Maker Faire 2014

Maker Faire

We went to Maker Faire in the Bay Area as a group outing and had a wonderful time.

Here is the trip report by children who attended Maker Faire for the first time. I hope this interests and inspires other families and children to attend Maker Faire next year and have a good time.

By Praharshitha

Elementary School Student, Grade 5

Maker Faire was cool. It had all kinds of stuff. In the first building, I liked a few things: Hay Hacker (3-D printer flashlight making) and making an animal cell with modeling clay.

Hay Hackers Group

It had a robot dog that barks, jumps, and sticks its head out. There was also a scarecrow that waved its hand.

Flashlight with 3-D Printer

In the Hay Hackers, I built a flashlight. First, you get an LED light and see which metal connector is longer. The longer one is positive, and the shorter one is negative. You bend the positive metal connector upwards, take a button cell (small disc battery), and place it with the words facing up on the table. Then, you take the case, put the LED with the negative metal connector facing down, and slip the LED between the two metal connectors. Finally, you put the lid on, and you're done. When you press the lid, the positive metal connector touches the battery, completing the circuit and lighting up the LED.

The case and lid for the flashlight were made using a 3-D printer. At first, I thought a 3-D printer worked like a regular printer, but it uses plastic or wax instead of ink. The plastic thread goes to the injecting (printing) tip, which melts the plastic and moves in a shape to create the case and lid.

Cell Model

Another thing I did was create an animal cell model out of clay.

First, I got a round purple ball with holes (the nucleolus) and covered it with white clay (the nucleus). Then, I added the centrosome, mitochondrion (which gives energy to the cell), vacuole (like closets for storage), and rough endoplasmic reticulum (for transportation throughout the cell). Finally, I chose a color for the cell membrane. After a week, I cut the model in half and saw all the parts I had put in. It was very nice.

Another favorite thing in the first building was the pinball cart. You could play pinball inside the cart. There were three machines, and they were all fun.

In the second building, it was full of light. At 4:30, there was an electric arc show. It was so loud.

RadioShack

When we got out of the building, we saw the RadioShack tent. I thought "Soldering" was about soldiers, but it was about connecting metal parts. I built a blinking circuit board badge. The instructor showed me how to solder, and I had to be careful because the iron was 700°F! After some trial and error, I completed the badge, and the LED worked and blinked.

In the third building, all I saw was plants.

Deepak

Middle School Student, Grade 7

It was a pleasant experience at Maker Faire. There were many interesting things. I didn’t see everything, but I liked what I saw.

The first interesting thing was the Lego build. They made a miniature London, which was cool. I also saw a Lego RC car, but it was noisy and could have been faster. One thing I didn’t like was the drone fight. They should have let kids over 13 fly the drones, especially me—I can fly that thing like a charm!

At the Nvidia booth, I saw their CUDA cores with 4 Titan graphics cards. I played Project Cars in 4K, and the detail was amazing. They also showcased the Nvidia Shield, a mini gaming console powered by their Tegra processor.

At Intel, there wasn’t much except processors. I found a computer with AMD processors at the Intel booth, which was funny. There was also a machine powered by Intel and Alienware that picked up little stones.

I saw a dragster car at the edge of Maker Faire. They started the engine, and it roared! I also saw a fire-breathing machine that was part of an orchestra. These were the most interesting things I saw.

Harini

Middle School Student, Grade 7

Since this was my first time at Maker Faire, I didn’t expect to see so many new innovations in technology. It was a great experience because people worked hard to create something and were excited to share their ideas.

Most inventions were related to robotics, but there were other types too. For example, I saw a booth where they made crafts out of tape called tapigami, which reminded me of origami but with tape.

Another favorite was the chess-playing machine. It was fascinating because you could play chess with a machine if you didn’t have a partner. I also liked the rocket-making booth, where kids made rockets and launched them. It was fun to see how the design affected the launch.

I had fun exploring Maker Faire and am excited to return next year to see more new ideas.

Senthil

In general, this year's Maker Faire was awesome as usual. I had a chance meeting with Salman Khan of Khan Academy Khan Academy is an American non-profit educational organization created in 2006 by Sal Khan. Its goal is to create a set of online tools that help educate students. The organization produces short video lessons. Its website also includes supplementary practice exercises and materials for educators. It has produced over 10,000 video lessons teaching a wide spectrum of academic subjects, including mathematics, sciences, literature, history, and computer science. All resources are available for free to users of the website and application. , and I was extremely happy. I took a photo with him and shared about some Sourashtra translations I had attempted. This made my day, and everything beyond was a bonus.

Two events captured my attention. First, the "Make Rockets Here" booth, where kids and parents made paper rockets. One rocket stood out, and the launcher appreciated the care put into it. It flew very high, showing that attention to detail leads to great results.

Second, the mechanical chess-playing arm. It used RFID chips on the chess pieces and board squares to transfer information to a computer. The computer calculated moves, and the mechanical arm executed them. It was both a mechanical and computer challenge, and the engineer was proud of his accomplishment.