The Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop | Make something of yourself.

Fuller's Island: the year in boats

Buckminster Fuller (1895 – 1983) was a brilliant designer, philosopher and futurist. Because he had dropped out of Harvard, he was often asked: where did you get your education? His answer: on an island in Maine, as a child, building toy boats.

Build small boats. Let them (and water) educate and entertain you. Build boats to learn history: the ironclad Monitor that battled 150 years ago, the Titanic that sank 100 years ago. Learn science: balance, buoyancy and surface tension. Learn invention: create your own small fleet. Learn ideas: the power of the tiny trimtab to turn large, large boats. Learn to learn from water.
Batteries included

Designed for ages 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Micro Maker Faire

What's a Maker? Makers choose to construct, shape, invent, hack (rebuild), or recycle things others might just buy. Makers love tools and technology. There is Make Magazine. There are Maker plans, Maker tools, and Maker way of thinking. We have collected challenges to introduce the Make culture. Mornings, work on cars, catapults, wearable LEDs and a vacuum-molded mask. Each afternoon, choose a workshop that interests you: a carrot lathe, giant spin art, more electronics, water rockets, bamboo constructions, chain-reaction machines, Steam Punk style, the world of Howtoons, and great take aparts* Batteries included

*Special thanks: Physics Laboratories, Yale University.

Designed for ages 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Micro Maker Faire

What's a Maker? Makers choose to construct, shape, invent, hack (rebuild), or recycle things others might just buy. Makers love tools and technology. There is Make Magazine. There are Maker plans, Maker tools, and Maker way of thinking. We have collected challenges to introduce the Make culture. Mornings, work on cars, catapults, wearable LEDs and a vacuum-molded mask. Each afternoon, choose a workshop that interests you: a carrot lathe, giant spin art, more electronics, water rockets, bamboo constructions, chain-reaction machines, Steam Punk style, the world of Howtoons, and great take aparts* Batteries included

*Special thanks: Physics Laboratories, Yale University.

Designed for ages 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Web Design Week 2

Design a personal web page on paper, then bring it to life using basic web tools and techniques. Explore the founding blocks of web design while experimenting with brand new features and syntax introduced in HTML5 and CSS3. Beginners learn the basics, while returning students hone their skills and learn advanced layout abilities.

Designed for ages 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14

Electric Space Epic Mash-up Theatre

How do you build a Space Opera, like Buck Rogers, Star Trek, or Star Wars?

Build a hero. Unleash a villain. Collect faithful companions – droids for example. Construct magical transport for a treacherous journey: fleet speeders, agile fighters, massive carriers. Add stories from Greek myths, Norse legends, and Japanese folk lore. Then mash up these parts. Authors have always borrowed to create new stories. Construct and launch familiar rocket craft. Make heroes, their companions. Equip them with weapons that are both old and new. Make dragons and witches to test them. Make wise teachers to train them. Then work with friends to compose an epic tale all your own. Batteries included. Estes Rocket Engines included.

Designed for ages 9, 10, 11 and 12

3D Design Week 3

Guess who has a new 3D printer? We do!

Learn to use web-based 3D design modeling programs like Tinkercad or 3D Tin to prototype your ideas. Print out your 3D models in plastic with our Makerbot 3D printer. What could be a better way to learn CAD type programs than to have a 3D model printing out in front of you? And just like Tinkercad and 3D Tin, we're a Beta program too so how much you can do and how far you can go is still and unknown.

We do know there will be a materials charge.

Designed for ages 11, 12, 13 and 14

3D-printer

Crash Test Dummies: The Rocket Pack Edition

Crash Test Dummies test limits of engineering and imagination. Rockets are ancient. By the 1920’s, they grow large enough to tempt the vision of Science Fiction writers. Buck Rogers appears in 1928 newspapers, albeit soaring through 25th Century adventures, with his jet pack. The Rocketeer is more a character of our time. The military has constructed many.
Inventors a few.

Now build Crash Test Dummies brave enough to test your rocket packs. Study the challenges of control, gravity and fire. Test designs from books, movies, comics and superbowl commercials to see how engineering takes time to catch the flights of the imagination. Batteries included. Estes rocket engines included.

Designed for ages 9, 10, 11 and 12

Jewelry

Explore the jewelry traditions of diverse global cultures when you weave bracelets, build necklaces, and sculpt rings from a variety of media. Construct jewelry from plastic, wire, yarn and clay; copper, steel, and perhaps, silver.

Develop your own unique designs to gift and to keep.

Designed for ages 11, 12, 13 and 14

jewelry-2012

Web Design Week 4

Design a personal web page on paper, then bring it to life using basic web tools and techniques. Explore the founding blocks of web design while experimenting with brand new features and syntax introduced in HTML5 and CSS3. Beginners learn the basics, while returning students hone their skills and learn advanced layout abilities.

Designed for ages 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14

The Greek Merchant Empire

Greece is a mountainous land with coast on three sides and many near islands. Her soil produced grapes and olives, but not much wheat. Trade was essential. Her early city states connected and competed by sea. Greek merchants carried wine, olive oil and beautiful pottery to exchange for wheat, spices, papyrus and shipbuilding materials. As the Greeks traveled they built trade Colonies and temples and their myths absorbed new ideas and chapters. It’s no accident that Greek epic tales are about the sea adventures of the seafaring heroes Jason and Odysseus.

Construct a Greek Merchant ship and her crew. Make pottery and metal work to exchange. Strike the first coins from Lydia. Construct a small Greek Temple to honor a god or goddess in a far off land. Learn the basics of trade from the land that gave us the word for economics which explains the necessity of trade.

Designed for ages 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Electronics Week 5

Learn basic electronics components and skills while creating spy tools. Use resistors, capacitors, diodes, and even microchips to ways to sneak, capture, and listen in. Use your skills to disguise your voice, transmit audio, and even make a hidden trip wire alarm.

Designed for ages 11, 12, 13 and 14

Aeromodeling Week 5

Build and fly free-flight models, powered by hand, by catapult, by twisted rubber. Beginning to Advanced projects will be tailored to the students level. Traditional designs or your own. With a day trip to the Quinnipiac Intramural Fields for flight trials on Thursday of the week.

Begin as a new aeromodeler or build upon the skills you've acquired during the year in the Whitney Aeromodelers meetings the first and third Friday of every month. Contact Sally with questions about the club. There is a new and very lively group working these days.

With Liam Grace-Flood, Senior Apprentice and Josh Revkin, Flight Artist in Residence. There may be some additional cost for materials depending on the advanced level of a particular student.

Designed for ages 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14

Aero-2011-a

3D Design Week 5

Guess who has a new 3D printer? We do!

Learn to use web-based 3D design modeling programs like Tinkercad or 3D Tin to prototype your ideas. Print out your 3D models in plastic with our Makerbot 3D printer. What could be a better way to learn CAD type programs than to have a 3D model printing out in front of you? And just like Tinkercad and 3D Tin, we're a Beta program too so how much you can do and how far you can go is still and unknown.

We do know there will be a materials charge.

Designed for ages 11, 12, 13 and 14

3D printer

Hacking Neil Downie: Volume III

The English Scientist Neil Downie has written three volumes of Saturday Science Projects. His designs are remarkably original and thoughtful, explaining the math and science of every project. Our project designers have been working on adapting (hacking) them for you. We'll repeat the 4 best projects we have studied this year: the rotopult, the vibrobot, the rotorope and the hovering rings..in refined new forms. We introduce 8 new projects for you to construct and develop. Each day, experiment groups will work on challenges that are designs in progress.

With permission of the author.

Designed for ages 9, 10 and 11

Vibrobot-2011a

Weave It. Sew It.

Martha Burns is an accomplished professional designer/weaver who designs fabrics for the likes of Jack Lenor Larsen in NYC.

She will teach you how to use our EWM-designed looms (pre-built and pre-warped for you) to weave fabric for a bag. Then learn how to make the pattern and sew your project on our Janome sewing machines to fit you.

Embellish it, embroider it, enjoy it. From warp to wear in a week.

Designed for ages 11, 12, 13 and 14

weaving-class

Analog Gamebuilder Week 6

In the tradition of the strategy games Mordheim, Warhammeror Dungeons and Dragons, create a warband of 10 miniatures ans skirmish with other 'bands' to gain wealth, powers, and size. Build the environment, learn strategies, play the game. All levels welcome.

Get a head start and attend the Fantasy Game Night which meets once a month all year long. Email Nathan Brownstein, nmbrown6@gmail.com, for information.

Designed for ages 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14

Analog GB summer 2011a

Stop Motion Animation

Using Legos® or action figures, produce a movie using stop motion animation and computer special effects. Of course, you need to know how to tell a story first so you'll learn how to storyboard to plan out your tale.

Use our new cameras and our IMacs to make 30 second epics. For all levels of experience.

Designed for ages 11, 12, 13 and 14

Gulp

The Gifts of the Nile

Civilization begins with order. The Nile River organized Egypt. Annual floods fertilized the land and promised plentiful and regular harvests. The Nile’s waters flowed north; her winds pushed south to connect her peoples by boat. Eastern and Western deserts fought back invaders. These gifts nurtured powerful kings and queens, writing, mathematics, science, the arts and remarkable building.

Construct an Egyptian family and villa, its servants, its livestock. Choose a trade to master and represent. Construct a Nile barge, or fishing boat, or a pleasure boat. Join the class in flooding a section of the Nile and beginning a Pyramid. All guided by David Macaulay Pyramid ©1975,and the Meketre Tomb Models, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Designed for ages 8, 9, 10 and 11

Electronics Week 7

Explore a different side of the electronics world. Experiment with flexible wires, heat triggered switches, and movable circuits. Use digital tools and microchips to bring the analog to life.

Designed for ages 11, 12, 13 and 14

Sculpture: Totems

Totem poles for Northwest Coast Indians provided a means of communicating their stories, myths and legends. They are an arrangement of symbols that convey meaning. Students will build their own totem pole, using wood, clay and found objects; it is a first step in the lifelong process of making meaning out of objects. Students can make a personal totem or a cultural totem.

Designed for ages 11, 12, 13 and 14

totem-example-1

Programming: Scratch

This class is for ages 8 – 11
Designed at the MIT Media Lab, Scratch is a free programming language that allows you to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art – and share your creations on the web. An extremely flexible, powerful tool.

Instructor Michael Brownstein will bring his special expertise to teach beginners and non-beginners alike.

Designed for ages 8, 9, 10 and 11

scratch

Robot Sumo

Sumo Wrestling is an ancient Japanese tradition. Its earliest combatants were thought to wrestle away the demons that might haunt a kingdom. Modern Sumo Wrestling established its customs in the Edo Period…200 years ago. Build and train your Sumo. Construct a wrestler with three reversible motors and wired remote control. Create a traditional apron, belt, and hair style. With the class, construct the Sumo ring and Shinto Temple-like structure. Make the referee and perform the entry ceremony. Then learn how training and engineering have much in common as you prepare your robot to wrestle others. Change speed, power, hand moves and strategy to dominate the ring.

Prepare. Compete. Bow to your comrades. Learn. Repeat

Designed for ages 9, 10, 11 and 12

Robot-Sumo

Fiber Studio

Experiment with fiber techniques to unleash your inner designer. Build a Kumihimo stand to make Japanese braids, learn dyeing and wet felting, and find out what corking is when you make leg or arm warmers. Experiment with exotic fibers from around the world: camel from the steppes of Asia, alpaca from South America, wool from the British Isles…Sew cooler than cool pincusions who look like alien friends.
And what's a yarn bomb? Come find out.

Designed for ages 11, 12, 13 and 14

Elephant-hat

Aeromodeling Week 8

Build and fly free-flight models, powered by hand, by catapult, by twisted rubber. Beginning to Advanced projects will be tailored to the students level. Traditional designs or your own. With a day trip to the Quinnipiac Intramural Fields for flight trials on Thursday of the week.

Begin as a new aeromodeler or build upon the skills you've acquired during the year in the Whitney Aeromodelers meetings the first and third Friday of every month. Contact Sally with questions about the club. There is a new and very lively group working these days.

With Liam Grace-Flood, Senior Apprentice and Josh Revkin, Flight Artist in Residence. There may be some additional cost for materials depending on the advanced level of a particular student.

Designed for ages 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14

Aero-2011-

Programming: from Alice to Greenfoot.

Dive into programming through Alice, an educational program developed at Carnegie Mellon University. Use the Java programming language to learn the basic concepts behind computer science in graphical scenarios. Experienced students can go further and experiment with Greenfoot, an advanced development environment.

Designed for ages 11, 12, 13 and 14

alice3

Olympics 2012: On Wire

The Olympics are a test of design. Athletes train to master speed, strength, control, balance and sometimes artistry. Test your design skills...and your motor skills.(Electric motor skills.) Construct an athlete for speed: a sprinter or a cyclist;
an athlete for strengths: a weightlifter or shot putter; a competitor for control: a fencer (Foil, Épée, or Sabre); an artist for style: a gymnast (high bar, or floor.)

Construct and modify a controller to power them all. Design your team’s uniforms, mascots, and banners. Contribute to a triumphant closing ceremony.

Designed for ages 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Olympics-on-Wires

Paper Arts

Learn to love paper. It's not just 8.5 x 11. It's an art form from the very beginning to the final product. Learn to make paper with materials you'd never think could become paper. Use paper to build structures: cut it, fold it, tear it, paint it, dye it...

Then ask, what is a book? And what is an Artist's Book? On a Wednesday visit to Dexterity Press, learn about letterpress and then give it a try yourself. Kerri and Jeff Mueller will guide you on their Vandercook press. Then you will build a flag book with Kerri which you'll bring back to the Museum and populate with the samples you worked on all week. It's a book design you wont forget and one which will just make you want to learn other constructions. You'll get to use our own little tabletop card letterpress now that you know how to do it.

Designed for ages 11, 12, 13 and 14

Paper-Arts-letterpress-flag

Analog Gamebuilder Week 9

In the tradition of the strategy games Mordheim, Warhammeror Dungeons and Dragons, create a warband of 10 miniatures ans skirmish with other 'bands' to gain wealth, powers, and size. Build the environment, learn strategies, play the game. All levels welcome.

Get a head start and attend the Fantasy Game Night which meets once a month all year long. Email Nathan Brownstein, nmbrown6@gmail.com, for information.

Designed for ages 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14

Analog GB summer 2011a

Arduino anyone?

An arduino is an open-source single-board microcontroller designed to make the process of using electronics in multidisciplinary projects more accessible. In short, you learn basic programming language and write commands to the arduino (microprocessor). These commands are used to direct a small robot car to move in various directions to create artwork that you've designed with the commands.

Each day, students (you'll work in pairs) will be able to design, program to create and then take home drawings that their robot car has drawn for them. Or teach your robot to write your name in cursive.

Designed for ages 11, 12, 13 and 14

Arduinobot

The Battle of 5000 Chariots

In 1274 BCE, Rameses the Great of Egypt led an army north to attack the Hittite Mutawalli II. The Egyptians sought to win back Kadesh, a strategic city on the line (now in Syria) between the ancient Empires. There are both Hittite and Egyptian records of the battle, making it the first battle in history for which we have written (or inscribed) accounts. Of course, the accounts do not agree: each side proclaims victory. But it is known that 2000 Egyptian Chariots encountered as many as 3000 northern chariots. The largest contest of Chariots ever. It is known that there were spies, and traps and blunders and heroic recoveries.

Build an Egyptian and a Hittite Chariot, their horses, drivers and archers. Construct northern and southern infantry. Join the class in reconstructing the city of Kadesh, the feints and ploys and charges of the battle, and its outcomes as both sides recall it.

Designed for ages 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

5000-chariot1

The Battle of 5000 Chariots

In 1274 BCE, Rameses the Great of Egypt led an army north to attack the Hittite Mutawalli II. The Egyptians sought to win back Kadesh, a strategic city on the line (now in Syria) between the ancient Empires. There are both Hittite and Egyptian records of the battle, making it the first battle in history for which we have written (or inscribed) accounts. Of course, the accounts do not agree: each side proclaims victory. But it is known that 2000 Egyptian Chariots encountered as many as 3000 northern chariots. The largest contest of Chariots ever. It is known that there were spies, and traps and blunders and heroic recoveries.

Build an Egyptian and a Hittite Chariot, their horses, drivers and archers. Construct northern and southern infantry. Join the class in reconstructing the city of Kadesh, the feints and ploys and charges of the battle, and its outcomes as both sides recall it.

Designed for ages 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

5000-chariot1

Deconstruct Reconstruct

Ever wonder how Hermoine's magical bag was made? Why not make a magical bag and belts or jewelry of your own using materials from favorite old clothes or sweaters that just can't survive another season as they once were. Imagine how your old Blankey would like traveling to school in it's new incarnation.

Designed for ages 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14

bag1

Madin Marimba

John Madin is an inventor, musician and teacher. His 1 and 1/2 octave Marimba is both simple to build, beautiful and clarion voiced. Construct a 1 and 1/2 octave instrument with a box resonator. Tune the maple keys with a digital pitch gauge and chisels. The week combines woodworking, finishing, constructing beathers, tuning and…playing. Jon has written songs especially for this instrument. If time allows, build some of his wacky instruments. Experience music from a whole new perspective.

Designed for ages 11, 12, 13 and 14

Madin-Marimba

Madin Echo Cello

John Madin is an inventor, musician and teacher. His Echo Cello is both simple to build and mellifluous. Its fingering is keyed allowing a beginner with no string or music training to join our string ensemble in a week. the week combines woodworking, metal work, finishing, tuning…and playing. John has written songs especially for this instrument. If time allows, construct some of John's wacky instruments. Experience music from a whole new perspective.

Designed for ages 11, 12, 13 and 14

Madin-Echo-Cello

Video Voyager

Shoot your own movie using a Flip® Video camera and edit it using IMovie on our computer lab IMacs. Learn to storyboard first. Then shoot your video at home and bring it in the next day to edit. Add sound effects, special effects etc. This must be how George Lucas began his Star Wars sagas. But not with digital cameras.

Designed for ages 11, 12, 13 and 14

Leonardo Studio

Leonardo was a teacher. His many notebooks collect lessons, words and drawings…for himself and his apprentices. In this week-long studio, we will follow his instructions. Everyone – instructor and student – will collect drawings in a notebook. We will begin each day with an exercise Leonardo proposes to improve careful looking.

Then three separate groups will work on projects to introduce basic building skills. Next, each child will choose a workshop to concentrate on specific skills. Finally, each child will join a group that will collaborate on a project.

We will end the week sharing these projects.

Designed for ages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Leonardo Studio

Leonardo was a teacher. His many notebooks collect lessons, words and drawings…for himself and his apprentices. In this week-long studio, we will follow his instructions. Everyone – instructor and student – will collect drawings in a notebook. We will begin each day with an exercise Leonardo proposes to improve careful looking.

Then three separate groups will work on projects to introduce basic building skills. Next, each child will choose a workshop to concentrate on specific skills. Finally, each child will join a group that will collaborate on a project.

We will end the week sharing these projects.

Designed for ages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Leonardo Studio

Leonardo was a teacher. His many notebooks collect lessons, words and drawings…for himself and his apprentices. In this week-long studio, we will follow his instructions. Everyone – instructor and student – will collect drawings in a notebook. We will begin each day with an exercise Leonardo proposes to improve careful looking.

Then three separate groups will work on projects to introduce basic building skills. Next, each child will choose a workshop to concentrate on specific skills. Finally, each child will join a group that will collaborate on a project.

We will end the week sharing these projects.

Designed for ages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Leonardo Studio

Leonardo was a teacher. His many notebooks collect lessons, words and drawings…for himself and his apprentices. In this week-long studio, we will follow his instructions. Everyone – instructor and student – will collect drawings in a notebook. We will begin each day with an exercise Leonardo proposes to improve careful looking.

Then three separate groups will work on projects to introduce basic building skills. Next, each child will choose a workshop to concentrate on specific skills. Finally, each child will join a group that will collaborate on a project.

We will end the week sharing these projects.

Designed for ages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Leonardo Studio

Leonardo was a teacher. His many notebooks collect lessons, words and drawings…for himself and his apprentices. In this week-long studio, we will follow his instructions. Everyone – instructor and student – will collect drawings in a notebook. We will begin each day with an exercise Leonardo proposes to improve careful looking.

Then three separate groups will work on projects to introduce basic building skills. Next, each child will choose a workshop to concentrate on specific skills. Finally, each child will join a group that will collaborate on a project.

We will end the week sharing these projects.

Designed for ages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Leonardo Studio

Leonardo was a teacher. His many notebooks collect lessons, words and drawings…for himself and his apprentices. In this week-long studio, we will follow his instructions. Everyone – instructor and student – will collect drawings in a notebook. We will begin each day with an exercise Leonardo proposes to improve careful looking.

Then three separate groups will work on projects to introduce basic building skills. Next, each child will choose a workshop to concentrate on specific skills. Finally, each child will join a group that will collaborate on a project.

We will end the week sharing these projects.

Designed for ages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12