How-To: Bird Nesting Material Cages
Make your feathered friends happy—and add a little color to your backyard branches—with DIY bird nesting material cages!
Kids & Family
Handmade Easter Masks
Oh Happy Day has a really fun way to get creative while celebrating spring and easter with these handmade animal masks.
Father/Daughter Raspberry Pi-Based State Poster Project
With some help from her dad Scott, second grader Emma made this Raspberry Pi-controlled interactive trifold poster about the state of Vermont, for a school project. Pushing a button cycles through the different agricultural industries of the state, complete with lights and animal sound effects. Other buttons play recordings of the state bird singing and the state song. There is also a “quiz mode,” which tests the viewer on what they’ve learned.
Making Makers: The Maker Scouts
The Exploratory has been providing making opportunities for young children in Los Angeles for two years through makeshops, public events, in class programs, camps, birthday parties, and educator makeshops. Our mission is to provide tinkering and making learning opportunities for children to practice the mindset skills that they will need to be successful in a future full of unknowns – grit, flexible thinking, creative thinking, frustration tolerance, failing forward, and communication. In making with hundreds of young children, among all the things that we have learned, the biggest lesson for us has been that there is so much we still have to learn! So, Maker Scouts was born as a national program of modern, local communities working together to raise innovation capable young people.
How-To: Mini Oven Bake Clay Planters and Bowls
Use plastic Easter eggs to form your own cute mini oven bake clay planters and bowls!
Alice Taylor: Inventing the Future of Toys
Alice Taylor is CEO of Makielab, a London-based startup that 3D prints customised action dolls called Makies. Customers design their doll on the Makie website, choosing facial features, hairstyles, eye and skin colour, and selecting outfits and accessories. The dolls – fully-poseable, and about 10 inches tall are then printed in London and shipped out. For the Makie and Alice, that’s the beginning of a long adventure.
I spoke to Alice about the adventure that she and Makielab have been on, playing with toys, working with geeks, and bringing 3D printing to the masses.
Big Weekend for Bay Area Young Makers
We have another two wonderful Young Maker/Open Make events happening in the San Francisco Bay Area Saturday, March 16. Just like last month, you’ll have to pick just one of these two happenings because they occur simultaneously on opposite ends of the Bay. Each offers a flurry of activity that starts at 10am and ends with an inspiring “meet-the-makers” panel discussion.
The events are at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose and Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science. Each museum is also hosting a plussing session, where registered Young Makers can develop and finesse their projects for Maker Faire Bay Area.