All who are interested must complete the Volunteer Application, take part in an introductory meet-and-greet, and attend a Makerspace-specific training session. Applications are collected on a rolling basis, but there are only three training sessions per year, each taking place one week prior to the first session of a given season of Inventors Club (fall, winter, spring).

If you are unable to attend a training session, it is sometimes possible to schedule an alternate training time with Bakken Makerspace staff. Far enough in advance from the program start date, we are more able to make accommodations for individual trainings.

Yes. While many of our volunteer mentors are retired or working engineers, the museum hosts mentors with a variety of backgrounds and skillsets, in order to offer a welcoming environment for young people of all different interests and learning styles. All volunteer mentors must have a zeal for learning, trying, helping, and problem-solving.

The Inventors Club program offers students not only a chance to build workshop skills like soldering, safe power-tool use, and mechanics, but also intangible skills like planning, creative problem-solving, overcoming failure, aesthetics, and communicating ideas with others. Students plan, design, and build a project of their own choosing, understanding that time and materials are real constraints to work with.

Makerspace Mentors are present to help bring a student’s vision to life. They ask leading questions, they support students using tools new to them, they provide ideas and choices students can make, they offer help and ideas that supplement the capacity of Bakken Makerspace staff. Mentors sometimes work one-on-one with students; sometimes they float between multiple students.

Inventors Club takes place as a 6-week program on Saturday mornings and afternoons. Normally, there are fall, winter, and spring sessions. Click here to learn more.

Young Makers Inventors Club is a newer iteration of the beloved original program but suited to a younger age group (7- and 8-year-olds) and takes place over 4 Saturdays rather than 6. Volunteer mentors can also sign up to assist with this program, and it could be a suitable role for Summer Camp Volunteers to be involved during the school year. Many Young Makers students are entirely new to makerspace settings, so the projects they work on are at their younger, introductory level.

Yes, definitely. The museum volunteer program – and the museum as a whole – are stronger when volunteers are connected to multiple elements at the multifaceted museum.