Year: 2013

MAKE Asks: is a weekly column where we ask you, our readers, for responses to maker-related questions. We hope the column sparks interesting conversation and is a way for us to get to know more about each other.

What’s better than kids making? Kids AND teachers making!

In late July and early August, three teachers at Maria Carillo High School in Santa Rosa, Calif. held a three-week Maker Camp for a small group of its high-schoolers on campus. Margie Bradylong, Maggie Swarner, and Catherine Borchert (math, science, and art teachers, respectively) collaborated on creating a program that introduced their students to a wide variety of projects and ideas, while also allowing them to time and space to take their own individual ideas and make them into something real and tangible.

In the James Bond movie Thunderball, 007 packs a sexy, but unrealistic jet pack featuring two rockets that keep him floating awesomely over the landscape.

Taking that prop as inspiration, Rodger Cleye built a bi-copter with contra-rotating, gimbaled motors and a PVC frame, with a total weight of 13 pounds including the dummy. Despite this relatively large weight for a RC copter, Rodger still ekes out 10-minute flight times.

Chicago artist and 3D raconteur Tom Burtonwood is showing off his latest project — a 3D-printed book of six sculptural reliefs produced using 123D Catch, including an awesome colossal Olmec head from ancient Mexico, a medieval Chinese ogre and Bodhisattva, and a Roman emperor. It’s a great demo of how to capture priceless sculptures digitally for replication and teaching anywhere.

We live in a three-dimensional world, but only recently has the public had access to tools and technology that allow us to work and create things in 3D as well. Nowhere is this more evident than in the explosive growth of consumer class 3D printers, easy-to-use CAD software and 3D printing services. It’s a cliché, but increasingly what we can create is only limited to what we can imagine.

Now it’s possible to print 3D models with plastic, resin, titanium, and more. Here’s a new material to add to that list: photons.

Artist Long-Bin Chen creates remarkable sculptures from old books and printed materials, like this amazing recreation of Mount Rushmore from phone books!

Organizers of the Aug. 24 Dover (N.H.) Mini Maker Faire were hoping to attract 30 makers to the first-time event. So they were thrilled when they got more than 50 makers from throughout New England. The event will be held at the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire. The variety of makers and exhibits ranges far and wide. Here’ a sampling of what’s on to tap.