Listen now to No Such Thing, to hear a special interview with Tasker Smith, a technical instructor at MIT's Pappalardo Lab for Mechanical Engineering.

Listen to No Such Thing: Episode 47

Tasker Smith is a technical instructor at MIT's Pappalardo Lab for Mechanical Engineering. As you'll hear through this interview, his background has a striking resemblance to television's Adam Savage of MythBusters. That is, he's held roles in all sorts of environments: performance, toys, consumer products, and lucky for the young mechanical engineers at MIT he wound up eventually making his way to higher education, cultivating young talent to be as skilled technically and emotionally to enter a world of professional engineering as they can possibly be.

We talk about approaches from the lab that I think will be of interest to everyone, but especially those educators who are serious about maker education, and the role that pre-engineering programs play in schools and afterschool all over the country. If you're looking for tips and best practices, just curious what goes on in the Mech E lab at MIT, or excited to learn more about how Tasker went from studying theatre arts to modelling toys, stick around.

A special treat from this episode, Tasker offers a set of files for the poster panels that come up toward the end of the interview for listeners to grab and repurpose in their own shops and maker spaces. Do check out the shownotes at NoSuchThingPodcast.org to find that gift from him.

Links from this episode:

• Pappalardo Lab on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pappalardolab?lang=en
• Japanese drawers links: http://digg.com/video/japanese-joinery-drawers
• Tasker's Make Mag Leather Article: https://makezine.com/2018/07/09/use-3d-printing-shape-leather/
• Z Corporation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_Corporation
• Continuum Innovation, Boston: https://www.continuuminnovation.com/en/
• Caine's Arcade: https://youtu.be/faIFNkdq96U
• Statasys: https://www.stratasys.com/

About No Such Thing

The show is about learning with technology, the realities and exciting potential, but it’s also about youth and the practitioners who support them –- youth developers, museum educators, teachers, mentors, counselors, parents–as they grow their identity, and journey forward.

The show’s first episodes were produced in partnership with City University of New York's Masters Program in Youth Studies at SPS. Learn more on the School of Professional Studies website.

Shows are made possible with support from Mouse, a national youth development nonprofit that believes in technology as a force for good.

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