I thought that this discussion was really interesting. I know what a Makerspace is because I have used the one at Tandon, but I didn’t know that Futureworks had them. I also did not know that there were a few in the City and around New York. When I went to the Futureworks Maerspace site that you linked, the first thing I noticed was that the K-12 page did have a lot of diversity as you said. When I continued to explore the site, I noticed that it was dominated by pictures of men, mostly white using the tools and technology. However, when there were women in pictures, they were either cut off or were not primarily women of color. To me, it seems like they may just not have updated the pictures as in the discussion Emily talked about the events they have. For example, the community giveback program where they offer free 3-month memberships for lower-income people which I think is amazing. I also noticed on their events page they have an event celebrating Harriet Tubman where you can learn how to make Harriet Tubman stamp. I also thought that it was cool that the people who teach classes at the Makerspace are the ones who have memberships which helps bring a sense of community to the space. However, I do think the membership is somewhat pricey being $250 a month, but I feel like the community give-back program could be effective.
Moreover, I think that it is amazing that they have been making face shields.She was saying that they had 5,000 shields going to the department of health and the rest to local hospitals. I think the equipment that they have is really helpful in times like this. Emily was saying that they are able to cut out 40 of the plastic shields at a time which is great. I also think that the fact that they are disinfecting and building these shields with protective gear on is really important.