Makeshop™

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

Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

Meet a Maker!

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Meet our fearless leader and MAKESHOP Manager, Adam! Name: Adam Favorite color: Yellow How long have you been working at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh? August 2010 When did you know you were a maker? As a child, I would help my grandparents to cook, sew, paint, fix things up, and do little odd jobs around the house. I got a sewing…

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Circuit block progression

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I recently noticed that I have greatly changed my facilitation methods for circuit blocks. When I first started at MAKESHOP, I ran circuit blocks like a demonstration. I’d show kids how each of the various types of components worked, and then ask if they wanted to play with any of them. This didn’t last long as a style, because a…

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Meet a Maker!

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Meet Christian, the master of puns! Christian is one of our MAKESHOP Teaching Artists. Name: Christian Favorite color: Red (and black) How long have you been working at The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh? September 2011 When did you know you were a maker? I don’t think I identified myself as a “Maker” until recently. I’ve always made, tinkered, and disassembled things though. I…

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Meet a Maker!

Rounding out the veterans of  MAKESHOP is Kevin, who has worked at the Children’s Museum for over five years. Whether you need help using a new tool, lifting something heavy, or need to hang out with someone who exudes patience, he is the guy to find! Name: Kevin Favorite color: Black How long have you worked at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh: 2007…

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On the Edge of Your Seat

At the end of last month, Children’s Museum Board Members gathered at the Museum for a Board retreat.  How do you get to know your fellow Board Chairs? By dividing into teams and having a “chair” contest of course! A MAKESHOP Challenge was presented to the group:  Divide into teams of six and create a meaningful chair using a container…

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Halloween came early…

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We started prototyping some projects for October acouple of days ago.  It was really hard not to go with a Halloween theme.  Alexis and I spent the morning creating some DIY decorations for the MAKESHOP.  I figured that it would be really cool to add some electronics to some simple cardboard decorations. As always, this process of prototyping programming is…

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