Acknowledgments

Although just the two of us are shown as the authors of this book, we had the backing of a great team. The community spirit in the maker and hacker world is an amazing thing (particularly in the RepRap and Arduino communities), and we never cease to be amazed at how generous people will be with their time to help a new entrant learn the ropes. We hope we have created a guide here that will take some of the front-line questions off their shoulders going forward. Particular thanks for in-depth discussions go to Metalnat Hayes on wearable tech, and Karen Mikuni, Ethan Etnyre, and Quin Etnyre for the student point of view on making in schools.

We want to thank our editorial and production team at Apress, including the infinitely patient and cheerful Kevin Walter, copy editor Corbin Collins, editors Michelle Lowman, James Markham, and Jeffrey Pepper, Dhaneesh Kumar and the rest of the production team. Coco, Mosa, and Nancy Kaleel were instrumental in helping us frame this book, and we enjoyed working with them on the foreword they kindly contributed. Thanks, too, to Mosa Kaleel for the back cover photo.

Joan would like to thank Doug Adrianson, who, along with his late wife Hope Frazier, co-edited an earlier work that was reborn as Chapters 12 through 14 of this book. The two of them were amazing writing mentors to Joan. She would never have been able to write her recent works without their coaching and the discipline enforced with Hope’s trademark “SW” (for “says who?”) plastered all over Joan’s writing seven or so years ago.

We have relied heavily on the staff of the Windward School in Los Angeles for inspiration and the use of some of their many great ideas. We particularly want to thank Simon Huss, Regina Rubio, Glen Chung, Lyn Hoge, Tom Haglund, Cynthia Beals, Geraldine Loveless, Julie Gunther, Ernie Levroney, Jim Bologna, Larisa Showalter, and Dawn Barrett for discussions that helped us frame many of the issues in the book in a way that we hope will help teachers understand these technologies. In the same vein, we thank the many people we interviewed for their thoughts and in some cases pictures to help convey our message. Angi Chau at Castilleja School, Kathy Rea and Andy Wittman at Marlborough School, and John Umekubo at St. Matthew’s Parish School in particular spent a lot of time helping us understand their world. The team at MatterHackers generously allowed us to use their MatterControl software in Chapter 3.

Finally, we are grateful to our families, who had to put up with the two of us commandeering their respective kitchen tables for brainstorming and pizza sessions when they would have rather been eating a civilized dinner. We hope everyone finds the final result was all worth it.