The Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop | Make something of yourself.

Fuller's Island: the year in boats

Buckminster Fuller (1895 – 1983) was a brilliant designer, philosopher and futurist. Because he had dropped out of Harvard, he was often asked: where did you get your education? His answer: on an island in Maine, as a child, building toy boats.

Build small boats. Let them (and water) educate and entertain you. Build boats to learn history: the ironclad Monitor that battled 150 years ago, the Titanic that sank 100 years ago. Learn science: balance, buoyancy and surface tension. Learn invention: create your own small fleet. Learn ideas: the power of the tiny trimtab to turn large, large boats. Learn to learn from water.
Batteries included

Designed for ages 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Micro Maker Faire

What's a Maker? Makers choose to construct, shape, invent, hack (rebuild), or recycle things others might just buy. Makers love tools and technology. There is Make Magazine. There are Maker plans, Maker tools, and Maker way of thinking. We have collected challenges to introduce the Make culture. Mornings, work on cars, catapults, wearable LEDs and a vacuum-molded mask. Each afternoon, choose a workshop that interests you: a carrot lathe, giant spin art, more electronics, water rockets, bamboo constructions, chain-reaction machines, Steam Punk style, the world of Howtoons, and great take aparts* Batteries included

*Special thanks: Physics Laboratories, Yale University.

Designed for ages 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Micro Maker Faire

What's a Maker? Makers choose to construct, shape, invent, hack (rebuild), or recycle things others might just buy. Makers love tools and technology. There is Make Magazine. There are Maker plans, Maker tools, and Maker way of thinking. We have collected challenges to introduce the Make culture. Mornings, work on cars, catapults, wearable LEDs and a vacuum-molded mask. Each afternoon, choose a workshop that interests you: a carrot lathe, giant spin art, more electronics, water rockets, bamboo constructions, chain-reaction machines, Steam Punk style, the world of Howtoons, and great take aparts* Batteries included

*Special thanks: Physics Laboratories, Yale University.

Designed for ages 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

People of the Ice and Snow

Spend a week with our neighbors to the far, far north, the Inuit. Their ancestors and customs are ancient. They have learned to live in a world that is cold most months of the year. Build an Inuit house that uses the earth and sod to help keep it warm. Construct and clothe an extended family. Build a team of trusted dogs to haul your sled. construct an umiak, a light, agile boat they invented for hunting and transport. Like the Inuit, make art and tools with driftwood, stones and bones – the simple materials that their world provides. Learn new words and game from a distant culture.

Designed for ages 7, 8 and 9

INuit

Electric Space Epic Mash-up Theatre

How do you build a Space Opera, like Buck Rogers, Star Trek, or Star Wars?

Build a hero. Unleash a villain. Collect faithful companions – droids for example. Construct magical transport for a treacherous journey: fleet speeders, agile fighters, massive carriers. Add stories from Greek myths, Norse legends, and Japanese folk lore. Then mash up these parts. Authors have always borrowed to create new stories. Construct and launch familiar rocket craft. Make heroes, their companions. Equip them with weapons that are both old and new. Make dragons and witches to test them. Make wise teachers to train them. Then work with friends to compose an epic tale all your own. Batteries included. Estes Rocket Engines included.

Designed for ages 9, 10, 11 and 12

Sew a Story

Learning to use a sewing machine is a lifelong skill that one never regrets having. In this class, architect, master seamstress/designer Martha Burns (www.smbstitches.com) will teach younger children to sew on our Janome sewing machines by teaching them to tell a story through panels or books that they sew. They will lean the basics of the sewing machine, important hand sewing techniques and maybe even some embroidery all while telling a story each of them concocted the first day of class.

Designed for ages 8, 9 and 10

The Theatre of Illusions

Pictures don't lie (usually). But perhaps your brain does. It can see things that are not there. Or not see things that are. Artists know this. Scientists know this. Construct a whole theatre of optical illusions to understand how colors, proportions, and shapes can fool us. Construct a praxinoscope whose mirrors will make your drawings move. Construct a curious room whose angles will make your wooden figures change size as you watch. Recreate the artist Marcel Dubhamp's experiments with spinning images. Learn classic tricks and create your own. Then, learn that these are not tricks, but windows through which we can watch the brain at work.

Special thanks: Dr. Marvin Chun, Visual Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Yale University.

Designed for ages 7, 8 and 9

Theatre-of-Illusion

Crash Test Dummies: The Rocket Pack Edition

Crash Test Dummies test limits of engineering and imagination. Rockets are ancient. By the 1920’s, they grow large enough to tempt the vision of Science Fiction writers. Buck Rogers appears in 1928 newspapers, albeit soaring through 25th Century adventures, with his jet pack. The Rocketeer is more a character of our time. The military has constructed many.
Inventors a few.

Now build Crash Test Dummies brave enough to test your rocket packs. Study the challenges of control, gravity and fire. Test designs from books, movies, comics and superbowl commercials to see how engineering takes time to catch the flights of the imagination. Batteries included. Estes rocket engines included.

Designed for ages 9, 10, 11 and 12

Electric Circus Circuits

The circus is about energy: clever ways to spin, balance, flip, swing and leap. Build a small circus that two batteries will bring to life. Power motors, magnets, propellers and lights with circus circuits that are designed for young experimenters. Costume and color your performers with paint, tissue, glitter and sequins. Construct, connect and coach your characters. Because, in engineering, as in the circus, practice is essential.

Designed for ages 7, 8 and 9

Electric Circus

The Greek Merchant Empire

Greece is a mountainous land with coast on three sides and many near islands. Her soil produced grapes and olives, but not much wheat. Trade was essential. Her early city states connected and competed by sea. Greek merchants carried wine, olive oil and beautiful pottery to exchange for wheat, spices, papyrus and shipbuilding materials. As the Greeks traveled they built trade Colonies and temples and their myths absorbed new ideas and chapters. It’s no accident that Greek epic tales are about the sea adventures of the seafaring heroes Jason and Odysseus.

Construct a Greek Merchant ship and her crew. Make pottery and metal work to exchange. Strike the first coins from Lydia. Construct a small Greek Temple to honor a god or goddess in a far off land. Learn the basics of trade from the land that gave us the word for economics which explains the necessity of trade.

Designed for ages 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Chagall the Potter

100 years ago, just 25 years old, the artist Marc Chagall moved from his native Russia to Paris, the capital of modern art. Chagall brought a gift for powerful color and for telling stories. Chagall poured his art onto paper and canvas and into bronze and glass. With his friend, Picasso, he experimented with ceramics. Create tiles and figures in clay guided by Marc Chagalls vision and stories. Discover the science and art of his vibrant colors. Then develop your own style and color palette.

Designed for ages 7, 8 and 9

Chagall

Hacking Neil Downie: Volume III

The English Scientist Neil Downie has written three volumes of Saturday Science Projects. His designs are remarkably original and thoughtful, explaining the math and science of every project. Our project designers have been working on adapting (hacking) them for you. We'll repeat the 4 best projects we have studied this year: the rotopult, the vibrobot, the rotorope and the hovering rings..in refined new forms. We introduce 8 new projects for you to construct and develop. Each day, experiment groups will work on challenges that are designs in progress.

With permission of the author.

Designed for ages 9, 10 and 11

Vibrobot-2011a

Bravery

All important stories teach us how to be wise, and fair, and even brave. Build a Highland castle, a boat and a trusty steed. Construct lords and ladies to disagree a lot. Construct a mysterious monster someone must face. Then make a hero or heroine to take on the challenge. Heroes are not born, they are made. That's the story – the tests, and luck, and wise help, and choices that make a hero brave. Build and paint a castle, shape and clothe characters, make and fur a monster, tell legends, and play.

Designed for ages 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9

Brave

Micropottery: The Wheel

The potter's wheel is one of civilizations's first machines. It lets fingers sculpt and finish clay vessels precisely and efficiently. It produced containers to collect, store and prepare food and water. Use your own micro potter's wheel powered by batteries. Small pots speed drying time and allow a whole course of ceramics in a week. Make tools and a carrier. Fire and decorate your work.

Designed for ages 7, 8 and 9

Olivia-&-Etana-with-wheel

The Gifts of the Nile

Civilization begins with order. The Nile River organized Egypt. Annual floods fertilized the land and promised plentiful and regular harvests. The Nile’s waters flowed north; her winds pushed south to connect her peoples by boat. Eastern and Western deserts fought back invaders. These gifts nurtured powerful kings and queens, writing, mathematics, science, the arts and remarkable building.

Construct an Egyptian family and villa, its servants, its livestock. Choose a trade to master and represent. Construct a Nile barge, or fishing boat, or a pleasure boat. Join the class in flooding a section of the Nile and beginning a Pyramid. All guided by David Macaulay Pyramid ©1975,and the Meketre Tomb Models, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Designed for ages 8, 9, 10 and 11

Programming: Scratch

This class is for ages 8 – 11
Designed at the MIT Media Lab, Scratch is a free programming language that allows you to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art – and share your creations on the web. An extremely flexible, powerful tool.

Instructor Michael Brownstein will bring his special expertise to teach beginners and non-beginners alike.

Designed for ages 8, 9, 10 and 11

scratch

Sculpture Garden

For 1000 years, the Japanese have constructed gardens that are works of art. Yes, there are plants. But every stone, every bench, every figure, every shadow is arranged to sculpt a place of peace and beauty.

Create a tiny garden to collect your creations. Experiment with clay, wood, wire, paper and fibers. Then, use these materials to make your own sculptures to create a colorful, vibrant garden of your own.

Designed for ages 7, 8 and 9

Japanese-Sculpture-Garden

Robot Sumo

Sumo Wrestling is an ancient Japanese tradition. Its earliest combatants were thought to wrestle away the demons that might haunt a kingdom. Modern Sumo Wrestling established its customs in the Edo Period…200 years ago. Build and train your Sumo. Construct a wrestler with three reversible motors and wired remote control. Create a traditional apron, belt, and hair style. With the class, construct the Sumo ring and Shinto Temple-like structure. Make the referee and perform the entry ceremony. Then learn how training and engineering have much in common as you prepare your robot to wrestle others. Change speed, power, hand moves and strategy to dominate the ring.

Prepare. Compete. Bow to your comrades. Learn. Repeat

Designed for ages 9, 10, 11 and 12

Robot-Sumo

Olympics 2012: On Water

This will be the 2nd week of the 2012 Olympics in London. Three of our workshops will rival London's events in spectacle and scale. We will produce 1000 competitors, judges and spectators. We will create venues and pageantry. We will follow the news from London as we create our own.

Our tweens will each create and train swimmers, a diver, a synchronized swimmer or water polo player. Build and sail a 4780 Class dinghy with its crew (men or women). Construct a men's or women's crew and a shell for them to row.

Designed for ages 7, 8 and 9

Olympics 2012: On Wire

The Olympics are a test of design. Athletes train to master speed, strength, control, balance and sometimes artistry. Test your design skills...and your motor skills.(Electric motor skills.) Construct an athlete for speed: a sprinter or a cyclist;
an athlete for strengths: a weightlifter or shot putter; a competitor for control: a fencer (Foil, Épée, or Sabre); an artist for style: a gymnast (high bar, or floor.)

Construct and modify a controller to power them all. Design your team’s uniforms, mascots, and banners. Contribute to a triumphant closing ceremony.

Designed for ages 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Olympics-on-Wires

The Battle of 5000 Chariots

In 1274 BCE, Rameses the Great of Egypt led an army north to attack the Hittite Mutawalli II. The Egyptians sought to win back Kadesh, a strategic city on the line (now in Syria) between the ancient Empires. There are both Hittite and Egyptian records of the battle, making it the first battle in history for which we have written (or inscribed) accounts. Of course, the accounts do not agree: each side proclaims victory. But it is known that 2000 Egyptian Chariots encountered as many as 3000 northern chariots. The largest contest of Chariots ever. It is known that there were spies, and traps and blunders and heroic recoveries.

Build an Egyptian and a Hittite Chariot, their horses, drivers and archers. Construct northern and southern infantry. Join the class in reconstructing the city of Kadesh, the feints and ploys and charges of the battle, and its outcomes as both sides recall it.

Designed for ages 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

5000-chariot1

The Battle of 5000 Chariots

In 1274 BCE, Rameses the Great of Egypt led an army north to attack the Hittite Mutawalli II. The Egyptians sought to win back Kadesh, a strategic city on the line (now in Syria) between the ancient Empires. There are both Hittite and Egyptian records of the battle, making it the first battle in history for which we have written (or inscribed) accounts. Of course, the accounts do not agree: each side proclaims victory. But it is known that 2000 Egyptian Chariots encountered as many as 3000 northern chariots. The largest contest of Chariots ever. It is known that there were spies, and traps and blunders and heroic recoveries.

Build an Egyptian and a Hittite Chariot, their horses, drivers and archers. Construct northern and southern infantry. Join the class in reconstructing the city of Kadesh, the feints and ploys and charges of the battle, and its outcomes as both sides recall it.

Designed for ages 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

5000-chariot1

Leonardo Studio

Leonardo was a teacher. His many notebooks collect lessons, words and drawings…for himself and his apprentices. In this week-long studio, we will follow his instructions. Everyone – instructor and student – will collect drawings in a notebook. We will begin each day with an exercise Leonardo proposes to improve careful looking.

Then three separate groups will work on projects to introduce basic building skills. Next, each child will choose a workshop to concentrate on specific skills. Finally, each child will join a group that will collaborate on a project.

We will end the week sharing these projects.

Designed for ages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Leonardo Studio

Leonardo was a teacher. His many notebooks collect lessons, words and drawings…for himself and his apprentices. In this week-long studio, we will follow his instructions. Everyone – instructor and student – will collect drawings in a notebook. We will begin each day with an exercise Leonardo proposes to improve careful looking.

Then three separate groups will work on projects to introduce basic building skills. Next, each child will choose a workshop to concentrate on specific skills. Finally, each child will join a group that will collaborate on a project.

We will end the week sharing these projects.

Designed for ages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Leonardo Studio

Leonardo was a teacher. His many notebooks collect lessons, words and drawings…for himself and his apprentices. In this week-long studio, we will follow his instructions. Everyone – instructor and student – will collect drawings in a notebook. We will begin each day with an exercise Leonardo proposes to improve careful looking.

Then three separate groups will work on projects to introduce basic building skills. Next, each child will choose a workshop to concentrate on specific skills. Finally, each child will join a group that will collaborate on a project.

We will end the week sharing these projects.

Designed for ages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Leonardo Studio

Leonardo was a teacher. His many notebooks collect lessons, words and drawings…for himself and his apprentices. In this week-long studio, we will follow his instructions. Everyone – instructor and student – will collect drawings in a notebook. We will begin each day with an exercise Leonardo proposes to improve careful looking.

Then three separate groups will work on projects to introduce basic building skills. Next, each child will choose a workshop to concentrate on specific skills. Finally, each child will join a group that will collaborate on a project.

We will end the week sharing these projects.

Designed for ages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Leonardo Studio

Leonardo was a teacher. His many notebooks collect lessons, words and drawings…for himself and his apprentices. In this week-long studio, we will follow his instructions. Everyone – instructor and student – will collect drawings in a notebook. We will begin each day with an exercise Leonardo proposes to improve careful looking.

Then three separate groups will work on projects to introduce basic building skills. Next, each child will choose a workshop to concentrate on specific skills. Finally, each child will join a group that will collaborate on a project.

We will end the week sharing these projects.

Designed for ages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Leonardo Studio

Leonardo was a teacher. His many notebooks collect lessons, words and drawings…for himself and his apprentices. In this week-long studio, we will follow his instructions. Everyone – instructor and student – will collect drawings in a notebook. We will begin each day with an exercise Leonardo proposes to improve careful looking.

Then three separate groups will work on projects to introduce basic building skills. Next, each child will choose a workshop to concentrate on specific skills. Finally, each child will join a group that will collaborate on a project.

We will end the week sharing these projects.

Designed for ages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12