Makeshop™

A creative space to play with ideas, explore materials, and tinker with tools.

Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

A World Without Wheels

IMG_5759

What happens when you limit certain materials?  Say you run out of wooden wheels; an absolute staple material while running an open wood shop.  Honestly, it leads to some pretty cool projects. I had several visitors who were initially going to make simple wooden cars.  When they were told that there were no wheels for their projects they decided to…

Read more →

Making Mistakes…

IMG_5825

A couple of days ago two fifteen year olds visited the Museum.  They approached me in the MAKESHOP and asked if they could make something.  Their plan was to make an electric-powered car.  They explained to me that they had about three hours to spend at the Museum and they really wanted to spend that entire time in the MAKESHOP…

Read more →

Watching It Come Apart

IMG_5797

We recently let visitors take apart and explore the inner workings of a broken printer/copier.  The piece was generously donated to the MAKESHOP by our Visitor’s Services Department. This was a big project that spanned several days.  It was a lot of fun dismantling these devices.  Taking something apart is a great way to develop visitors’ curiosity for exploring the…

Read more →