Karkhana Makerspace

Designing learning experiences

Gyaneswor, Kathmandu, Nepal

Makerspace

Space size 200 m²

Opened in May 2014

Structure type Private company

Explored in March 2017


Karkhana is an education company and a makerspace. They create & run innovative workshops to teach Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) to kids from 8 to 14 years old through playful fabrication projects!

This workshop is great for:

Students Teachers

The closest workshops nearby are:

Interview & guided tour

Meet someone from the team & discover the space by yourself!

Our workshop

Learn more about our space, members, machines & services!

Pushing the door of the Karkhana Makerspace is like diving in a pool of energy. In the meeting room, a teacher is leading a SCRUM meeting with its team, while some others are preparing the electronics materials for the next workshop to be given. In the open space, a group is writing on the table the road map of the following week.

Karkhana is the creation of 5 passionate makers, who decided first to found a product design company. In 2013, while working on their first project, an automatic vending machine, the founders faced a lack of fabrication skills and resources in Kathmandu. Analyzing the root cause, they noticed the educational system was focusing mostly on theory and rarely on fabrication and concrete projects. Therefore, in 2014, they decided to bring this part of learning to the students, Karkhana makerspace was born.

The main mission of Karkhana is to integrate 21st century skills through hands-on problem based learning methods to kids in Nepal.

For two years they have been developing creative educational content and organizing playful workshops for kids from 8 to 14 years old, in their space and inside schools to make them discover the power of fabrication and creativity. In 2016 they taught 1 400 students every week, and expect to reach +3000 students per week by end 2017!

Karkhana is a for profit private company. They also created a non-profit organization Kharkana Samuha in 2016, to organize workshops for kids who are from disadvantaged groups in the society.

The lab is used for 3 main purposes. The first users are the students (8 to 14 years old) who come in the lab during the KIC (Karkhana Innovator’s Club) workshops - see our pedagogy/animation topic below. They use the space and the tools to animate the workshop. Teachers and mentors are of course always there to ensure that students learn while fabricating in security.

Today, around 50 students per week join one of the 5 workshops offered by the makerspace.

The second users are the teachers and mentors, who prepare the materials and tools for the workshops. They use the space, the laser cutter and the tools. A lot of preparation is required as they also give 10 workshops per week directly into schools.

The team is also about to launch a “creative computer kit”, to be sold. It’s a playful kit of development including an Arduino and many sensors and connectors to build fun things. The kit is assembled and some parts are fabricated in the lab. They are also creating and recording some videos tutorials in the lab to show examples of realizations with the kit.

Since end of last year, Karkhana has also been creating and hosting events in the lab, dedicated to knowledge and fabrication. They created the K-Space event in October 2016, to build new ways to teach space to kids. Seven countries were represented.

Karkharna makerspace was launched in 2014 with 10 000€ investment, funded by the co-founders themselves. From there, they rented the space, started to buy the materials for the workshops and the rest was done handly.

The business model is based on monthly membership paid by the children attending the workshops. Today, after 2 years of existence, they generate a revenue of 85 000€ per year, 60% through the Bee Creative workshops and 40% through the KIC.

Their annual budget approaches the same amount as revenues, making their profit neutral for 2016. They invest continuously to buy new machines (they bought a laser cutting machine), materials, and recruit and train new teachers. 40% of the budget is allocated to Human Resources (salaries/trainings), 15% to classes resources (materials…), 13% to operational costs, 13% to sales and marketing and 7% for the rent.

Every year the team has 2 strategic meetings to define the vision and objectives of the lab. This year, they target to double the number of students attending their workshops (3000 by the end of the year), and plan to recruit 14 new members to reach their goal.

Karkhana education’s programs are based on two different models of workshops:

1/ The Karkhana Innovators’ Club (KIC): an after-school workshop turning the classroom into a lab discovery. The sessions last between 8 to 12 weeks. All the workshops are built using story telling process to create playful challenges. Every Saturday morning, students gather in the lab for 3 hours to resolve them and develop their knowledge and technical skills. You can find some examples of the classrooms here.

2/ The Bee Creative (BC): These workshops are designed to take place inside schools. Teachers prepare all the materials in the lab and give 40 minute-classes where students learn concepts through making and building. You can find them here.

One important value of Karkhana is “we push boundaries in everything we do”. The education process used by the lab to design and teach learning experiences follows this path. It is called the Karkhana Wheel. Basically, every project or action must follow the Think, Make, Play, Improve (TMPI) process to ensure that development is executed, tested and improved continuously.

The lab’s team is composed of 9 full time people, 4 mentors, 27 mentees (future mentors learning how to teach a class), and 2 research interns. 3 main teams are composed around KIC, BC and for 2 months a “story telling” team in charge of building the communication of Karkhana. In 2017, 14 more teachers will be recruited to answer the growing demand of workshops.

There is no “open source” documentation, despite the communication on workshops and events made on social networks, relating what has been done. For Karkhana’s community, a vlog is also available including videos of workshops and tutorials to realize projects with the components of their electronic kit.

But the documentation process is very developed for the team. Every workshop is precisely documented step-by-step and available to all the teachers of the makerspaces. After each class, a debrief is made with the teachers and mentors to write “What Went Well” and “Improvement to Be Made”. Teachers write then the “story telling” of the workshops, accessible to the team.

Pushing the door of the Karkhana Makerspace is like diving in a pool of energy. In the meeting room, a teacher is leading a SCRUM meeting with its team, while some others are preparing the electronics materials for the next workshop to be given. In the open space, a group is writing on the table the road map of the following week.

Karkhana is the creation of 5 passionate makers, who decided first to found a product design company. In 2013, while working on their first project, an automatic vending machine, the founders faced a lack of fabrication skills and resources in Kathmandu. Analyzing the root cause, they noticed the educational system was focusing mostly on theory and rarely on fabrication and concrete projects. Therefore, in 2014, they decided to bring this part of learning to the students, Karkhana makerspace was born.

The main mission of Karkhana is to integrate 21st century skills through hands-on problem based learning methods to kids in Nepal.

For two years they have been developing creative educational content and organizing playful workshops for kids from 8 to 14 years old, in their space and inside schools to make them discover the power of fabrication and creativity. In 2016 they taught 1 400 students every week, and expect to reach +3000 students per week by end 2017!

Karkhana is a for profit private company. They also created a non-profit organization Kharkana Samuha in 2016, to organize workshops for kids who are from disadvantaged groups in the society.

The lab is used for 3 main purposes. The first users are the students (8 to 14 years old) who come in the lab during the KIC (Karkhana Innovator’s Club) workshops - see our pedagogy/animation topic below. They use the space and the tools to animate the workshop. Teachers and mentors are of course always there to ensure that students learn while fabricating in security.

Today, around 50 students per week join one of the 5 workshops offered by the makerspace.

The second users are the teachers and mentors, who prepare the materials and tools for the workshops. They use the space, the laser cutter and the tools. A lot of preparation is required as they also give 10 workshops per week directly into schools.

The team is also about to launch a “creative computer kit”, to be sold. It’s a playful kit of development including an Arduino and many sensors and connectors to build fun things. The kit is assembled and some parts are fabricated in the lab. They are also creating and recording some videos tutorials in the lab to show examples of realizations with the kit.

Since end of last year, Karkhana has also been creating and hosting events in the lab, dedicated to knowledge and fabrication. They created the K-Space event in October 2016, to build new ways to teach space to kids. Seven countries were represented.

Karkharna makerspace was launched in 2014 with 10 000€ investment, funded by the co-founders themselves. From there, they rented the space, started to buy the materials for the workshops and the rest was done handly.

The business model is based on monthly membership paid by the children attending the workshops. Today, after 2 years of existence, they generate a revenue of 85 000€ per year, 60% through the Bee Creative workshops and 40% through the KIC.

Their annual budget approaches the same amount as revenues, making their profit neutral for 2016. They invest continuously to buy new machines (they bought a laser cutting machine), materials, and recruit and train new teachers. 40% of the budget is allocated to Human Resources (salaries/trainings), 15% to classes resources (materials…), 13% to operational costs, 13% to sales and marketing and 7% for the rent.

Every year the team has 2 strategic meetings to define the vision and objectives of the lab. This year, they target to double the number of students attending their workshops (3000 by the end of the year), and plan to recruit 14 new members to reach their goal.

Karkhana education’s programs are based on two different models of workshops:

1/ The Karkhana Innovators’ Club (KIC): an after-school workshop turning the classroom into a lab discovery. The sessions last between 8 to 12 weeks. All the workshops are built using story telling process to create playful challenges. Every Saturday morning, students gather in the lab for 3 hours to resolve them and develop their knowledge and technical skills. You can find some examples of the classrooms here.

2/ The Bee Creative (BC): These workshops are designed to take place inside schools. Teachers prepare all the materials in the lab and give 40 minute-classes where students learn concepts through making and building. You can find them here.

One important value of Karkhana is “we push boundaries in everything we do”. The education process used by the lab to design and teach learning experiences follows this path. It is called the Karkhana Wheel. Basically, every project or action must follow the Think, Make, Play, Improve (TMPI) process to ensure that development is executed, tested and improved continuously.

The lab’s team is composed of 9 full time people, 4 mentors, 27 mentees (future mentors learning how to teach a class), and 2 research interns. 3 main teams are composed around KIC, BC and for 2 months a “story telling” team in charge of building the communication of Karkhana. In 2017, 14 more teachers will be recruited to answer the growing demand of workshops.

There is no “open source” documentation, despite the communication on workshops and events made on social networks, relating what has been done. For Karkhana’s community, a vlog is also available including videos of workshops and tutorials to realize projects with the components of their electronic kit.

But the documentation process is very developed for the team. Every workshop is precisely documented step-by-step and available to all the teachers of the makerspaces. After each class, a debrief is made with the teachers and mentors to write “What Went Well” and “Improvement to Be Made”. Teachers write then the “story telling” of the workshops, accessible to the team.

Technologies & processes available

Laser cutting Traditional tools

Services offered

Classes & workshops Open moments

Our best practices

The inspiring things we do here to run our collaborative space

The Karkhana wheel

What is it?

The Karkhana’s wheel is a methodology, which explains how every decision, is made by the lab’s team.

Concretly?

In the center of the wheel is the key principle of Karkhana, MAKING. It is by making that the kids of Karkhana will understand that the world is malleable.

To be able to make good things, they must use the second circle, the Think, Make, Play, Improve (TMPI) process, allowing continuous improvement.

The third circle is the human qualities to use while making, the 4C’s: Creativity, Critical Thinking, Collaboration and Communication.

Finally, the fourth circle is the list of fields to be taught to kids while making, the STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art&Design and Mathematics.

Why it’s interesting?

If you follow this wheel, you can apply the principle of trust and let people make decision independently, allowing a strong agility in the team.


K-Space project : a community dedicated to re-invent education

What is it?

Karkhana makerspace created a special event in October 2016 gathering people from 13 countries to think and make new ways to teach space concepts to kids.

Concretly?

The objective of K-Space was to create a DIY Space curriculum concept covering a range of subjects across mathematics, science, engineering, technology, and creative arts that schools across South and South-East Asia can implement. During 10 days they worked on several projects to make playful stories based on making. They ended with 4 educational kits to be deployed in schools to teach space to kids.

Why it’s interesting?

This process of gathering several makers and educators from different countries to define new education tools to teach STEAM to kids is participating to the re-invention of education.

To read more about the K-Space project.


Our makers projects

Get inspired by the DIY projects of our team & members

The Karkhana Innovators’ Club workshops

Project history

As explained above, this after-school workshop turns the classroom into a lab discovery. 3 workshops take place on Saturday mornings : 2 in Karkhana makerspace, 1 in another place in Patan. The one we attended on the 1st of April 2017 was about “Momasur”: the children have to make a transportation device to bring Momos (Nepalese dumplings) from the daemon’s cave to the village. Improvisation as ice-breaker, safety rules explanations and then fabrication workshop move on during the 3 hours.

How do they interact with the makerspace?

2 out of 3 KIC workshops are organized in the makerspace to host more than 15 kids from 8 to 14. In that space, they can make, cut, hammer, glue, saw…in short, they can be free to unleash their creativity.

That’s also in the makerspace that teachers and mentors prepare their workshops thanks to the laser cutting machine and other tools but also brainstormings and scrum sessions.


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