Events

Amazeum Tinkerfest: Kids Roll Up Their Sleeves and Get to Work Learning

October 12, 2025 1:06 pm

Taking apart a car. Operating power tools. Soldering leads. Sawing and hammering lumber. We typically associate these activities with the broad-shouldered and rough-handed; but at the Scott Family Amazeum Tinkerfest this weekend, these were just a few of the activities kids of all ages participated in.

Tinkerfest included more than 25 hands-on activities designed to spark creativity, problem-solving, and collaboration for all ages, and all the activities promoted hands-on experience, learning from failures, and spending unstructured time exploring and inventing, according to Holland Hayden, Senior Marketing and Communications Manager at the Amazeum.

Hayden said that these activities give kids a chance to engage in risky play, which can be a novel experience for them.

“Risky play is being able to have a little bit of risk, but still being safe. We know that you can’t smash up a car at home, but here we have a car that has no rust on it,” Hayden said. “It’s all about trying to get outside of their comfort zones and try new things because where else are you gonna be able to do that?”

Planning Tinkerfest involved the Amazeum partnering with many organizations across the community, including libraries, museums, schools, businesses, and nonprofits. These partnerships are what produced the diverse range of activities offered. Whether kids participated in leather working, book binding, simulated welding, digital tool design, metal work, or paper-mâché, they were assisted by volunteers who are professionally involved in their various field.

Hayden said she wants Tinkerfest to help families develop curiosity.

“[S]omething that we want throughout everybody’s lifetime is having that sense of curiosity, because curiosity makes us ask questions, makes us go deeper,” Hayden said. “[Y]ou have to have fun while you’re doing it or it’s not gonna stick, you’re not gonna keep going. When you watch somebody roll over a print and see somebody take apart a car, you wanna jump in and you wanna play with them. And hopefully that’s every generation down from. Cradle to career and grandparents and parents, all the same.”