The idea for making bugs was inspired by making scribble machines and seeing how creative kids are with just a battery and a motor. This was a day long camp with 7 & 8 yr. olds. The first half of the day, observations of bugs using microscopes and creating scientific illustrations led to choosing your favorite bug attributes and inventing your own bug.

We have a working list of the workshops we've held recently, posted here: http://www.pienetwork.org/workshops/pie-institute/ The most recent are at the bottom of the list.

Last Sunday we hosted the Squeezable Circuits workshop that we had been preparing for in the Learning Studio at the Exploratorium. Everybody had mixed reaction as to "how it went", so here's my first attempt to summarize and synthesize the day's events. We had decided to focus on taking apart and re-purposing toys, as during the development stage that seemed to be the activity that was the most engaging and "tinkering" of the ones we tried.