This weekend at the first ever Boulder Mini Maker Faire, Mackintosh Academy put the power drills in kids’ hands. The result was an astounding assortment of giant catapults each individually designed and created by kids and for kids.
The first Mini Maker Faire in Boulder drew nearly 5,000 families, children and adults from the front range community. Maker Faires are designed to give children and adults alike “hands on” experiences in making and learning. The Faire featured a fire breathing reindeer, aerial drones, robot cubes from ModRobotics, giant Jenga stacking as well as new inventions like custom moldable music earbuds.
Mackintosh Academy and Kodo Kids Toys (made by Mack Parent Chris Hume) took over an entire corner of the fair, inspiring kids to create, investigate, design and play.
Here are some wonderful pictures from the event. Activities like the catapult build are a great way to get children solving real problems and creating collaboratively. There is an amazing enthusiasm when you put a power drill in a child’s hands and let them do real work together. We witnessed amazing grit and persistence as some children and families spent hours at the booth — building, re-building, tinkering and perfecting their designs.
This combination of play and real world problem solving is at the core of the Mack curriculum and the IB World School philosophy.
“Kids can think about a problem and then use play to solve it. It’s allowing kids to be creative and play.” – Mack Mom Marla Shapiro quoted in the Boulder Daily Camera
