With our emphasis on hands-on math and do-it-yourself science, it's no surprise that howtosmile.org is a passionate fan of Maker Faire, the largest DIY festival in the world. This year's chaotic, instructive, and seroiously fun faire is on May 21 and 22 at the San Mateo Event Center.
Half Burning Man, half Star Trek, the family-friendly festival is "a showcase for the Maker mindset." What's a maker? In a recent article in the Washington Post, Michael S. Rosenwald wrote "Makers convert 1930s rotary phones to Skype phones, repurpose crockpots into yogurt fermenters, wire remote controls for solar power, turn laptop monitors into desktop monitors, morph Lego blocks into USB memory sticks and even build homemade lie detectors with Velcro sensors that wrap around fingers."
Add to that DIY rockets, cupcake cars, and (new this year) an eight-foot-tall animatronic fire-breathing dragon based on the creature in the Eragon books, and you've got an event you won't want to miss.
Top photo courtesy of Maker Faire; Bottom photo courtesy of New York Hall of Science