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Steph Piper - Community Engagement Coordinator & Makerspace Lead
University Of Southern Queensland
Have you ever played a video game and wished it was as easy in real life to earn experience points and level up? What would your personal skill map look like, how many points would you have and what skills have you unlocked? The skill trees project aims to do just that, while providing a reflective experience away from a screen. With a huge library of 50+ skills available on Github, you can learn skills from 3D printing to laser cutting and baking to gardening.
The skill tree templates can be printed on A4 paper, and you just need to colour in the boxes of anything you’ve already done. Easily visualise your skills, identify your skill gaps and get inspired to try new things.
“This is an amazing idea. I can see so many opportunities for use in training, personal growth and education. It shows the goal and a path. It’s rare to find something that opens up so many new possibilities.” - Docquinn@mas.to
It’s been a super powerful resource for catalysing growth by pinpointing areas of improvement, rather than getting stuck in the same ways of working, or never learning a core skill along the way. Through the process of gauging my skills, I’ve found that if I want to level up my electronics skills, I need to stop turning to Arduino all the time and try out Raspberry Pi or build a circuit from a schematic.
The community of skill trees is growing, and as a collaborative community project, experts can weigh in, provide feedback and submit skill trees to get a holographic contributor sticker in the mail. After each tree has passed two rounds of peer review, translators are welcome to contribute versions in different languages.
Coming soon in November 2024 is the Skill Seeker book based on the Skill Trees project, where you can track 15 skills at a time, calculate your Maker XP score and show off all your skills in a video game
style dashboard. The book will be released in November through MAKE publishing, the force behind the famous Make magazines and Makerfaire movement.
See more info about the project at makerqueen.com.au, and visit the project page on github.com/sjpiper145/MakerSkillTree.
About The Author
Steph Piper is a Creative Technologist and lead at the University of Southern Queensland Library Makerspace. She is also founder of Maker Queen, shipping beautiful electronics kits worldwide. With a background in biofabrication, Steph also teaches classes in 3D printing, Arduino and Hardware development. Steph Piper is created the popular art installation the Party Button and new wearable tech product GlowStitch, which was successfully crowdfunded in early 2024. For more info, see www.makerqueen.com.au
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