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Author Archives: Susan
Why Canada is failing at tech
Rube Goldberg Machines
In 1942, at the New York mansion of the American industrialist John Pierpont Morgan, crowds filed past a large mural titled “Automatic Hitler-Kicking Machine,” which depicted a complex and satisfying contraption involving a cat, a mouse, a stripteaser, and the Führer. It was the first solo exhibition of the inventor and cartoonist Reuben Lucius “Rube” Goldberg, who was, by then, already famous for designing overly complicated machines that fixed everyday problems with wit and madness. A decade earlier, in 1931, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary had listed “Rube Goldberg” as an adjective, defining it as “accomplishing by complex means what seemingly could be done simply.”
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/07/history-of-rube-goldberg-machines.html
Robots, junk and art
Education’s Death Valley
Sir Ken Robinson outlines 3 principles crucial for the human mind to flourish — and how current education culture works against them. In a funny, stirring talk he tells us how to get out of the educational “death valley” we now face, and how to nurture our youngest generations with a climate of possibility.
Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we’re educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_how_to_escape_education_s_death_valley.html
Cargo-Bot
iPad puzzle game to teach kids programming
The object of Cargo-bot is to write programs that control a robotic arm to move, sort, and stack colored crates. The computer language is a simple instruction set consisting of of squares that tell the arm which direction to move, and whether or not to perform an action based on the color of the crate. You write the programs by dragging and dropping the instruction squares into a sequence that causes the arm to perform the assigned task. You can also write programs that execute other programs you’ve written. (This is important because each program has space for just 8 squares, so you need to be able to write efficient code to complete the challenges). The challenges start out easy but become maddeningly difficult as you progress. With subroutines, if-then statements, and plenty of opportunities to practice debugging, it’s a good way to get kids to think like a programmer. You can also record a video of your program in action and share it to YouTube.
Code Academy
Learn to code interactively, for free.
Tim Hinkin
A true maker …
- The secret life of machines
- Homemade simulator rides
- Safebreaking
- Whack a banker
- Rubberworld Hunkins experiments
- The Under The Pier Show
- The anthropologists fund raising ritual
- Giant cameras
- Vulgar waterclocks
- The rudiments of wisdom
- Art Apocalypse
- … and much, much more
3d printers
New York — ‘Welcome to the future!” the smiling young man says behind the desk in the storefront on Mulberry Street. Initially, you’re looking at — what, a micro toy store? A minimalist model emporium? You take in the elegantly sparse layout of objects in MakerBot’s retail outlet: all right, there’s a black helicopter there; and an old-fashioned, red-and-yellow checkerboard spaceship; and some groovy little plastic cars; and what looks like a dollhouse; and a mansion; and various multicoloured polyhedrons and cylinders and angular shapes; and, what’s this, a mock-up of a human head; and … wait, what do you mean it’s all “printed”?
Fab Lab
What’s a FabLab@School?
A FabLab is a low-cost digital workshop equipped with laser-cutters, routers, 3D scanners, 3D milling machines, and programming tools, where you can “make almost anything.” There are over 150 FabLabs around the world, open to local inventors, small businesses, and garage entrepreneurs.The FabLab concept was created by Prof. Neil Gershenfeld at MIT. Despite the potential impact of FabLabs in education, they are mostly focused on adults, entrepreneurship, and product design. The FabLab@School, created by Prof. Paulo Blikstein at Stanford University is a new type of digital fabrication lab especially designed for schools and children, with several special characteristics.