Launchpad Incubator: A New Makerspace for Bright Kids

Off Topic Maker Matters
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Hi maker-friends,
As you may know, our son – Aidan (11 years old) – has been working on his nuclear fusor project for about a year and he benefitted SO much from the encouragement, support and guidance of the Science Committee at DMS. (HUGE shout-out to @Russell_Crow and I would shout-out everyone else but I don’t know everyone’s screenname here! But Kobin, Sam, and Rob were also incredibly supportive). Anyway, all of that is to say, that we saw the benefits of having a robust community of knowledgeable, amazing people and we also know that DMS isn’t really designed for kids (or short people – looking at you woodshop ;))

Anyway, with those experiences in mind, we’re starting a nonprofit makerspace-meets-idea-lab for “brainiacs with a bedtime” here in Dallas called Launchpad. We’ll start by serving the nerdiest middle schoolers in DFW and grow to serve high schoolers. We wanted to share this with y’all for a few reasons:

  1. To thank you – all of you – for truly being excellent to one another in such a way that you’ve modeled how we want the kids at Launchpad to be with one another;
  2. To encourage you to check out the website and possibly consider being a mentor to our space likely to be in the Design District. (@DPRG is currently representing 4 of our future mentors – thanks, guys!!);
  3. To invite you to share our info with kids/parents who might be looking for a place more tailored to kids;
  4. To connect us with local companies that you work at and/or who might be willing to partner/donate/sponsor our kiddos in the areas of woodshop, e-lab/robotics, 3-d printing, machining and fiber arts. Imagine a space where kids can design and build out a go-kart or a rocket: hose are the components “committees” we’re thinking of for this space;
  5. To encourage you to serve as a “Talent Scout” for future kiddos to be members if you are an educator/coach working with middle/high school kids.
  6. To introduce us to grant-making foundations/orgs that might be interested in helping us fund memberships for those who can’t afford it. It’s a nonprofit – IRS and Texas approved – and it’ll have a sliding scale membership fee. We don’t want their to be a financial barrier to entry – ever – and that’s going to take some fundraising.

If you have any thoughts, questions, concerns or interest in getting involved – please message me (Shirin) here. Also, if I’ve seen you in one of the 15 classes I’ve taken at DMS, this is what I was working on.

Thanks so much, y’all.
Shirin Foroudi & @Mark_M (and Aidan)

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Thanks for sharing the official news! Launchpad sounds like an awesome place to enable future engineers and tinkerers to explore and create. I wish something like this existed when I was a kid!

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It looks like that domain is not registered. The good news is that is available.

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They just probably need a redirect to www or a typo maybe.

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Startup life :crazy_face: If anyone is better at web design and/or knowledgeable about hosting stuff, we obviously have a need for all the things :sweat_smile:

And @bpamplin, thanks for encouraging us to speak up at the DPRG meeting! We got so many mentor emails afterwards :hugs:

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You are correct, regarding the www redirect.

Sleep and fixing the redirect were both on my to-do list last night. I only got one item on that list crossed off. It should be fixed in the next hour or so.

In the meantime https://www.launchpadincubator.org works.

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Any ideas on where in the Design District? My job has been on Dragon Street for a couple of decades now, we know the area pretty well.

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We haven’t signed a lease yet, so I’m hesitant to make that detail public: it’s close to the Ozo climbing gym though.

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Why would you need academic records? Yeah ….

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@got_tools

Thank you for your feedback. The purpose of our space is to offer space, tools and equipment to bright kids. Just like DMS, we aren’t open to everyone - there are kid maker spaces (esp on campuses) and craft shops and we aren’t coming to life for the hobbyist — we are going to exist for the nerds. We aren’t a makerspace alone — we’re kinda a makerspace meets idea lab for bright, bored kids. If you have a child of age to participate, and you give consent to receiving an application, you’d see that it’s not exclusively academic records. If you’d like to offer substantive, meaningful commentary — my inbox is open: I welcome you to avail yourself to it. Anyone who has met me at DMS or in real life will attest that I’m a nice person — just don’t need this level of shade on a Sunday morning. Hope you have a terrific rest of your weekend.

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You shouldn’t bill this as a Makerspace for Kids … it’s really a stem space or an exclusive space for certain kids.

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Thanks for your interest. It is billed as a makerspace for bright kids, not all kids.

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