Backyard Bike Wash!
We just posted a new project on THE MAKESHOP SHOW’s site for kid-makers: a Backyard Bike Wash! Click the photo to learn how to build your own version with creativity and less than $10. Then invite all your friends for an afternoon of cool riding. Check out more fun projects we post over on the SHOW’s site, including summer favorites like…
Making Use of a Record Player
We needed something that spins for our kaleidoscope workshops. I was planning on making something like a big spinning wheel, but by coincidence, an employee from another department dropped off an old record player. It was a great coincidence! I own a record player and I use it to play music. I never thought I’d be using a record player…
Video Call for Makers
The Pittsburgh Mini Maker Faire just posted a Video Call for Makers! There’s only 1 week left to apply for Round I to be one of the featured makers at this year’s Faire. Check out the video and don’t miss your chance to be a maker-star at this year’s 2nd annual Faire! Learn more at www.pghmakerfaire.com.
The MAKESHOP is for everyone…
We are a “kids” museum, so little kids come here every day and play. Adults are allowed…no…encouraged have fun too. Case in point: A dad from California visited the MAKESHOP and had the time of his life. This particular visitor came into our Museum not expecting to have nearly as much fun as he did. He wanted to try to…
Pittsburgh is Art…
The Museum visited the Three Rivers Arts Festival over the past two weekends. Our tent featured versions of activities that happen in the Makeshop and Studio, so we had a lot of fun letting visitors get a taste of what goes on in the Museum. We let visitors play with our ShopBots and experience some hands on woodworking processes. It’s…
Exploring and Inventing
Who are inventors? Anyone can be an inventor… Most people probably picture an inventor as someone in a laboratory working with a bunch of complex machines. When I think of inventors, I picture anyone willing to try out something new. Kids are great at inventing things. Case in point: Usman and his “Spinny Thing”. Usman spent a lot of time…
Join Assemble for M3!
Our friends at Assemble are hosting a series of awesome workshops for children. Materials, Media and Me (M3) is a series of Saturday afternoon workshops for children ages 8-10. Each week, a different artist or technologist will introduce a material, show students how they use the material, and lead them through a project. M3 classes will highlight Metal, Paper, Fabric,…
Call for Makers
The Call for Makers for Pittsburgh Mini Maker Faire is now open! They’re hunting the region’s most brilliant makers of all ages. Click here to learn more and apply!
Droids and Grandmas
I have had whole families work on projects in the MAKESHOP. This was the first instance where I witnessed three generations create three separate projects at once. We were celebrating “May the Fourth Be With You” day in the MakeShop. Being the National STAR WARS day, we decided to let visitors make “ShopDroids.” A very eager family came in and…
Three Days in the MAKESHOP
What can you do with a ton of newspaper? We weren’t entirely sure. Someone suggested we do “rolled newspaper projects.” That quickly blossomed into a ” giant newspaper sculpture!” So over the span of a week, we let visitors add to our collaborative sculpture. This was a really fun activity to do. What was even more fun was filming the…