You can come into Kidzu and create your own inventions using the tools at our workstations. We have seen many creations come from children working in the Makery and some of our favorites come from the workstations. In the picture above we had a Makery visitor create his own dump truck! What can you make? Come into the Makery today to find out!
This weekend we had an exciting Makery Masterpiece event. We learned about creating mosaics using beans, candy, and clay. We loved watching different generations help each other learn and grow through fun and creative activities. Don’t miss the next Makery Masterpiece event!
In the Makery we have a giant scrapyard full of surprise materials. You can come into the Makery and use any of the materials to make your own creations. Once you make an invention ask a Makery fellow to take a picture and you can be featured on the Makery blog!
Monday, May 23 4:15-6:15pm: In ZOOM IN on STEM: Bring the world of Earth and Life Science into FOCUS in your classrooms! Funded in part through the National Science Foundation, UNC Biology Professor Bob Goldstein will lead teachers through a simple DIY workshop to build a high quality, low cost Smartphone/iPad Digital Microscope. Participants will take the microscopes back to the classrooms and use them to show microscopic views of insets, cells, matter or whatever your classroom scientists desire! Advance registration required! Click this post to register.
It’s To Market To Market Around The World In 7 Months!
– May 10: Zdravstvujtye! Today we’re exploring the flavors of Russian cuisine. Come mix up some Vinegret (Sweet Salad) with us!
– May 17: You’ll want to get your hands on this! Join us as we make our version of Greek Dolma (Stuffed Grape Leaves) and dunk it in creamy tzatziki sauce.
– May 24: Today’s German recipe is “lecker”! Come make yummy Kraut Bierok (Cabbage Pockets) with us.
– May 31: Buon appetito! Join us as we make Italian mini-pizzas, topping our food with fresh produce from the Farmers’ Market.
This weekend we had an exciting time at Mix It Up with Mad Science! We painted with jello, played a guess that smells game, and learned about our taste buds on a giant tongue! This Mix It Up helped us explore our senses through fun and interactive learning!
Recently I visited Bee Downtown, which is a company started by Leigh-Kathryn Bonner, which sells rooftop hives to companies in downtown Durham and Raleigh. Bee Downtown sells rooftop hives to companies who support bees and want to become more involved. Leigh-Kathryn had always been interested in beekeeping because the majority of her family was beekeepers. She started Bee Downtown as a small business, which grew and grew. Bee Downtown had five hives on their own rooftop, and a dozen other hives around downtown Durham and Raleigh. Bee downtown helps to promote beekeeping in urban areas where not much pollination is occurring. The bees are strategically placed downtown so that they have easy access to water. Another great thing about rooftop hives is that they help to pollinate windowsill plants that would not get pollinated otherwise because there is no nearby hives. After Leigh-Kathryn showed be around Bee Downtown, she took me to a grassy area across the street. In the small field was almost 50 christmas trees, each one representing a company or nonprofit in Durham. The trees were judges to see which was the best, and the winner got a prize of $5,000. Bee Downtown’s tree has flowers, bees and hives all over it. At the bottom of the tree was sihs showing everything that we would not have without bees. I was very surprised by some of these signs so I decided to do some more research on what bees pollinate. I learned that without bees, there would be no apples, cherries, almonds, blueberries, cotton, cantaloupe, potatoes, celery, cashews, and many more everyday foods.
While I was away, Kidzu made a lot of progress on the upcoming bee exhibit. They made plans for the indoor bee exhibit and the outdoor pollinator garden. The outdoor learning garden should begin being built in late May, and should be finished by late June. The indoor play hives has already been built, and other parts of the exhibit (such as costumes) will be in Kidzu as soon as they are ready. I was lucky enough to help with all steps of building the play hive. I began by cuttng out the templates which were used to find where each layer of blocks should be placed to make it look like a bee hive. I then helped to sand and wipe down the cedar blocks which make up the hive. Then next thing I did was drilling and countersinking the wood blocks. I think I enjoyed this part the most because I did it the most so I got into a rhythm and was more sure of what I was doing. Finally, I helped to set the cedar blocks on top of the existing layers. Although the exhibit is not complete yet, I encourage you to come to Kidzu and check it out because it is really fun and has a lot of interesting information.
Our first student scientist, Fran, has recently finished her final presentation on Bees. We are excited to see her around throughout the summer as the Bee exhibit opens up. If you want to become a student scientist too you can contact us at makeryblog@gmail.com or by coming into Kidzu and speaking with any of the Makery fellows. We are excited to hear your ideas!
We are so proud of Fran for all of the hardwork she has shown throughout her research project. She recently presented her final presentation to her peers and the results were amazing. Fran has been an amazing student scientist to work with and we enjoyed having her new and exciting ideas during the building of the Bee Exhibit. We hope you come out and celebrate her work as well as our new Bee Exhibit when it opens this summer! We will be reposting her blog posts from throughout the past four months in order to celebrate her amazing accomplishments. Go Fran!