In today's session, participants built an LED Throwie and a Marshmallow Blow Gun.
We talked about the fundamentals they need to know as the world becomes more automated and outsourced (reading, storytelling, and design), ideas about how to fix and modify things, the growing trend of makerspaces (including collaboration and computer-controlled tools), a little bit about programming (computational thinking), and some suggestions about how to build and share their knowledge.
Here are some links that may be of interest: For learning how things work and how to make things:
Instructables (how to make things)
iFixit (device dissections, repair instructions)
Thingiverse (digital designs, e.g. for 3D-printable objects)
Hackaday (project ideas)
Lifehacker (ideas for making life better)
For learning computational thinking:
Design Software:
Shopping Sites:
Other reading: Makers by Cory Doctorow A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink The Second Machine Age by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee Made by Hand by Mark Frauenfelder Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matt Crawford |