An adult program leader holds up a large straw-and-connector hexagon shape in front of a small group of seated elementary-age children during a hands-on building session.

FutureMakers Sparks for After-School, Camp, and Parks and Recreation Programs

FutureMakers Sparks are screen-free, individually packed STEM kits built for after-school staff, summer camp counselors, and parks and recreation programs to lead without a science background. A non-specialist staffer leads a 30 to 90 minute session with a free video and slide deck, and real programs like Ocean City Recreation and Parks and Montgomery County's Excel Beyond the Bell after-school program have reordered them across multiple seasons.

Last reviewed September 24, 2026

How to buy

Can I buy fewer than 10 of a Spark instead of a full Small Group Pack?

Yes. A real recreation supervisor asked this exact question after needing 12 kits across four different Sparks, and the answer is the $8.95 Single Learner Pack, sold one at a time in the Single Spark Packs collection, with no 10-unit minimum. For an in-between number like 12, buying one Small Group Pack of 10 plus two singles (for example, $69.50 + $8.95 + $8.95 = $87.40 for Straw Structures) is usually cheaper than 12 singles outright ($107.40). Run the math for your own count and Spark before ordering.

How do I use the order form on the website?

The order form is FutureMakers' quote builder at kidsmakethingsbetter.com/quote. Tell it about your program, adjust quantities in a line-item editor, and get a PDF quote to forward to purchasing. See the full how to buy FAQ for the complete step-by-step and every payment option.

Does FutureMakers accept purchase orders and tax-exempt purchases for a county recreation department?

Yes. The instant quote builder generates a PDF quote in about two minutes with Net 15 payment terms, a 5 percent discount for paying by ACH, and a 90-day validity window, so a purchasing admin can cut a PO against it with no salesperson involved. Getting a quote: check "Our organization is tax-exempt" in the Purchasing Information section and enter your tax ID number. Buying directly in the store: create a free account and submit your tax ID number with a tax-exempt certificate for review. See the full how to buy FAQ for purchase order terms, vendor paperwork, and every payment option.

What a session looks like on your team

Can a part-time counselor or camp staffer lead a FutureMakers Spark without STEM training?

Yes. Every FutureMakers Spark comes with a tutorial video and an illustrated slide deck built for a non-specialist to lead cold, free at coach-with-sparks. Montgomery County Recreation's Excel Beyond the Bell after-school program has leaned on that model since 2023, reporting the coaching slides worked for their team "with minimal to no issues" across multiple sites. Training isn't a guarantee, though. After an in-person session with Matt Barinholtz, staff at one county recreation department told us they still weren't confident leading a program alone, so plan a dry run before your first live session.

What does a Spark session actually look like, minute by minute?

A typical FutureMakers Spark session runs 30 to 45 minutes: a short video or slide intro, then each kid builds their own kit at their own pace. Staff circulate instead of lecturing, since every Spark ships individually packed and the guide's own troubleshooting steps are written for a staffer to walk a stuck kid through a fix without stopping the room. See the run of show below, and the full Straw Structures guide for one real example.

Overhead close-up of two hands assembling a Straw Structures kit, with white straws and red plastic connectors visible on a blue background. — A Straw Structures build in progress: no group materials to divide, since each kit is individually packed.

How do I lead one activity for a room with both 6-year-olds and 12-year-olds?

Pick a Spark that FutureMakers already differentiates by grade band inside one guide, like Straw Structures or Mazes. Straw Structures covers Pre-K through Kindergarten, 1st through 3rd, and 4th through 8th bands, so younger kids finish the base build while older kids move into built-in extensions, like combining towers into a team "Mega Structure." That built-in range means one Spark purchase can cover a mixed-age room instead of buying a separate activity for every age group.

What if I only have one staff member for 20 or more kids?

Because every FutureMakers Spark is individually packed, each kid builds their own kit in parallel instead of waiting on shared materials or a rotation, which is what lets one staffer lead a large group. Real orders back this up: Baltimore County Recreation and Parks bought 12 different Sparks in a single county-wide order, and Ocean City Recreation and Parks routinely orders across four Sparks at once for its combined camp and after-school program. For an especially large room, pick a Spark with a short troubleshooting list, like Straw Structures or Wind-Up Vehicles, so a stuck kid needs less of your one staffer's time.

What staff-to-child ratio is a FutureMakers Spark session actually built for?

FutureMakers doesn't publish or test for a specific staff-to-child supervision ratio. What is real: every Spark is a 1:1 build, one individually packed kit per learner, so kids build in parallel instead of waiting on shared materials, which is why one staffer has covered a group of 20 or more in the real orders described above. That's a kit ratio, not a supervision ratio. Your program's own licensing, contract, or grant rules still set the actual staffing minimum for the room, and having a Spark on the schedule doesn't change what those rules require.

Planning a week or a summer of Sparks

How do I plan a week of camp themes using FutureMakers Sparks?

Group Sparks by the skill or theme you want that week, the way real buyers already do. Montgomery County Recreation's Excel Beyond the Bell program built its rollout around two vehicle Sparks, Electric Vehicles and Wind-Up Vehicles, proving a "things that move" week is a real, tested combination. Ocean City Recreation and Parks instead mixed four different Sparks (Art Machines, Crankie Contraptions, Scene Machines, and Monster Claws) into one order for variety across a season. Either approach works: go deep on one theme, or mix a few Sparks so each day feels different.

Overhead close-up of two hands assembling an Electric Vehicles chassis, with the motor, battery, gears, and axle visible on a blue background. — Electric Vehicles: one half of Montgomery County Recreation's two-Spark vehicle rollout.

Which Sparks work well for a full summer of camp programming?

FutureMakers keeps a running Summer Camp Favorites collection of Sparks picked for camp settings, alongside a dedicated After-School Programs collection for the school-year side of the same job. Both draw from the same 17-Spark catalogue, so a program that buys for camp in July can reorder the identical kits for its fall after-school cycle. That is exactly what Ocean City Recreation and Parks has done: kits bought for summer 2025 and 2026 led to a fall 2026 after-school reorder conversation for the same site.

How do I know which Spark fits which age group and how long it takes?

FutureMakers publishes an age range and a session length on every product listing. They vary enough to matter for planning: Wind-Up Vehicles and Straw Structures run 30 to 45 minutes for a wide age range, while Crankie Contraptions runs 45 to 90 minutes for lower elementary through middle school. Seven Sparks (Art Machines, Eyelusions, Flying Machines, Hypnotizers, Mazes, Scene Machines, and Screen Machines) don't have that range written into their own guide text yet, so the table below uses each one's live product-page time instead until the guide catches up. The table below covers all 17 Sparks.

How much prep time does a Spark take before I lead it?

Prep varies by Spark, but the low end is genuinely low: Straw Structures needs nothing beyond scissors and a ruler already in the room. The high end still fits inside a normal planning period: Electric Vehicles works best if a staffer pre-teaches the idea of a circuit and builds one first using the slide deck, since that step "makes the Connect the Battery step much faster" for the group. Either way, FutureMakers recommends every Spark leader build one Spark before the session using the free video or slide deck at coach-with-sparks.

Can I use the same kits for summer camp and then again for the fall after-school program?

Yes, and one real customer relationship shows exactly this pattern. Ocean City Recreation and Parks bought Sparks for its combined "Camp Horizon & After School" program, used them with summer 2026 campers, then discussed a fall 2026 after-school reorder for the same program line in July 2026. A Spark kit doesn't expire or need a season-specific version, so unopened stock or extras from a summer order carry straight into an after-school cycle without a new purchase.

Attendance, engagement, and proof it works

Does hands-on making actually increase attendance at an after-school program or camp?

FutureMakers doesn't have a measured attendance study for camps, parks and recreation departments, or 21st CCLC sites. What does show up in the numbers: real buyers like Ocean City Recreation and Parks have reordered Sparks across multiple seasons on their own initiative, a sign that families and staff keep choosing to bring the activity back.

What do kids actually take home from a Spark session?

Every FutureMakers Spark is individually packed, so each kid keeps the exact thing they built rather than a shared classroom project. FutureMakers frames this as a deliberate choice: giving kids ownership of what they make is meant to boost engagement, encourage bigger risks while building, and let the activity keep going after the session ends, at home with a parent or sibling. For a program answering to families about what their kid did that day, a real object to bring home is a concrete answer.

Overhead close-up of two hands assembling a Flying Machines wind-up motor onto a straw frame, with the printed instruction card visible on a green background. — Each Spark ships individually packed, so what a kid builds is theirs to keep.

Is there real proof that camps and afterschool programs keep using Sparks season after season?

Ocean City Recreation and Parks is the clearest example of season-after-season use. It requested samples, placed a first order, earned a return-purchase discount plus two free packs on the next order, used the kits through summer 2026 campers, then reached out in July 2026 to plan a fall after-school reorder. The department's own words after that first summer: "Our campers enjoyed your kits this summer and I would like to order some additional kits for our after school program."

Which camps, parks and recreation departments, and after-school programs actually use FutureMakers Sparks?

Named customers include Ocean City Recreation and Parks, Montgomery County Recreation's Excel Beyond the Bell program, Charles County Department of Recreation, Parks and Tourism, and Baltimore County Recreation and Parks. Ocean City runs its program under the name "Camp Horizon & After School." A national conference channel brought in at least one more lead: a manager of afterschool programs requested FutureMakers' full sample lineup after meeting the team at the National Afterschool Association's 2026 conference. These are purchasing and repeat-business relationships, not a formal case study with measured results.

What social and emotional growth looks like at the table

What social and emotional skills actually show up when a group builds Sparks together?

Social and emotional skills that show up when a group builds Sparks together include patience, persistence, and problem diagnosis, each tied to a specific moment in the build. A kid whose Straw Structures tower keeps tipping over widens the base and tries again, since the guide calls the activity "NOT a race" and says it "rewards patience and planning." A kid whose Monster Claws claw only opens partway slows down, disconnects the tube, and rebalances the two pistons before it works, real practice diagnosing a problem instead of walking away from it.

What happens when a kid's build doesn't work the first time?

When a kid's build doesn't work the first time, a FutureMakers Spark session points them to a troubleshooting step built into the guide, so the fix comes from them, not an adult. The Wind-Up Vehicles guide tells the builder up front that "it's totally okay to try something that doesn't work" and treats a vehicle rolling backward as a fix, not a failure: "lift the wind-up mechanism out and re-seat it facing the other way," which gets the vehicle rolling the right direction again. The kid ends the session with a working build, not a stuck one.

If every kid builds their own kit, where does teamwork come in?

Teamwork comes in right after each kid finishes their individual build, when several FutureMakers Sparks add a team challenge that combines everyone's separate kits into one shared object. Straw Structures lets teams combine towers to build one that reaches the ceiling, or fold every builder's kit into a single "Mega Structure." Wind-Up Vehicles has a matching "Cross-Kit Combination Challenge" where two, three, or every vehicle in the room locks together into one giant rolling machine. The negotiation over whose piece goes where happens naturally, without an adult assigning roles.

Funding and staff training

How much does a FutureMakers Spark cost per kid for a camp or after-school program?

A Class Pack of 25 runs $4.20 to $4.88 per kid, and a Small Group Pack of 10 runs $5.95 to $6.95 per kid, both live Shopify prices. Browse current prices across the full Spark catalogue.

Does a FutureMakers Spark session count as academic enrichment for a 21st CCLC Annual Performance Report?

A FutureMakers Spark is a hands-on engineering build with its own academic standards attached. Straw Structures, for example, carries NGSS code K-2-ETS1-3 (engineering design) and Common Core code K.G.A.1 (describing shapes), and every one of the 17 Sparks carries codes like these. FutureMakers hasn't mapped any Spark to a specific 21st CCLC Annual Performance Report category. Whether a session counts as academic enrichment for your program's APR is your program's own call to make with those standards codes in hand.

Can FutureMakers train our staff in person instead of just shipping a kit?

FutureMakers has delivered real, invoiced in-person staff training to parks and recreation departments before. Charles County Department of Recreation, Parks and Tourism paid for a workshop Matt Barinholtz personally led, and the department said afterward, "they seemed to really be engaged and enjoyed the activities." Baltimore County Recreation and Parks also received in-person training as part of a large, one-time catalogue order. This hasn't been a standing, book-anytime service, so ask about current availability through Labs and Workshops rather than assuming it ships with every order.

Are there discounts for multi-site programs or recreation departments buying at scale?

Paying by card gets an automatic 5 percent discount with no cap, and ACH payment through the quote builder adds another 5 percent, stacking real savings before any negotiated discount. There's no separate discount rate just for buying across multiple sites. What we do have is a real example of a relationship growing that way: Montgomery County Recreation's Excel Beyond the Bell program started with two Sparks at one site, then expanded the same order to two additional sites on the buyer's own initiative. That's evidence a purchase can scale across sites, not evidence of an extra multi-site discount.

Is there a cheap way to test a Spark with one group before committing a chunk of my season's budget to it?

Yes. FutureMakers offers a free samples program at /samples, shipped via UPS at no cost, so a coordinator can try a Spark with one group before buying Class Packs for a full summer or season. Sample requests average about 1.3 items each, and there's a separate event samples page built for a program planning a specific event rather than an ongoing season. If the sample works for your group, the same Spark scales up through the quote builder without starting over.

A 45-minute Spark session, run of show

Built from the structure every FutureMakers guide follows (a quick-start video or slide deck, guided build steps, troubleshooting, and a take-home close). Exact minutes shift with your group size and the Spark you pick; several Sparks run 45 to 90 minutes instead of 30 to 45.

0:00Set up and hand out kits
Each kid gets their own individually packed Spark kit; there are no group materials to divide.
0:05Quick-start video or slide deck
Staff play the short tutorial video or walk the slide deck instead of demonstrating the build themselves.
0:10Build time
Kids build at their own pace; staff circulate and use the guide's own troubleshooting steps for anyone stuck.
0:35Share and combine
Groups that finish early try an extension, like combining separate builds into one team challenge.
0:45Pack up to take home
Each kid packs up their own finished build to take home, since every Spark ships individually to keep.

All 17 Sparks by age range and session length

Pulled from each Spark's product listing and educator guide. Most Sparks state a time range right in the guide. For seven Sparks that range isn't written into the guide yet, so the number below comes from the product listing instead.

Spark	Best age range	Session length	Extra supplies beyond the kit
Straw Structures	Ages 5 and up (Pre-K through 8th grade, differentiated)	30 to 45 minutes	Scissors, a ruler or tape measure
Wind-Up Vehicles	Grade 2 and up	30 to 45 minutes	Scissors
Monster Claws	Grade 4 and up	30 to 45 minutes	None for the core build
Monster Mouths	Grades 1 to 3 (younger kids can parallel-play)	30 to 45 minutes	None stated
Strawbots	Grade 2 through middle school	30 to 45 minutes	None stated
Blendies	Pre-K through middle school	30 to 45 minutes	None stated
Drawbots	Grade 3 and up	30 to 45 minutes	None stated
Linkages	TK/Pre-K through middle school	30 to 45 minutes	None stated
Crankie Contraptions	Lower elementary through middle school	45 to 90 minutes	Scissors, pencils, markers or crayons
Electric Vehicles	Grade 4 and up	30 to 90 minutes (varies by pack size; see note)	Scissors recommended
Flying Machines	Grade K and up	20 to 45 minutes (product listing; the guide gives a wider, inconsistent range)	None stated
Mazes	Pre-K and up	30 to 45 minutes (product listing; not yet in the guide)	None stated
Scene Machines	Grade 3 and up	45 to 90 minutes (product listing; not yet in the guide)	Scissors, tape, drawing materials
Screen Machines	Grade K and up	45 to 90 minutes (product listing; not yet in the guide)	None stated
Art Machines	Pre-K through upper elementary	20 to 45 minutes (product listing; not yet in the guide)	None stated
Eyelusions	Grade K and up	30 to 45 minutes (product listing; the guide describes it only as quick)	None stated
Hypnotizers	Grade 1 and up	30 to 45 minutes (product listing; not yet in the guide)	None stated