Remake Learning Days 2026: Your guide to 270+ local hands-on learning events, nearly all of them free!

It’s here! The Remake Learning Days (RLD) festival returns to the Pittsburgh area with three full weeks of hands-on learning events where kids and grownups can make discoveries, experiment and create cool things together. There are more than 270 events happening in our area, and nearly all of them are free. 

This year’s RLD festival kicks off on May 1 and runs through May 23 throughout southwestern Pennsylvania, with events happening at libraries, schools, tech centers, parks, museums, play spaces, community centers, local businesses and so many other locations.

These events give kids and their grownups a chance to learn together while having fun. Research has shown that learning together as a family has real benefits.

After surveying hundreds of attendees at past Remake Learning Days events in the Pittsburgh region, the Global Family Research Project  found that family engagement in STEAM learning makes students more likely to succeed academically, more likely to take advanced STEAM courses, and more likely to pursue STEAM-related careers. 

With many events designated as “career-ready” learning opportunities, the festival is all about sparking kids’ interests in possible pathways to a thriving future.

“One of the key goals of Remake Learning Days is to provide that exposure to real-world learning beyond the school building,” says festival co-producer Stephanie Lewis, who serves as director of relationships at Remake Learning.

“When a business opens its doors, even just for a few hours, it gives the young people and their families this rare behind the scenes look at how things actually work,” Lewis says. “Whether they’re looking at how products are designed or how teams collaborate, they’re seeing what those different career pathways can look like on a day-to-day basis.”

Kids and their families can learn all about space travel during Future Explorers Day at the Moonshot Museum (an in-person, drop-in event on May 16, open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) or play-test games and discover pathways into the gaming industry during the Studio Open House event at Schell Games (another in-person, drop-in event, this one on May 13 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) or attend dozens and dozens of other career-ready gatherings and workshops during the month of May. (Did we mention nearly all of them are free?)

HOW TO JOIN IN THE FUN

Finding events that your kids will love (and the grownups will enjoy, too) is easy. 

You can visit remakelearningdays.org, then choose Southwestern PA under “Find Your Region.” That will bring you to the event dashboard, where you can scroll through the full list or search for events by date, ZIP code, child’s age or keyword. The dashboard also has an interactive map. (To save a step, you can go directly to the events dashboard for southwestern PA by clicking right here.)

You’ll find all kinds of fun events where kids and grownups can explore art, science, technology, outdoor learning, maker projects and experiences that elevate youth voice. Some are drop-in events, without a defined start time, while others are timed events. Nearly all are happening in person, but you can find a handful of virtual events, including Streaming the News, a live listening event broadcasting from SLB Radio. 

For families wondering about afterschool programs or enrichment classes for their children, the RLD festival is a perfect opportunity to experience something new for free. By attending festival events, kids and grownups discover all kinds of local learning resources in their communities. 

There’s something for everyone.

You could kick off the fun on May 1 with a Super Science: Weather event at the Carnegie Library or Explore the Meadows at Boyce Park, if you’re interested in the outdoors. Prefer robots? The RLD festival has you covered.  You can also try the Robot Garden family coding event or experience a Robot Petting Zoo — and those are just some of the events available on the very first day of the festival.

Hundreds of other adventures await throughout the weeks of the festival.

Though the festival officially begins on May 1, some event hosts love getting started early. So you’ll even find a few events happening as early as April 22 (Earth Day at Penn Hills Charter School of Entrepreneurship), April 27 (Blackhawk High School’s financial wellness event) and April 30 (Future-Ready Career Day at CCBC). 

After launching here in the Pittsburgh area in 2016, the festival has now become a global celebration of learning. Events are happening this year throughout Pennsylvania, in five other regions around the country, and as far away as Uruguay, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

“If there’s something that you’ve been thinking about trying but you’ve been hesitant to commit to it, Remake Learning Days lets you try it. You can see how it feels for your child and your family,” says festival co-producer Yu-Ling Cheng. “If you like what you experience, then you can find even more resources like that.”

“It’s one of my favorite times of year, because families with kids of all ages can go out and explore their communities,” Cheng says. “You never know what new passion you might discover for your child at one of these events!”