A classroom visit
I recently had the privilege of completing a residency at a kindergarten class at the Environmental Charter School. The class was exploring simple machines, such as pulleys, gears, inclined planes, wheels and axles, etc. I was asked to help plan and co-teach with their teacher, Jen. I always enjoy visiting schools. Typically, classes come to the Museum to explore and…
Puppets and technology
How do you mix paper bag crafts with technology? Our usual answer to a question like that is “put a light on it!” Basically, we tried to figure out what we could add to a paper bag puppet to make it more “techy.” Rebecca created a very cool example that combines a paper bag with an electronic circuit. When you…
Puppet Prototype
Each month, our staff picks a programmatic theme for MAKESHOP that helps us to decide on what activities to provide. Our theme in MAKESHOP for the month of February is puppets. We decided to explore different ways to make puppets by reimagining recycled materials, sewing finger puppets and cloth puppets, building marionettes and playing with shadows puppets. As always, we will integrate digital…
Teenagers and Shopbots
The Museum sees a lot of visitors every week. Most of them are under five years old, but every week during the school year, a group of 6-8th grade students visit the Museum for our after-school program, YouthALIVE! These students visit MAKESHOP about once a month. We try to give them design challenges to help them to be creative and…
MAKESHOP Show
Did you know that there is a MAKESHOP Show? The MAKESHOP Show is an online resource hub for kid makers ages 6-10 years old. They help YOU to get into maker culture through originally-produced project ideas and videos from the MAKESHOP™, links to exciting content elsewhere and downloadable resources for kids, parents, and teachers. All projects are voted on by…
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…
Building a chair with the Board
Messy tables, goofy chairs, and lots of smiles… We held our annual Board Retreat for our Board Members and Directors of the Museum on October 24. The MAKESHOP team challenged them to “create a place to sit” using found and recycled materials. Everyone was split into four teams with one Teaching Artist to serve as a coach and spent thirty…
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….
SparkTruck Pit Stop
We had some amazing guests visit the Museum from Stanford University in sunny California. Jason, Didi and Eugene have spent the summer traveling across the United States in a mobile workshop dubbed the SparkTruck. Check it out! Along the way, they have been stopping at museums, community centers, events, and parks… Anywhere they can find. Their truck is full of various…
Making MAKESHOP
A couple of days ago, we hosted a “Making MAKESHOP” workshop. Participants of the workshop visited from Museums and other institutions from around the country. All of them were interested in developing a maker space of their own. We decided to share some of our secrets with them. Over the course of two days, we played, talked, asked and answered…