Meet a Maker!
If you’ve visited the MAKESHOP on a weekend, chances are you’ve met and created with Allison! Name/ Nickname: Alison, but some of my friends and family call me Ali or Al. Favorite color: Hot pink! (And green) How long have you been working at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh? I started working in MAKESHOP in August 2012 but I’ve been helping…
A year’s visit
Thomas and Aiden visited the Museum with their dad a year ago. The family is from Buffalo, NY and they visit Pittsburgh once a year. Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh is always one of their stops. I was fortunate to spend a lot of time with them during last year’s visit. There is an older blog post that I wrote about…
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…
A plethora of projects…
Augustine and his sister were already hard at work in a corner of the MAKESHOP when I came back from break. They were working on two intricate projects: a wooden truck and a tadpole. These two projects were brought to my attention because Augustine wanted to cut a piece of scrap wood to a certain size. I helped him with…
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…
“MAKE”-APART
I really enjoy when visitors add their projects or creations to MAKESHOP. For example, two visitors, Max and Joey, helped build a new component for our Circuit Block Table. They repurposed a wheel from a remote control and the motor from a broken model boat. I showed them how to test the motor with a battery to see if it…
Meet a Maker!
Do you sometimes wonder who is lucky enough to work in MAKESHOP? Well, here is your chance to meet one of our talented makers! Check back every week to meet new people. This week, we introduce you to one of our Teaching Artists, Rebecca! Name: Rebecca How long have you been at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh? I worked at the prototype…
Robot Fabrication
Robots are a common theme here at MAKESHOP. We have robot sculptures overlooking our area. We live in what is ostensibly the robot capital of America. On her last day, one of our summer interns made a robot pillow to remember us by. Robots are, let’s face it, just plain awesome. Unfortunately, they also get repetitive after a while, which is why I’m always…
Makeshop Guest: Leah Beuchley
This week Leah Buechley came to visit! It was exciting. A little introduction: Leah Buechley was a major contributor to the development of the Lilypad Arduino, and is a professor at the MIT Media Lab . Her research group… “…integrates high and low technological materials, processes, and cultures. Our primary aim is to engage diverse audiences in designing and building their…
MakerBot in MAKESHOP
We have a new toy in MAKESHOP — a MakerBot Replicator 3D printer! It’s on loan to us from the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University, and we finally broke it out to play with it! Calling this machine a “printer” isn’t entirely accurate: this isn’t a printer like the one on the corner of your desk or even…