Inventors Club Big Show

Discussing one student's project

Just before Thanksgiving we finished up our fall session of Inventors Club with another successful Big Show.  The 4th step of the invention process here at the Bakken is Show It, and to facilitate that we invite friends and family in on the last day of every session to see the students present their creations.

Controlling an LED display with an Arduino

Every time around we see new projects we've never seen before, and this fall was no exception. From boats and cars, to a drink lifter and a drawing robot, an LED display and a calculator, and many more, there were a lot of great projects to enjoy.

A grappling hook launcher

We had quite a bit of fun working with the students this session, and owe a great big thank you to all the volunteers who helped bring the kids' ideas to life, and the parents who give us the chance to play and learn alongside their children.

A drawing robot

We have lots of more opportunities coming up to do some great making at the Bakken.  Our winter session of Inventors Club is starting on the 15th of February, and is now open for online registration.  Also, we always have our drop-in Thursday evening Open Workshops from 4:30 to 6:30, which are available with a punch card.  The full schedule for those, and all our programs, is on our website.

Lego Robotics Wrap-up

The fall 2013 session of Lego Robotics ended with a bang at the Bakken. The amount of growth seen in all the students was truly impressive - we can't wait to see what these future engineers might build next.

In the morning session, each pairing had two challenges. The first was to program their robot to complete a maze and end on a pressure switch that each of them made. This task is a great example of how looks can be deceiving - everyone thinks it's easy when the challenge is introduced, but it actually requires each group to use all the skills that they've learned together in a very precise manner. Nonetheless, the whole group did an awesome job battling through to the end! The pride they felt when their robots made it onto their switches for the first time was well deserved, and fun to watch!

The second challenge that each group showed to their families during the Big Show was one of their own choosing. We had several golf shot challenges, a rodeo robot, and even a very fine dance performed. The creativity and ingenuity showed here was trumped only by the persistence in seeing their ideas brought to life.

The afternoon group had a completely different set of challenges. Since this group is a little older, they got to decide as a group what the theme for their robots and challenges should be. After going through many ideas, like a relay race, sumo wrestling, construction site, and a robot dance party (dancing was very popular), the group eventually decided on Robot Olympics as our theme. Each builder came up with their own design for a robotic event, then designed and programmed the robots from scratch. The results were extremely cool. We had a bipedal discus throwing robot next to a quadrupedal cat robot that lit up our Olympic torch.

 

There was a soccer kicking robot and a hockey shooting bot. We even had a fishing robot that used magnets to catch the illusive paper-clipped mouth bass. The horseback riding robot required some very challenging programming to get both horizontal and lateral movement to mimic a horse. Not only were the parents impressed, I'm pretty sure that the kids impressed themselves.

Overall, it was another great session of robot building and programming that reinforced the idea that kids can make some amazing things with the right tools and an engineer's outlook.

Inventors Club - Oct 30, 2013

Students demonstrating some solutions to a design problem.

Fall Inventors Club is underway, and we’ve been having a lot of fun getting back into our school year programs.  We have a full compliment of students this season, and already their creativity and enthusiasm is showing through.  Both the AM and PM groups have had activities these last two weeks to sharpen their making skills, and prepare them for building their own unique creation.

Can you draw the structure so that your partner can rebuild it?

We started by getting some practice with technical drawings, so we can be better equipped to communicate our plans to others.

One self-propelled physics cart.

The morning group also had some time to explore the materials and tools of the workshop.  They took simple carts with wheels, and devised their own unique ways to make them move without being pushed.  They’re now on track to being experts at hacking everyday objects to bend them to their will.

Student-built circuit with scrolling LEDs.

The afternoon students all got to learn how to use Arduino microcontrollers to control a string of LEDs, and even how to add user input to change the way they turn on and off.  This was the start of a 3-session plan to develop confidence in programming microcontrollers in order to expand the possibilities for our projects.

Now we’re ready to move on to the students making their own personal projects.  The volunteer mentors are all geared up and ready to help however they’re needed, and in four weeks we should have some impressive creations to show off.

Students work with mentors to bring their ideas to life.