Its been a while

Have not posted here in a long time, really need to get back to it.  Been super busy with life that I have not had time to do the tinkering and science I used to do with the kids.  I need to start making the time to show them all the cool things you can do. 

If anyone has idea for quick projects related to STEM that I could do at home with the kids that would be great.   I know that Maker Faire is coming up in October, and I plan on taking them there. 

They also had a summer camp which was great  - Ecologik Summer Camp.  It was a two week course (close to work) that taught them about science and nature with some cool technology use:  Photography with lens for their cell phones, built devices with arduino, 3-D printing, and learned about nature in and around Cabrillo National Monument.  

San Diego Maker Faire 2014 - Balboa Park

This was just announced the other day.  A Maker Faire is coming back to San Diego, and this time its not going to be a Mini Maker Faire.  I guess the last time (which I believe was 2013) they saw the huge interest in this type of event, and due to location and size of the venue it was severely overcrowded.
So far the only news I have found about the Maker Faire is that it will be held on October 3 and 4th at Balboa Park.
I will do an updated post as more information is available.

San Diego Maker Faire

Today I brought my daughters to the San Diego Maker Fair at the Del Mar Fair Grounds.   This was the first Maker Fair in San Diego, so I was not sure what to expect as I have not made it to any of the others ones around the US.

To begin the weather was not the best, as it was cold and raining for most of the day, but the event was held in-doors so that was good.  With the lack of known advertisements for this event I was surprised by the amount of people that were there standing in the rain waiting for tickets.  I may be wrong in the lack of advertisement, but I did not hear about this on a radio station, and I don't really pay attention to the news (it could have been on there).  Sometimes I see event notices on twitter, but I found out about it through a friend on Facebook about a week ago. I loved the fact that I was able to purchase the tickets before had on eventbrite and then just show the QR code to get inside.

I think they planners also under estimated the amount of people that were going to show up at this event as it was very hard to move around and get hands on with a lot of the displays.   I was always trying to keep an eye on my daughters, as there was not much walking room between the exhibits. My daughters has a great time walking through and seeing the 3D printers, Laser printers, and even trying to make the derby cars.  I would have liked more stuff with the derby cars besides coloring a block of wood.  There was sand paper but in the end it is still just a block of wood with wheels.  I guess you really can pull out table saws, and the likes at a place like this though.   The quadraptors were also interesting to see but only 1 was actually being flown.  We even saw the air compressed rocket launcher, just like the one I built for my daughters a few years back, and they had folks trying to build rockets for it.

A lot of the booths had lines waiting for people to build what ever they were offering, and some ran early in to the day.  I did not really have a chance to hear any of the speakers talking, nor take part in any of the classes.   Overall I had a great time even though it might sound otherwise.   I just hope that with the great turn out this year they will have it in a bigger area, so they can have bigger exhibits, and more hands-on at the booths.

San Diego Mini Maker Faire (DEC 7)

I must be late getting to the party as I just found out about this about a day ago.  I have been wanting to go to one of these for a long time, but there have never been any really close to San Diego that I knew about.   I guess that is about to change.

I already got my tickets for my daughters and I for December 7th, and have been telling them all about it.  At this point I don't know what to expect, except that it will probably be really cool, and hope that my daughters have a great time and see what people are making.

Maybe they will find something they would like to try and build or do.   Well this is just a short post to tell you all about the Maker Faire on December 7th over at Del Mar Fair grounds.

The website is San Diego Maker Faire

Also they are still looking for volunteers, so if you are interested hit up the website and help them out.

Hope to see you all there.
I will write a review of the day after the faire next week.