Building and Operating a Makerspace in a School: Lessons from FabLab Truskavets

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This article describes how the NGO Initiative Center Toloka developed the school makerspace “FabLab Truskavets” at Secondary School No. 3. Their makerspace implements hands-on STEM activities with students and established partnerships with other schools, universities, educators and community organisations. Its activities included robotics, 3D printing, craft and creative recycling.

The project was part of Tolocar’s Makers Empowerment Hubs initiative. All learnings and resources presented on this page come from FabLab Truskavets and the NGO Initiative Center Toloka. The examples describe one makerspace’s experience; they are not a universal model for school makerspaces, but a starting point to get inspired by and learn from their experience.

FabLab Truskavets is based at Secondary School No. 3. Its experience shows how a school makerspace can welcome students for a first visit, give them reasons to return, and connect their projects with the wider community.

“The FabLab has grown from a single school's technical workshop into a partnership platform” – Narrative report

The team’s experience points to a few practical questions for anyone running a makerspace in a school: How do you engage students to participate in the makerspace? How do you turn a first visit into regular participation? How do you fit making around school hours, long print times and limited equipment?

A school makerspace can be full of equipment and still go unnoticed. At Truskavets, the workshop’s open doors, visible activity, music and welcoming atmosphere helped make it part of the school rather than a room students passed without knowing what happened inside. The team has created a tea-coffee-cookie area, which became an attraction for children, as a place where you can drink tea and have a snack is a super-magnet for pupils.

The team also used repeated introductory workshops to bring in new participants. These “magnet workshops” let children try different activities before committing to a regular program. A first robotics session might start with an Edison robot and visual blocks: students give the robot a command and see it move. In other sessions, children design and make badges. The summer camp partnership brought 92 children to two badge-making workshops, many of them visiting the lab for the first time.

A first project does not have to be technically advanced. It helps if students can make a choice, try something themselves and leave with a result they can show. One student who first encountered robotics at the workshop later recalled:

“When we turned it on and it beeped — my friend and I screamed louder than the robot!”

For other school makerspaces: make the space visible, offer repeatable introductory activities and give newcomers an early chance to do something with their own hands.

At FabLab Truskavets, the team finds that students are more engaged when they can visit during the workshop’s opening hours at a time that suits them, then work on their own ideas rather than follow one fixed program. Some come alone; others work in pairs or small groups. One student models, another solders, and another may be working on an entirely different project. The workshop is active without everyone needing to do the same thing at once. Some children stay after lessons and use the space as an after-school place to work. Others start with a short activity and return later to explore a technology in more depth. The team describes this as a shift from the introductory “magnet” workshop to regular making and mentoring.

For other school makerspaces: offer dependable opening hours but leave some room for student-led work. Invite students to help care for the shared space. Small routines can help turn a workshop into somewhere students feel they belong.

Students do not need to arrive already knowing how to code, solder or use design software. At Truskavets, activities move from accessible first steps toward more complex projects. Students might begin by programming an Edison robot with visual blocks, then move on to assembling an Otto DIY robot, printing its body parts, soldering electronics and programming it with Arduino. The team provided a space to experiment and make mistakes. In one workshop, a student forgot a resistor and the LED burned out. The mistake stayed with them:

“Now I’ll remember for the rest of my life why resistance is needed in a circuit.” Another student said, “Eventually I managed to put everything back together.”

The response to mistakes matters just as much in activities with less expensive materials. A badge can be spoiled if the paper is misaligned or the press is not used correctly. At Truskavets, a mentor who is on-site during opening hours helps the student work out what happened and try again. One student summed up the atmosphere:

“I liked that nobody scolded me when I spoiled my first attempt.”

The team also finds ways to keep students moving when equipment is limited. Participants work in pairs, rotate between stations or use a queue. A long 3D print may not finish during a two-hour session, so students model their designs during the workshop and use a written queue to start or check prints during breaks or after lessons. Power cuts can interrupt printing, but modeling and slicing can continue on laptops. The team distributes the load across available power stations and prioritizes shorter prints.

For other school makerspaces: give students a path from a simple first task to a project that requires more independence. Pair clear instruction with time to experiment. When equipment, time or power is limited, make the next step visible: whether that means rotating stations, scheduling a print or continuing the design work offline.

A project becomes more memorable when it has a purpose beyond completing an exercise. At Truskavets, students make badges for charity fairs supporting orphans. Families use the embroidery machine to create T-shirts for a children’s ensemble to wear on stage. During a blackout, the machine runs from a portable power station; the finished shirts go from the workshop to a public performance.

The additional lessons shared by the team describe another way to connect making with a real need: a teacher and students run a small social enterprise. They make craft items using the workshop, sell them, and use some of the earnings to buy consumables and some for donations. Students practice using tools and equipment while learning how to manage a shared project and contribute to a cause.

For other school makerspaces: look for projects with a real audience or use: a school event, a local organization, a charity fair, or something the students themselves want to improve. A concrete purpose can help students see why design, careful finishing and teamwork matter.

The Truskavets team takes making outside the lab in several ways. Summer activities with the Truskavets Youth Creativity Center introduce children who may not otherwise visit the school. Partnerships with universities bring in additional expertise and help students see possible next steps in technical education.

During the three-day “Architectural Studios,” teenagers from Truskavets and nearby towns explore barriers in the urban environment with an architect, develop ideas in teams and work with wood and 3D technologies. They build a table around a tree and benches: from the first sketch to the last screw. The project lets students see that technical skills can shape a place other people use.

For other school makerspaces: begin with one partner and one shared activity. A nearby school, youth center, university, community group or local event can help you reach students beyond your usual group and give their projects a wider purpose.

A school makerspace can support learning even beyond their own students. Fablab Truskavets opens the space to families and older adults. In one workshop organized with the NGO Bery i Slav, women, many of them older and some using canes or crutches, try 3D modelling and printing. Rather than only watching a demonstration, each participant chooses a model, downloads it and sees it printed. One participant says:

“We are people from a different time, we understand nothing about this, but we want to understand.”

These activities show how a school-based workshop can become a resource for its community while staying rooted in the school. They also create new routes for students to participate: through family projects, events with other organizations, or work alongside adults with different experiences.

For other school makerspaces: think of teachers, families and community partners as part of the learning environment. A workshop can share its skills with them, and their ideas and connections can bring new projects and participants back to the students.

The project final report gives more detail about the activities, from robotics and 3D printing to family workshops, creative recycling, and teacher training. It also includes participant feedback, results and challenges the team faced.

Access the report