World Maker Faire New York 2018 Recap of the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth took place at the New York Hall of Science in Queens, New York. World Maker Faire is the New York area’s premier DIY showcase of skill and talent highlighting the very best of the Maker Movement. The 2018 World Maker Faire delivered us the opportunity to explore and learn all about the world of making.

World Maker Faire New York 2018 Recap featured a host of new attractions this year:

• The Hand of Man: Creator Christian Ristow’s 26 foot-long, hydraulically actuated human hand and forearm controlled by a glove device, which is capable of picking up and crushing cars.
• Tapigami: a contemporary art form created by artist Danny Scheible who uses masking tape to create entire cities.
• Cosplay Contest: World Maker Faire hosted its 1st-ever cosplay contest which brought out creative DIY costumes.
• The DIY Content Creators’ Stage: a stage and lounge devoted solely to the YouTubers of the Maker Movement
• Startup Tent: featured NYC hardware and maker startups, such as Looking Glass and Wazer.
• Gaming and Mixed Reality: exhibit areas showcased experiments in the emerging landscape of AR, VR and game interfaces.
• Sculptor Adrian Landon: The hand-hewn steel kinetic sculptures of this celebrated NYC Saatchi artist was on display to wow attendees.
• Tiny Homes Village: You thought NYC apartments were small? It was all about these innovative concepts in resourceful design and architecture.
• The Dark Room: An entire exhibit hall devoted to light-driven, interactive projects, and immersive art.
• Center Stage Talent: Ayah Bdeir of LittleBits toy platform; Elan Lee of Exploding Kittens (the most funded game in Kickstarter history); YouTube phenom Backyard Scientist (Kevin Kohler), and many more!

In addition to the weekend’s main event, Maker Faire also expanded the program with a lineup of Workshops, as well as the Make: Education Forum, “Making The Future of Work”—made possible by Cognizant— that took place Friday, September 21st from 10am – 4pm. This special event focused on the leaders, influencers, and practitioners providing support, services, and programs to bring making into schools. The event will feature keynote presentations from Cognizant’s Mike Cook (“21 Jobs of the Future”) and Sarah Boisvert from Fab Lab Hub (“The New Collar Workforce”), complimented by hands-on learning sessions, as well as talks from an array of educators, authors, and innovators committed to helping today’s students navigate the future of work — a future that places a premium on curiosity and innovation.

“The future of work is changing dramatically,” explained Dale Dougherty, CEO of Make and Maker Faire. “We need to encourage and empower young people to embrace their unique talents and to build, create and innovate. Often times these paths aren’t available in the traditional education structures. Our hope with the Education Forum is to open up those opportunities.”

World Maker Faire New York 2018 Recap started at the Must See original Internet sensation with EepyBird presenting their explosive combination of over 500 Mentos mint candies and 100 bottles of Coke, sending geysers of soda up to 30 feet into the air!

I then had the pleasure to attend a Q&A media session with Dale Dougherty and he answered my question to address bringing the maker movement to home educators like myself. I went on to join my family to see in action The Hand Of Man which is an interactive sculpture like no other. It is comprised of a 26-foot long hydraulically-actuated human hand which is capable of picking up and crushing cars, and a “glove” device that controls it.

Lunch time was calling and with so many yummy choices at the World Maker Faire, the girls had a burger at the Yankee Doodle Dandy’s while I had a bbq ribs with pad thai from Warung Roadside, a Bangkok street food truck. Hubby and Babygirl enjoyed some vegan curry goat with brown rice and sorrel drink from Nyota’s Ting.

World Maker Faire New York 2018 Recap continued with the girls super excited to meet the author of DK presents Star Wars Maker Lab, a new book that teaches budding Padawans how to become a master of science, in both the real world and the Star Wars galaxy. The author Liz Heinecke led an interactive presentation showcasing projects that are out of this world.

World Maker Faire New York 2018 Recap was quite the experience with learning how to solder with Google with a printed circuit board, LED, battery holder, 3V battery;, tie-tack pin and tie-tack clutch. Babygirl made one for me to accesorize my outfit and I was a proud mama!

The girls couldn’t pass the opportunity to participate in the explosive Game of Fire with plenty of heat and a good aim. We then couldn’t end our day without seeing Jonathan Bobrow, founder of Move38. We met Jonathan when we attended Westport Maker Faire two years ago and we were excited to learn that he would be at the World Maker Faire New York.  In pursuit of playfulness, Jonathan creates highly considered design objects like Troxes which are triangular, interlocking building bricks.

Designed at the MIT Media Lab as a medium for geometric play, Troxes exercise and deepen spatial thinking, and allow for the construction of objects as beautiful as they are unusual.  We currently have the Tetra Troxes giveaway so here’s your chance to get your hands on these origami meet Lego.

World Maker Faire New York 2018 Recap was all about Day 2 that started at the Robobloq booth building with their STEM Robot kit. Robobloq Co., Ltd. is based in Shenzhen, China. They design STEM educational robots for kids to learn coding and engineering. Their STEM education solution includes robot kits, curriculum, and competitions.

Next we proceeded to the Misty Robotics booth. Misty is building an advanced personal robot with professional grade sensors that can be programmed in the languages you already know—or a visual block programming interface—and extended/augmented with hardware add-ons.

World Maker Faire New York 2018 Recap took Babygirl and I to the Microduino booth while Hubby and our two oldest attended Getting Started with Adafruit Circuit Playground Express. Founded in 2012, and based in Westlake Village, Calif., Microduino is an award-winning global designer, developer, and seller of stackable electronic building blocks, related components, and in-class STEM learning systems.

The girls wanted to see all about AlgoCrunch premier DoodleMatic, an interactive experience that instantly converts a physical drawing into a playable game. Our oldest created a game based on her drawing to share her creation so friends and family can play it too!

World Maker Faire New York 2018 Recap ended with TURFinc, an Urban street hip-hop dance battle, in which dancers faced off and tried to outperform one another using their best tricks, flips, and breaks. The dancer in us couldn’t help but enjoy dancers challenging each other.

As always, hands-on activities were plentiful across all sorts of projects with something for makers of any age and skill level.  Our Family World Maker Faire Experience was full of inspiration delivered by the creativity, ingenuity, innovation, and inventiveness represented by the hundreds of makers who were exhibiting at World Maker Faire.  We are definitely encouraging you to make plans for next year because there is nothing like experiencing World Maker Faire for yourself!

WELLthy MOMent NODte:”There’s no value that can be placed on learning other than the realization that one’s life is much richer only when experienced.” -LadyNOD