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At Dover Mini Maker Faire, Build a Rocket or Learn How to Publish a Book

makerfairedover.com

A celebration of the maker movement is happening in Dover Saturday.

At the Mini Maker Faire, visitors will be able to do everything from build and launch their own rockets to learn how to publish a book.

The event is in its fourth year and will be held at the Children's Museum of New Hampshire in Dover.

Neva Cole is communications director at the museum, and joined NHPR’s Morning Edition to talk about the event.

What is a mini maker faire?

A mini maker faire is a one-day event where people who make things, to put it simply, have a chance to share what they’ve been making and show what they’ve been learning.

What kinds of things are we talking about?

It ranges. It’s not just for tech heads. We have a lot of cool robotics and engineering people who are considered makers at our faire.

So mechanical or electronic or both?

It could be both, but it could also be artists. We have some ceramic artists. We actually have a beekeeper coming this year. We have some people who dress up as Storm Troopers and pirates. It ranges.

What are examples of the kinds of demonstrations people are going to see?

People are going to see a variety of different things. You can learn how to go about publishing your own book. You can actually see a little humanoid robot walk across the table. You can learn how to code. You can eat ice cream made out of liquid nitrogen.

So there are a lot of chances for kids and moms and dads to get some hands-on experience? Are there ways they can build something there right on site?

Yes. One of the things we’re going to is build your own egg drop container and drop it off the front of the museum. That will be done in our new STEAM innovation lab, which is all about hands-on learning and exploring with science, technology, engineering, arts and math. So we’re going to put that space to good use and see if we can build and indestructible egg container.

Is that part of the STEM movement in schools right? Are you seeing more interest in this?

Yes. The museum itself, our mission is to actively engage kids in hands-on learning and that’s what the maker movement is all about.

This is the fourth year. Has the event grown?

Yes. This year, we have 63 makers and eight food trucks. That is the largest number of makers involved since we started four years ago.

And you’ll be holding a short film festival for the first time, as well?

A few local filmmakers have agreed to let us show two short films and an excerpt from a longer film that hasn’t been released, so it’s a very short short film festival. But there’s so much to do at the faire, we have fit a lot into a short amount of time.

For many radio listeners throughout New Hampshire, Rick Ganley is the first voice they hear each weekday morning, bringing them up to speed on news developments overnight and starting their day off with the latest information.
Michael serves as NHPR's Program Director. Michael came to NHPR in 2012, working as the station's newscast producer/reporter. In 2015, he took on the role of Morning Edition producer. Michael worked for eight years at The Telegraph of Nashua, covering education and working as the metro editor.
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