How Make: Projects Engages Students Online and Enhances Project-Based Learning

This webinar will introduce Make: Projects - its inspiration, how it works, and how it can be used in the classroom, however this may look in 2021. We will also hear from YSC on the successes of the Online STEM Fair and how they used templates and project documentation to exhibit over 600 student projects.

With engineering.com and Youth Science Canada

Make: Community and engineering.com recently launched a new platform,

Make: Projects, to help makers and STEM minds document and share their creative or team-based projects.

Make: Projects, is a collaboration platform that brings together makers, engineers, inventors, and doers to develop their passions or solve our society’s most persistent challenges.

With COVID-19 affecting face-to-face learning, Make: Projects is the perfect online space for remote, project-based learning and student engagement. In May 2020, we partnered with Youth Science Canada (YSC) to host their first ever Online STEM Fair. Students from all over Canada posted their projects to our virtual fair and the online interaction between them was astonishing!

This webinar will introduce Make: Projects – its inspiration, how it works, and how it can be used in the classroom, however this may look in 2021. We will also hear from YSC on the successes of the Online STEM Fair and how they used templates and project documentation to exhibit over 600 student projects. Finally, it will provide an overview of how teachers and educators can get started on the platform with their students!

About the Speakers:


Frank Baldesarra – Co-founder & CEO of engineering.com, has a personal passion for helping the next generation of STEM minds with our ProjectBoard software solutions. Frank has over 35 years experience leading businesses that provide products and services focused on improving productivity for innovative Engineering and Design companies around the World. In 1985, he co-founded RAND Technologies and as President and COO, RAND operated as a publicly traded company, employing over 1500 globally. For the past 15 years, Frank has invested in and led companies that provide advanced technology to the building and green energy industries.


Reni Barlow – Executive Director of Youth Science Canada. Youth Science Canada is the organization behind the YSC Online STEM Fair that launched on the ProjectBoard platform just 48 days after having to cancel the 2020 Canada-Wide Science Fair. As a former science teacher and school principal, he has over 35 years experience with inquiry and project-based STEM learning.


Renata Vaccaro – CTO at engineering.com & Co-founder of ProjectBoard. Renata has over 20 years experience in technology and is a high energy, dynamic and hands on leader. She has experience delivering enterprise level software and has been an active member of senior management for several years. Renata is passionate about delivering high quality projects on time and on target and demonstrates a unique understanding and empathy for clients and the end user. Renata is an active speaker in the Tech community where she focuses on the power of Diversity in Tech while striving to be a role model for young women in Tech.


Nyssa Rubinsztajn – Project Manager at ProjectBoard, the infrastructure powering Make: Projects. She works directly with schools and other partners to optimize their experience on Make: Projects. She also works closely with the developers on new features and making sure the platform is the best it can be!

This webinar is sponsored by ProjectBoard and Make.