Last weekend I had the opportunity to participate at the Seattle Mini Maker Faire and represent my school, Insight School of Washington. I had never heard of this event, but I was promised it would be mind-blowing.
The Seattle Mini Maker Faire has been around for six years. It’s set up at the Museum of Pop Culture, but it spills out into Seattle Center. There are tents and booths set up so scientists, computer enthusiasts, crafters and commercial makers of various ages and backgrounds can share their passion with visitors. Many of the booths have activities for children and adults. I saw people building robot buttons with LED lights. I saw children making clocks out of cardboard. There were home-made foam rockets shooting in the air. Daleks and R2D2s going up and down the sidewalk. There were even acrobatics on the first day.
I witnessed most of this from the K12 booth, where I had a rotation of activities for the people that came to say hi during the two days of the faire. I started the day by teaching the kids how to make their own fossils by using clay, a plastic toy, and some plaster of Paris. The next activity around lunchtime was a germination station – visitors could grow either a sunflower, a jack-o-lantern, or a bean pole. They’d even get a journal so they could keep track of their observations. The last activity of the day was stop-motion video. We uploaded these creative short videos to our Facebook pages for other families to see.
The two days flew by and I didn’t get to check out all the booths. However, I enjoyed getting to talk to curious families about my school and making new connections.
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