Makerspaces, which are often available at universities and other educational institutions, provide a specialized resource for designing and creating personalized course materials that better fit curriculum goals and provide active learning opportunities. Additionally, there are many existing digital resources that are freely accessible which can save instructors from having to generate products from scratch. These resources can be especially beneficial for geoscience courses that may not have the ability to conduct data collection or lessons in the field and include concepts that are more challenging for students to visualize. The value of these resources is highlighted in an undergraduate, introductory marine science lab in which students utilize specially-created materials alongside more traditional lab equipment and computer activities. The specially-created materials support lessons on topics such as bathymetry, coral bleaching, and microscopy. The students actively engage with those specialized materials and express preference for activities including those items. The use of these personalized course materials has also initiated a further line of inquiry into the creation of geoscience lab materials that may better support students with learning accommodations.