Maker Education is such a valuable role. These stories will bring you the latest information and tales of maker educators who area spreading the maker mindset. Help others learn how to make things or how to think like a maker at makerspaces, schools, universities, and local communities. The importance of maker education can not be understated. We appreciate our educators.
SpaceCamps have been happening at Maker Faire Bay Area, Detroit, and New York. The point of SpaceCamp is to propagate the robustness and awareness of hacker- and makerspaces. Attending spaces are curated into a shared area so that space facilitators get to know each other and Faire attendees are exposed to the wide variety of spaces’ interests, personalities, and geographies.
UK educational supply center centre Mindsets online sells variously-sized 3mm thick sample sheets of Eastmanโs Spectar copolyester at not-completely-outlandish prices. Spectar supposedly looks and handles much like acrylic, but with the surprising property that it can be cold-formed without breaking or whitening, and exhibits a memory effect, holding a cold bend until reheated.
OK, so, itโs a level 3 approximation of a Menger Sponge, actually, incorporating 8,000 unit cubes, each of which starts as one-sixteenth of a โminiโ size Post-It. Its creator, Nicholas Rougeux, likes Post-Its for this work because they โoffer surprisingly [sic] structural durability and are easy to get in large quantities making them ideal for assembling structures like these.โ
Marsha Semmel, who participated in Maker Faire Detriot and wrote a piece for our Making Detroit series, has a lovely piece about Maker Faire NY on the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS) blog.
Tonight! The next episode of Make: Live, our streaming show and tell, is all about 3D modeling and printing. Liz Arum will give us a tour of Tinkercad, Michael Curry shows off his turtle shell racers, and MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis answers your burning 3D printer questions. All that plus a special surprise tonight, donโt miss it!
The amazing Vi Hart (daughter of our Math Monday columnist George Hart) has blown our minds again with this over 12 minute video explaining the math, science, and art behind sound. In many of Vi’s videos, she talks really fast, and it’s a style that works for her, but for something this info-dense, with lots of visual aids, it’s worth going through a few times to absorb everything.
Jeri shows the basic construction of solenoid actuators and demonstrates the relationship between strenght and hold power relative to current flow in the coil. [Via Adafruit]
