The fifth annual World Maker Faire in New York is happening this weekend, and Mozilla is one of the sponsors of the “greatest show (and tell) on Earth,” helping teach the 70,000+ expected attendees how to make and create on the Web. The Mozilla tent is jam-packed with people of all ages hacking websites with Webmaker tools, diving into hands-on activities led by organizations from across Hive Learning Networks, and taking a deeper look at making and learning through a series of 30-minute workshops.
Day 1 at World Maker Faire kicked off with a high energy HTML Dance Party led by Hive NYC member MOUSE. This unplugged activity got the early morning crowd clapping, stomping, and shaking, teaching participants basic HTML tags through movement.
Omar from MOUSE advertises the HTML Dance Party, the first Webmaker workshop during World Maker Faire.
The energy in the tent continued as organizations from Hives in New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Chattanooga joined in the Maker Faire madness to facilitate activities and workshops.
Monica Moore, representing Hive Chicago member LevelUP Youth Maker Space, gave event attendees a lesson in anatomy, physics, and robotics as she helped people of all ages construct robotic fingers using straws, fishing wire, tape and paperclips.
Monica from Hive Chicago member LevelUP leads an activity building robotic straw fingers.
“We’ve had a great group of all ages and from all over the world. I think what’s really cool about this activity – and about a lot of what’s going on here at Maker Faire – is that it takes something that sounds really complex like robotics and makes it accessible,” she said, “Any kid can do this, and any teacher can remix this activity using really inexpensive materials.”
Making technology accessible was indeed a recurring theme of activities during the first day of Maker Faire. The creators of DevLearn, a project being developed as part of Hive Chattanooga’s Gigabit Community Fund, led an afternoon workshop teaching programming basics through gaming. Mozilla volunteers showed off Appmaker, the newest Webmaker tool that makes it possible to create a custom mobile app in just seconds. Jennifer Cross from Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute joined with Hive Pittsburgh team members to share Arts&Bots, a program that engages broader group of students in STEM topics through connections to art and creativity. We were also joined by Brooklyn Public Library, Toronto Public Library, Sweet Water Foundation, Carnegie Hall with World UP, Iridescent, Hopscotch and Willie Mae Rock Camp. All of their activities kept our Mozilla tent buzzing with activity throughout the day, showing the steady stream of Maker Faire attendees who passed through that learning web literacy skills can be not only approachable but also fun!
Mozilla volunteers share Appmaker, the newest Webmaker tool, with the Maker Faire crowd.
Are you in the New York area? Join us tomorrow for Day 2 of World Maker Faire where we’ll be hosting another busy day of workshops and hands-on activities. Find us in Zone 3 next to Robot Row, but even if you can’t make it to Maker Faire, you can follow along with all of the excitement via the hashtag #HiveBuzz on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
