Makerspace in Space! Where Makers Get Mad Fresh with Canva Creations!

At the UNC Hospital School, we provide STEM/Makerspace experiences for students in various hospital settings, including our Pediatric and Psychiatric Units. Because students in secure settings often cannot keep their physical creations, we developed a creative digital solution: photographing their projects and transforming them into digital masterpieces using “Remove BG” and “Canva”. This approach empowers students to keep a personalized, meaningful keepsake while reinforcing digital design skills.In this interactive workshop, participants will take on our Mars Rover Makerspace Challenge (an engineering design activity inspired by the classic egg drop experiment). Working in collaborative teams, attendees will plan, build, and test their rovers while collecting and analyzing data (using Desmos) to explore real-world math connections, while we photograph their creations. Participants will then use "Remove BG" and "Canva" and to digitally enhance and personalize their project photos, creating vibrant digital art pieces as souvenirs.Attendees will leave with hands-on experience, a digital creation of their own, and a complete lesson on the Mars Rover Challenge as well all other Makerspace ideas adaptable for all grade levels.