MAKESHOP at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh

A visitor shows off her creation from 2013 Maker Corps Member Nick's Wooden Automata workshop. In the background is the baseball-tossing trebuchet we built with visitors to throw a first pitch for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
A visitor shows off her creation from 2013 Maker Corps Member Nick’s Wooden Automata workshop. In the background is the baseball-tossing trebuchet we built with visitors to throw a first pitch for the Pittsburgh Pirates

by Rebecca Grabman, MAKESHOP Manager

MAKESHOP at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh is excited to welcome a second year of Maker Corps Members in 2014! As part of the museum’s mission to provide innovative experiences that inspire joy, creativity and curiosity, MAKESHOP was created in 2011 as a place for families and children of all ages to engage in making processes using real tools and materials. From sewing and woodworking to laser cutting and 3D printing, from felting and weaving to soldering and stop-motion, we strive to provide a range of social, learner-driven, multi-layered experiences that can be scaled for all ages, from 2 to 102.

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A couple of soft light-up creations made as a part of 2013 Maker Corps Member Lindsay’s Conductive Felting workshop.

Located on Pittsburgh’s North Side, we have a range of programs that reach diverse audiences across the region. Maker Corps Members can expect to not only learn about and facilitate visitor use of a wide variety of tools and processes, but to also engage our community in a number of different ways including: day-to-day work with visitors and families, planning and running youth (ages 10+) programs, helping with Pittsburgh Mini Maker Faire (hosted here at the museum!), running educator and librarian workshops at our annual Maker Boot Camp, and working collaboratively with Maker Corps Members from the other Pittsburgh Host Sites (Assemble and Millvale Community Library).

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Adult educators – teachers, librarians and community leaders – brainstorm during a design challenge at our Maker Boot Camp, which was run with the invaluable assistance of our 2013 Maker Corps Members.

We have a dedicated staff from a wide assortment of backgrounds that’s brought together by a passion for making things. Between us we specialize in traditional woodworking processes, eTextiles, mask making, robotics, film and a huge assortment of other skills. We’re looking for awesome, interesting, talented individuals to help us play, explore, invent and learn. Ideal Maker Corps Members are passionate about whatever it is that they love to do and are equally willing to share their passion as they are to learn about others’ specialties. Just to name a few examples: last year Lindsay got us obsessed with embroidery, Sam taught us about computer programming, Nick waxed poetic about street art and Lauren picked up a new hobby in interactive fiction.

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Our 2013 Maker Corps Members helped us prototype, test and iterate on the theme of “games” one month, including constant hacking and adjusting of our homemade pinball machine.

You can find more information about MAKESHOP at our blog, www.makeshoppgh.org.

MAKESHOP is a partnership between Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out of School Environments (UPCLOSE) and Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC).

Maker Corps Member Sam enjoyed working with younger children, so she helped put together a jam-making activity for our Tot Make weekly series. Toddlers and their caregivers read a story and smashed some berries to make a delicious treat.
Maker Corps Member Sam enjoyed working with younger children, so she helped put together a jam-making activity for our Tot Make weekly series. Toddlers and their caregivers read a story and smashed some berries to make a delicious treat.

CLICK FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO APPLY FOR MAKER CORPS

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One response to “MAKESHOP at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh”

  1. Armina Stone Avatar
    Armina Stone

    The Children’s Museum is absolutely fantastic. It’s fun for the whole family and the kids definitely enjoy it. I’m sure they will enjoy the hands on tasks. The jam-making task is pretty cool for sure!

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