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 family’s prototype
Here is a quick story about an amazing pair of makers that spent an entire Saturday working on a single idea, which was “What can you do with a mousetrap?” When I joined this father and son team, they were already under production with their creation: a mousetrap car. Apparently the dad saw that we had a couple of mousetraps…
The Next Iteration
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…
Goofing off at Maker Faire
We hosted the second annual Pittsburgh Mini Maker Faire last week. It was a lovely day full of lovely people. I could go on in great detail about all the gadgets and amazing inventions on display. Instead, what I noticed most during the day was a sense of goofiness. Everyone was genuinely having fun. We had so much fun at…
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…
Andrew’s Shield
Andrew is an interesting visitor. He typically has a plan for exactly what he wants to do or make at the Museum. The really fascinating thing is that his projects typically span the course of several visits to the Museum. He brings his projects back to improve them or build newer versions. He has a real knack for prototyping. This…
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…
“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…
DIY Circuit Blocks
This was an extremely ambitious project that resulted in a couple great teaching moments. A mom and daughter were so fascinated with our circuit blocks that they wanted to make their own. We decided to make a battery block, a motor block and speaker block. As with any electronic project, we first had to test all of our components. Mom…
Prototyping New Programs
The MAKESHOP staff likes to prototype our programming. Sometimes this step can be the most fun part of developing new activities for our visitors. Our theme for the month of September is “Books and Bags.” We set out at the end of August to figure the best ways for visitors to create these two things. Along with the best ways…