hey gang. just continuing my blogging upon completion of our successful "light cycle". after nite lights with l.e.d.'s, we changed gears to an activity i called "homemade flashlights". it was a review of simple circuts by rewiring holiday lights, however on the second day we used them for a final art project, "magic lanterns". here's how it all goes down...

Light Cycle (continued)
Dates: monday, april 18th and wednesday april 20th

Groups Participating: panther boys and girls club teens

Attendance: 8 to 10 teens and gabe and I

Project(s): "homemade flashlights" and "magic lanterns"

Materials:
Hardware: cardboard, tinfoil, wire, 9 volt batteries, duct tape, scotch tape, colored and black permanent markers, cardboard boxes, box cutters, scissors, transparency paper, translucent tracing paper, cardboard tubes
Software: -
Other: snacks

Directions: build holiday light, simple circut with cardbaord switch and battery and place cardboard tubes over the top of the lights for a "homemade flashlight".
the next meeting, tape transparency paper with drawn image small enough to fit onto the end of "homemade flashlight". then take cardboard box and cut large square hole in front (like tv screen) and hole in back to fit in "flashlight". finally, tape tracing paper over large, front hole as the screen. turn on.

Associated Skills: craft skills, wiring and electrical knowledge

Associated Concepts: basic understanding of electronics, confidence in creating work of art

Best Part: seeing final work of art when magic lanterns illuminate

Hardest Part: getting circuts to be sturdy and stay together and cutting boxes in a safe manner

Culminating Event: "glow in the dark gallery night" both at the club on wednesday the 20th, and the following wednesday the 27th.

i'll let you know more about our gallery nights and our "strobe light" activity in the next entry.
later, myles

nite lights activity

getting the crew back into cricket programing took an attractive hook. and from the list of options from the pie idea website, i chose to start with the most popular choice, the "nite light" activity, which lead to a series of activities that created what i've coined as the new "light cycle". but first...

"l.e.d. races"
i knew before we jumped right into constructing nite lights, i needed to get them familar with l.e.d.'s once again. so, on monday, april 11th, i came up with a pretty entertaining game called "l.e.d. races". we set up 4 computers, each with transfer wires, transfer crickets, crickets, and l.e.d.'s attached. then, after a little self guided exploration and some coaching here and there form gabe and i, the races began... i would announce to the competitors a series of colors in a particular order, then yell,"go!". whoever could create the series of colors the fastest would win. jolly ranchers to the victor encouraged participation of six teens throughout the afternoon. examples of the challenges include, from simple to complex, a police siren (red, blue, red, blue), or a stoplight (green, yellow, red) or their favorite challenge, a rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple). it was a blast and i recommend this game to get kid's back into the l.e.d.'s.

with their confidence in l.e.d.'s raised we moved onto the "nite lights" here's the breakdown...

big idea: get the kid's into cricket programming by constructing thier own night lights. the activity requires l.e.d. programming proficiency and encourages individual artistic creativity.

date: wednesday, april 13th

groups participating: panther boy's and girl's club teens

attendance: 8 teens, including jazmine, mike miller, bionca, alex, marquos, jauniqua, "t", and jaqualins and gabe and myself

materials:
hardware: drill, scotch tape, black sharpies at least 30 plastic translucent (fogged) shot cups and at least 20 translucent (fogged) picnic cups.
software: laptops, transfer wires, transfer crickets, crickets, l.e.d. wires, l.e.d.'s
other: jolly ranchers

directions: drill hole in bottom of two shot cups. tape them bottom to bottom and secure l.e.d. through both holes therefor making an l.e.d. stand. tape third shot cup over exposed l.e.d. finally draw a negetive drawing on outside of large cup and place over l.e.d. stand.

associated skills: cricket programming, l.e.d. programming, craft and drawing skills

associated concepts: relating l.e.d.'s in everyday life (ie. cellphones, beepers) to thier own programming ability, confidence in creating a work of art

best part: high fivin' after final product works for the first time

hardest part: as usual, getting them started, but having an example for this project when you walk in is key.

culminating event: "glow in the dark gallery" night, including invitations (jazmine loves making invitations) snacks for those who attend and the featured artists standing behind thier works.

next i will blog about our "homemade flashlight" building, our "magic lantern" creations, how the "glow in the dark gallery" night went on wednesday, april 20th, our "cricket strobe lights" and how this new "light cycle" can be improved by re-arranging the activities a bit.
i hope all is well with all. myles

Blog This! ALA Art Week Pics

Skateboarding at Northside

dates: past three weeks

big idea: the teens were excited about making the dodgeball movie last month so I wanted to bank on that excitement and help them produce another film about a topic they dug, namely, skateboarding

groups participating: Northside teens

attendance: 8 - 10 teens including Micheal, Jose Cano, Anna, & Ruben,

hardware: FinePix digital camera, Fuji DV camera, laptops,

software: Windows Movie Maker, Acid Soundblaster

associated skills: storyboarding, sketching, story writing, skateboarding tricks, editing a movie on the computer

to be continued......

associated concepts:

best part:

culminating event:

for next time:

Internet Knowledge & Skills

Teens: Fabiola, Janet, Joey, Salvador, Anna, Joshua C., “Quiet 8th-grade girl," and Armando
Staff: Saafir, Santiago
Time: 6:00 - 7:00pm Friday April 22
Location: at the Museum
Group: Northside Boys & Girls Club

Today I did a short exploration to find out what the teenagers knowledge of the internet was and how they used the web. After an ice breaker, I had them log into a laptop, pull up a browser and spend thirty seconds to find a page on the web. Next, I had them visit some of their typical sites and spend twenty minute on them. I listed the sites that they visited on the board. We had a conversation about what they use the internet for and how often. I discovered that most of them did not use e-mail, so we spent the last half hour, signing up for e-mail services and trading e-mail.

Here are the major things the teens do on the web, ranked by frequency.

• Play games
• Preview movies
• Listen to music
• Watch videos
• Look information for school projects
• E-mail
• Check horoscopes
• Go to chat rooms

Here's the course of events today
1. They played in the Kidstuff gallery until I showed up after my lab.
2. We did an icebreaker. I had everyone share a story about thier best moment (the teenagers didn’t get what I was asking them to do, many of the stories were about them “winning” by “getting in a fight” or “throwing a water balloon at the principal on the last day of school.” Some described pleasant or fun things like riding their friend’s cool bike, doing flips on a trampoline, or camping out in the backyard. I'll have to try that again later.)
3. Find a website activity described above...here are the sites that the teens visited this afternoon....

• msn.com
• apple.com (The Grudge)
• freeonlinegames.com
• miniclip.com (games)
• warnerbrothers.com (House of Wax)
• google.com (The Grudge)

4. Questions about how they use the internet. Most of the teens don’t have e-mail, don't use chat rooms, or post to discussion boards. The primary use of the internet was to play video games, watch movie previews, and play music videos. One fo the teens mentioned "looking up stuff for homework assignments" but she said she "hardly ever did that. Maybe twice a year"
5. E-mail sign-up

i like pie: club d-bot at Panther

hey gang. i had fantastic participation this week with panther teens trying out programing the led's. the pie website is the inspiration i've needed, and if you present the activities just right, they can take off. "nite lights" went great, but i only have time to blog about the week before, so i'll get to that later. for now, here's our success with light sensitive doodle bots, but i'm gonna try a new version of blogging. i've got a copy of john's outline and i think this method may make the blog run a little smoother and read a little easier for future staff...

activity/cycle title: "club d-bot"
dates: monday, april 4th and wednesday, april 6th 2005
big idea: get kids once again familiar with cricket technology in a familiar but fun, new way
groups participating: panther
attendance: about 8 on monday with gabe coaching and 8 on wednesday with myself and gabe coaching, plus about 20 kids invited into the presentation of our work at 5:45pm
materials:
hardware: cups, markers (at least 30), tape, rubber bands, lego motors, motor connecting legos so lego arms could attatch to motors, flashlights
software: 4 laptops, transfer wires and transfer crickets, crickets, lights sensors, stereo
other: snacks and juice
associated skills: programing light sensative crickets, constructing a sturdy doodle bot that will not only stand but also perform its task of drawing
associated concepts: to learn that having patiece to program leads to entertaining outcome, gaining confidence in programing and design of one's d-bot
best part: giving high fives when i shined a flash light on a kid's d-bot and it came alive
hardest part: getting the kid's intially motivated to try activity, which i overcame by assigning them tasks for the club including DJ's, light technitions (flash light holders) and bouncers (including sunglasses i brought to wear) and an invitation designer
culminating event: club d-bot (which turned into "club jazz n' tay" (named after jazmine and taylor) where patrons could only attend by invitation only. we included music and snacks for those present
for next time: i would make a bigger deal about introducing the artists, like having them stand and point to their piece for the audience, and even have them name it. i'd also like to bring more flash lights for more of the audience to get involved in making the bots dance. furthermore, i learned from gabe the best way to attached the motors to the top of the cups was by attaching long, thin legos to the bottom of the motor that protruded over the rim of the cup. then use a rubber band and wrap it around each marker and then up to the protruding legos. and as a final suggestion, when programing, make sure the light value you program at matches the dance floor. in our discotech, most of the d-bots danced the whole time because we didn't measure the light reflecting off the white paper dance floor.

i added the "for next time" catagory because when trying an activity there's always something you find out you could have done differently and better. so if these outlines are filled out before the activity, i think a follow-up like this is neccesary to include to learn from.
hope all is well with all,
myles

inspiration strikes!

Things are movin into the next cycle at panther with optimism and vigor. I'm lookin forward to this evenings activity entitled "club d-bot", but first i need to finish blogging the successful completion of our film cycle...
After our field trip to TCU, I continued to try to get the kids comfortable using and acting in front of the digital camera before filming our competion piece. i strongly encourage fun activities such as the one that follows before tackling a project. i called the activity "improv dialogue day". they had already worked with reading from a script, well, one line anyway, but now i wanted they're creative brains to work a bit. so, i had each of them write on scrap paper the name of a movie star, cartoon character, or superhero, and a place. i added a few myself, then we threw them in two hats and i had them pair up into groups. the groups then picked thier characters from one hat and a place from the other. using this info they then had to work together to write a short story board before filming. then the improvisations began. one included jasmine as bionce meeting the little mermaid, played by taylor, at a pet store in the mall. bionce decided to buy the little mermaid from the pet store and take her home to her aquarium. another included marcus playing the hulk and gerel playing vin diesel at a boxing match. for the next half hour this turned into a full production with a makeshift ring, audience, and a few of us playing round-number card girls, including me. it was a blast.
after this activity, i felt the next time we met, we could get serious about starting the movie. here's where a good friend and fantastic educactor saved the day... ms. mays gathered the teens in the teen room, sat them down and gave them a stern yet encouraging talk about the best buy grant and the film competition that has been presented. the way she interacts with the kids is amazing. she has earned their trust, so she's able to do something i'm struggling to learn. that is to be strict and direct about the effort needed for the project. if they will be disciplined in helping us with the project, it will be a success, but if not, they shouldn't think of volunteering. to the point works with these kids. next, while we had them focused, we discussed themes and plotlines, which led to character ideas. the character ideas i loved because the kids decided to pull from various heroes painted on their club walls, including martin luther king, micheal jordan, tina turner,ect. then, after the teens who promised their dedication chose their character, we helped them begin to write storyboards for thier characters. in three meetings, we filmed about two to three characters scenes a day, and had a great time doing it. different teens used the camera at different times, and then sat in and helped with a hurried editing session on the last day. finally, we titled our project "leaders of love".
i learned quite a few things from our film project. one includes how to talk to the teens in order to get them serious and motivated about an important project. on the other hand, once a project is started, just let things roll and the kids usually develop the project deeper than you ever dreamed.
if i could do it all over, i'd get another day for filming, a total of four would be perfect, and foreshadow the day of editing. editing is tough and for some it seems not as fun as the acting, so let the teens know its part of the deal. if they act in the show, they must help edit. in fact, when we assigned them characters, it would have been smart to assign them an editing job as well, including "music editor" or "scene transition editor" or "film order editor". that will definately help next time, for next years "2006 2nd annual panther film festival". here's how this years went...
we had one teen design the admission tickets, and you couldn't get in without one. it had the time and place, so at 4:45pm we had a line outside the teen room waiting. then when the doors opened, snacks were laid out for our audience (only 5 at a time could enter to keep order) and the room was set up like a theater. for the next hour, not only did we premier "leaders of love", but also all the stop-motion animation films made in the past two months, and all films made from activities with the digital camera. we also played northside's dodgeball film, "play hard", which our kids loved.
next year, i think starting a tradition of a film festival may be a great idea, and before they start working on a new one, the kids should view the films from the previous year for inspiration. i enjoy the fact that i'm starting to see possibilities for long term tradition. its very inspiring.
talk about inspiring, saafir referred me to a website to guide me throught the next cycle. the next cycle at panther is going to pull the kids back from media to our information technology realm and the world of crickets. out of ideas, i struggled to decide where to go next. then saafir pulled up the website that, until a few months ago, was pretty sparse. now its booming with variuos cricket activities (search "pie ideas" on google and its the first website of the group). so instead of me picking the activities, i brought some jolly ranchers to the club and threw a couple at the teens if they did me the favor of checking out the website and deciding themselves what's next. i've got a list with two ideas per teen, and look forward to completing them all, including tonight's, where we'll be programing light sensitive, dancing doodle-bots and creating "club d-bot" with snacks and music and all. should be a blast, and i've got to get it all ready. wish me luck.
myles