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.
In this series, “Letters from the Fab Academy,” Shawn Wallace, member of AS220, the Providence, RI community arts space, shares his experiences with the Fab Academy, a distributed learning collaborative, built on the infrastructure of the Fab Lab network. — Gareth 3D Scanning By Shawn Wallace Victor Freundt prints a project using the ZCorp printer […]
The upcoming mission of the space shuttle will focus heavily on robotics and NASA is using that opportunity to bring additional educational outreach to teachers and students. In an education briefing today, NASA detailed some of the resources and events related to STS-131. The robotics section of the NASA web site includes lesson plans, multimedia, […]
Several years ago, my then science department head and former 9th grade science teacher was retiring. Bob Webster brought me many useful and entertaining ideas. He had our whole department making wikis to share information in the early 00’s. Through him, I learned more about computer repair, web design, programming and electricity. He helped me to cultivate a positive environment encouraging kids to work with and understand concepts that many find intimidating. So what to bring to his party? Electric Cupcakes, of course!
We here at MAKE are thrilled to have teamed up with the fine folks at Jameco to bring you The Make: Robot Build. Over the next eight weeks, we’ll be featuring a series of tutorials here on the site about the basics of robot building, from overall design considerations to mechanical construction, electronics, and programming. […]
Flickr user fotogra4er replaced the fluorescent tubes lighting his aquarium with LEDs. Which, of course, make way more light and way less heat for the same amount of energy. Then he upped the ante by cooling the LED lighting bank by circulating tank-water through it, which exploits what waste heat the LEDs do generate to warm the tank-water, and in turn saves power that would otherwise go to the tank heater.
Physics professor Kieran Mullen of OU apparently has a hard-and-fast rule against laptops in class. To drive the point home, he staged a public execution of one by freezing it in liquid nitrogen and smashing it against the floor, where its broken remains were left as a warning to others. Of course the whole thing is staged and the laptop in question was old and worthless, but hey, any excuse to freeze stuff with LN2 is OK with me.
High-temperature superconductor (Yttrium barium copper oxide) floating in the magnetic field of Neodymium magnets. This phenomenon is called the Meißner-Ochsenfeld-Effect and was discovered in 1933. The superconductor has to be cooled with liquid nitrogen which has a temperature of 77 K or −196 °C. If it is placed in a strong magnetic field it remains in its position. It also works if you turn the track upside down
