On Wednesday, July 19th, we hosted an event sponsored by an On the Canals grant awarded to the village of Brockport. Children ages 8 through 12 were invited to bring their parents with them to build a boat based on the TeacherGeek build system and see if they could get their contraption to travel across the canal.
We had six young makers and four adult makers join in what turned out to be a beautiful Wednesday morning. After gathering at the village Welcome Center, makers grabbed their kits and started putting the components together. We had local news channel WHAM 13 drop by to check things out, and they summarized the event quite nicely for us. Unfortunately, they left a few minutes before the boats set sail, so their coverage doesn’t tell you about how awesome the results were.
Everyone’s boat floated … eventually. We had a few boats that were sufficiently top-heavy that they capsized immediately upon entering the water. Fortunately, we had a local teen helping us out by hopping into her kayak and recovering boats before they sank or tried to make their way to Lockport.
There were two parts of the event that got me really excited about the status of making in Brockport. First, all of the children, even those who had boats working just fine, wanted their boats to be recovered so they could modify them. Some needed their boats to go straight instead of in circles and others wanted to see if they could make their boats go faster. Second, we had a lot of participation from the adults. Several adults built their own boats and joined the younger makers in the wonder of engineering.
Build a Boat is one of our outreach programs at “It Begins in Brockport (IBiB)”, but we also have plenty of opportunities for makers to explore other methods of making. If you are interested in digital fabrication, 3D printing, laser cutting or vinyl cutting, be sure to stop by the makerspace, located in the northernmost studio of Hart 27 Art Gallery, or drop us a line for a personal tour.