Here’s this week’s schedule:

• Tuesday night, from 7pm, we have our weekly Open Meeting. This is also our monthly business meeting, so if you want to skip out on the administrative side, plan on 7:30pm.
• Thursday evening, from 6-7:30pm, we have Libre Thursday.
• Closing the week on Sunday night we have Software Project Night starting at 6pm.

In the past two weeks we’ve done two more math and science nights, at Creekside Elementary and EK Powe Elementary. Once again we brought out the 3D printer and squishy circuits.

At Creekside we printed several Balloon Hovercraft toys which were a big hit. At E.K Powe we had a bunch of smaller groups who had a lot of time to experiment with circuits and watch prints happen. Both were a lot of fun for us and the students, and we look forwards to doing more.

2013 has been a pretty busy year for Splatspace so far. So much so that we’ve neglected to blog about one of the very first events to kick off this year!

This past January, Splatspace partnered with Durham County Libraries to launch the first (of hopefully many) Bull City Lightning Talks. It was hugely successful, and very well attended. The library staff counted over 100 attendees–a huge turnout for a first time lightning talk event.

The theme of the talks was “Create” which was a large enough umbrella to include anything related to creating new things, art, or creativity in general. Topics as diverse as puns, downtown rehabilitation, quilting, and asteroid mining robots were presented in really engaging ways.

Another round is tentatively scheduled for July.

To see more photos, check Durham County Libraries’ Google+ album.

Part of Splatspace’s mission is working with the community to bring maker ideas to as many people as possible. As part of that mission, we have been working with schools in the area to help with Math and Science nights.

Math and Science nights are a growing trend with schools, providing science and technology demonstrations to students.

We began this year’s participation in local Math and Science nights at Efland Cheeks in February. We demoed squishy circuits–a kid-friendly introduction to electronics and circuits using conductive play-dough. We also had Raspberry Pi’s running software to show off to kids, and the 3D printer, which is always a hit.

 

Here’s this week’s schedule:

• On Tuesday night, from 7pm, we have our weekly Open Meeting.
• Thursday evening, from 6-7pm, we have Libre Thursday.
• That same Thursday night, from 7pm, we’re hosting this month’s TriZPUG meeting.
• Closing the week on Sunday night, from 6pm, we have Software Project Night.

Here’s this week’s schedule at the Space:

• On Tuesday night, from 7pm, we’ll be having our weekly Open Meeting.
• Thursday night, from 6pm to 7:30pm, there’s Libre Thursday.
• Saturday afternoon, from 1pm, there’s another round of Personal Digitial Fabrication.
• Sunday night, from 6pm, we’re having our weekly Software Project Night.

Here’s this week’s schedule:

• On Tuesday, from 7pm, we’re holding our weekly Open Meeting
• On Thursday, from 6pm to 7:30pm there’s Libre Thursday
• On Saturday, from 2pm to 6pm there’s the Triangle Arduino Hack Afternoon
• Closing the week on Sunday night from 6pm, is the weekly Software Project Night

See anything interesting? Come on out, we’d love to see you!

Jeff Crews, a founding member and current Vice President of Splatspace, spent a few hours last week at the Carolina Friends School. He was there as a CFS parent, teaching middle schoolers about 3D printers and printing. He covered the entire process, from designing the models to setting them up on the printer, to the actual printing.

Just as importantly, he covered the math and engineering involved in 3D printing and the ways 3D printing is poised to change the world we live in. Students who had never designed anything on a computer before went from nothing to an item they designed and they printed, all in the course of one hour.

This wasn’t a Splatspace event, but it’s a great example of spreading the tools and knowledge involved in the Maker Movement, which is definitely a Splatspace value.

If you’ve got a kid who would like to learn about 3D printing, bring them by Splatspace. We would love to teach them!

Last weekend Splatspace joined up with Atomic Empire for a really cool event–we demonstrated how 3D printing and other maker projects can contribute to games and board gaming hobbies.

For three hours, we showed off 3D printed game pieces, both as replacement parts for existing games, and for original games being prototyped on Thingiverse, like Pocket Tactics and Breach. We also printed pieces for the duration as examples of how to easily make and prototype games, which was of particular interest to a number of people interested in game development.

In addition to our physical demonstrations, we also brought an arcade cabinet one member built running some classic arcade games on AdvanceMAME, and classic adventure games like Day of the Tentacle running on a Raspberry Pi.

It was a great event; there’s a lot of cross over between gamers and makers, and we hope to have more events like this in the future.

It’s a light week this week:

• On Tuesday, at 7pm, we’re having our weekly Open Meeting. As a note, this meeting includes our monthly board meeting, so it’s not a bad idea to come at 7:30pm unless you have business for the membership, or want to see the monthly meeting.
• On Sunday at 2pm, we have Personal Digital Fabrication.
• On Sunday, at 6:30pm, we have Software Project Night.