Things that move: Kinetic toy workshop is fun for all

Parents and kids recently came to the Ed Portal for a vacation-week workshop on making “cardboard automata,” kinetic toys, led by Harvard Physics Artist-in-Residence Kim Bernard. Bernard explained how the cardboard frames worked — a handle moves a wheel, which spins a disk, making a top rotate — and everyone got to work building their own toys. Googly eyes, pom-poms, pipe cleaners, and more turned these simple machines into fun creations everybody could take home with them.

Bernard also spoke at a sold-out interactive reception for families, which is based on her solo exhibition “Motion and Matter.” If you missed the workshop or the reception, there’s still time to check out her interactive exhibition, on view in the Ed Portal’s Crossings Gallery through May 19.