Dale Dougherty
Dougherty is founder and publisher of Make Magazine, which started in 2005 and gave rise to the Maker Faire.
“For kids, time spent outside of school is as important, if not more so, than time in school,” Dougherty said. “Some kids have perfect summers filled with engaging activities and family trips. They even get to spend weeks at incredible summer camps. Other kids don’t have enough to do. Experts believe summer is when disadvantaged kids give up some gains made during the school year. They start the next year behind. Making things is messy, creative, and fun. It’s one of the things kids love about summer camp. But, there’s no reason you can’t make the same things (or better) right at home.
Here are a number of inexpensive projects kids can make this summer, from silk-screening T-shirts to building their own robots. You can find all these and dozens more in Make’s new School’s Out Summer Fun Guide, available on newsstands or from maker shed.com. And we’ve made all these projects available for free at make projects.com.” Shoot high-speed marshmallows
This marshmallow shooter will completely surprise you with its accuracy, range and ease of construction. It’s tons of fun and requires no glue, so it’s ready for combat in minutes.
Extra credit: Build goggles from a 2-liter soda bottle to shield your eyes from gooey projectiles. All ages; adult supervision
makeprojects.com/Project/Marshmallow
makeprojects.com/Project/SodaBottle-Goggles/2179/1 Silk-screen T-shirts
Print your own designs on anything you can hang, wear or tote. It’s easy. All you need are a few inexpensive materials and a sink, a lamp and an open work space. All ages; adult supervision makeprojects.com/Project/SilkScreening-101/798/1 Launch air rockets
Building this rocket launcher is a breeze, and folks are amazed when it shoots reusable paper rockets 200 to 300 feet high. Just pump it up with a bike pump and prepare to launch. All ages; adult supervision makeprojects.com/Project/Compressed Launch potatoes
Older kids will love the see-through potato cannon. It’s like the grenade launcher of any kid’s arsenal. Get a view of exploding gases through the clear PVC pipe, and develop your range-finding skills by experimenting with trajectory and combustive power. Age 12 and older; adult supervision makeprojects.com/Project/See-ThruPotato-Cannon/5/1 3-D-print your head
3-D printers are amazing devices that build up 3-D objects one layer at a time. Using free software from Autodesk, you can convert digital photos of yourself (or just about anything else) into a 3-D computer model, then print it out in solid plastic on a 3-D printer. No printer? Just send your 3-D model to a service that will print and mail it right to you. Age 12 and older makeprojects.com/Project/PrintYour-Head-in-3D/2194/1
Build cheap guitars and amplifiers
Build a great-sounding traditional cigar box guitar using mostly scrounged materials and simple woodworking skills.
Then plug it into a cracker box amp that uses a modern microchip. Requires simple soldering and about $30 in parts (not counting the Ritz crackers). Then rock out! 12 & up makeprojects.com/project/cigarBox-guitar/87/1
makeprojects.com/project/the-5-Cracker-box-amp/64/1
Make 3-D movies
Want to make your own “Avatar”? Rig two cheap webcams side by side to record twin video streams, and then use free software to create 3-D movies in classic red-blue anaglyphic 3-D. 12 & up makeprojects.com/Project/3D-Movies
short URL: makeprojects.com/project/3/2183
Cook fluorescent Kryptonite Kandy
This sweet treat glows an eerie green under ultraviolet (UV) light. The secret ingredient? Vitamin B-2! Great for Halloween or anytime. All ages; adult supervision makeprojects.com/Project/Kryptonite
Build a robot!
The Tiny Wanderer Robot is perfect for beginning roboticists. You’ll learn to program a microcontroller chip and modify the robot chassis for three autonomous behaviors: line following, object avoidance and edge detection (which saves Tiny from driving off the edge of the kitchen table). Age 12 and older For younger kids, the Beetlebot is one of the simplest robots you can make. It avoids obstacles using only switches and motors — no programming required! All ages; adult supervision makeprojects.com/project/tiny-Wanderer/1685/1
makeprojects.com/project/beetlebots/ Julian Guthrie is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jguthrie@sfchronicle.com