SparkFun Education, the educational division of the popular online electronics retailer, officially announced this morning a new 2013 National Education Tour, and you have the chance to become a dot on their map!
SparkFun is no novice when it comes to education. It has a solid history of teaching classes at their Colorado location, in addition to frequently traveling the country to teach electronics, host workshops, attend maker faires and events, and spread the SparkFun word. In 2012 they completed two smaller tours, one on the East coast and one on the West, building up to the grand tour of 2013.
If you were to book a stop on the National Education Tour, the SparkFun Education team is experienced and flexible to meet your needs. Educators of any kind are welcome to book a tour stop, whether it be for a school, library, museum, after-school program, hackerspace, or otherwise. A stop will consist of a full day of training for the educators, the students, or mostly likely a combination of the two.
Your day of learning will also include electronic kits for 20-40 students and their corresponding educational material. There are three different kits available, depending on the knowledge level and age range of your group. The SparkFun Inventor's Kit Lab Pack is targeted towards older high school students and college students. The LilyPad Lab Pack, for e-textile projects using drag-and-drop or Arduino programming environments, is targeted toward the middle school and high school kids. The PicoBoard Lab Pack, using Scratch's programming environment, is targeted toward elementary school kids.
I had the pleasure to chat with SparkFun educational outreach coordinator Linz Craig, who reiterated that giving back is central to SparkFun's company brand and culture. They believe in education over advertisement; It's not only a good business plan, but it also helps build a sense of community.
This sense of giving back is why SparkFun holds an annual "Free Day" event where they give away thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise. In November 2012, SparkFun launched a new concept: Every day is free day. It involved some pretty fancy giveaway game mechanics that were supposed to extend over an entire year. The Godzilla of Free Days, if you will! However, it was shut down on its 40th day because, according to the US Lottery Law, it wasn't entirely legal. Oops!
Thankfully, one minor legal problem can't stop the SparkFun team from giving back to the community! They decided to take the leftover giveaway budget to subsidize the first fifty booked stops on the 2013 National Education Tour, taking the price to schedule a stop from $2,500 to $1,500. It's just one of many ways SparkFun helps spread the fun.
