Field Trip: Braddock Library
The Braddock Library is an amazing place. The building is beautiful, the staff is extremely friendly and the patrons are awesome. I was lucky enough to visit the library twice this summer and teach two workshops: one woodworking and one electronics. The woodworking workshop had about twenty kids participate and all of them created something original. One girl simply spent…
Field Trip: Robinson Township Library
Derek and I had the privilege of using the Robinson Township Library’s extremely large activity space to teach woodworking. We taught visitors how to use hammers, hand drills, saws, sand paper and screwdrivers. We planned to have the families experience and learn about the tools. Some of the families asked if they could create something (a sculpture or a structure)…
What did we do with MAKEY MAKEY?
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…
CD Spin Art
Here is a great example of a visitor taking an existing exhibit piece and making it so much more fun. This visitor turned our circuit blocks into an art project. We were exploring the different circuit blocks and when we got to the block that contains an old CD drive I was asked if we had any CDs to test…
Simple machines in MAKESHOP
I recently had the opportunity to work with a kindergarten class from the Environmental Charter School. We had a partnership with them that created a residency for two of our teaching artists to visit the school to plan and co-teach lessons. Nick and I were asked to help with the first grade and a kindergarten classroom. Nick helped the first…
Kai’s Invention
Kai is a regular visitor of the Museum. He is the kind of visitor who really enjoys tinkering with anything and everything. On this particular day, we were experimenting with making light-up cards using copper tape and LEDs. Kai was very interested in exploring what could be done with the copper tape and a piece of paper. He already had…
Inside the Sewing Machine
Over the winter holidays, we did a lot of take-apart here at the museum. Tons of old audio equipment, toys, printers… and a sewing machine! I had a great team of four kids helping me get that stubborn front off. It really didn’t want to go! We recently replaced this machine with a newer one, and thought we’d keep the old…
Aircraft Carrier
Joseph was a really fun kid to meet. He was one of those visitors who seemed to fit right in at MAKESHOP. He didn’t know exactly what he wanted to create, but he came to a decision after he spent some time tinkering and exploring the materials. He first tinkered around with lighting up small LEDs with batteries. He eventually…
Marble Maze
What can you make with an over sized hole punch? A couple of days ago a visitor created a really cool marble maze puzzle type thing. He spent a long time just tinkering with all of the different pieces of recycled materials in MAKESHOP. He eventually settled on using several tubes and a cardboard box that already had some holes punched out…
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…