Maker Faire New York

Maker Faire NYC 2010

I've subscribed to Make: magazine since the first issue several years ago. I wish I had the time and money to make just about every project they publish. Once in a while I get to make a project with the girls. It's part of my secret plan to make geeks of both of them.

A few years ago they started holding Maker Faires in the Bay Area and I've been waiting for the opportunity to attend. Earlier this year they announced there would be a Maker Faire in New York City in September. Sign me up!

The original plan was for the whole family to go for the weekend. But the girls have ballet on Saturday morning and Audrey has soccer. For some reason ballet feels "serious" and we don't want the girls to miss it if we can help it. So the plan changed to driving to New York on Saturday and coming back Sunday. Carol wasn't interested in that plan, and we figured Audrey would enjoy the fair a lot more than Charlotte, so it became an "Audrey and Dad" trip.

We got out of Boston about noon. I had decided to stop in Hartford, Ct to visit the brand new Connecticut Science Center. Hartford is exactly halfway to New York so it would be a nice break. We spent three hours at the science center and Audrey had a lot of fun playing with water, robots, electricity and music.

Sunday morning we got up early so we could be at the fair before it opened. It was held at the Hall of Science (New York's science museum), which was the site of the 1964 World's Fair.

Well, the fair was fantastic. We started at a booth where Audrey built a marshmallow gun out of PVC plumbing parts. Later she built a sailboat and learned how to crochet (the same publishers produce Craft: magazine). I think the highlight for Audrey was learning to solder. We assembled little badges with blinking lights. Audrey did a great job and was careful with the hot soldering iron.

We also watched a game of Life Size Mousetrap, watched the "Jet Ponies" and rode some unusual bikes.

Another highlight for Audrey was walking in a big tub of oobleck (non-Newtonian fluid). The girls have played with this at preschool and home, but it was cool to get to walk through a huge batch of it.

Finally, we had access to the Hall of Science itself which has a large Science Playground. Audrey loved the big rope web she could climb in.

The Maker Faire met all of my expectations and I'm very glad we made the trip. Hopefully it'll be an annual New York event.