Maker Faire

Three-dimensional “printed jewelry” on display at the Maker Faire in New York City.

If you like to make things -- especially things that involve science -- then you might like to attend a Maker Faire. Maker Faires are held every year in different cities around the world. The recent one in New York City had hectares of colorful demonstration tables, science-based games, performance stages and “play islands.”

Eleven-year-old Genevieve Beatty, her 13-year-old sister, Camille, and their father Robert stood proudly next to a robot. It was a model of a Mars lander, about a meter and a half high. Genevieve says they built it themselves.

“Most of the ones that we built roll, like they have wheels, and some crawl and a few fly. It’s just fun to work with my dad and my sister. I do all the, like, inside, like the electronics and like soldering.”

Robert Beatty says Genevieve’s sister, Camille, had a natural interest in mechanical things. She would take apart household machines to understand how they worked. Robert, Camille and Genevieve began building items with transistors and LED lights. Before long, the two girls asked to build a robot.

“And that was pretty scary, but I thought, OK, if we really do a lot of research we will be able to figure out how to do it. So we just started learning on YouTube and various websites and trying to construct a little robot.”