with asher at the steamworks festival of curiosity

I spent yesterday with Asher at the "Steamworks Festival of Curiosity" in Brooklyn. I'm not quite sure how to describe the festival, except to say that there were several exhibitors with booths set up with materials and/or activities designed to encourage curiosity. Curiosity, afterall, is fundamental to science.

I was a bit surprised at the level of the material. I had been told that this was aimed at high school students. Yet in actuality it seemed as if it had been aimed directly at Asher, and he's 8 years old. Of course, most of the kids there were in the same age range. So I still don;t see how it was an event for teenagers.

Staten Island Makerspace, was there with their "Steam Truck," a box van with various tools and electronic toys. The main displays inside were a 3-D printer and a vintage typewriter. Otside they had a portable laser cutter that they used to burn kids' names into plywood. Asher left with a 3-D printed fidget spinner (sans bearings which I'll have to buy) and, well, a piece of plywood with his name burned into it.

Next to that were two tables that I thought made an interesting juxtaposition. Both tables had a bunch of broken electronic components -- radios, DVD players, etc. One table was run by a man trying to fix the components. The other was run by a man encouraging the kids to take the components apart. Each interested Asher, and I can see how each encourages curiosity about how these things work. But he was definitely more interested in taking things apart. Which I totally get.

But what attracted Asher the most was the table run by artist, Tetteh Tawiah. He had dozens of plastic pentagons that kids could put togethr to form dodecahrons (dodecahedra?) and other shapes, as well as clay for molding. Asher loved spending time with these, and Tetteh was very generous with his explanations and encouragement. I overheard him trying to explain to someone that there is value in the hands on experience.

The turnout was, fortunately for us (though probably dissapointingly for the organizers), well below expectation -- probably due to the threatening weather. But the activities, simple as they were, kept Asher happy for over five hours. I think he was the only kid who was there that long. It seemed that most parents who were there with their kids had other plans on the docket, and had only budgeted a limited amount of time for the event. I hadn't made any other plans for the day, so I could stay with Asher as long as he wanted, which bascially meant until everything had been taken down and the exhibitors were all gone.

It was a good day.