Hacker Scouts at Ace Monster Toys

Oakland’s AMT hackerspace spent last Sunday teaching kids about biospheres!

Yesterday marked the inaugural Open Lab for our new adventure: Hacker Scouts. We had an amazing turnout with about 40 enthusiastic kids and their supportive parents! Our featured project was Biospheres, which half the kids decided to work on, while the other half chose activities from our menu, including:

• Learn to Solder
• Drawdio!
• Plushy Sewing Project
• Using the Laser Cutter to produce original designs
• Laser Cut Dino Puzzles
• Kinetic Mobile Art

There was also a fantastic Hex Bug village built. We had several mentors on hand from AMT and many parents who joined in to assist the kids with building their skills. The format we designed worked well, with the featured project and kit instructions providing enough structure, but leaving the choice of what to work on, which skills to build, and the possibilities of their imagination firmly in the hands of the kids. There was a beautiful community spirit present, which is a key point to this whole program. Making as a part of our everyday life and relationships rather than relegating it to simply a hobby.

See the Flickr set for more views of the event. It sounds great! [via Adafruit]