Makeshop™

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

Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

The Next Iteration

IMG_9194

It is always great to see visitors returning to the Museum with projects that they started in MAKESHOP.  This specific project was a wooden car that a boy and his grandfather had started building in MAKESHOP in June.  They were hoping to add some more things to their car.  They certainly came on the right day. We were prototyping some…

Read more →

Circuit Experiments

We have been working on some new circuit block prototypes lately. Christian is working on a motorized generator that is constructed out of an old bike. Nick built a really cool circuit puzzle using conductive tape. These projects have really got us thinking about the future possibilities of our circuit blocks. I attempted to build a matching game that utilized…

Read more →

“MAKE”-APART

IMG_7960

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…

Read more →

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…

Read more →

Leah Buechley came to visit!

Leah Buechley, from the MIT Media Lab, paid the Museum a visit a couple of weeks ago.  She is an amazing maker, an amazing teacher, and an amazing person.  She gave a talk at the Museum about integrating technology into other mediums.  I could tell just from her posture how enthusiastic she is about her work and the work of…

Read more →

Hana-Chaser

IMG_5634

Two of my favorite visitors returned to the Museum a couple of days ago and created another amazing project. Their first tinkering, electronic project was dubbed the “Hanna-Occupier”.  Their latest project was a motorized car made out of simple, recycled parts. They decided to name it the “Hana-Chaser”.  I was excited to collaborate on this great project. Since these were…

Read more →

The MAKESHOP is for everyone…

IMG_7104

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…

Read more →