Mike, Karen, Luigi and I (Christina) first spent some time in the studio reviewing basic circuitry. We used alligator clips to connect a battery pack to tin foil and some sort of light or sound. Now the question became; what creative way can we make the tin foil connect, particularly in a squeezable fashion?

Earlier this month, Heather and I taught a homeschool workshop about taking things apart. In this three-hour class, kids (10-13 years old) transformed cheap toys into new ones.

A simple mouse made with fun fur and an empty film canister. I made this mouse for the May workshop here at the Science Museum. The mouse was pretty simple to construct -- just some fun fur, an empty film canister, and a gear connected right to the motor -- the hard part was making it move convincingly. I wanted it to twitch, but just using the MOTOR_ONFOR block turned the motor on for too long. So my friend Natalie suggested I try programming it using the text language. So I made two blocks.