Pablo Krebs, left, a first-grade student at North Star Academy in Marquette Township, and fellow first-grader Sammy Uchytil study circuitry Wednesday at Marquette Senior High School’s Makerspace. High schoolers helped North Star students with various technical activities during a special partnering session that day. (Journal photo by Christie Bleck)

MARQUETTE — When Pablo Krebs turns on a light at home, he probably doesn’t express the level of excitement he did when his circuit light flashed on Wednesday at Marquette Senior High School’s Makerspace.

“Yay! Mine’s lighting up,” the North Star Academy first-grader exclaimed.

Pablo, along with other students at the academy, were instructed in a variety of technical activities — including making a circuit like the one that enthralled Pablo — by high schoolers active in MAPS Makerspace.

The Marquette Area Public Schools’ special section at the high school allows students to work on projects related to STEAM.

STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Education, Arts and Mathematics — education.

Makerspace also is a place for older students to pass on their wisdom to younger ones.

One of the mentors was Lauren Alexander, an MSHS junior who took part in the Wednesday Makerspace event. She was to operate the Makey Makeys, which are kits that turn everyday objects into touch pads and are combined with the internet. Specifically, she was to help the younger students make circuits.

“I just like to make stuff,” Alexander said. “I’ve 3-D printed a couple of things. I made a dishwasher energy saver, and you can use the water for other things. I also made a cat food feeder that runs with a circuit.”

Today, it’s automated kibble for felines. Tomorrow, solar panels that can run an entire city? Who knows.

Becky Simmons is the director of Makerspace, and also is the new director of the Shiras Planetarium, located at MSHS.

She said that high schoolers on Wednesday set up stations for first- through third-graders from North Star, with small groups participating in each activity for about 10 to 12 minutes.

In addition to circuitry, robotics, virtual reality and 3-D printing were demonstrated to the grade schoolers, Simmons said.

That’s a far cry from crayons, flash cards and fingerpaint.

Still, she believes that age level can comprehend basic technology concepts.

“We level it for whoever is coming in,” Simmons said. “We serve junior kindergarten on up. We can do anything.”

For example, in robotics the youngsters were to drive the devices, not program them.

The high schoolers — who Simmons called her “core group” of students — showed up to help even though they were done with school for the day.

“They enjoy coming in, and they’re all here on their own time now,” Simmons said.

MAPS technology students already have received some recent recognition. The school district received a $25,000 pack of Samsung computer equipment for a state-level winning grant in the nationwide Samsung “Solve for Tomorrow” competition. However, it didn’t advance to the national level.

“I feel like the reason we didn’t move on is our project wasn’t far enough along,” Simmons said. “Some of the projects that did win were further along, and some of them also involved making Samsung technology.”

Their project was a video touting local solar energy. Students had been looking into creating a small solar farm on the Makerspace roof and having it connected to the school to learn about that type of alternative energy.

“We’re still working on fundraising for that,” Simmons said. “We still need about $27,000 for the solar panels. We’ve raised about $4,000, so we already have some money raised, and then we’re actively writing some grants right now to help try to pay for that.”

They’re also involved a bit with the Marquette County solar garden planned for Forsyth Township. Next school year, her students will take field trips to look at that project, she said.

The “Solar at MAPS” project, though, will be a main focus.

MAPS Makerspace is on Facebook so people can learn about projects like a 3-D checkers board — in which portions are elevated — and Tac-tiles, a service learning project with the Marquette-Alger Regional Educational Service Agency that involves creating a set of tiles with braille and pictures. For more information on Makerspace and the solar project, contact Simmons at rsimmons@mapsnet.org.

Christie Bleck can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.