... and Sound Takes Over Austin
The schoolchildren playing on some playgrounds are really playing - music, that is. Musical play structures have been popping up all over town. 

Starting in 1997, public schools and designers have collaborated to create "acoustic playgrounds" at various locations in Austin, Texas. An elementary school workshop on musical instrument making led to the design and construction of the individual panels that would become the first soundscape at Blanton Elementary School.

Other sites have been added since then, with funding coming from private sponsors, the City of Austin, and the Texas Commission for the Arts. 

Children at these sites can play a Thunk-a-phone, Chime Panel, Steel Drum Panel or Bajo Grande.

Organizers hope to launch a SoundScape Design Invitational, which would set designers from around the world in competition to create new musical instrument panels.

Link to the Austin SoundScape Project

MORE:
See more instruments invented by childen.  Link to the "Virtual Museum of Musical Inventions," a homemade-instrument-making project by started in Illinois.