#hackidemia

[gojohnetta]

TEDxYouth@Austin + Hackidemia: The Musical Room — HacKIDemia https://ift.tt/2YeEi1q

[itstartswithlight]

Wearables Workshop, OR The Most Delayed Blog Entry About an Event Ever

I can’t believe it’s been almost a week (six days to be exact!) since I attended the Wearables Workshop sponsored by Women Who Code NYC. I pondered the possiblity of NOT blogging about it, but then again, I promised myself (and the two people who read this blog) that I WOULD blog about it. A promise is a promise, even to myself. 

I arrived at the event super-nervous. I had never been to a Women Who Code event (partially because, the RSVPs always fill so fast) so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would people be nice? I had complete and utter impostor syndrome. I was just learning to code, not really a full-fledged developer like most of the other women in the room. Could they accept me for who I was?

Thankfully, all of my fears were unfounded (aren’t most fears unfounded though?!) All the women I met were friendly and professional. I couldn’t have felt more comfortable. It also helped that many of us were new to the hardware world, so we were all equally flustered and nervous--all in the same boat.

As for what we did in the workshop itself, I think it only solidified the fact that I want to learn MORE. One group worked with the Makey Makey, turning various items into music (such as glasses of water into a piano) or using the Makey Makey to turn pieces of aluminum foil into a game controller for the video game Dance, Dance Revolution. The group I worked with used construction paper and conductive tape along with the arduino and Processing (the software) to turn the conductive tape grid into a synth. You know, child’s play. (NOT!) It was probably one of the most confounding things I had ever worked with (we had a few code issues, and I got flashbacks of working on my own code at 2AM and wondering WHY IT ISN’T WORKING). In any case, it was super-reassuring to know that even industry professionals get bugs too. 

All in all, it was a great workshop. I had a ton of fun and met some really smart, interesting women in tech. I highly recommend it, and would go to another workshop in a heartbeat!

[insta-arduino]

#DIY planetarium with #arduino @makerfairehann by hackidemia @ http://ift.tt/1KiNNya

[intelligenthq]

HacKIDemia – Innovation and Social Change Through Play

[seven11nash-blog]

#day7 the day before the party! We got a lot done today and it was amazing seeing the team work together this well. We set up a bunch of tables and benches to get as much preparation done as possible for tomorrows workshop. Also we set up bars, a chilling area, the entrance, and more. I believe we can make this party happen and that we can make the people who attend it very happy! 

Link to the party information: http://www.makercamp.co/party 

[soulfuturebass]

We'll support the great work of HacKIDemia with a razzle-dazzle musical journey tomorrow from 6-8pm.

Getting you just in the right mood for hailing the god of modern funk music later that night. Buckle up.

MUCH LOVE

[circuitstickers]

Dragons and airplanes

What if a dragon drawn on a piece of paper could actually set it on fire?

This is absolutely possible for some of the youngest participants who took part in the last Hackidemia event in Sofia, Bulgaria on the 17th of May. Dragons are not real dragons if they don’t inflame everything around them or at least spark or twinkle. You see here the first prototype of a real dragon with a sticker LED red eye! Drawing with colored pencils and electronics inspired the five years old artists to turn the picture into a live creature. He knew so much about dragons that I felt ashamed why I haven’t explored more stories about them. All the mentors were surprised by his insights about the reptiles and the whole animal kingdom. The sticker LED components were an amazing start to trigger other ideas to think about, questions to ask and projects to stay up all night for.

Blowing in the wind with circuit stickers and sensors! During the event we used aluminum tape to connect the electronic components. However it turned out that this type of tape isn’t the best choice. The core of the problem was that it was not always conductive on its bottom side. Sometimes it worked but in more complex projects it failed very badly. Well, this just gave us more reasons to have fun while debugging what is wrong in the circuits.

The solution we found was that we shouldn’t at all rely on the bottom side of the tape for conductivity. We made double sided edges on all the places where we needed to connect two parts of the circuit together. In this way we were using the top side of the tape to ensure connectivity and it worked our perfectly.

We explored parallel and consecutive circuit design though drawing flowers, people and airplanes. I can’t wait until our next event and the Hackdiemia children were so excited about how easy it is to work with the circuit stickers that I am sure they will come back eager to learn more electronics!

---from Bobi at Hackidemia.  Thanks for the submission!

[peschmitt]

Préparation de l'atelier #HacKidemia de mercredi @iesamultimedia Les grands enfants en atelier :) Mercredi ça va juste être de la folie!!! #IESAkids (à IESA multimédia, la 1ère école multimédia à Paris)

[associationxamxam]

Afrimakers, un projet d'initiation des jeunes aux nouvelles démarches scientifiques

Images: makerfaire Africa, Lagos, atelier Hackidemia.

« Les mouvements d'ouverture qui ont caractérisé le web (open source, open innovation, open data, open science, open education) ne concernent plus seulement une avant-garde de programmeurs idéalistes. Ils ont donné naissance, notamment sur les campus américains, à une nouvelle culture de la transmission, de l'apprentissage et de l'innovation. Ils bouleversent aujourd'hui jusqu'aux organisations les plus rigoureuses, y compris la recherche scientifique. De nombreuses activités il y a peu très élitistes, doivent d��sormais apprendre à s'adresser au plus grand nombre et à puiser dans la force créatrice de ce grand nombre. » François Taddei

Hackidemia est un principe de « laboratoire mobile » conçu par Stefania Druga, qui a pour objectif de familiariser les jeunes enfants et les adolescents aux sciences et aux technologies numériques par l’appropriation directe et le jeu. Pour Stefania Druga, qui a été formée à l’ingénierie pédagogique au Centre de Recherches Interdisciplinaires de l’Université de Paris Descartes dirigé par François Taddei, il est important que les enfants mettent « la main à la pâte »,  expérimentent, créent des robots et des prototypes pour découvrir et comprendre comment ça marche. C’est le passage idéal pour pouvoir accéder par la suite à des technologies plus complexes. Savoirs-faire partagés, créativité, mutualisation, propagation virale sont les bases de son organisation. 

J’ai pu voir Stéfania à l’œuvre à Lagos l’année dernière pendant la Makerfaire Africa lors d’ateliers remarquablement bien menés. Elle revient -au sein d'un groupe élargi- avec le projet Afrimakers qui vise à ouvrir des hubs de formation dans sept villes en Afrique l’année prochaine et lance une campagne de crowdfunding. A suivre donc...

[dubacademy]

This morning we stopped by Travis Heights Elementary for #Hackidemia !! Had lots of fun demoing Old school and new school technology to all the kiddos! #traktor #machine #serato Instructors: @djladda @sharks512 @mixmasterpayton Video: @dabrownsound #dubacademy (at Travis Heights Elementary School)

[denniskoh-blog]

learning to solder at #hackidemia!

[gidgetry]

Welcome to #hackidemia!

[insta-arduino]

Felix has build his dice shield for #arduino that generates random patterns #hackidemia workshop #makerfaire by hackidemia @ http://ift.tt/1MwNLlE

[intelligenthq]

4 Stories of Social Businesses That Are Revolutionising The World

[tonyiordanova-blog]

An incredible experience or Hackidemia - funny way to involve the kids in science

Just few days ago Hackidemia was held, where many kids were able to create various miracles. Volunteers and enthusiasts organized workshops and helped this happen. Kids have fun while learning how to make robots,hand-made toys or discovering 3D Printing. It was an incredible experience for me and I look forward to the next Hakidemia. 

And here is my article "Why should a computer science student be a mentor in Hackidemia?"

Why should a computer science student be a mentor in Hackidemia?

June 7, 2013

Author: Tony Iordanova

What is Computer Science if not playing and hacking all the time! Playing with numbers, equations, programming, data, etc. This is what keeps me awake in the morning - you never stop learning new things! This is why I became part of HacKIDemia Sofia last weekend!

I’m Tony and I study Computer Science in Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. I have always been interested in technology and in how we can use it to solve real world problems. I am part of the Robotics Club at the University. I heard about HacKIDemia for the first time few months ago and recently I've been hearing and reading even more about it. Then one day I got the offer “Do you want to participate in the next event?” I never thought that I could be part of HacKIDemia before and now this idea of being a mentor and working with kids made me so excited. So far I have always been taking different classes at the University and now for the first time I was going to be the mentor. It was a great challenge for me and I wanted to be prepared. Being able to explain a 5 years old child what a robot is and how you can program it to walk in a straight line is a very difficult skill. There are many people that are great in what they do but the biggest challenge is to share your knowledge with other people. How do you get children excited and inspire them to go into Science? This was the challenge for me and I was absolutely amazed by the creativity and enthusiasm of the youngest kids!

Me and few colleagues from the University wanted to design the best workshop where the participants could both learn new things and play together. We decided to use LEGO robots. We had some ready and functioning robots, we took them apart together with the kids. Then they built their own ones and then together we designed a game involving all the robots. Each group of kids designed their own game involving different elements and different robots. Like the one following a line or more complicated one using an Arduino controller.

The other workshops that happened were also very engaging. We had Electronics - creating an electronic tool for painting, Lemon Powered Lights, 3D Printing, more LEGO robots, Crafts - making figures out of wood, Origami Structures, Making toys with KidsLab, the Chinese game Go and others.The biggest takeaway for me was the chance to work with kids and explain very complicated concepts in simple words. It was great and my colleagues and I are looking forward to the next HacKIDemia event!

[spokesamerica]

Learning comes through freedom of exploration - lessons from Stefania Druga of Hackidemia

“Last weekend, in Berlin, the room was a big mess after our kids hackathon. All kinds of things had exploded! To me, this was evidence that our workshop was a success - children learn by breaking things.”

Stefania Druga, founder of Hackidemia, is on a quest to foster curiosity, empathy and play among kids. Hackidemia’s workshops and hackathons are based on several fundamental beliefs: involving parents in workshops stretches the duration of learning; children learn most when they have freedom to explore their curiosity; hands-on learning is most needed in places where “making” is an unknown term.

  From quick-win to structural learning

When Hackidemia starts an event in a new country, the organizing team starts by giving an elaborate training to a team of volunteers. The goal of this training and supplied documentation is that volunteers can organize follow-up classes even when the Hackidemia team has departed.  Organizing a single hands-on learning class does not lead to the structural learning - which we want. 

“Dad, look at my helicopter!”

When children leave a hands-on building place, home is the place they are likely to go. When you involve parents in hacking, mother and daughter are better equipped to remember the small robotic car running into the wall, or the earth all over the floor after sowing the tomato-plant-seeds. The learning experience extends beyond the workshop. 

By involving parents in workshops, you can trigger ideas for parents to foster better learning for their children. When you show a father how an arduino works, he is more likely to recognize an arduino the next time he is looking for a present to buy for his son, and more clearly sees the value of this toy. 

  Freedom nurtures true learning

Hackidemia does not impose a schedule during hackathons. Kids are free to choose soldering or painting. There is no fixed time per activity. When a girl’s curiosity is drawn by another activity than the one in which she’s involved, she is free to explore that class. 

For mentors (or teachers) this means that you need to juggle between introducing new kids to the basics of your class and providing help to kids who are more advanced. This is a very conscious choice for Stefania: “I prefer to make it simple for the children and difficult for the mentors, than making it simple for mentors but difficult for children.”

When children are free to roam between classes, an open space is important, “sometimes more important than the quality of the mentors”. When you want children to follow their curiosity, kids need to see what others are doing. The best way to understand the concept of “building a robot” is by seeing someone else do it (and then engaging in the activity) - not by listening to a 20-year old explain the class content. 

  Good conversations lead to questions

My brief conversation with Stefania raised several important ideas. If we aim to find students through word-of-mouth, should we not set up camp in cities for a few days, in stead of one afternoon? Who do we need to involve for children to be inclined to continue their projects after we leave when parents are not present? How can we build local teams of volunteers? Can we let go of our fixed-class approach and in stead host our classes in an open space?