Mobile Makerspace sparks imaginations at Vanderbilt children’s hospital

For two weeks each year, high school sophomore Daryann Pryor goes to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt for a tuneup. She started visiting the hospital when she was 6 after she was first diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a chronic lung disease.

But this visit is different because Pryor has something new and exciting in her room. For the duration of her stay, she can design projects on something called a Mobile Makerspace — the first one to ever be in a children’s hospital.

The Makerspace is a cart about stomach height and it’s loaded with activities. It has a 3-D printer, an Instax camera, Play-Doh, circuitry and all sorts of tools children can use to build something with their hands.

Generally, during stays at Vanderbilt, “I try to sleep most of my time away,” Pryor said, “and now I don’t have to!”

Vanderbilt’s Mobile Makerspace taps into the global Maker movement. In 2006, the first Maker Faire took place in the Bay Area in California. The Faire showcased DIY projects — combinations of arts and crafts and science and engineering from “makers” of all ages.

That movement is growing. Last year, the two flagship Maker Faires in New York and the Bay Area attracted about 195,000 people. In September, Nashville hosted a Mini Maker Faire at the Adventure Science Center.

But never before had the “maker” mentality been brought specifically to sick children. Vanderbilt’s Mobile Makerspace is the brainchild of Gokul Krishnan, a learning sciences Ph.D. student at Peabody College of Education.

During the course of his education, Krishnan was volunteering with the hospital school program and met a teenaged cancer patient who was interested in engineering. To spark his imagination, Krishnan brought the patient a box full of tools including everything from an Arduino micro-controller to a Styrofoam cup. The box engaged the boy so effectively that Krishnan wanted to bring something similar to more children in the hospital.

Last year, Krishnan founded Project M@CH, which now includes a team of educators, administrators and clinicians all devoted to bringing the maker movement to ill children in Nashville.

Kids suggest improvements

The children are the true brains behind the operation, according to Krishnan. He believes the Makerspace will continue to evolve — improving with each version in response to patients’ suggestions. Already, children who worked with the cart have suggested that he jazz it up so that it looks nice and inviting when it comes into a hospital room. Krishnan listened and added color-changing LED lights along the sides.

Other children mentioned that they felt lonely when they came for treatment and they would like to make friends with other patients — maybe even Skype with them. Often, young patients can’t talk to one another face to face because of their health conditions. In Daryann Pryor’s room, for example, visitors must wear masks, hospital gowns and gloves.

To allow the children to connect, Krishnan added touchscreen tablets to the cart. While Vanderbilt has only one now, he hopes that soon the hospital will have multiple Makerspaces so that children can collaborate on projects. He has big dreams. Krishnan plans to host the first Mini Maker Faire to ever take place in a children’s hospital at Vanderbilt in 2015.

‘The need to create is in our DNA’

Project M@CH has support from several backers, one of which is technology company Intel. Krishnan met Intel’s U.S. education manager, Carlos Contreras, at MakerCon, a conference for people in the maker community that took place earlier this year.

“Just talking to (Krishnan), you can tell he’s going to deliver. His enthusiasm is tremendous,” Contreras said. He added that Intel is interested in supporting projects in which children drive their own learning.

“The need to create is in our DNA,” Contreras said. “It’s something we do as humans — whether it’s cooking or playing a musical instrument — when you give people an opportunity to express themselves, they take it.”

Already, children in the hospital have addressed problems that only they would have the perspective to flag. For example, one patient, sick of answering questions about how he was feeling all the time, created a mood necklace. Green meant the nurse was welcome to speak to him. Red meant he felt poorly and would rather be left alone. Another child, tired of being disturbed when he was sleeping, built a night light so that the nurses wouldn’t have to switch on the overhead lights when they came for a checkup.

Already, Pryor has been taking notes to think about problems she can work to fix. She has a couple of ideas. First, she likes to FaceTime with people, and there’s no good way to hold up her iPhone for a long time, especially when she’s tired from treatment. She’s brainstorming ways to build a device for her bed railing that could hold the devices she needs, such as her phone or the controller for her cot. Also, she thinks she might like to have some kind of automated recording attached to a motion sensor that could play a pleasant message when people walk by.

“I’m trying to figure something out that’s not just beneficial to me but helps everybody here,” she said.

Pryor, who is 16, is already taking nursing classes at Webster County High School in Kentucky. By the end of the year, she will be certified in CPR. She says eventually she would like to be a nurse at Vanderbilt because she has always been inspired by the people who have helped her.

“It’s not like it’s just their job; they’re really emotionally attached to you,” Pryor said. “If you can work with kids and make them happy and make yourself happy, then you’ve had a great life.”