Featured Project
Digital Bling
LEDs, wires, coin-cell batteries and switches are all electronic components that can be tinkered with in many different ways. There's no better way to get introduced to these materials than creating beautiful wearable objects. After building these simple circuits we hope you’ll be inspired to turn more complex ideas into revolu...
The Tinkering Studio is primarily an R&D laboratory on the floor of the Exploratorium, but whenever possible we try to share our projects, activities, and developing ideas following an “open source” model. Learn how you too can enjoy our activities in your kitchen, garage, classroom, and community.
Animate Your World
Bring digital animations into the real world using Scratch and video sensing.
Animate Your World: Bring a Book to Life
Take your Animate Your World projects a step further by using video sensing to bring your books to life.
Balance Explorations
A varied collection of starting points and artisitc expressions on ideas around balance.
Balancing Sculptures
Design whimsical kinetic sculptures by tilting, sliding, and suspending everyday objects in surprising arrangements.
Cardboard Automata
Explore mechanical elements such as cams, levers, and linkages to create your own moving sculpture.
Chain Reaction
Rube Goldberg-inspired cause and effect contraptions using everyday materials and found objects.
Chain Reaction Explorations
See the expansiveness of cause-and-effect, and how to make experiences like these at home.
Circuit Boards
Tinker with electricity using common objects: batteries, lights, buzzers, motors, switches, etc.
Computational Tinkering Explorations
Digital meets physical with a combination of tools and technologies.
Cranky Contraption Explorations
Experiment with motion and mechanisms through constructing automata.
Cranky Contraptions
Wood and wire kinetic sculptures that animate a character or scene when the handle is turned.
Creative Construction Explorations
Play around with different materials to build your construction sets.
Creature Construction
Use slotted construction to build real or imaginary animals. Rearrange parts in whimsical and unexpected ways.
Dancing Boxes
Transform a thin cardboard box into a dancing toy!
Digital Bling
Adorn your body with electrifyingly awesome jewelry that you build yourself.
Digital Drawings with TurtleArt
Design simple or complex shapes in code, bring them into the physical world using a variety of tools.
Hack-o-lantern
Power tools, electronics, and pumpkins - oh my!
Homemade Switches
Use household objects to design creative switches that add delight and whimsy to larger creations.
LEGO Art Machines
Add markers to LEGO technic pieces to create art machines that draw patterns as they move.
LEGO Tinkering Explorations
Combine LEGO with everyday materials through delightful and varied activities.
Light and Shadow Explorations
Take time to notice the shadows in your life and experiment with new ways to play with light.
Light Painting
Create striking images and illusions using nothing more than a camera, a light source, and a little practice.
Light Play
Explore light, shadow, and motion using a variety of simple materials and light sources.
Making Faces
Make meaningful portraits by arranging everyday and symbolic objects into faces!
Marble Machines
A Marble Machine is a creative ball-run contraption made from familiar materials.
Musical Bench
This exhibit makes music when people touch, kiss, or hold hands.
Paper Circuits
Make simple or complex electrical circuits on a flat piece of paper!
Plastic Fusing
Turn old plastic bags into beautiful new fabrics that you can use to make a variety of fashionable items.
Scribbling Machines
Make a motorized contraption that moves in unusual ways and leaves a mark to trace its path.
Sewn Circuits
Watch your friends’ eyes light up, as you light up the LED on your clothing just by wearing it!
Shadow Remix
Draw on top of a shadow - what do you see? Share you shadow with friends and build a collection of imaginative illustrations.
Shadow Skyline
Create a city skyline using a light source, a surface, and everyday materials.
Spinning Explorations
From a tabletop to a computer screen, take whirlwind tour of all things spinning!
Spinning Tops
Make a spinning top with common household materials like yogurt cups, bottle caps, pencils, cardboard cutouts and more!
Squishy Circuits
Use homemade conductive and resistant play-doh to build electronic sculptures that light up, move, and make sounds.
Stop Motion Animation Explorations
There are many ways to tell a story through animation.
Surprising Seesaws
As a warmup activity for exploring balance and stability, build your own surprising seesaws with everyday materials.
Tinkering for Young Learners Explorations
Looking at tinkering through an early childhood lens, there's so much to explore!
Tinkering Towers
Stack ordinary objects to build unusual towers in this simple activity for makers and tinkerers of all ages.
Toy Take Apart
Do you ever wonder what’s inside your toys? You’ll make some exciting and surprising discoveries!
Two Frame Animation
Quickly create story-rich animations with only two pictures!
Whimsical Whirligigs
Harness wind to power the movement of a mechanical creature.
Wind and Air Explorations
Wonderfully windy contraptions are on display, see where the winds of inspiration take you!
Wind Tubes
Explore moving air, wind, and aerodynamics with a variety of everyday objects.
