Maker Faire Returns to Silver Spring

The Maker Faire will return to the Silver Spring Civic Building on Sept. 20 from noon to 5 p.m. according to a news release.

The free family festival celebrating innovation and creativity will offer free activities to interest adults like driving robots, creating quadcopters, and hands-on furniture making; as well as free activities for kids including making Pi-bot robots, LED craft projects, and painting oneself invisible in a freeze ray dome.

Maker Faire Silver Spring was the first Maker Faire in the Washington area, and it continues to grow each year with over 14,000 people attending.

Along with two stages of live musical performances and entertainment, the Faire also features dynamic talks by local inventors who will present their cutting-edge projects, as well as exhibits and activities that include:

• Steampunk musical instruments and homemade musical synthesizers.
• Rideable giant sculpture that looks like a tricycle by artist Howard Connelly.
• Floating canoes made out of duct tape, cardboard and items found around the house.
• Chaotic motion kinetic sculptures, fabric arts projects, and other hands-on art.
• Arduino quiz games, life size board games made out of circuit boards, and other learn to code computer fun.
• Quadcopters, rockets, rideable hover crafts, and other flying machines.
• And robots everywhere you turn, as well as so much more.

KID Museum organized the first fair as part of its mission to engage youth in STEM learning through hands-on maker experiences and inspiration from “real-life” inventors.

This year in partnership with IFI, KID Museum is debuting the winners of the Toy Maker Challenge which features the intricate and fun toys designed by area youth. Last spring, finalists were selected based on creative design ideas for inspired toys. Young Makers have been meeting with adult inventors to help perfect their toy design and develop a working prototype.

During Maker Faire Silver Spring, all ten of the finalist toys will be on exhibit in the toy gallery and the public may vote for their favorite toy invention. The winner will be announced on the mainstage at 4:30 that afternoon.

Maker Faire Silver Spring is free and open to the public. The event is accessible by the Silver Spring Metro station. Free parking is available in the nearby Town Center and Wayne Avenue garages.

Photo via makerfairesilverspring.com