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It all depends.  Doing it completely unstaffed is a tall order.  Where to start.  Kindergarten shop where we used hand saws, hammers, nails, hand powered drills, rulers, compasses, and pliers under marginal supervision comes about as close as I can imagine.
An even in that situation, there was minimal oversight and supervision.  CSC had a series of check out dissection tools that were utilized in a squid dissection, for example, but that had manned support.  Phenomena had folks doing paper chromatography.  Everything get to be case by case with lots of variables.  A whole curriculum of activities would need to be developed and tested, but still there would be no guarantees.  

I haven't seen or heard of anyone attempting to run an unstaffed make.  Human interactions between mentor and mentor, or pupil and teacher, or visitor and explainer are keys to the experience.

C
Sent from Charlie's iPhone
510-499-8086

On Dec 24, 2012, at 1:26 PM, Paul Orselli <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi Charlie,
> 
> To be more specific --- spaces within museum where visitors make things using tools and materials (which in many cases they can take home.)  Pros/Cons of Staffed/Unstaffed?
> 

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