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I really like baseball; since I moved to Pittsburgh I finally found a team to root for…The Pittsburgh Pirates.  I was extremely ecstatic to hear that the Museum had partnered with the Bucs this summer to do some special programming.  Included in this programming is our open-sourced pinball machine (built by Christian and modified by the rest of the staff). With a little help from everyone in MAKESHOP and a lot

Sometimes we end up with a theme within a theme in MAKESHOP.  In this case, our theme was “MAKESBURGH” (our community created cardboard city).  Within that theme emerged some other strange trends.  For some reason, the skies of MAKESBURGH became plagued with pterodactyls.  One young, imaginative visitor came up with an entire superhero to help keep MAKESBURGH safe.   CAT CREATURE!…who defends t

What is a Makey Makey?  It is actually kind of hard to describe in words.  Essentially it is a switch that uses anything conductive to replace the keys on a standard keyboard.  There is much more information on the Makey Makey website. The Makey Makey is our newest toy in MAKESHOP.  As I mentioned, the Makey Makey is a variable switch that replaces a standard keyboard and allows you to interface with a computer using

At the beginning of June, MAKESHOP™ welcomed four Maker Corps Members. This summer, you can find them working at Children’s  Museum of Pittsburgh and bringing MAKESHOP™ experiences on the road.  Through the Maker Education Initiative, they will engage children and families in creative projects, while gaining experience serving as leaders in the community.  Meet Maker Corps Member Lindsay, who creates beautiful miniat

We decided to do a big community project at the end of May.  The Museum sees a record number of visitors this time of year due to school field trips.  We felt that a big group project would be fun for all of these groups to add to.  We always have  a ton of recycled materials in MAKESHOP, and what better way to use these materials, than to build a giant cardboard city! We set up the workshop space as a landscape (wit

  First things first: The Andrew Bayne Memorial Library is an absolutely beautiful building.  I had the opportunity to visit this amazing location with our new Maker Corps Members (Sam, Lauren, Lindsay and Nick).  The library is located in an old mansion which is surrounded by a lovely park.  The entire second floor is dedicated to children’s education, and that’s where we spent the majority of our t