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| Standing next to Makey at Makerfaire Pittsburgh |
This year we went to our first MakerFaire. I was there partly because I was helping with a University of Pittsburgh booth, but really so I could bring T.While most kids can build with LEGO, he also has some wood projects behind him, and has a reasonable exposure to electronics for a 5 year old. But more importantly, he has spent his whole life watching the things that are in our house built from parts or scratch. And starting last year he has been exposed to robotics, programming, and electronics. So MakerFaire was something that has been on our radar.
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| Battlebot being repaired |
One of the advantages to getting there early in the morning is that the crowds have not yet arrived. So he got access to things that would have been hard to do. And being associated with a booth marks him as a fellow maker, who does not just look at things for entertainment but can appreciate hard work and effort to make something work.
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| Taking apart a battlebot |
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| Driving a battlebot |
He got to help repair a robot, drive robots, both those that are much like toys and some that definitely were not toys. He did the whole set of crafts set up by schoolchild oriented maker spaces, both low tech and high tech.
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| Programming the Lego robot to make it across the line. |
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| Inspecting a Scout Trooper rifle |
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| Weaving with a loom |
The point of this gathering is not so much to show off or teach, but to inspire. For everything he sees, he can recognize the precursors, so everything that he touches, is within aspiration, if many years from now.
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| Demonstrating the fruit piano |
This was our first MakerFaire, but it will not be the last. The Adafruit Circuit Playground fruit piano was something we threw together, next year we will actually think about making this work. And T will have something more polished to show off. And his interactions with the other makers more meaningful.
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