard-to-learn software tools, hence a need for new teachers and professional development. They also require expensive hardware, whether it be a 3D printer or a robotics set, limiting access and one-to-one engagement. To build a scalable makerspace model, we introduce Polyup. Polyup is an easy-to-learn, tactile programming environment in the language of mathematics. In addition to connecting to physical environments, Polyup enables a makerspace based on AR (Augmented Reality). With Polyup, students will be able to modify objects in space, including their characteristics and trajectory, all using mathematics. This environment is open and free to all students, teachers, and schools, to combat the severe equity gap in makerspaces. We play live on the platform and share demonstrations of AR makerspaces to come.