Children's Museum of Pittsburgh > Children's Museum of Pittsburgh - MAKESHOP by Dror Yaron

Gigapan image by Richard Palmer

MAKESHOP is a new 1800 square foot, permanent exhibit at Children’s Museum Pittsburgh, staffed by a team of makers—crafters, inventors, hackers, educators and artists—with expertise in the areas of informal learning, sewing, woodworking, metals, electronics, interaction design and digital media. The only one in the country, MAKESHOP is a physical and conceptual expansion of the Museum’s philosophy “play with real stuff”. Visitors of all ages engage in the process of designing, exploring, tinkering, sharing ideas, iterating and building with old and new technologies.

Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh partnered with Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) and the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out of School Environments (UPCLOSE) to create MAKESHOP. In this space, the Children’s Museum nurtures informal learning opportunities and research-based understanding at the intersection of the digital and the physical. MAKESHOP is a laboratory for curiosity, creativity, exploration, and innovation that is focused on providing kids, and their families, interest-driven, hands-on learning experiences.