Maker Education Initiative
Are you 18-22 years old and interested in maker culture? Do you know a young adult who loves to tinker and enjoys working with children? We’re excited to announce a great new opportunity for this summer! MAKESHOP at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh is partnering with the Maker Education Initiative, a program linked to MAKE Magazine, to launch the Maker Corps…
Giving back
Here at MAKESHOP, we know it’s the season to give back to our community. If you are a regular reader of our blog, then you know that we have a floor loom, a machine that weaves fabric. Last year, a lovely couple donated their loom to MAKESHOP. We dusted it off, and with some light care, have been able to…
FORTS
The weekend after Thanksgiving can be really, really busy at the Museum, so we decided to try something a little different with our visitors in MAKESHOP. The entire exhibit was cleared to make space for several forts. We split the exhibit space into four separate, specifically themed fort building areas. We also provided a walk way for visitors and…
Stop-Motion…What else can it do?
We are still continuing to test our stop-motion prototype. I tried out a couple of different techniques using our current setup. I was able to rig the camera into a position that allows it to see the entire MAKESHOP. We made a pretty simple animation of Nick while he was cleaning up one of the tables. Experimenting with animation in…
Light Painting Results
We have finally gone beyond the prototyping stage of Light Painting. Rebecca explained a lot about the process in this blog post. I have had some more time to set up the workshop side of MAKESHOP to better facilitate light painting with our visitors. The exploration of this technique is really fun. I have had kids and adults of all…
Activated Origami
This was really cool workshop taught by one of our favorite guest makers, Sibel Deren Guler. Visitors were able to explore and learn how to create several origami projects. They were then encouraged by Deren and me to add lights and motors to their creations. This was the first time I witnessed activated origami and I loved it. These special…
Bicycle Heaven Field Trip
I own a bicycle. I used to commute to school via bike and I own a Pittsburgh trail map. I can reconnect a brake cable and theoretically know how to adjust my spoke tension. I’m not a total luddite, but to me bicycles are a necessity only if there’s no buses and it will take too long to walk. So when a friend…
World Maker Faire!
Makeshop was kind enough to send me to the World Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science in New York City! It was pretty awesome. Two days, tons of people, projects, and ideas! Stuff: The sheer amount of stuff there was dizzying. Tons of 3d printers of various types, qualities, and prices, whirring away at whatever. A 3-D…
On the Edge of Your Seat
At the end of last month, Children’s Museum Board Members gathered at the Museum for a Board retreat. How do you get to know your fellow Board Chairs? By dividing into teams and having a “chair” contest of course! A MAKESHOP Challenge was presented to the group: Divide into teams of six and create a meaningful chair using a container…
Adults in MAKESHOP!
We held our very first MAKEnight a couple of days ago. We essentially let a bunch of adults play and explore in MAKESHOP after the Museum closed. The theme of our first night was electricity. We had our 3D Printer on display creating some models. We also had our circuit blocks out, the EggBot, conductive play-dough and copper tape tinkering….