Published in the Independence Daily Reporter April 5, 2017

“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” I’ve heard that one all my life. Here’s what the Cambridge Dictionary has to say about this old adage; “you should not make plans that depend on something good happening before you know that it has actually happened”

This is a terrible message for any of us, especially our youth, it implies that any good thing happening is a matter of some kind of chance or luck; that life is some kind of lottery where good things happen randomly only to the “lucky” ones. When something goes wrong or we otherwise suffer, we think it’s just bad luck. In the United States, our society is full of messages that tell us we’re supposed to suffer. The pharmaceutical ads tell us that we’re either sick or we’re going to become sick. One ad the other night showed individual shots of children, sad faced, each shot including a numerical statistic showing the chances that the child would contract some terrible disease. In high school once, a teacher told us that fifty percent of us would be involved in a horrible auto accident. He said, “Now, look at the person next to you and think about which one of you it will be.”

Many psychologists know that people actually have a lot of control over the outcome of their lives by learning to think positively and consciously making plans for good things to happen. The brain has a way of driving you toward your goals, indeed, a good life once you make a decision to change it for the better. There are plenty of people that have taken control of their lives by the choices they make and a change in the way they think. Life does not have to be controlled by circumstances or bad luck.

Good things come about when we think about them, working toward making them happened rather than “not making plans that depend on something good happening before it happens.” As we’ve learned over the last couple of years, the first step in making those plans, which depend on good things happening, starts with writing them down. There are many examples of the power of written thought in a book by Henriette Anne Klauser called “Write It Down, Make It Happen: Knowing What You Want And Getting It.” Writing down your goals can also help clarify them. A banker friend of mine once told me he liked to tell kids visiting the bank that he was going to give them a magic wand to make their dreams come true. Before the kids left the building, he gave them all a pencil and told them the “magic” of making their dreams come true is to write them down. We all need such a magic wand.

Thought is powerful and writing down the thoughts makes them more powerful, but we don’t always control the time-table on which our thoughts produce the results we think we want. The rest of the equation has to do with the way we respond to set-backs and delays in realizing our dreams. Having a growth mindset means that the journey is more important than the end result. If we spend our lives always learning new things as we take incremental steps toward our goals, we’ll have the persistence to accomplish those goals. And, we’ll have the wisdom to realize, that what we wanted or needed in the past may not be what we want or need now. It’s okay to change our goals along the way.

Our youth, and all of us, need to know that it’s okay to count our chickens before they hatch, that is, we should all make plans based on the good things that we can make happen, not waiting around for good things happen by chance.

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu.

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter March 29, 2017

Staffing will always be a challenge for most Fab Labs and other maker spaces. Those of us in the International Fab Lab Network that grew out of the original Fab Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) beginning in 2000 have agreed to provision in the charter to make Fab Lab ICC “available to the community.” For us, in this market, that means individual memberships for about $10 per month. This is not enough for the overall sustainability of our existence, yet we believe it’s the right philosophy.

We’ll always be thinly staffed and most of our members realize that while we’re there to be helpful and friendly, we won’t ever have the resources for one of us to sit down beside members from start to finish of their projects, guiding every step of the process. Part of the magic of Fab Labs is the necessity for members and students to learn to learn on their own while freely asking for occasional help from staff and other members. As part of the membership agreement, our members agree to help each other learn. It’s really satisfying for us to observe this member helping member activity.

A substantial part of our staffing strategy is to leverage volunteers who are willing to give of their time in an organized process of helping other members. Enter our brand new Fab Lab ICC Volunteer Program. Former John Deere employee, now retired, Wayne Stephany has volunteered to lead our efforts to organize our volunteer program. For members that get involved in this program, we’ll train them quickly on our four most popular work centers. They will then agree to be on hand and available during scheduled periods to help other members with their projects. During the times when there are no members in the lab needing help, the volunteers can work on their own projects. That, in and of itself will be an enjoyable experience, but the real satisfaction will come as these volunteers see light bulbs coming on and gears turning as they observe new members experiencing Fab Lab ICC.

Although we are now actively seeking our members to volunteer for our volunteer program, some have come forward on their own. Such was the case with Wayne Stephany and also the case for two special volunteers; Laurie Rutland and April Whitson.

Laurie and April are good friends, both working full-time at different companies. They began coming to the lab in search of a series of products they could make together to sell. One of their ideas was to re-make classic board games, like Chinese checkers in a stylish way to inspire family game-playing in a way that doesn’t involve smart-phone screens. They were in the middle of prototyping their new folding board one night when they told me they might have a new goal; to organize classes to teach women the joy of creating at Fab Lab ICC, thus Fab Lab Divas was born. During the first of what will be many “Make & Take” sessions, participants will learn enough about laser etching on glass to take home an etched wine glass. There are two sessions from which to choose on Saturday, April 8. The evening session on Wednesday, April 12 is full with a considerable waiting list, but at this time there are still spots in the Saturday sessions.

On the horizon, but very early in the planning stages are ukulele and guitar making classes led by volunteers.

All this is indicating to us that the organized use of volunteers is going to be a viable strategy in serving our members even while on a very slim staffing budget.

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu.

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter March 22, 2017

Many people are shocked to hear that the poverty level in Southeast Kansas is nearly fifty percent. Some don’t believe it. While I can’t verify the exact number, by observation not only of our part of Kansas, but the entire state, indeed the entire country; I can tell that poverty is substantial. In many parts of the world, conditions are worse. Exacerbating poverty are the problems of drug, alcohol and other addictions that prevent people from taking care of themselves and being productive members of society.

Governments have never been able to figure out how to bring people out of poverty. They attempt to cover the basic needs; food, shelter, clothing, etc. but are usually very inefficient. Bureaucracy, graft and corruption divert many of the resources aimed at helping the poor. Faith-based and benevolent organizations are usually more efficient with the basic needs. Much of the time, there’s an emphasis on education too. All of those things are essential, but they treat the symptoms, not the cause. People are born with an innate need to be self-sufficient, with an ability to take care of themselves and also to have a purpose in life to help others. When this innate need is not met, people lose hope for the future.

Fulfilling only the basic needs today does not restore hope for the future. Google “hope” and you’ll see a wide variety of definitions. Most have to do with “wanting a particular thing to happen”. That’s not what we’re talking about here. One phrase I found stands out; “a strong and confident expectation.” That’s what is missing; the sense that they, themselves can influence and control their lives, make their own way and help others. If we can restore that hope, that “strong and confident expectation” with which people were born, we’ll start to see alleviation of poverty around the world.

We can give people hope by instilling an entrepreneurial mindset and showing them how to make things. Together those two disciplines will give people the creativity and problem-solving ability they need to begin making better lives regardless of their current circumstances. At Fab Lab ICC we use the psychological term “self-efficacy” to describe this. David Kelley at the Stanford d.school uses the term “creative confidence.” As we increase people’s self-efficacy, so we increase their hope, their strong and confident expectation for a better future.

We changed our Fab Lab ICC mission to simply strive to increase the self-efficacy of all those participating in the Fab Lab experience. We believe our passionate blending of entrepreneurial mindset and the Fab Lab experience helps to further increase self-efficacy. We want to offer the Fab Lab experience to younger and younger participants, seeking to change the conversations in the homes of these youth, many of which are in poverty, perhaps even getting the parents and family members involved.

While governments and benevolent organizations around the world should be working to provide for the basic necessities of the poor, the only hope of really improving the lives of those living in poverty must come from within. We can help by developing a creative confidence and entrepreneurial mindset while nurturing an ability to make things.

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu.

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter March 15, 2017

We’ve been off and on in the “business” of prosthetic devices since before we opened Fab Lab ICC in October of 2014. Each time we think there is no more work for us to do in this area, a situation seems to arise for which we think we might be of some help even though none of us at Fab Lab ICC has any kind of medical background. Such is the case now with an opportunity to inform our network about a research study being conducted by our good friend Dr. Jorge Zuniga, formerly at Creighton University, now at University of Nebraska in Omaha.

This all started in July of 2014 as we frantically prepared for the opening date of Fab Lab ICC on October 1 of that year. At a friend’s house for a birthday party, a relative of the friend heard me talking about opening the Fab Lab. He mentioned that he and some others in their small community on Toronto Lake, north of Independence, had been raising funds to buy a 3D printer so they could make a prosthetic hand for their neighbor and family friend, 13-year old Kara Marr. We had three of the 3D printers on order so I told him he could make her a hand at Fab Lab ICC. He settled on a design called the Cyborg Beast hand we later found out was developed by Dr. Zuniga as an open source, meaning anyone could access the plans at no charge.

The friend, Wes, with the help of a couple of ICC students, built and assembled the hand during the end week of September amid all the hustle, bustle and mess of the last minute preparations for our opening. Kara has a limb difference called symbrachydactyly. Her left-side hand and wrist are normal, but on the right, she has the wrist and hand but the fingers and thumb are small nubbins. The Beast hand works by mechanically contracting plastic articulated fingers as the wrist is bent forward. When the wrist straightens, elastic strands in the fingers straighten them back up. Kara made an appearance at our grand opening as did the local television station in Joplin. There was media coverage too, followed by an inquiry for a couple of families from Manhattan and Olathe, each with 4-year olds having similar limb differences.

In February of 2015, we held our first “Hand Up Weekend” during which the two families came to town and the Fab Lab filled with volunteers, family members and the kids as we assembled hands for the two 4-year olds. Reporters from a TV station in Kansas City and one in Topeka came and covered the story as did several newspapers. We think the story was aired in 25 or so of our United States and we received an email from a mother in Venezuela who saw it on ESPN.

The publicity was great for Fab Lab ICC and we learned a lot from the two experiences. One thing we learned is that 4-year old kids are very young to understand about the plastic “glove” you are trying to get them to put on their hand.

In the end, the hands were of limited use to these kids. Active kids learn to adapt with what they have and it’s often more trouble than it’s worth to have to put on and wear a plastic device when you can get by pretty well with what you have. Still we think they’ll look back and appreciate the work everyone did toward helping them.

Since those times, there have been many advances in 3D printed prostheses, including some work with motors and electronics. Dr. Zuniga has been involved in much of the research in his role at the Biomechanics Research department at U of N. We at Fab Lab ICC have not been able to keep up with all this technology since we have a Fab Lab full of other kinds of equipment and members that want to learn how to make things.

It had been a while since we’d connected with Dr. Zuniga. We first met him by a congratulatory email he sent us after seeing the television story about us making his hand during Hand Up Weekend. It had also been a while since we’d had an inquiry from someone asking for help. All that changed last week.

We received an email from a family in Eudora, Kansas whose twenty-something year old granddaughter lost her hand and forearm in a car accident a year or so ago and she was expecting a baby in September. The grandmother had retrieved articles saved from our “Hand Up Weekend” and wanted to know if we could help. Upon contacting Dr. Zuniga, we found that he is launching a study about the psychological effects of using 3D printed prostheses and he is actively looking for volunteers to be fitted free of charge. Although we may end up printing some of the needed parts, we won’t be as directly involved this time, but it was great to help make the connection and we will gladly provide any other assistance needed from us.

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu.