Maker Resources

Maker Resources

Inspiring Digital Learning for All Makers

We have put together a list of online tools, inspiration and experiences from all over the internet to bring ideas centered around making and learning remotely right into your home. Be inspired by other makers and learn how things are made. Gain a new skill or be entertained by artists doing their craft.

These third-party resources are not affiliated with Georgia State’s EXLAB and are not university-supported. Please let us know if there is something else we should add, if links go dead or items are no longer valid by emailing us at [email protected]

Select a Kind of Maker Resource that Interests You
- Collaboration
- Contests
- Inspiration
- Learning
- Making
- Relaxation
- Software
- Source Lists
That's Helpful For:
- Adults
- Teachers
- Teens+
- K-Middle Kids
O1 Picked
O2 Picked
Adult Gate
Teacher Gate
Teen+ Gate
K-Middle Gate
Collaboration Gate
Collab Tags
Collaboration
Immersed
A twist on remote screen sharing: see your devices’ screens in VR. Free service is limited. Paid service offers features such as collaboration in real time, multiple screens and more.
Github
Software development platform: host and review code, manage projects and build software.
Arduino Create
Enables users to write code, access content, configure boards and share projects. Features include up-to-date online IDE and the ability to share builds and receive feedback from other facilities. Various membership costs, including a limited free option.
Zooniverse
Platform for people-powered research, made possible by volunteers who come together to assist professional researchers. Study authentic objects of interest gathered by researchers, like images of faraway galaxies, historical records and diaries, or videos of animals in their natural habitats.
SciStarter
Online community dedicated to improving the citizen science experience for project managers and participants. Over 3,000 projects and events are searchable by location, scientific topic, and age level, and by joining SciStarter, members can track their contributions and provide valuable feedback.
HelloTalk
Learn a language by chatting with native speakers around the world. Chat with language partners via text, voice recordings, voice calls, video calls and more. Built-in aids for translation, pronunciation, transliteration and corrections make conversations run smoothly.
Project Invent
In Project Invent, high school students invent technologies that solve real-world problems. Project Invent trains mentors, publish resources, run events and connect communities to ensure students are getting a transformative learning opportunity.
Contests Gate
Contest Tags Gate
Contests
Element14
Element14 Design Challenges are competitions where engineers from around the globe design prototypes to solve a problem for tomorrow's world.
Prusa
Contests related to 3D printable model design.
NaNoWriMo
Writing a novel alone can be difficult, even for seasoned writers. NaNoWriMo helps you track your progress, set milestones, connect with other writers and participate in events that are designed to make sure you finish your novel.
Young Writeers NaNoWriMo
Camp NaNoWriMo is a writing event that happens in April and July. It's different from NaNoWriMo in November (see NaNoWriMo above) because you can work on any type of creative project, not just a novel.
Inspiration Gate
Inspiration Tag Gate
Inspiration
Google Art & Cultures
Explore collections from around the world with Google Arts & Culture, created by Google Cultural Institute. Discover millions of artworks, historical sites and stories.
British Museum
Kenai Fjords National Park
Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park
Carlsbad-Caverns National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park
Dry Tortugas National Park
Center for Puppetry Arts
Explore puppet shows, workshops and more - all from home.
Rent
Google account is required. This movie is available for rent or purchase.
Newsies
Google account is required. This movie is available for rent or purchase.
Story Time From Space
Astronauts read stories and conduct experiments and demonstrations from space.
NASA
Inspiring sights, sounds and reading hosted on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s website.
Cirque du Soleil
The world-renowned performance company, admired for the grace and daring of their acrobatic circus performances, offers a festive collection of free entertainment for us during quarantine, including full Cirque du Soleil performances and behind-the-scenes mini documentaries.
Learning Gate
Learning Tags
Learning
Scholastic "Learn at Home"
This free resource provides children with 20 days of exciting articles and stories, videos and fun learning challenges.
WGBH Distance Learning
WGBH supports teachers by providing an online library of free, trusted digital resources from PBS LearningMedia and their own educational preschool programming.
PBS Learning Media
PBS and your local station have curated FREE, standards-aligned videos, interactives, lesson plans and more for teachers.
The Odin Project
The Odin Project offers free full stack curriculum in web development and is supported by an open source community.
Code Academy
Online, self-paced courses in coding, from web languages to full-on programming for hardware. Basic and beginner courses are free.
Imagineering in a Box
One of many courses at Khan Academy, this Imagineering in a Box course is designed to pull back the curtain to show you how artists, designers and engineers work together to create theme parks. Go behind the scenes with Disney Imagineers and complete project-based exercises to design a theme park of your very own.
Scratch
Program your own interactive stories, games and animations and share your creations with others in the online community. Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically and work collaboratively.
Scratch Jr
With ScratchJr, young children (ages 5-7) can program their own interactive stories and games. In the process, they learn to solve problems, design projects and express themselves creatively on the computer.
GeoGebra
Free online math tools for graphing, geometry, 3D design and more. Available in many languages.
NSTA
Interactive eBooks site offering free access to “Interactive eBooks+” during school closures. Interactive eBooks+ provides learning experiences that are both engaging and inspiring.
Desmos
An online graphing tool where users can type equations and see their graphs.
Tomorrow Corporation
These game developers offer a DIY project on how to build a Jukebox with a Raspberry Pi with unlimited music selection.
Tynker
An interactive site to teach coding to kids. During school closures, access to premium content is free and includes a number of distance learning resources.
Code Monkey
CodeMonkey is a beginner friendly, fun and educational game-based environment where kids learn to code.
Form Labs
Learn the process of making a 3D object into a finished product. Written by a vendor of 3D print technology.
Making Gate
Making Tags
Making
Ravelry
Free site for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, weavers and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools, project and pattern information. Look to others for ideas and inspiration with this online library of user- driven content.
Origami
Learn how to make origami and improve your skills in the international paper folding community.
Lettering Daily
Learn the art of hand lettering and calligraphy. Access tutorials and resources including free downloadable calligraphy practice sheets.
Colors of Nature
The Colors of Nature project has developed a series of kits that explore the art and science of nature’s colors. The kits will be distributed to school curriculum libraries, museums, science centers, and public libraries for use in programs. They offer associated professional development to educators in institutions that adopt the kits. While they only provide fully equipped kits to project partners, their lesson plans are freely available.
Call of Cthulhu
Free online printable coloring book based on tales of H.P. Lovecraft and affiliated Cthulhu tales.
Color Our Collections
Libraries, archives and other cultural institutions around the world are sharing free coloring sheets and books based on materials in their collections.
Peep and the Big Wide World
Animated series Peep and the Big Wide World gives wings to the innovative idea of teaching science and math to preschoolers.
Create My Cookbook
DIY press for cookbook authors with tools to help create the book, including services such as the intriquing “WeTypeIt.” Requires email address or Facebook integration.
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections.
Relaxation Gate
Relaxation
Relaxation Tags
Radio Garden
Browse the radio broadcasters of the world, geovisually: on an interactive, Google Earth-based map.
Georgia Aquarium
Although our neighbors at the Aquarium must close during the current quarantine, they offer inspiring, relaxing live webcams.
San Diego Zoo
Take a virtual tour of the San Diego Zoo with live webcam streams.
Explore
Live nature webcams of all sorts, including outdoor, wilderness settings.
Scribd
Vendor of online books, magazines, and reading material in general. Free for 30 days, but creating an account is required.
Audible
A curated collection of stories at stories.audible.com is available for free. Kids will find stories to help them keep learning, dreaming, and just relaxing with something that’s also inspiring.
NationSwell
A choose-your-own-path adventure story.
Hogwarts Digital Escape Room
A choose-your-own-path text adventure that also contains illustrations and visual clues. Solve mysteries and complete this escape room as a group or as an individual.
Software Gate
Software Tags
Software
Street Mix
Collaborative civic engagement platform for urban design. Design, remix and share your neighborhood street.
Drawio
Free online diagram editor built around Google Drive that enables you to create flowcharts, UML, entity relation, network diagrams, mockups and more. A Google account may be required.
Canva
Template-based DIY designs for flyers, presentations and social media graphics.
Trello
Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards.
Fusion 360
Cloud-based, internet-only tool for the precise modeling of 2D and 3D objects that can also animate your designs, render objects, simulate loads and more.
Blender
Open-source, free software for 3D modeling, animation, video composition and 2D animation. Thousands of applications, including 3D printing, game development, data visualization and more.
Gimp
GIMP is a free software for graphic design, photo editing, illustration, data visualization and scientific image manipulation.
TinkerCAD
Free, easy-to-use cloud-based app for 3D design, electronics and coding.
Book Type
Web-based, single-source publishing software for creating books, reports, manuals and more.
Sketch Up
Simplified 3D modeling app that’s free for personal use. Free version does not support all available add-ons and plugins.
AutoDesk
Create, customize and download 3D characters from a catalog of over 100 body types, outfits, hairstyles and more.
Node
An asynchronous event-driven JavaScript runtime, Node.js is designed to build scalable network applications.
RhinoCeros
Create, edit, analyze, render, animate and translate NURBS curves, surfaces, and more.
Solid Works
3D design and manufacturing app with part, assembly and 2D drawing functionality. Specialized tools are also included for sheet metal, surfacing, molds and more. CAM included with an active subscription.
On Shape
Cloud-based CAD software with collaboration, version control and features specialized to product design and manufacturing.
Resource Lists Gate
Resource tags
Resource Lists
OpenCulture
Open Culture brings together high-quality cultural & educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community.
Thingiverse
Online marketplace for buying, selling and sharing 3D printable models and related assets.