Hacking hot glue

The Maker ethos is largely about taking control of your own environment. In a workshop, sometimes that means not accepting the "right" way to use materials and tools. Few things give me more pleasure than seeing students hacking their world.

We do have a rule about respecting materials. In other words, consumables should be consumed with a specific purpose – not just wasted. So when I saw a student coloring a hot glue stick, I told her that wasn't OK – the the hot glue sticks were only for use in the hot glue guns. She explained to me that she was going to use the stick in the gun and that she was trying to color the hot glue flow. When I found out she was hacking, I gave her a thumbs-up and praised her for using her imagination.

Colored hot glue.