With student interest in the Makerspace increasing, students look to form new clubs, but due to a lack of faculty advisers and other issues, a few student activities in the Makerspace have yet to be approved as official clubs. 

Clubs such as Imagined, the robotics team and LaunchX use the Makerspace frequently. 

Nathan Aldredge works in both the clean and messy rooms as Makerspace coordinator, a non-faculty position. He is supporting students in activities that are not official clubs until they confirm a faculty adviser. 

For example, some students work with him in the Makerspace to build and race drones. Much like a real club, students meet up Tuesday, Thursday and Friday after school to work on their drones with Mr. Aldredge. 

Junior Rashne Hassan is working to create a new Makerspace club focused on engineering. Once established, Rashne hopes the club will participate in F1 in Schools, a global competition where students build small aerodynamic cars and race against students from schools around the world.

These new clubs will not replace existing Makerspace clubs. According to Rashne, her club will not be the same as the robotics club, an already established engineering club. 

“This is different,” Rashne said. “It requires more direct applications of physics and aerodynamics, which you don’t really get in other clubs.” 

The model car racing requires less coding and problem solving than robotics competitions, according to Rashne.

Rashne added that another aspect of this club is the use of marketing strategies to raise funds for club expenses.

Because of the expenses of the club and traveling that will be involved, Rashne and Mr. Aldredge are still trying to get U-High to sponsor the team. If the team succeeds in competing in nationals in June, it is likely that it will become an official club for the next academic year, Rashne said.