Tag Archives: projects
All these recipes are basic kitchen-chemistry. With a quick trip to the grocery store (and perhaps the health store for fragrance oils) you’ll have everything you need to mix them at home. Host a spa science party perhaps?! We shared our favorite recipe here… Continue reading
Sage and I layered felt hearts, cinched them at the bottom with a few stitches and attached them to elastic wristbands and barrettes. The perfect accessory for the day!
What a fantastic Friday! I spent it tinkering around with little motors and new electronics gadgets. I found spidery legs make a fantastic revision to our bristle-bots project; they keep it from falling over! Meet “Jalapeno” – our new office scuttle-bug… Our bristle-bot anatomy includes the head of a toothbrush, 4 paper fasteners (the spidery legs), 1 coin battery (on top of the toothbrush head), 1 vibrating page motor (the yellow mini-motor wired to the battery), double-sided foam tape, and masking tape (the small purple piece that acts as the ‘switch’) See our bristle-bot in action: Jalapeno enters the marble field…
One of our most loyal and enthusiastic Curious Jane girls, Anya, 7, took our Wired 101 Workshop last month. She enjoyed the Circuit Card project so much that she took it to the next level by making a bunch of her holiday greeting cards into light-up Circuit Cards! We’re so impressed with her ingenuity and D.I.Y. Holiday spirit. Go Anya! Continue reading
I spotted this idea in a crafty book and made a simple version with the girls. So fun! Great starter-sewing project. Perfect holiday gift for mom. And useful to block out the early morning light on weekends. Continue reading
This weekend, at our Wired 101 workshop, we tackled three projects: Circuit Cards, Bristle Bugs, and, the hands-down favorite – Drawbots! These little creatures make the coolest patterns and even our seven-year-old engineers were able to make them almost entirely on their own. Basically, they are a paper cup body standing on marker tripod legs and topped with a small motor and battery. The key to the whole project is an irregular weight affixed to the rotating axis of the motor. When the markers are uncapped, and the drawbot is turned on, the weighted motor causes the little creature to wobble around in a huge variety of patterns. The type of pattern depends on the size of the weight and the placement of all the pieces together. There’s plenty of room to experiment! As I was jotting down the project steps, I realized each project had exactly seven steps and … Continue reading
We were inspired to make these ‘cards’ by the simplicity of using LEDs to add a spark of light to any project. This is a great “wiring 101” project because kids can see exactly how a circuit works, and they can assemble it themselves without stripping wires, adding switches or worrying about being shocked. Continue reading
This project was inspired by a quick drawbridge project we use to illustrate tension in our buildings class. When we started to play with the materials, it transformed into this cereal box castle with the drawbridge rope doubling as a handle for closing and carrying. We love our miniatures! We added some characters (inspired by favorite dad designer, Joel Henriques) that can be printed out and colored in. Or, better yet, create your own… enjoy! Continue reading
Halloween Glitter Scene I regularly receive emails from Michael’s Craft Store, and I adapted this project from a Halloween scene they shared this month. I changed many of the materials to suit a younger age-group. For example, the original project involved lots of fine-detail painting for the faces, so we used Sculpey color clay instead; it’s more fun to work with and more suitable to the creativity and motor skills of amateur designers. I substituted Styrofoam parts for wooden parts because they are cheap, available, and very easy to assemble (just connect the pieces with some slim wooden dowels). We amped up the glitter usage, covering almost everything in sparkles. Really, who doesn’t love a great glitter project? We only avoid it because of the mess. This project is a great excuse to overdose on glitter with an easy clean-up. I grew up on Michael’s Craft Supply; I can smell … Continue reading
The girls in the Curious Jane Jr. Story Arts class at Berkeley Carroll are making pretty amazing progress on the stories they’re creating this week. This is especially impressive considering some of them have only just finished kindergarten! Continue reading
Samantha Razook Murphy is the founder of Curious Jane and Blue Tree. She was inspired to create these unique programs to give her girls, and all girls, a chance to be creative and inventive in a high-energy, collaborative and gender-affirming space. She loves designing, tinkering and figuring out. Samantha is the mother of two girls and lives in Brooklyn, NY. She holds her BA from Yale and Masters in Industrial Design from Pratt. In her spare time she coaches volleyball and rides her bike around Brooklyn.