making@stanford: Call for Pilot Proposals

The goal of making@stanford is to provide every undergraduate student with opportunities to learn through physical design and making. Designing, making, and evaluating physical artifacts can enhance learning in any discipline while connecting people from diverse backgrounds. This pilot program seeks to fund new educational activities that improve student access to design and making experiences, with an emphasis on supporting the people who mentor our students, creating accessible educational experiences, and coordinating the making community at Stanford. We expect to iteratively pilot, learn from each experiment, and permanently incorporate the most effective activities into making@stanford. 

Please see the making@stanford vision document or making.stanford.edu for a detailed description of the scope of the initiative, its high-level objectives, and a list of program areas. Proposers are encouraged to discuss pilot project ideas with a member of the making@stanford team, listed at the end of this document.

Proposals should describe the planned activity and explain how it addresses the goals of making@stanford. Proposals may address a course, makerspace, or other activity. Student access and inclusion should be addressed briefly but specifically. A short, narrative budget should be included to explain the primary ways in which funds will be used, for example to support lecturers, course assistants, faculty, staff, materials, or equipment. Proposal figures are welcome, but not required. Proposals may be of any length, but about two written pages are expected to provide sufficient detail. Please submit the proposal as a single PDF.

Proposals will be reviewed and discussed by the making@stanford Executive Committee. Please contact the committee if you have a time-sensitive opportunity.

At the end of the pilot award period, awardees will provide a summary of activity that briefly describes what happened, what worked well, what didn't go as planned, ideas for improving the activity in the future, and plans for future pilot proposals. Two written pages are expected to provide sufficient detail. The summary should include (links to) photographs or videos of student work. Awardees are also encouraged to advertise opportunities to see student work in person.

For questions about the initiative, pilot program, or application process, please reach out to Steve Collins (stevecollins@stanford.edu) and Marlo Kohn (marlod@stanford.edu).