Not since theMuppets band went to Hollywood has a tour been this electric. SparkFun, an online electronics manufacturer and retail company out of Boulder, Colorado, is running a Kickstarter to fund a nationwide electronics-education tour.
The purpose of the SparkFun National Tour is outreach, says Lindsay Levkoff, SparkFun's director of education.
"We started the [SparkFun] Department of Education in January of 2011, in hopes that we could possibly have some sort of effect on the education system in the U.S., and ultimately globally, trying to raise a bit more interest in the STEM or STEAM areas, by adding a bit more of the hands-on fun technology to classrooms," says Levkoff.
SparkFun employs 140 people and produces a wide range of hobbyist electronics boards and components, including Makey Makey, a Kickstarter hit from earlier this year. Right now, their National Tour endeavor has raised $35,000 of a $150,000 goal, with 12 days remaining. The company is expanding on two smaller tours, one on each U.S. coast, that SparkFun ran in the last couple years. (Not to be confused with SparkTruck, a similar effort, but with a rapid prototyping and design focus, by the design school at Stanford.)
At each stop on the tour, SparkFun will put on workshops or classes, in conjunction with schools, hackerspaces, museums and other institutions.
"Our goal when we go to towns and we help is to sort of train the people in that region, so that when we disappear and move on to the next town, there's talent within that region that can kind of pick up and go from there," says Levkoff.
It's not charity; backers get custom electronics kits, and by expanding electronics education, SparkFun hopes to eventually bolster its customer base. On the national tour, the bus will be piloted by three to four SparkFun employees — the company encourages employees to become instructors.
"We try to make it so that the entire organization of SparkFun feels like they're involved in the education process," says Levkoff.
The $150,000 goal would be enough for SparkFun to visit all 50 states. But if they don't reach it, Levkoff says they will still be able to run regional tours, approaching the whole program more slowly.
"Certainly, we are a for-profit company, and it's possible for us to self-fund," she says. "But we thought it would be fun to try and let people have a little bit of control, and be able to engage in the tour."
The plan, as it stands, would have the whole tour occur in 2013. "We're just kind of hoping that everyone gets excited," says Levkoff. "But we are absolutely dedicated to making this happen one way or another."
