How People Make Things — which will be open from Jan. 27 through May 6 and is included in the cost of admission (which is always free for Museum Members) — brings manufacturing to life by showing the people, ideas and technologies used to transform raw materials into finished products in a factory-floor setting. The exhibit is based on the factory tours that Fred Rogers featured in his show, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and will include hands-on activities in cutting, molding, deforming and assembly where visitors — especially kids — can create objects to take home. Visitors can use a die cutter to make a box and a horse, operate a 3-axis mill to carve a block of wax, assemble parts of a real golf cart and race a robotic arm to see who assembles a replica of the signature trolley from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood faster.

Inspired by the Mister Rogers’ Factory Tours, How People Make Things, was created by Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh in Collaboration with Family Communications, Inc. (FCI), the producer of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments (UPCLOSE). The exhibit was supported in part by the National Science Foundation and the Grable Foundation.