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Build stations

Sit down at a bench and make the thing

This is the core of the day. Every bench is staffed, parts are provided, and you keep what you build. You do not sign up for a station, you walk up to it.

Start here Build Code Solder and salvage
Photo needed PHOTO REQUIRED. A bench mid-build from the side: parts tray, half-finished circuit, two people working, a Jam Maker leaning in. This is the page's anchor image.
Photo needed PHOTO REQUIRED. A hand playing a foil-and-cardboard instrument, alligator clips visible.
Build

MaKey MaKey musical instrument

You turn everyday objects into a playable instrument. Foil, fruit, pencil drawings, a stack of coins, all wired to a small board that makes them act like keyboard keys. You leave with the instrument you built and a way to make one at home from a cardboard box. Materials provided.

Ages 10 and up, younger with an adult 30 to 45 min, drop in Build bench
Photo needed PHOTO REQUIRED. A small robot on a table with a kid's hands adjusting it.
Build

Jam Robotics

You build and drive a small robot, then change one thing about how it behaves and watch what that does. Materials provided.

Age range to confirm Format to confirm Build bench
Photo needed PHOTO REQUIRED. Close crop of a breadboard with jumper wires and an LED lit, hands in frame.
Code

Raspberry Pi physical computing

You wire a breadboard from bare parts, then drive it from a few lines of Python so a light blinks when you press a button. Physical computing just means code that moves something in the real world. You keep the circuit. Materials provided.

Ages 10 and up 45 min, drop in Code bench
Photo needed PHOTO REQUIRED. A disassembled printer on a table, parts sorted into trays, a kid holding a stepper motor.
Solder & salvage

Salvage bench: take it apart, use the parts

You strip a dead printer, an old laptop or a broken toy, pull the motors, gears and boards out of it, and solder something new from what you found. You leave with whatever you made and a much better idea of what is inside your own electronics. Materials provided.

Ages 12 and up, under 16 with an adult at the bench 45 min slots Solder and salvage bay

Full station list published January 2027

Three or four more benches are being confirmed, including microcontroller stations and a second beginner bench. The four above are running for certain. Leave an email and we send the finished list the day it is set.

You are on the list

We send the finished station list the day it is set.

One note on MaKey MaKey

The bench here is the musical one: you build an instrument. That is a different activity from the game controller build at the department's EagleCon event, and different again from the Tux Kart challenge on this site, which is timed and competitive.

You cannot break it

Everything on these benches has been wired wrong a hundred times already. Half-finished counts, and you can leave a bench any time without finishing.