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Summer Maker Days: The Art of the Automata
July 22, 2023 @ 11:00 am - 3:00 pm
11:00 AM -12:30 PM: Drop-in Maker Workshop: Make Your Own Automata Toy
Calling all youth inventors, tinkerers, makers, and big thinkers! Join us as we explore simple mechanisms and the power of circular motion as you design and build your very own Automata—a whimsical mechanical toy you can take home! Learn to use everyday materials in new, unexpected ways in this hands-on tinkering and making activity led by a visiting maker and STEM educator Rachel Donegan. This activity is designed for families with children ages 9+ and curious adults.
12:45 PM -1:15 PM: Special Exhibit Spotlight
The American Precision Museum is filled with amazing machines of all types with gears, shafts, cams and other mechanisms designed to convert simple rotational motion into other motions. During this short exhibit spotlight tour, APM museum experts will explore a few of the museum’s complex and unique machines that function using some of the very same mechanisms highlighted in the maker workshop.
1:30 PM -2:30 PM: Visiting Maker Demonstration
Join APM’s Visiting Maker Rachel Donegan as she shares examples of her work and demonstrates her own unique maker approach including tips, techniques, and favorite tools for turning everyday cardboard into a variety of magical mechanisms – from Automata to containers to creative costumes, and more!
ADMISSION: FREE for youth inventors 18 and under. $10.00 for adults.
Visiting Maker Bio: Rachel Donegan, Maker & STEM Educator
Rachel has been creating STEM educational experiences for middle and high school students that span traditional and new technologies for over 20 years. Recently, Rachel’s work has focused on working with digital tech and software and exploring the ways tools like laser cutters and 3D printers can change the way we learn and identify as makers.