[MakeLV] re getting students involved

[David Smith]

Make: recently had a drill-powered go kart as a featured project - still
with the coolness factor, but no hand-winding of motors ;-)

Dave

On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 9:56 AM, Will <staticphantom at gmail.com> wrote:

> Bill,
>
> In the past I have worked with getting students to work with the Boe Bot
> however the results were all similarly disappointing. In the past projects
> that were extremely complex and reached a certain "cool" factor seemed to
> captivate students. However, you do bring up an interesting point that I
> have noticed. In college, we managed to break down extremely complex
> projects with sub projects that were smaller and more manageable.
>
> Something that I have found to be very interesting and simple to do that
> is cool, a great starter project, and gets right in the nitty gritty of a
> true hacking project deals with small and cheap RC cars.  Making a computer
> drive an RC car is a great fun project and serves as a fantastic platform
> for future projects (plus we would have a chance to sponsor a home brew RC
> race in the space next door).
>
> The one thing I like about the electric go-cart project is that something
> like that will provide a reward for people of all ages willing to sit in
> the cart. If kids can discover that they can build something and provide
> the same joys as something they have seen in stores.... but theirs is more
> fun... we have spawned a generation of true hackers and makers.
>
> The other fringe benefit is that going with the theme is we are next to
> Lehigh Valley Grand Prix. I'm sure they would love to have electric
> go-carts over there.  This might be a potential business someone could take
> and run with a customer right next door.  At the very least the concept of
> having an internal competition.
>
> For involvement with kids, there is a high school version of a race my dad
> attends annually at Watkins Glenn run by this body I believe
> http://www.electrathonamerica.org/Welcome_to_Electrathon_America.html.
> STEM money has been used in the past for including high school students as
> well as potential for rolling a project like that into an NSF grant
> teaching engineering for transportation technologies.
>
> Final argument for a project like the go-cart project for the space. What
> kid wouldn't show up if they found out they could drive a go-cart? This
> project is less about building more than having some fun toy that will
> attract people to the space and get people thinking. Like the expensive
> sports car in a car dealership, everybody dreams of going after fun and
> impractical car but most settle for something simpler, cheaper, and more
> practical.
>
> -Will
>
>
>
> On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 10:01 PM, Bill Heffner <wrh304 at lehigh.edu> wrote:
>
>>  Will and Make LV Others,
>> The project looks like a real interesting challenge for the maker
>> community.  For the high school students I think you want to avoid feeding
>> them more than they can digest.  What about something simpler as a start
>> like building a simple robot - such as the BOE BOT.  Could do a workshop on
>> this and they could have some success after a few hours and a competition
>> after a weekend or several evenings.  It would also be a platform from
>> which you might be able to hook them into your hackaday project.  Am
>> suggesting a "walk before you run' approach.
>> Bill
>>
>> On 5/1/2012 1:04 PM, Will wrote:
>>
>> Dear esteemed tinkers,
>>
>>  I have perused many a project for months looking for inspiration for
>> what we could do easily that would be as exciting for kids as well as our
>> seasoned elders. I have come across a project that is both fun to build and
>> would make use of the unused space next door.... while being way too fun.
>> Please take time in reviewing this entry I found on hackaday and let me
>> know what you think.
>> http://hackaday.com/2012/05/01/drop-everything-and-build-this-go-kart-right-now/
>>
>>  Regards,
>>
>>  -Will
>>
>>
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>>
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-- 
David L. Smith, Ph.D.
Director, Teacher Professional Development



3145 Hamilton Blvd Bypass
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