Here’s this week’s schedule at the space:
We hope to see you out!
One of the best things about maker culture is that it’s pulling in kids. Take this story:
I am learning to solder
with my mom. We had tried to solder a christmas tree kit that we couldn’t get to work so we tried the Velleman pumpkin kit MK145. First, I sorted the materials. Second I put in the resistors and soldered them. I held the soldering iron while mom put the solder to the copper. Then I had to put in the capacitors to solder. Lastly I had to put in the LEDs and solder them. I had to make sure the cathode was on the side of the copper with the plus sign. The last LED I soldered all by myself. The pumpkin half worked when we put the battery in, so we had to look for solder bridges. First one eye worked; then the other eye worked; then, finally, part of the mouth worked.
I learned how to solder. I also learned not be scared of getting burnt because I have gotten burnt and it is not that bad. I will do more by myself next time so I can get better at soldering.
It’s really awesome to see kids in the community getting into making. Have a similar story about a kid participating in the local maker scene? Send it in!
Here’s this week’s schedule at the space:
We hope to see you out!
Here’s this week’s schedule at the space:
We hope to see you out!
Here’s this week’s schedule at the space:
We hope to see you out!
Efland-Cheeks Elementary School is gearing up for another year of Robot Camp. This is an event Splatspace has helped out with several times.
They’re looking for volunteers to be mentors for the day of camp. A team of kids are given a box of Lego Mindstorms and are assigned a mentor. The mentor is there to guide the student by asking questions and teaching basic problem solving skills as the children try to design, build, program, and test a sumo-wrestling robot. Volunteers don’t have to have prior experience with robotics, programming, or Lego Mindstorms, and teachers are on hand to help out with the kids. Efland-Cheeks is a Title I school, and over half of their students live in poverty. Their Robot Camp program is huge, and they need volunteers to make it work. It’s not an overstatement to say that Robot Camp changes lives.
This year Robot Camp is happening twice: once on Oct 26th from 9-3, and again on February 22nd from 9-3.
If you’re interested in volunteering, email Kristin Bedell at kristin.bedell@orange.k12.nc.us. The deadline for registering to volunteer is Oct 31st, so even if you’re only interested in or able to volunteer for the Feb 22nd date, you should go ahead and register now.
Computer Sciences Corporation just put out a video about 3D printing. Most of it is pretty old hat to those already in the maker scene, but we’re linking to it because our friends, the CPSfC Makers, are briefly featured.
Watch the whole thing, or jump to 1:05 to see them.
We have a lot of members, and they’re all up to cool things. But one member stands out for the number of cool thing he does for other people.
That member, Jeff Crews, got recognized by the News & Observer not too long ago as the Tarheel of the Week. And he took the opportunity to say a lot of great stuff about Splatspace, and maker culture in Durham.
Here’s this week’s schedule at the space:
We hope to see you out!
Here’s this week’s schedule at the space:
We hope to see you out!
