Have you experienced the joy of meeting a person who loves their job? Mary Bauer is one such person, so I'm especially pleased to introduce you to her. Mary is the Head Brewer of the Lagunitas Brewery in Chicago. She grew up in the suburb of Aurora and studied Chemistry and Food Science at the University of Illinois. Mary assisted with the construction of the new Lagunitas Chicago brewery, manages the 500,000 bbl./year capacity, and oversees ... [ Read More ]
Bit Space Chicago – The Local Makerspace for Kids
It's fun to learn about new makerspaces in my area, but it's even more fun to have a party at one. Last Sunday, a select group of Maker Mom friends and fans gathered with their kids at Bit Space Chicago. Bit Space serves kids ages 6-16 (adults, too, actually), but our event was specifically designed for the 10-13 year-old crowd. It was a blast! I mean super fun and waaaay cool. We practically had to drag the kids away when time was ... [ Read More ]
Teach Me, Young Grasshopper
The other morning I was out walking with Tesla in the woods when we hit a patch of prairie. The thistles are in bloom, and a busy buzzing bee brought my eyes to the flower below, but by the time I got my camera phone out, she had flown off. And then I noticed this 2-inch long grasshopper taking his morning sip of nectar from the flower. I don't know that I've witnessed that before. A photo posted by Kim Moldofsky (@kimmoldofsky) on Sep 2, ... [ Read More ]
#SummerSoar with the MSI’s Brain Games
I know the summer slide, the dip in academic knowledge that takes place over the summer, is a real phenomenon for many kids. That's why teachers spend 2-3 weeks reviewing last year's lessons the first few weeks of school. But my kids have always experienced the #SummerSoar. In fact, some years their fall test scores seemed to rise more than they did during the school year, but that's another story. In the digital age, it's easy to keep kids ... [ Read More ]
Tadpoles Develop into Disabled Frogs near Chicago
There's a lot of nostalgic talk about childhood summers in the 1970s. The kind where kids ran rampant and unsupervised throughout the neighborhood, especially during the summer. One thing I did as a kid in the Chicago area was capture tadpoles and raise them into frogs. Last year, when I was out walking Tesla one late spring day, we came upon a large puddle filled with tadpoles. I stopped to watch them for a while and later brought my niece to ... [ Read More ]
How to Host a Teen Appathon or Hackathon
People + technology can solve any problem. There's no reason those people can't be teens, is there? In fact, digital natives are especially well-suited to use technology to create innovative solutions. We recently brought together a group of high school students, mostly from the Niles Township Schools, with a smattering from Lane Tech High School and others from as far away as Vernon Hills to do just that. After learning about key community ... [ Read More ]
Adler Planetarium’s New Community Design Lab
I got a sneak peek chance to play at the Adler Planetarium's new Community Design Lab. You'll be able to visit starting Sunday, June 7. After an orientation to the new makerspace, which I'll explain below, I got busy designing and redesigning a payload structure. After its "missions" were complete, I quickly turned to making a new one and testing it out. And then I looked around to realize that all of the other media folks had cleared out. A ... [ Read More ]