The Tinkering Studio at the Exploratorium

The Exploratorium (interactive science museum in San Francisco) has moved into a new space on the wharf. I have been there twice since their move – once with my toddler, and once with a group of adults all interested in museum design. The two experiences gave me completely different views into the experience.

With my daughter, one surprise was that she was fascinated by one of the simplest exhibits – a large magnet with washers. She would have stayed here for hours if I hadn’t insisted we see other exhibits. I was surprised by this (though in retrospect I should not have been). The exhibit is not as flashy or complex as most of the other exhibit. In fact, nothing moves or lights up. But my daughter was simply fascinated by it. In part, I think this was because it was easy for her to engage with (she could reach it and grasp the washers) and there was no right or wrong way to explore. She could build things!



Personally, I was most impressed with the new Tinkering Studio (http://tinkering.exploratorium.edu/) - a place where children and adults can tinker with everyday and not-so-everyday materials.


More exhibits in the Tinkering Studio. The first is a pin ball machine that can be altered just by moving around the cylinders, bells, and blocks of wood. The other is an assortment of circuit components that can be connected to make buzzers sound, run motors and light lights.





  

Let the Children Make: Talk by AnneMarie Thomas

A talk by AnneMarie Thomas on children and making.

My go-to birthday box for 2013 - a box

This is birthday party season for us. My daughter's 3rd birthday is coming up which means most of the children she is good friends with also have birthdays coming up. Last year (when all her friends were turning 2), my daughter was in a stage where she loved to paint herself. Her favorite book was "I Ain't Gonna Paint No More" a story about a little boy who paints all over everything. So we gave many of her friends that book, lots of paints and some paper.

This year, she loves to play in boxes. They are boats, rockets, beds for her animals, houses, whatever she things of. So this year, all her friends are getting a big cardboard box, the book "Not A Box," MakeDo kits and Rolobox. "Not A Box" is a story about a bunny rabbit who imagines a box is a mountain, a robot, and all sorts of things. MakeDo kits include hinges, connectors to make box creations just a little bit better. Rolobox are wheels to add to cardboard boxes.

http://mymakedo.com/creative-play
http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/books/Not-Box/
http://www.rolobox.com/

Halloween costume - the Neighborhood Trolley

Halloween is an excellent opportunity for making things. When my pre-schooler asked if we could make a costume for the Neighborhood Trolley (from Daniel Tiger's neighborhood), how could I say no?

We started with a cardboard box. Mom cut out the window and printed out characters from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (from pbskids.org). 

 She colored the characters and taped them in the windows.

We added some paper and some extra cardboard behind the characters for support.

 Finally, we used LittleBits to make a working headlight.

Now we just need to put the wheels back on and we'll be ready to roll around the neighborhood.

Moving drawings

This week, my pre-schooler folded the edges of a piece of paper toward the center and colored the pieces folded in and the center area. I had no idea what she was doing. When she was done, she told me that it was a butterfly and demonstrated its flapping wings. I am ridiculously proud of this paper butterfly. She came up with the idea of constructing a "moving" drawing all on her own and figured out how to fold the paper to accomplish her goals. Or perhaps she folded her paper and accidentally discovered that it resembled a butterfly.

A month or so ago, we were at a children's museum where my daughter saw (and tried) origami. The instructions (and example) provided were of a bird with flapping wings (see below). Perhaps this experience planted the seed that led her to experimenting with folding paper this week.

Toys that encourage "making"

I interact with toys in three primary roles: a mom, an educator, and a person who likes to play with toys. I find that I'm drawn to similar types of toys in all three roles. I like toys that don't tell you how you should play - toys that allow and encourage different forms of play. In short, I like toys that let you "Make" things or experiences.

As a mom, I like my child to play with building toys, art toys, and toys that encourage make believe. Blocks, Legos, magnetic building shapes, tinker toys, crayons, paints, playdoh are some of our favorite building and art supplies. For make believe, some of the same toys - especially Legos encourage stories and make-believe, but also hats, a kid-size kitchen and household items like brooms and dishes.

As a STEM educator, I want my students to engage with toys that help then engage in science and engineering practices. I want them to design things, build things, and try to explain. This means I like materials for building robots, simple CAD-type software and programming interfaces like Scratch (yes I consider software toys), and things like magnets and oobleck that create opportunities to make sometimes surprising observations.

As a person who likes to play with toys, I like these same kinds of toys --  Legos and robotics -- things I can put together and manipulate on my own - and arts and craft supplies and tools.

What I tend not to like are toys that want you to "push a button" to make something specific happen. This is often a "feature" of electronic toys and electronic aspects added to other toys (a farm that neighs when you push the right spot) or otherwise invite play in only one specific "right" way.

Blocks

Blocks are wonderful. My daughter creates tall towers, small towers, wide towers, and narrow towers, and she calls them cities, hotels, houses, or the names of stores that we regularly shop at. Sometimes it is just about the process of building (and "knocking") and sometimes her Lego people or stuffed animals inhabit her structures for stories and make-believe. Sometimes she sorts colors and sizes and shapes of blocks. Sometimes she makes patterns. Sometimes it's a solitary activity and other times she engages Mom and Dad. The same pieces knocked down, repurposed, and reorganized become new structures, new toys. Toys of her design and imagination.

GoldieBlox and the Spinning Machine

I got a GoldieBlox and the Spinning Machine set for my students who work with elementary school students to fiddle with. But, of course, I let my pre-schooler play with it. This is a toy designed and marketed towards girls. It comes with a story book and materials (peg board, spools, pegs, washers, and a ribbon) to follow along and make the spinning machine that Goldie makes in the book. My daughter (age 2.5) enjoyed putting the pegs in the board and the spools on the pegs and pulling the ribbon to make the animals spin around. The target age is 6, but my daughter regularly asks to play with Mommy's "round and round animals." She likes figuring out how to make them go. She also matches the animals to the pictures of them in the story. We even used the spools and pegs to make a little car one day.

I made it

My 2 year old's ability to put thoughts into words is exploding and she frequently provides her opinions, desires, thoughts or recollections about what she sees. She tells us "I like that" "I no like it" "It makes me happy," but my very very favorite thing for me to hear her say is "I made this."

She regularly points things out around the house - paintings, items from home depot's kids workshops, lego constructions and tells us, "I made this."

A Lego Playground

My daughter has been building a playground. She is quite adept at Duplo Legos (bigger Legos made for smaller hands). She makes planes, boats, hotels, and trains with her Duplos. Last week she even made a "Costco" "full of all the things" (a pretty good description of Costco). 

She is not yet, however, very skilled at putting together and taking apart regular size Legos and she really really wants to build with them. So she has become "foreman of the playground" and her dad and I are the construction workers. She directs, "we need a slide" and she finds the pieces and dad puts them together. She states, "We need a swing" and mom figures out a way to make the swing move. When she discovered that the Duplo figures couldn't sit in the swing (but Lego mini-figs could), she declared "That swing is for babies. We need a big swing" -- one for duplo-sized people." And then "Nana needs a bench to sit on." There's no kit, no directions on what we should build, or picture on the box to limit her ideas. Whatever she imagines, we collectively figure out a way to create. This collaborative project has lasted for days and she wants to leave other activities (like the zoo!) to go home and play with her playground.

Roominate

Fantastic toy! These two little girls (with the help of mom) built a small house and then populated it with furniture. I built a table, but they turned it over and made a bed for their little animals. I made and connected the fan, but they quickly figured out how to control it put it into the house to make the room cooler for her animals to sleep in. Roominate is designed for much older children, but even these two 2-year-olds had a great time playing with it.

Making Art - Itty Bitty Infant Maker

This is the beginning of the making. 9 months old. Making art.

Making Squishy Circuits

I originally found the idea for squishy circuits in the book Design Make Play. Squishy circuits are constructed from two different playdoh recipes. One which allows electricity to flow through it (conductor) and one which does not (an insulator). Recipes for both types can be found here 

 http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/apthomas/SquishyCircuits/howTo.htm

My itty bitty maker helped me make the dough. She likes to spoon out ingredients and stir them up. And then she got to knead the dough. I colored the conducting dough green (go!) and the insulating dough red (stop!). We then connected a battery to the dough and started putting in our LEDs. LEDs are directional. This means that they only allow current to flow in one direction, so if it doesn't light up right away, try turning the LED around. 

Making a Butterfly Box at the SLO Mini Maker Faire

We went to the San Luis Obispo Mini Maker Fair earlier this year. It's tiny compared to the Bay Area Maker Fair and was probably just the right size for our Itty Bitty Maker. She got to check out all the exhibits and had time to go to the Children's Museum. 

The pictures below are of her favorite booth - building a butterfly box - and some pictures of the cocoon and of the day the butterfly emerged and we let her (or him) free. 

The box was a shoebox with a screen on top. The children decorated it with pieces of paper. 

Another fun booth for her was a sewing circuits booth. Vivi picked out fabric and we made a patch (two layers of conductive fabric, separated by a non-conductive fabric) with an LED that lights when a safety pin goes through the fabric, completing the circuit.

Making things at Home Depot Kids' Workshops

On the first Saturday of each month, we are usually at Home Depot. They have a Kids' Workshop (targeted for ages 5 and up) where kids get to build and paint projects. We have found that, with help, this itty bitty maker does just fine. At first mom or dad did all the hammering and our itty bitty maker just did the painting. Now, we start the nails for her and she gives them a few whacks and then she does all the painting (and color schemes) herself.

What I love most is her pride in making things. We have her completed projects hanging on the wall or (for the cars) in her toy bins. She loves seeing them and tells us, "I made that!" We now have a birdhouse, picture frame, valentine holder, pencil holder, firetruck, herb planter, and 2 cars -- all made by our itty bitty maker.