From March 3th to March 6th, 2026, Wayne Valley’s media center continued its annual tradition of hosting ‘Maker’s Week’ to honor any and all STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math programs).
At Maker’s Week, there is a place for everyone. Instead of just listening to a lesson, students were able to interact with the projects and work with their classmates on different activities. Students can choose from many different options, some of which include: puzzles, chess, drawing, painting, and bedazzling. These stations were all over the media center, both upstairs and downstairs. Downstairs there would be a movie playing that changed from time to time, movies such as The Lego Movie and Inside Out 2. While there, you can stick to one station or rotate around multiple stations to try them all.
Our media specialist, Mrs. Foster explains, “It is very good for mental health and mindfulness. Engaging in STEM activities is incredibly important.” While she finds “…the setup and takedown to be a lot of work,” she thinks “it’s worth it. Students create lots of amazing things this week, and it’s nice to give them a break from their hard studies.”
Mrs. Foster’s statements are corroborated by students attending Maker’s Week. Amelia Markiewicz, a senior, came to Maker’s Week with her calculus class. She was bedazzling her lip gloss bottle to make it shine. Markiewicz enjoys the bedazzling station, especially because it is “stress relieving.” Markiewicz says she “bedazzles art projects and has bedazzling kits at home,” and also uses the creative outlet to bond with her sister. In general, she believes “Maker’s Way is a good way for students to relieve stress in a healthy way, rather than trying to relieve it through harmful outlets.”
Senior Alex Farina explained that she was making a painting on a little canvas for her art class. She said the project was something she needed for class but also something she enjoyed working on. Seeing students work on different projects showed how Maker’s Week gives everyone a chance to share their hobbies and creative talents.
The bedazzling station was very popular this week. Many students were bedazzling lip glosses, phone cases, airpod cases, toy ducks, and many more objects to make them sparkly and pretty. A Wayne Valley student, Maya Truman participated in Makers Week by bedazzling her jumbo Aquaphor stick. When asked, “What color are you using?”Maya responded with; “Blue because I want it to be the same color as the stick.”
Some activities included prizes for completing them, such as solving a rubix cube or drawing a character from a large list. After completing either and showing them to the librarian, Ms. Foster, you could spin a large, multicolored wheel visible from the entrance to the library that would grant you your prize. Some of the prizes included mood pencils- sparkly and colorful pencils, jolly ranchers, skittles, and other small rewards. These activities could be done multiple times to get multiple prizes.
Creativity is hard to harness without the proper stimulation. Between suffocating amounts of homework and one test after another, students do not typically have time to express themselves artistically. Thanks to Maker’s Week, everyone at Wayne Valley (yes, even teachers) gets a well-earned brain break.
