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Product Description As the editor in chief of MAKE magazine, Mark Frauenfelder has spent years combing through DIY books, but he’s never been able to find one with geeky projects he can share with his two daughters. Maker Dad is the first DIY book to use cutting-edge (and affordable) technology in appealing projects for fathers and daughters to do together. These crafts and gadgets are both rewarding to make and delightful to play with. What’s more, Maker Dad teaches girls lifelong skills—like computer programming, musicality, and how to use basic hand tools—as well as how to be creative problem solvers. The book’s twenty-four unique projects include: Drawbot, a lively contraption that draws abstract patterns all by itself• Ice Cream Sandwich Necklace• Friendstrument, an electronic musical instrument girls can play with friends• Longboard• Antigravity Jar• Silkscreened T-Shirt• Retro Arcade Video Game• Host a Podcast• Lunchbox Guitar• Kite Video Camera Innovative and groundbreaking, Maker Dad will inspire fathers to geek out with their daughters and help girls cultivate an early affinity for math, science, and technology. Amazon.com Review A look inside Maker Dad: Review "The only thing better than DIY is DIWHOF (Do it with Help of Family). This wonderful book makes that possible. Mark Frauenfelder is the Founding Geek of the Maker Movement and he does not disappoint. This book will not only provide you weeks of fun, but it will foster creativity and technical savvy in your daughters. Plus you'll make a robot that draws. I mean, come on!" —A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically"Every dad should 'make cool stuff' with their daughters. You will have great father-daughter time working on the projects in Maker Dad and it may even spark a lifelong passion for technology. My dad bought home a TRS-80 computer when I was 11 and then signed us up for computer lessons at RadioShack. With this book, you can introduce your daughter to the world of robots, magic, music and more!" —Helen Greiner, co-founder of iRobot and CEO of CyPhyWorks About the Author Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of BoingBoing, one of the world's most popular blogs, and the editor in chief of MAKE magazine, which sparked the current DIY movement and remains its spiritual center. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. INTRODUCTION I wasn’t always an eager maker of things. I was timid about it until I became the editor of the technology project magazine Make. Working there, I met hundreds of people who made amazing things in their spare time in their garages, in their basements and backyards, and on their kitchen tables. As I got to know them, I discovered something that profoundly changed the way I thought about creativity. I learned that these “alpha makers” weren’t perfect. They didn’t go into their workshops and effortlessly build beautiful and functional things. Instead, they worked by trial and error. They revised their original designs, often drastically. They made plenty of mistakes and didn’t get upset about it. They expected to make mistakes, and they learned from them. Their finished projects turned out better as a result of having made mistakes. The mistakes pointed out the problems with the project, pushing the maker to improve upon them. This was a shock to me. One of the main reasons I didn’t like to make things was because mistakes made me feel like a failure. If things didn’t work out the first time, I often gave up. I know other people feel the same way. A big reason for this crippling mind-set is that we’ve been trained in the classroom to equate mistakes with bad grades. If our educational system teaches us one thing, it’s this: “Be perfect. Avoid mistakes or you will be penalized.” Alpha makers’ superpower isn’t having awesome making skills, or owning a high-tech workshop filled with the latest 3-D printers and laser cutters. Their superpower is the ability t