Picture of a student holding a light-up sign

Bringing the Venture to Life - Sean McMahon: One of the laser-engraved signs that a student-created for the class assignment.

Image of a flip light

Creativity & The Doer/Maker Mindset - Elena Kennedy: Students soldered a battery, a switch, and a LED to create this light that turns on/off when it's flipped over.

A picture of mountains on a sticker

Creativity & The Doer/Maker Mindset - Elena Kennedy: Students designed and cut a vinyl sticker that was meaningful to them.

Student 3D printed and painted this keychain.

Creativity & The Doer/Maker Mindset - Elena Kennedy: Students were required to 3D print one object that was personally meaningful to them.


Image of a flip light

Creativity & The Doer/Maker Mindset

Boosting confidence with small projects

Bringing the Venture to Life

Using several skills in one project

Creativity & The Doer/Maker Mindset | ENT250

Instructor: Elena Kennedy

Assignment Objectives

This first-year entrepreneurship course helps students develop a range of entrepreneurial competencies including creativity, creation, leveraging resources, and asking for help, which student practice when they’re making things.

Deliverable

Students create 3 “artifacts” over the course of separate visits that are personally significant to them. They may choose between: vinyl sticker, 3d printed key chain, upcycling clothing using sewing, or soldering a flip light.

Tools

Students used the Silhouette vinyl cutter, 3D printer, sewing machine, and soldering iron.

Materials

Students used different materials depending on the projects they chose. The Maker Hub supplied all the materials.

Image of journal article

Learn more about the assignment in this journal article.

Why the Hub?

We want students to get outside of their comfort zone and in a creative space. We want students to have confidence as makers, as well as understand that often the process of making something isn’t linear and requires revision and iteration.

Success? Encore?

This project has been a huge success for our students. We’ve been running it for the past three years and it is a key experience for many of our students. Because all ENT250 students have completed the assignment we can require more complex prototypes from them in later classes.

Learn More

Learn more about this assignment by reading Independence in the Making: Using Makerspace Experiences to Build Foundational Entrepreneurial Competencies. Written by Elon Entrepreneurship faculty and the Maker Hub, this article recaps the makerspace assignment used in this class, including the reasons behind the activity, the logistics of the assignment, and how it helps students gain confidence as a maker while creating personally significant artifacts.

Bringing the Venture to Life | ENT460

Instructor: Sean McMahon

Assignment Objective

Hands-on activity, completing something physical that students envisioned (and noting that what they envisioned is often very different than what they actually produce), using old-school (e.g., soldering) and new-school tech (laser engraver), getting out of comfort zone.

Deliverable

Students create a LED light-up sign – laser engrave a design into acrylic plastic that is lit from below with a strip of LED lights.

Tools

Students use the laser engraver and soldering iron to create their lights.

Materials

The Maker Hub provides kits that include a piece of acrylic, a pre-cut wood base, a short led light strip, and a USB cable to power the lights.

Why the Hub?

This assignment is great for getting students out of their comfort zone. Cognitive ambidexterity is important. Learning new tech, but also learning how to learn.

Success? Encore?

Yes, it is a staple of our capstone entrepreneurship program!