Local kids got a healthy dose of creative empowerment as MakerState and the Somerville Arts Council brought the Somerville Builds: A Hands-On Kids Maker Event to Union Square this weekend. – Photo by By Nidhi Mathson

By Nidhi Mathson

Children from Somerville got a taste of what a future at companies like Google or Apple could look like as they convened in Union Square this past Sunday to learn how to make LED pop-up books, stop-animation movies and participate in guided workshops at the Somerville Builds: A Hands-On Kids Maker Event.

Held at Fringe, a business incubator and co-working space in Union Square, the event drew a large crowd of Somerville residents.  It was sponsored by MakerState, an organization that empowers kids with real-world skills to enable their success in school, college and career in partnership with the Somerville Arts Council, Museum of Science and Parts & Crafts.

“They’re learning engineering and programing,” Stephen Gilman, founder and CEO of MakerState, who was at the event Sunday, said. “They’re making video games to, say, learn programming. They’re learning paper engineering to learn engineering. But perhaps what’s even more important is that they’re learning 21st-century skills in collaboration, creativity and critical problem solving that we, as parents and educators, hope they’re learning in school. We’re dedicated to empowering these kids with these so-called soft skills that, honestly, employers out there are saying they’re not getting.”

According to Gilman, companies like Google, Apple, Ford and NASA already know the kinds of people they will be looking to hire 20 to 30 years out from now, and unfortunately schools are not supplying those graduates in the marketplace.

Michael Moroney, a parent of one of the child participants, was in town from Fitchburg visiting his sister, who lives in Somerville. He said his wife found out about the event on the Web.

“We wanted our kid to get out and do something,” Moroney said, adding that his child had some interest in technology and that’s what made them come. He also said that if there were similar opportunities, he would certainly enroll his kid in such programs.

“What’s cool over here is we’re doing this basic activity, which is how to make a little monster with one eye that lights up,” Zannah Marsh, director of curriculum & product development at MakerState, said as she pointed to an existing station at the event. “And they’re actually learning about basic circuits and polarity on batteries and light-emitting diodes and how electricity flows through a closed loop in a circuit, and it’s something that little kids can do. It’s a hands-on thing, and they’re getting that first exposure to conductive materials. You can actually see the circuit, you trace it out in copper tape, you see two different legs of the LED, so it’s electronics that they can do in 10 minutes; a 4- year-old can do it.

MakerState is focused on improving education, particularly in the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics – or STEAM/STEM.

“We’re what? Thirty-fourth in the developed world in science and math combined? And 28 of the top 30 careers in the next 15 years are going to require science and math as core skills,” Gilman said. “We’ve done research on what kids need to learn and what they might not be learning so well in school, and [our] team is building a curriculum around that.”

As a growing hub for technology, Boston is one of the main locations for MakerState’s efforts to bring innovation and technology into education.

“We’re trying to create educational experiences for kids that bring them into masteries around subjects that they’re going to need most in their lives,” Gilman said.