SOUTH SALT LAKE — Every Friday, dozens of people head to Utah’s STEM Action Center in South Salt Lake for a special event called Tinker Time.
Tami Goetz, the director of the STEM Action Center, said Tinker Time came about a year ago when she was sitting in her office and three little girls started banging on the glass outside the MakerSpace. The MakerSpace is a 2,000 square-foot workspace with a laser cutter, 3D printers, sewing machines, an embroidery machine, a heat press, a CNC mill, soldering irons, a sublimation printer, a large format printer, a table saw, a miter saw, welding equipment and other hand tools.
“They must have been maybe eight years old, nine, and they wouldn't know what we were doing in here. And so I let them in, showed them around," Goetz fondly remembers. "Those three little girls came in on a Friday afternoon after school because it's an early release. And before you knew it, the three girls invited more friends and there were 10 girls. And then the next thing you knew, from noon to eight, we had a full MakerSpace.”
And with that, Tinker Time was officially launched. Every Friday from noon until 8 p.m., Tinker Time is open to the public. Due to high demand recently, visitors are required to sign up for 2-hour time slots on the website ahead of time.
During open Tinker Time, there are staff members, volunteers and experts on hand to help participants work on projects step-by-step.
Becca Robison, the Innovation Hub’s manager, is passionate about helping people work on anything they can dream up.
“Those are the moments I live for because it's so great to see just the spark in their eyes, and that realization that they can do any of this," Robison said. "'Oh, any of us can do any of this, right?' And that's what's so cool about MakerSpaces — it really empowers regular people to create and to innovate and to be STEM people.”
“Utah is an innovative state, and so we're really excited to see what happens when we put these tools in the hands of regular Utah citizens," she said.
More information can be found on the STEM Action Center's website here.
