Rochester Mini Maker Faire: A Kid's Perspective

This article was scraped from Rochester Subway. This is a blog about Rochester history and urbanism has not been published since 2017. The current owners are now publishing link spam which made me want to preserve this history.. The original article was published December 07, 2014 and can be found here.

     The following is a guest post submitted by Ella (10) of       Iroquois Middle School      .       Submit your story today      .

On Sunday [November 22] my mom took my little brother and me to     Rochester Mini Maker Faire

. There were a lot of cool robots, fun activities, and art to make, and buy. I want to tell you about some of my favorite things that I saw there...

   First,     Toothpick World

is a world completely made out of toothpicks. It was created by Stan Munro. Some of the toothpick buildings were taller than us!

   Toothpick World has very well known buildings from all over the world, such as the Empire State Building, Yankee Stadium, Big Ben, and the Burj Khalifa.

   Stan set the world record for tallest toothpick structure:     The Burj Khalifa

. All of the details in this are amazing!

   This giant ball launcher was a robot that rolls a ball, and then goes and gets it.

   The robot has arms that hold a large fabric ball. Its arms move down and let the ball roll on the ground. The launcher then moves towards the ball and scoops it up.

   This one launched a frisbee.

   Make-your-own-robot by     Bird Brain Technologies

is a kit to make a robot out of recyclables.

   You find the recyclables, and they will send you a kit with everything needed to put it together, such as wires and cords. All you need is to be creative.

    Squishy Circuits

teaches circuitry to kids. They can use play-dough to make lights light up. There is a battery pack with a (+) wire and a (-) wire. These each go in two different pieces of play-dough. Then you connect a light to the two wires, put the (-) wire in the (-) play-dough, and the (+) wire in the (+) play-dough, and the light will light up!

    Earrings by Cayla

showed us how to make earrings using reclaimed wood (that means wood from an old building).

   Making earrings was fun and easy. They also look nice.

    Painting records

to look like Christmas wreaths was a fun activity. My brother and I each painted one of these.

   Rochester Mini Maker Faire was a lot of fun and gave me something to do. I learned a lot.

   I think my little brother had fun too. Maybe we'll go back next year.

- Ella

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More About Maker Faire:

Maker Faire

is the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth--a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement. It's a place where people show what they are making, and share what they are learning.

Makers range from tech enthusiasts to crafters to homesteaders to scientists to garage tinkerers. They are of all ages and backgrounds. The aim of Maker Faire is to entertain, inform, connect and grow this community.

The original Maker Faire event was held in San Mateo, CA and in 2013 celebrated its eighth annual show with some 900 makers and 120,000 people in attendance. World Maker Faire New York, the other flagship event, has grown in four years to 600+ makers and 75,000 attendees. Detroit, Kansas City, Newcastle (UK), Rome, Oslo and Tokyo are the home of "featured" 2013 Maker Faires (200+ makers), and community-driven, independently organized Mini Maker Faires are now being produced     around the United States and the world

- including right here in Rochester.