Thinker Tinker Lab - Water!

The world of water fun is just a few days away. Join us in the courtyard off the Puett Room for all kinds of water play time.

Thinker Tinker Lab - Structures

Let's build bridges and other sturdy structures out of spaghetti and gumdrops. Will your bridge collapse or stay strong.
Monday, August 3 from 2-4pm. All ages!

Thinker Tinker Lab - Kitchen Science

Let's get messy with stuff around the kitchen!
Join us Monday for this all ages program in the Puett Room. 
This messy fun begins at 2pm and lasts until 4pm.

Thinker Tinker Lab - Yarn

Thinker Tinker Lab This Monday is all about yarn. What can you do with yarn? 
Weave it, string things on it, cut it, finger-knit, and more!
Join us Monday for this all ages program, July 20 from 2-4pm in the Puett Room.

Thinker Tinker Lab - Tubes and Tape

It's our second Thinker Tinker Lab!
This time it's tubes and tape. What can you create? We'll have a variety of materials for you to think about and tinker with: paper tubes, tape and paper and tape to make paper tubes!
Join us for this all ages event, Monday, July 13 from 2-4pm in the Puett Room.

Thinker Tinker Lab - Bee A Superhero!

It's the first Thinker Tinker Lab! Honeybees, the superhero pollinators!

Monday July 6th from 2-4pm in the Puett Room, all ages.
We'll be learning about Honeybees and how you can "bee" a superhero to the bees.
Games, and activities, including the opportunity to plant a seed that will grow into a flower the bees will love.

Thinker Tinker Lab

Thinking by Tinkering!

Starting Monday July 6, and continuing through August 10, from 2-4pm we'll have an all ages drop in program offering process play activities in the Puett Room. Process play activities are ones where there is not set outcome. The idea is to give your kids a chance to use their own ideas with a variety of materials. Kids learn best when they have a chance to work with he familiar materials in new ways. Each week the materials will change, but the idea of tinkering with the materials will stay the same.

Join us!

STEAM Saturday

At the heart of every scientist, mathematician, musician, or artist is a person who is willing to tinker.The scientist tests and retests (or tinkers with) theories. A musician will work and rework (tinker with) a song before it's finished.
Which leads to me to recommend one of my favorite new books for parents who want to nurture the "tinkerer" in their child. It's called Tinkerlab: A hands-on guide for little inventors by Rachelle Doorley

Doorly poses that the only way to really get to know a subject or process or material is to work with it long enough, over and over again, so that to the tinkerer gets to the place where she can see it or use it in new ways. There are so many fantastic ideas in this book and on her blog! I especially like her quote,

"When children are encouraged to solve problems on their own, they learn a great deal through the questions and hands-on experiements that lead to a solution."

If you use this book for nothing else, use it for the 10 Tinkerlab Habits of Mind

• Make room for creativity
• Encourage questions
• Listen actively
• Be curious
• See mistakes as gifts
• Embrace a good mess
• Accept boredom as a tool for self-discovery
• Step back ad enjoy the flow
• Spend time outdoors
• Think of everything as an experiement.

What are you waiting for? Get tinkering!

Maker Mondays

If you're looking for something fun to do with your teens, or you'd like a little break from the kiddos to brush up your technological prowess, you simply must join us for our Maker Mondays series of events. We're meeting every Monday from now until August 19 to share amazingly simple technology tools that will inspire you to create, repair and entertain. Next Monday from 4-6 p.m. in the Technology Room, experts from Free Geek will show you how use free, open source software to transform your old, slow computers into well-oiled, customized machines that will actually do what you want them to do. The following week will be an incredible 3-D printing demonstration, and the week after that we'll show you how to make music and games using simple apps on your devices, and you'll get to play with our Makey Makeys, a deceptively simple technology that transforms pretty much anything into a controller.

The Maker movement is a growing phenomenon, and people everywhere are tapping into their powers of invention. It turns out, with a little innovation and help from fellow making enthusiasts, you can create whatever you can imagine, regardless of skill level. Want to disguise a mixer as a Boba Fett helmet? No problem. Want to make shrinkydinks and polymer clay mustaches using your own "Easy Make Oven?" Why not. How about a "PB & J 2.0" with 9 different flavor combinations? Yum.