I think the greatest gift an aspiring engineer or maker can receive is a toolkit and projects to help them on their way. When I was 12 years old, the first Harry Potter book had just come out and I was already too old to receive a Hogwarts letter. That didn't stop my love of magic though, and I looked for it in reality instead of fantasy; I soon discovered science.

First came liquid nitrogen. It could freeze anything, just like a magic spell! Unfortunately, after borrowing a few college chemistry books to learn how to make it (a time before wikipedia and youtube…), I determined there’s no way I could manage it. That didn’t deter me and a few years later I was dreaming up ways to put the oxygen/acetylene welding striker inside of a wand so it could throw sparks. My older brothers were taking Ag-Mechanics in High School where welding was taught and I thought a spark throwing wand was a much better use of the striker than lighting a torch. Shrinking the striker down into a cylindrical wand shape was still beyond me at that point in time and that idea too, was abandoned. Somewhere out there my Mom probably has my journal with all those early “magic” ideas of mine that never came to fruition.

My first toolkit, with replacement soldering iron. *Yes, that is the original microphone I made (upper left).

Next up was electrical engineering and circuit kits. I was given an electronics toolkit consisting of a soldering iron, DMM, various colored wire, and electronics kits as a gift one year. Finally, here were the tools needed and a project suitable for me to complete. The first kit was a wireless microphone that I was able to use to play my voice over our home stereo system. The sound quality was horrendous and I dropped it after a few words; I was no singer.

However, the spark of magic from when I was 12 had just ignited into a fire of applied magic, or engineering to Muggles; I was hooked on creating! Knowing about and listening to the radio is wildly different from making a circuit that broadcasts your own voice over the air. I had captured the primordial elements of the universe (electrons) and forced them to do my bidding, sending my voice over the vast 4 feet of space separating me from the stereo! Magic was finally at my fingertips!

If you can dream it, you can make it. But to make it, you need the correct tools. Whether that’s a magic wand, a soldering iron and some wire to act as an antennae, or a Raspberry Pi and some motors. A toolkit of your own and a proper project are all that's required to change a dreamer into a maker.

I think the greatest gift an aspiring engineer or maker can receive is a toolkit and projects to help them on their way. When I was 12 years old, the first Harry Potter book had just come out and I was already too old to receive a Hogwarts letter. That didn't stop my love of magic though, and I looked for it in reality instead of fantasy; I soon discovered science.

First came liquid nitrogen. It could freeze anything, just like a magic spell! Unfortunately, after borrowing a few college chemistry books to learn how to make it (a time before wikipedia and youtube…), I determined there’s no way I could manage it. That didn’t deter me and a few years later I was dreaming up ways to put the oxygen/acetylene welding striker inside of a wand so it could throw sparks. My older brothers were taking Ag-Mechanics in High School where welding was taught and I thought a spark throwing wand was a much better use of the striker than lighting a torch. Shrinking the striker down into a cylindrical wand shape was still beyond me at that point in time and that idea too, was abandoned. Somewhere out there my Mom probably has my journal with all those early “magic” ideas of mine that never came to fruition.

My first toolkit, with replacement soldering iron. *Yes, that is the original microphone I made (upper left).

Next up was electrical engineering and circuit kits. I was given an electronics toolkit consisting of a soldering iron, DMM, various colored wire, and electronics kits as a gift one year. Finally, here were the tools needed and a project suitable for me to complete. The first kit was a wireless microphone that I was able to use to play my voice over our home stereo system. The sound quality was horrendous and I dropped it after a few words; I was no singer.

However, the spark of magic from when I was 12 had just ignited into a fire of applied magic, or engineering to Muggles; I was hooked on creating! Knowing about and listening to the radio is wildly different from making a circuit that broadcasts your own voice over the air. I had captured the primordial elements of the universe (electrons) and forced them to do my bidding, sending my voice over the vast 4 feet of space separating me from the stereo! Magic was finally at my fingertips!

If you can dream it, you can make it. But to make it, you need the correct tools. Whether that’s a magic wand, a soldering iron and some wire to act as an antennae, or a Raspberry Pi and some motors. A toolkit of your own and a proper project are all that's required to change a dreamer into a maker.