Makers and educators from southwestern Pennsylvania and beyond came together to reflect on successes, work through challenges, and foster interdisciplinary approaches to maker education.

New teacher professional development models attempt to replace the dry or insular training experiences of the past with something more meaningful and engaging.

Since 2011, the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh’s MAKESHOP has been a well-established destination for families interested in projects as wide-ranging as circuitry, woodworking, stop-motion animation, and operating looms. Now, thanks to $200,000 in grants from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and Chevron, the museum is extending its reach into neighboring West Virginia.

Many formal learning institutions are eager to integrate making into their curriculum, but lack the necessary funding, space, or professional development. The Kickstarting Making in Schools project aims to remedy this by helping schools develop, implement, and fundraise for maker projects.

In October 2011 the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh opened MAKESHOP — an exhibit space where kids and adults can tinker with tools, physical materials, and the latest in digital media. As one of the country’s first museum-based makerspaces, MAKESHOP has become a national model for museums around the country. Rebecca Grabman has been at MAKESHOP since the beginning, rising in the ranks from summer intern to manager. Grabman grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and has a master’s degree in entertainment technology from Carnegie Mellon.

How do we teach our kids to persevere in the face of failure?

What happens when a university becomes not only a good neighbor, but a valuable – and welcome – engine of change?

This holiday season, spark a lifelong love of STEM learning with gifts that give the kids in your lives a chance to tinker: a visit to the MAKESHOP, a roll of duct tape, a mini circuitry kit, and much more.

With guidance from Fred Rogers, early childhood educators in Pittsburgh are putting today’s technologies into classrooms in ways that make sense for young learners.

As kids head back school this fall, educators and researchers are teaming up to figure out what kids learn from tinkering, and how it may help prepare them for the future.

From acting as children’s first teachers to providing access to digital technologies, museums and libraries are a crucial part of early education.

New “fab labs” give today’s students the chance to tinker with high-tech tools and 3D printers. Some say they are preparing today’s students for the next economic revolution.

Museum professionals from around the country gather in Pittsburgh this week to explore the future of children’s museums in the 21st century. The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh's MAKESHOP, where kids and adults can experiment with the latest physical and digital tools, is one exciting model. Lisa Brahms, the museum’s director of learning and research, explains.

“You can’t flunk at a museum,” says Jane Werner. The executive director of the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh sees museums as labs that can inspire the next generation of artists, scientists, engineers and their teachers.

Making is more than a hobby. The DIY movement that bridges hacking and inventing is also a discipline for innovation, and a learning methodology that more and more educators are using with students of all ages.