Inter-generational inductions in the Fab Lab (Albert Park & Men's Shed): CNC and Laser

3 community groups came into the fab lab before the fab lab was open to the general public for inductions. It was all of the attendees first time to The Edge. There was one Men's Shed group from Sunnybank and one from Wilston as well as young people from Albert Park Flexi school. The hope was to mix the groups up and for them to have new conversations, ideas and gain new skills.

9am Turn CNC router on to warm up at

9am Men’s shed arrive. They do a tour together of The Edge with Peter & Em

9.30am End up in the Fab Lab (music playing- Spotify playlist)

(Computers are set up. Sign in as new users. Peter will set up on Tuesday evening)

9.45am Break off into two groups for inductions - Asking who would like to do which. Laser cutter (5 people) Mick /CNC router (4 people) Andrei

10am Albert Park arrives. Tour of the Edge with Peter & Em

10.30am Albert park join in the Laser cutter induction with Mick with support from Phil. Time for reflection at the end

Men’s Shed come back together as a group to reflect on the inductions (offer any advice to other group about the inductions)

(Invite the Men’s Shed groups to attend the design workshop that the Flexi School will be doing and/or to do the other induction that they didn’t get to do)

https://open.spotify.com/user/1236085324/playlist/41ohT7xBJZhWUPxj4TRA6l

It was a great move to ask the wider group what they would like to focus on; it gave the groups the opportunity to choose which induction (out of two) they took part in and the two Men's Shed groups mixed up then as well.

Don't be worried about the frustration that may come up for teenagers working with older adults. These are great moments for learning - For example, a young teenager got frustrated that one of the older men was taking a long time to work out how to use the mouse on the computer; they realised that they know stuff that older people don't know and vise versa.

Find ways for the young people to help the older adults and vise versa. That there is a sharing and a shifting 'expert'

It also may be worth (if you have the opportunity) to unpack older adults

1. Stereotypes

2. Walking in other people's shoes (try walking as an elder), ask open ended questions of feeling when 'you forgot something'

3. Personal reflection on a story you have of an older adult

With the group of young people, for them to see their bias and stereotypes.

I am planning to unpack this in the next session.

From this session we were able to see what skills and interests reside in the groups:

Sunnybank have a whole lot of metal workers.

Wilston have a boat enthusiast, kombucha interest as well as interest in the small 3D printers

For Albert Park, making something that has individual flair was important

Feedback from Men's Sheds:

“We enjoyed the informative and interesting induction and I think we all came away brimming with ideas for future projects” Peter Mahony, Wilston Men's Shed

“The members I spoke to were impressed and looking forward to the next” Des from Sunnybank

No photos were taken of the young people as we did not have photo permission (the school did not know which young people were coming along which is one of the challenges of working with a Flexi School). We do, however, have two photos of what was cut on the cutter by the young people

Photos of the Men's Sheds doing inductions, a tour and signing up as new users