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Letters are flexible building blocks. Start with letters in a familiar character. Make it tell a surprising story.

• Start with a letter block. Make it welcome in an imaginary zoo.
• Help letters and pictures speak a riddle.
• Sculpt your initials to say something about you.
• Decorate your favorite letter with the words that make you like it.
• Find a completely new use for a letter.
• Invent your own challenge.

Samuel F. B. Morse grew up in New Haven. He was a gifted artist who painted Eli Whitney’s portrait. But the world remembers him for the code he created.

• Learn Morse's story.
• Construct a code sounder.
• Learn the code
• Make a playful variation of Morse’s original (awkward) device.

Humans (and some other animals) communicate with gestures, dances, sounds and marks that do the work of words and letters. Experiment with thousands of years of messages with a day of movement. Experiment with:

• Finger prints – make a booklet using your fingerprints to tell a story.
• Fist bumps & Bows
• Plains hand talk – play games and create your own languages in groups.
• ASL (American Sign Language) Sculpt your name in finger spelling)
• Mime
• Charades

Many letters began as pictures. And pictures still speak. Learn ancient glyphs. Invent new ones. Understand the connection between cave paintings and emojis and everything in between. Create:

• Stick figures from caves to your sketch books.
• A poseble stick figure.
• A Phoenician ship (of pictures and letters.)
• An Obelisk with Egyptian Hieroglyphs
• A Rebus Picture Puzzle
• An Emoji dictionary and game.

Before there was radio: boats used flags to communicate. Learn the letters. Learn the language of flags.

• Create small boats to carry the letters of your name.
• Create a small lighthouse to speak another language to those boats

To understand the power of letters, consider their tricks and magic. Enjoy a day of mystery and discovery, intrigue and creativity, by exploring codes, magic and cryptic ways of messaging.

• Construct tops whose spin will offer predictions or govern games.
• Make and master simple code discs.
• Master a Captain Midnight coder watch.
• Discover the ancient code of Winky Dink.
• Transform words with mirrors.
• Write your name in Braille
• Make invisible ink appear and disappear.

Letters inspire play and art.

Letters are the building blocks that construct words and more. Explore traditions to play with letters to tell stories. Make your own alphabet exploration book by using different techniques to express yourself:

• Start with a letter and draw it into something else.
• Construct an elephant or a tiger.
• Use Arabic letters to wrap it into a story.
• Use stamps to grow a whole creation from letters.
After you make the book you will construct a Ro-bet: an Alphabet Block grown into a character.

Computer engineers invent new tools and then make them usable…even for inexperienced hands. Guest educator Anika Puri will unravel the powers of Artificial Intelligence through simple projects.

Find a familiar picture that you like. Choose an artist whose work you admire. Ask your computer to learn the style of the artist and render the first picture in that style. The work will take time and the power of Watson. The result will be original.

Use Fusion 360 (a drawing program available to you free at home) to respond to design challenges. Use our 3rd generation Prusa i3 Printers to print your work.
Test your work with peers in collaboration, not competition

• test the performance of spinning tops varied by weight and diameter.
• measure the usefulness of sealing wax stamps for detail and release.
• measure the performance of motorized siren wheels measured by pitch and volume
• measure the performance of bubble wands measured by bubble size and endurance.

Fee: $70

Engineers test the limits of materials. In 1820, Ithiel Town built the bridge that is copied outside the Museum. It's simplification of construction made it popular from Maine to Georgia.

Bridges are the perfect test of engineering. Every bridge must answer many questions. Can it be constructed? Will it carry normal loads? Will it handle extra large loads? Will it withstand winds, and floods, and snowstorms? Will it last for many years? Is it affordable?