think it. dream it. design it.

The Big Move Is On!

2007-09-12T10:12:00.001-05:00

Objective: Two Museum Under One Roof...

Time: Sept 4th-7th, 2007

Event: The move is on and we are moved out of our home to the Transition Village and Cowgirls Museum. It was difficult to see everything that was in Design IT Studios, Museum School, and the exhibits slowly being packed or moved to their temporary locations. The turtle, in the picture above, made his move the week prior before the move. The Studio/Discovery Lab will be relocated in the Cowgirls Museum, along with Explore Zone and Kidspace, hopefully by the end of this year. Museum school is going on very strong in their new home with classes running this week.

Though the building is reconstructing in the next two years, the memory of what the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History is still standing strong. The new transition is a new stepping stone for Design IT Studios and the Museum as a whole. The staffs are full of anticipation on the next coming year.

Special thanks to Kit Goolsby and Amy Duncan for making our move a success and the Elisa Werner for connecting us back into the electronic world!

Bobby and Amy discussing matter of the museum at the Transition Village...

Museum School just came back to a calm stage after the kids were dropped off...

Cowgirls Museum our second home!

Houston Mindfest 2007

2007-08-14T15:55:00.000-05:00

Objective: The team from the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History join forces with the team from the Children's Museum of Houston to create the Playground for Invention Mindfest.

Time: August 11, 2007

Day One: The interns and their parents meet Gabe and I at the airport ready for another DesignIT exploration. The kids said farewell to their parents and after a very long security check and almost missing the flight... We were on our way to Houston. We rented a car in Houston and headed for some food, than to the museum where we meet Melanie. Melanie gave us a tour of the Children's Museum. We decided to find our hotel to rest but come back later for a dinner meeting with Melanie to discuss the plans for the following day.

Day Two: We came to the museum at 9am to prep for our spaces and give a helping hand to anyone that needed it. The Keva Kapla planks was set up right in front of the Light Painting/Shadow Art room. Gabe and Eddie began setting up the strings in the Light Painting/Shadow art room while Crystal and I made wands and test out the lighting in the room with the camera. As we were setting up the room, Jasmine, Caroline, and David build a Keva plank community with the visitors. Melanie brought over the info cards that tells visitors where to find there pictures on the internet. As we place the Light Painting sign up, guest enter immediately ready to figure out what light painting is about. They received a card and a number, then picked a wand to practice making their pictures. With the help of Lucinda from Discovery Place in Tyler, we had a steady flow until 1 o'clock.

Gabe, Crystal, the interns and I took a lunch and exploration break before heading into the Animation Zone to set up for Stop Motion Animation. Families sign up for 30 minute sessions and there were 5 stations. The kids seem to get the concept of making a movie and they loved walking away with their own personal film. Unfortunately, there was some technical problems with one computer so we were down 1 computer for 2 sessions. This didn't seem to slow the animation makers down. Each family seemed to use ever minute up to the 5 minute warning call. By the end of the day, we had a successful Mindfest with a 97% satisfactory from the survey that was held from that weekend.

Thank you to Melanie Kern for inviting us to help at the Mindfest and for being to hospitable to the Design IT Studios team!

Design IT team at DFW!

Here in Houston Internation on a way to finding a rental car....

Finding the bags was much more difficult then it looks : (

Dinner meeting with Melanie. Jasmine and Caroline looks intense...

Group picture with Melanie to my right and Lucinda to my left...

Eddie helping the young guest film his movie...

Jasmine extending her Kapla villa with Caroline's villa...

Crystal and I had to make the room darker. With the help of Jasmine and Caroline it worked!

I made a light painting palm tree!

Family Fun Plaza

2007-07-12T15:12:00.000-05:00

Objective: Design IT Studios is bringing activity for the Museum guest, who's visiting the Star Wars exhibit, to come play in Family Fun Plaza.

Time: June 5th-7th, 2007

Activity: Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 11:30am-5:30pm Design IT Studios is out and about the Museum of Science and History playing with various activities. For this weekend, we brought the trebuchet out, stomp rockets, and keva kapla.

In the picture to the left, Eric is instructing the kids on the difference between trebuchet and catapult, how the trebuchet works, and letting the kids tell him what degree he needs to position the launcher and where to place the red sack. We had an intern become a target but pretty soon guest and parents wanted to get wet too!

Stomp Rocket activity has been going on since the beginning of June. Interns became experts at making rockets fly to the top of the Museum building. The guests enjoy making a couple of different design in their stomp rocket to see which one would work the best.

Keva Kapla is a fun activity for designing building from the old to the modern. Many adults and kids enjoying building but on a hot day they prefer not to seat out for in the heat.

This weekend was fairly busy with water balloons and rockets flying over heads. The guest loved the trebuchet and many kids asked how to make one. Parents were excited and wanted to join their kids playing and trying to figure out how to hit the target.

Eddie and Ashley instructing the guest on how to make a rocket out of construction paper.

3, 2, 1, go.... who will it hit?

Does it hit David ?!?

Planning for a Hot July

2007-07-11T12:44:00.000-05:00

Today in the studio, the interns and staff discussed what has been done in the past few weeks and planned on what other activities can be done in the future. So far, our interns have been working outside (and in, when raining) with the museum public. The interns launched water balloons with our trebuchet, created spin art creations with kids, shot bottle rockets and have done so much more. Our interns noted that it's been a really good past few weeks but, there can be some adjustments and some additions that can make the program flourish further.

In part one of our meeting, we discussed how to influence the museum patrons to come outside where our projects are taking place and how to work our trebuchet more efficiently. The interns noted that if it is cooler outside, perhaps the museum patrons will find the idea of playing outside more attractive. Although we can do a lot of things in the studio, of course we cannot change the course of weather! The interns decided that umbrellas for shade and more fans will help out with the heat problem. The trebuchet also provides a little relief from the heat. Children who visit the museum are always willing to be smacked and drenched in the head by a water balloon.

The trebuchet we currenly have in the studio isn't the greatest. Fortunately enough, our studio will have three more trebuchets coming within the next few weeks. With that, it is decided that we should set a few guidelines when working with the trebuchet:

- Children are allowed two water ballon throws (First time to get a feel for it, second to actually aim and shoot the target.)
- Explain the science behind the trebuchet (e.g. water ballon weight vs. counter veight, variables)
- Only studio staff can handle the trebuchet during launching part- kids help load and aim trebuchet only.

In part two of our discussion, our interns were asked to plan, research, and build water bottle rockets. The interns and studio adults set up guidelines and tips (as we did for the trebuchet).
Tips:
- Let the kids build the "top part thing" to the rocket.
- Let the kids pump the air
- Tell people when you are releasing the rocket.
- Get the people to run away for shelter!

Working on bottle rockets

Overall, the meeting was a success! The interns worked diligently and explained their part of their research well. Good job today!

Who says we shouldn't let kids make their own lightsaber?

2007-07-03T10:55:00.001-05:00

This past Saturday, the Design IT Studio Interns and Sammie created Star Wars Lightsabers for the first time. Of course, this wouldn't be the actual Star Wars swords- things would get pretty messy. When our little Sammie designed these little lightsabers, she decided to replicate these lightsabers based on her size- thus miniature lightsabers were born!

Creating these lightsabers is quite simple. Electrical tape, glue sticks, watch batteries, LED lights, popsicle sticks, and a little bit of imagination from our guests and interns is all that's needed to create these miniature replicas. Wesley, Ashley and Jasmine were our three all-star interns this weekend helping us out. For about 3 hours, the interns, Sammie and I helped guests make their own wands. The children who came by were really excited about these wands- some of them even begged to make more than one! The parents also were very interested in their child's work. Many of them inquired on how to create these wands themselves at home!

Overall, the DesignIT time on Saturday was a hit. People were coming in non-stop for the entire time we were there, and the patrons were patient about waiting in line for their child to create their own mini lightsaber. Thanks to the interns and Sammie for the great work they did!

DesignIT Travels to Concert in the Garden

2007-06-30T17:29:00.000-05:00

Objective: Design IT Studios at Concert in the Gardens painting Star Wars Mask on Spin tables.

Time: June 22-23rd, 2007, 6pm-8:30pm

Participants: Sammie, Jasmine, Wesley, and Ashley

Activity: Design IT Studios took a very short road trip to Concert in the Garden. In the museum van, we brought spin art supplies for kids to make Star Wars mask. The concert coordinator let us in through a private entrance and showed us where we will be station. We setup the activity quickly. The interns made their example of the masked for visitors to see then afterwards, I sent the interns out to explore the area before we started our section. Visitors began to arrive at 6:30pm. At first, the visitors thought that they had to pay to make the mask. Soon when the visitors realize that it was free we were busy until the Nation Anthem song blared across the park. Kids and parents seemed to enjoy the activity mainly because it was easy to make and it gave their kids something to do while the stage people were prepping for the concert. We had 1 year old to 15 year old joining us in the activity. Masked children were wondering around pretending to be Star Wars character or Harry Potter. The interns and I had a blast both days we were out. Special thanks to the Star Wars impersonators for coming over to make a mask with the kids.

Darth Vador, lightsaber, Jedi's, and more!!!!

2007-06-12T10:47:00.000-05:00

Objective: Design IT Studios Interns help with the Membership Preview for Star Wars by guiding kids and parents towards building lightsabers.

Time: June 8, 2006, 6pm-8pm

Materials: LED lights, straw, glue stick, Popsicle stick, CR2032 battery, and electrical tape.

Activity: Star Wars finally opened at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. Design IT Studios coaches and interns had a small play shop in Hands on Science building lightsabers. Materials were laid out for the members with six interns nervously waiting for the doors to open up to Hands on Science. The room was darken for special effects and the only light sources came form lamps. As the doors opens, interns and coaches were packed with young Jedi's, storm troopers, and Darth Vader's all accompanied by their parents ready to see what the activity was for the night. By the hour, the museum was filled with lightsabers and the sound of whoosh. In the picture above, young Star Wars fans showing off their finish lightsaber. The most exciting part of the night had to go towards the interns interacting with children, ages 5-13 years old. It was fairly busy for the 2 hours that we were on the floor but each intern kept a cool head and put many smiles on the children and parents face.

Ashley demonstrating how to make a lightsaber.

ALA Final Showdown!!!

2007-05-24T10:21:00.000-05:00

Objective: The Applied Learning Academy DesignIT teens had their final showcase event. The Squirrel's group will be presenting their movie and the Moose's group will display their Diet Coke and Mentos to their parents, special guests from Houston Children Museum, and other wandering guest.

Time: May 23, 2007... at 12pm-3pm

Activity: After planning the cycles for the past year the ALA DesignIT teens has completed every event that was presented to them. It was a bittersweet day to watch the teens present their final showcase. Although each teen were relieve to be finishing up the cycles, they were also sad to be leaving their Middle School days and entering the world of High School life. The Squirrels came into the studio around 10am to finish up their movie. The Moose's, that was not needed to help with the Squirrel's video, worked on their Diet Coke and Mentos presentation.

Noon rolled by quickly for everyone. There was a nervous feel that came from the teens. Some asked if their movie was "good enough" to show their parents, staff, peers from the school, and the special guest from Houston. I could tell that they really wanted the best out of their movie. My only calming statement that I could muster for them was "the fact that they tried doing their on the video. That alone has been appreciate and will be recognize." After dragging the last group into the viewing area (Room 7, in courtesy towards Museum School for letting us used the room) the teens prepare the make their speech about their film. The films were great! The audience laugh and asked very good questions to the young directors. As shown in the picture above, Taylor, Nick, and Breck, made a funny film with great bloopers.

By one o'clock, the audience moved outside to watch the Moose's Diet Coke and Mentos. The Mooses had only 1 day out of each week to play with Diet Coke and Mentos with the use of cricket and sensors. Which meant that they only had 3 days to play with their ideas. Each teen were allowed to partner up and present their idea. The Moose's teen soon realize that some ideas were better on paper. Not all the Diet Coke and Mentos worked but they enjoyed being splash with the Diet Coke and the audience were supportive.

After the Diet Coke and Mentos, the parents and our guest came back inside to start the party. We had everyone get in line for the food then sit down for a 19 minute video Eric (the DesignIT computer genius) and I worked on for the 8th graders that will be leaving for high school. At this moment, a special appreciation towards Eric Oeur, who had worked so hard on the ALA's slideshow. He did is best to use my ideas and his own to create a great video that I wanted the 8th graders to remember. The teens did liked it and some were even emotional. There were plenty of hugs and thank you's after the video.

It is a great moment every time to watch the ALA DesignIT teen make a goal and accomplish it.

DesignIT teens watch the peers film...

Stephanie and Allie set off their Diet Coke and Mentos...

Joe creates crossbow to set off his Diet Coke and Mentos.

ALA Pico Showcase!

2007-05-05T12:01:00.000-05:00

When asked to recount the experiences of creating a city, one usually responds with a befuddled, confused face.
"A city? That's going to take forever! That sounds so hard!"
Fortunately, this isn't the case for our ALA DesignIT interns.
"Oh, a city? Whoa. Let's make a casino!"
A few weeks ago, the lovely Sammie brought an idea to the table- the creation of an interactive city using programmable PICO crickets. The city would include lights, sensors, light-relays, motors and of course our DesignIT Teens in miniature form.

Mini-Teens in the Pico City!

Here is a project where the imagination of each DesignIT Teen is put to the test. A mixture of team work, interaction with the public, and technological expertise in programming is showcased. The result...

ALA Teens Showcase Work

The imaginations of the ALA teens seemed to flourish in this project. Buildings ranged from a Pico-Sound Sensitive Grocery store to a light-relay back to back casino. Stephanie created a hotel featuring the DesignIT Staff, Interns and her friends from ALA. On top of the casino, she created a roller coaster, which activated whenever someone yelled, "Go!" in the PICO sensor.

Stephanie with her PicoScrapper

When the students worked the PicoVegas showcase on Friday and Saturday night, they all acknowledged a difference in crowds compared to the daytime crowds during the week. They pointed out that there were not only kids (which they were used to) but parents as well. It was then said that it was harder to get the museum patrons involved PicoVegas. Although this may have hindered their willing to try to interact with the public, they went out and brought children and parents to see their project. The result...

a success!

Northside Science Festival

2007-03-31T13:04:00.001-05:00

The Northside Boys and Girls Club held a Science Festival on Thursday. They asked us to help coordinate the event by providing them with 15-20 science experiments. 20 volunteers from the Burlington Northern railroad company came to help us run the booths. We had bout 250 kids from all boys and girls clubs in Fort Worth visiting. To make this event kid friendly there was cotton candy, popcorn and jump houses. Our role was to perform the experiments and make science fun for the kids. Sammie was a big hit with Diet Coke and Mentos presentations. Each group would count down the seconds until she would trigger the physical reaction. The amazed looks on the children’s faces was priceless. Saafir ran the table of dry ice experiments and helped out at the stomp rocket launching site. There was a Melon Harp playing table, where the kids themselves we able to create music using fruit. Each kids was able to make a hoop glider, whirly-gig, stomp rocket and spin art painting. Spin art is always a crowd pleaser and Mary the director of the Northside club requested we bring this activity out. Sam helped man the USB microscope and the kids were able to take a closer look at their hair, skin, clothes and a few museum specimens. We also had a variety of simple science experiments such as bringing yeast to life, surface tension test, water soluble and acidic liquids experiments. The children seemed to really enjoy the activities as did the adults involved; the room was alive with energy and excitement for the entire festival. Over all Mary and I felt this was a success for a first go around and have already began thinking about improvements for next year.

LIveology Lab: Week Four

2007-02-21T12:37:00.000-06:00

This was our Animation Weekend with Design IT Studios in the Liveology Lab. We kicked things off Friday night since Free Family Friday was bumped up one week due to the Mad Scientist Ball. We pulled out the Digital Blue cameras to create some stop-motion animation movies. On another table we had paper and pencil ready to make Thaumatrobes and simple flip books. This weekend was also started National Engineers Week. Engineers from Lockheed and IBM came to volunteer at the museum and show off some of their latest technology. Their was the animatronic face, radio helicopters, robots and spider robots. We also had a flight simulator and various other activities involving engineering and physics. This was a great opportunity for the interns to work alongside people who have made engineering and technology their life's work. It was also another great chance for the interns to interact with the public and show them just what exactly Design IT Studios is all about.

Liveology Lab: Week Three

2007-02-14T11:19:00.000-06:00

This weekend we brought back a crowd favorite Spin Art. Like the first weekend of Liveology Lab Spin Art was a smashing success. Just in sight measuring I would say we had more visitors this weekend. The interns have become real pros atworking with the visitors, especially with the children. Rebecca Rico a high school freshman showed a nack in working with the toddler aged kiddos. One of the biggest skilles I had hoped the interns would take away from this experince was learning to interact with visitors. From the these past weekends I see that they indeed are learing this.

ALA Gear up for Photo Motion

2007-02-09T13:39:00.000-06:00

Objective: Design IT Studios teens from Applied Learning Academy (ALA) are finishing up their Light Cycle with Photo Motion.

Time: January 2007

Activity: With Light Cycle coming to its end, the Design IT teens from ALA are wrapping it up with Photo Motion. Photo Motion is using the same setting as we did in Light Painting, which is slowing down the shutter speed to 15 seconds and turning off the flash. The materials needed for this activity was a flashlight, a tripod, and a digital camera. Timing is very important in Photo Motion. As shown in the picture to left, Joe is playing two characters a bully and a hero. Allie set in the middle must hold still for 15 sec so the photographer can take a shot of Joe in two different spots. When the characters are ready the camera person must tell everyone to hold still for 5 sec. and then the light person must cover the light source while the characters are changing positions. The ending result would look similar to the picture above.

Some of the Photo Motion activities were for the ALA teens to make self shots of themselves, combining light painting to the shots, perspective, and the final product was to combine all the little activities together. The teens were again split into 3 groups. They had to tell a story through Photo Motion by using nonverbal communication, incorporating the exercises that was mention earlier. Photo Motion is challenging and rewarding. The ALA teens took a few weeks working on their story. Some frustration for them were: standing still for so long, working in the dark can be painful, and the timing needed to be accurate for the shot to be clear. For the most part, the teens love Photo Motion and was excited to show off there stories to their peers.

Martin Jitter Bugs

2007-02-09T10:41:00.000-06:00

After a week break at Martin due to snowy weather we continue our new partnership and bring these teens Jitter Bugs. Jitter Bugs simple motors connected to a single AA batterey with a glue stick propeller. The Jitter Bugs have a robo art quality in that the simplicity of the feet aid in its jittering abilities. These legs are paper clips stuck into the Styrofoam bodies. Feathers, googlie eyes, and pipe cleaners a great for decorating these curious creatures.
The kids at martin loved making these and by the end of out time at the club had over a dozen little bugs running around the floor. This is a great activity to capture the attention and curiosity of our new prospective Design IT members.

ALA Light Painting Extravaganza

2007-02-09T10:24:00.000-06:00

Objective: The Design IT teen from Applied Learning Academy (ALA) working with light painting.

Time: December 2006

Activity: The ALA Design IT teens are the first to work with the light painting section to the Light Cycle. Light painting is drawing with a small source of light in front of a camera. The digital camera must have the ability to slow the shutter speed to about 15 seconds. When the shutter speed is slowed down, the camera is able to only capturing the light and movement in front of it. The room has to be completely dark or other objects or the painter is in the background.

The first part of the activity was to practice drawing different shapes, then following that, teens had to draw actual pictures of animals. In the picture to the left, Allie and Hannah, were practicing how to make a kangaroo. With Christmas around the corner, the last activity for light painting was to make Christmas decoration for the Holiday party as seen below with the mistletoe.

Pumpkin Carving with PICO crickets

2007-02-09T10:16:00.000-06:00

Objective: Pumpkin carving and adding the PICO crickets, motors, and sound to the pumpkin.

Time: October 2006

Activity: Today was pumpkin carving time! It was just your everyday run of the mill pumpkin carving, but with the use of the technological PICO, the pumpkins are semi-mobile with Halloweens sounds coming from the insides. To the left the Design IT teens from the Applied Learning Academy (ALA) are working at cleaning and carving the pumpkins as thoroughly as possible before programing the crickets. The teens were split into four groups. Each team member were asked to assign themselves a duty so everyone was able to have a turn with the pumpkin. One of the requirements of the pumpkins was to make something move around it or connected to it to make the pumpkin more interactive. Some other optional programing was to make the pumpkin light up and/or make sounds. All of the groups made two out of the three suggestions. The pumpkins were then displayed in the large window section were Museum School parents and guest were able to interact with the pumpkin through the window. This activity was success and festive for the season. A few of the coaches took the activity to the Boys and Girls Clubs and the Design IT Studios Intern were eager to be involved towards creating their own PICO Pumpkins.

Stephanie cleaning out her pumpkin.

Tim Burton's inspired pumpkin getting ready to come to life.

Shadow Art

2007-02-05T14:03:00.000-06:00

Objective: Shadow Art with Design IT Studios teens at the Applied Learning Academy (ALA) site.

Date: November 2006

Activity: The Shadow Art is a new cycle involving a lamp, white butcher paper, various woods, wires, and craft materials. Shadow art is a way to create a picture through cast lights on some butcher paper. They objects making the shadow generally did not look like the object that is on the butcher paper. On the picture to the left, is a practice run for one of the group to test out how they far the material had to be and how thick the materials needed to be. The teens were broken into four small groups. The first day, the ALA teens had to go online and find a picture of their favorite artist painting or image. After they each printed a picture, I placed the pictures on the board and placed their group names in a hat for a drawing. The first grouped picked had the option to pick any picture from the board. From there the teens had 10 days to build their projects before moving onto the next exercise. The next following exercise was to make a moving shadow art involving the PICO cricket.

The next part for shadow are was to make a shadow turn into a scene or picture using PICO crickets. This was challenging for the ALA design IT teens because they couldn't cut the material to look exactly like the object of the cast shadow.

Team Building at ALA

2007-02-05T13:33:00.000-06:00

Activity: Design IT Studios team building at Applied Learning Academy (ALA)

Date: Aug. 2006

Participants: ALA teens that were active in Design IT for a year.

Objective: In the beginning of the school year, Design IT Studios program would be active again at the middle school. One of our activities the coaches likes to redo is the Team Building Exercise. Throughout the whole year, the teens are broken into various groups. At times, these groups are not with there friends. This causes friction in the group, which may cause a creative working block. The Team Building Exercises helps the teen figure out how to work with each other by communicating their idea in a positive way to make it to there goal. They go through 3 to 4 different exercise by the end of the two day Team Building Cycle. In the picture above, the ALA teens are not allowed to place their foot on the grass and have to make it to a poll 20 feet away using 3 wooden planks. Other rules applied was that they were not allowed to make negative comments or they would have to start over.

Best part: When splitting the team up into their groups, being an observer, you can see the way the teens process the exercise and work their way through to their goal.

Worst part: Not being able to give your advice, even if they asked for help, they had to figure the exercise for themselves.

Photo Shop

2007-02-04T13:17:00.000-06:00

In the grand tradition of fusing art and technology, we have here at Design IT Studios are giving the Northside teens a lesson in Photo editing. This introduces them to a new computer program they can add to their collection of acquired skills that will hopefully help lead them to a career in the IT industry. With the help of Eric, our resident computer guy we installed and learned to use Photoshop; we then intern introduced this to the teens.
For our first activity Eric and myself looked for pictures of well know monuments from around the world. The teens would chose from these wonders and with a few directions from us, place themselves somewhere in the picture.
We found that working one-on-one with a few teens each session produced better results that if we were to give a group presentation. This also allows us to get to knowthe teens on a more personal level.
The best part of this project was when Salazar, an 8th action start image grader at J.P.ElderMiddle School saw some of our sample pictures and was so amazed that we could do such things with a just few pictures and a computer. He felt learning to do this himself would bean impossible task. Salazar wanted to have himself hang from the top of the Statue of Liberty to give him the without the actual danger. He was utterly amazed when his picture was finished and he had
indeed learn to use Photoshop.
I feel that projects which have a real world use and popular appeal are the best to bring to these kids and to the community. Shorter sample type projects are great for introducing a new idea technology or program. Once the teens have become familiarized with such programs they can then delve deeper into the program and challenge themselves with more complex activities.

Liveology Lab: Week Two...Bugs

2007-02-04T13:12:00.000-06:00

We had another wonderful weekend of fun here in the Liveology Lab; Our theme was Bugs! On Saturday we brought back popular feature from the museums previous exhibit Robots, the Jitter bug. The Jitter Bug apart from being a dance from the WWII era is an activity involving simple motors. We took a motor small enough to run off on AA battery. Add a glue stick for propulsion, paper clips for legs and a Styrofoam body and you have a jittering creature ready for exploration. With a few accessories from the studios crafts collection and we turned our creations in to bugs.
In keeping with our bug theme, on Saturday we created Throwie Bugs. Throwie Bugs spawned from the Throwie and Blinky Bug Projects we encountered this summer. With a couple of LED lights which run of a lithium battery we gave our bugs life. Wood chips and Popsicle sticks a great for bug bodies which can be decorated using colored markers. Adding a small magnet makes the bug ready for display. These were also a neat souvenir for our guest to take home as a memento from their trip to the museum.
I have found that our more popular activities do not take long to make and can be made quite simply. It always leaves a good impression of our museum to the guest when they can literally take something away from it.

Liveology Lab: Week One

2007-01-29T14:06:00.000-06:00

On this, the first week of Liveology Lab the interns brought Spin Art to the public. Liveology Lab is an exhibit where each aspect is interactive. On weekdays we have bubbles, bottle rockets, melon harp, Keva block building, live animal presentations and liquid nitrogen experiments.
The interns host a special activity on weekends.
Spin Art was a hit with our visitors. We took pieces of Lego blocks and a Lego motor to create a spinning motion, that we could then add a table top to. Once we had the tables completed we set out paint and brushes and the creation of art commenced.
The kiddos loved it and the interns had fun as well. This is an easy activity that can be done to draw in large crowds. Our only problem was trying to shut down for the day. People kept pouring in. Finally we had to eliminate our spinner one at a time, until were down to one. I think this is an activity we will do again before Liveology is done.

Martin Robo Art

2007-01-29T13:28:00.000-06:00

Since we are still in the beginning stages of a partnership with the Martin Boys and Girls Club many of our activities are short, simple, and as always fun. Robo Art provides an opportunity for all of the above. Taking the simplest PICO Cricket program and adding a few Lego pieces to make the spinning motion really swing it will make the robot tidder and todder. All we have to do them is create the robot body using Styrofoam board, paper cups and a bit of hot glue. The kids can be a creative with this as they can. Seeing as how our teens at Martin are still new to the tinkering and creating, having a few examples helps fuel and direct their creativity.
The best and more artistic part is using thin markers for the robot legs. Once your ready tape large sheets of paper to the floor, uncap the markers and turn the Crickets on. The robot with wobble around the paper leaving behind its colorful track pattern.

Martin Spin Art Photos

2007-01-20T15:29:00.000-06:00

Martin Spin Art

2007-01-20T11:31:00.000-06:00

Big Idea: Create circular art patterns using a Pico Cricket powered spin table.

Associated Concepts: This activity helps the newbies become familiar with the Pico Cricket program and with building with legos (you can build anything with legos).

Participants: 18 of martin Boys and Girls Club teens; interns -Ashley, Eddie and Rachel; Coaches- Sammie, Gabe, Rockey, and Eric.

Activities: We put together simple spinning lego motion modules and attached a wood board for a base and a foam board for a top table. We them place a piece of paper on the top table and held it on with a paper clip. When the table was on the kids squirted paint on the paper to created different colors and pattern

IT: The PICO programs can range from a simple motor on to making the spinner senor reactive. See www.pienetwork.org for spinning motion module ideas.

Best Part: We had a great turn out and the kids we truly enthusiastic. This was a fun and creative project to introduce them to PICO and Design IT.

Worst Part: We had only expected to have about fifteen participants and we a bit short on supplies. We compromised by making groups of 2-3 and they worked with a coach or intern.

Improvements: Bring more supplies. Splash guards would help keep the paint from splashing.

Our First Day @ Martin Boys and Girls Club

2007-01-13T14:11:00.000-06:00

Big Idea: To expand the Design IT Family to include the Martin Boys and Girls Club in Eastside of Fort Worth on E. Rosedale.

Participants: Thanks to our long time Design IT friend Santiago we are able to bring Design it to the kids in the Polytechnical Heights Neighborhood... Thanks Santiago.
Coaches from ever site came to welcome our new prospects: Sammie from the ALA site, Gabe from the Panther site and lovely Rockey from the Northside site. Part of the outward and upward expansion of Design IT is to enlist the help of our high school interns to help out at different sites. Rachel, Ashley and Eddie have been given the opportunity to work with the Martin team.

Activity: The coaches talked to the kids about Design It and showed them examples of activities they would be working on through out the Spring Semester. While they were there we filled up their tummies with yummy snacks and socialized with them a bit.

Best part: A new group of teen brings a whole new group of possibilities for Design IT Studios. Many of them were very energetic and feel Design It will be fun time.

Photo Stamping: the artsy side of technology

2007-01-13T13:56:00.000-06:00

Big Idea: Take a picture, using a digital camera of each teen then transfer and transform their portrait into a watercolors painting.

Associated Concepts: An more artistic activity in digital photography to help the Design IT kids become better familiarized in using the digital cameras. This knowledge will help them with future activities within the Spring 2007 Photography Cycle.

Participants: Coaches present were Rockey and Eric, Joey is the intern for Northside. We had about 12 participants with about 5 new faces.

Activity: Each teen had a picture of themselves taken and printed out on normal printer paper. From then we tape the picture face on a piece of mat board . With a wet sponge we dabbed the paper until the colors transferred to the mat board surface giving the illusion of a watercolors painting.

Best Part: The kids really enjoyed this project. We started out with three participating ended with twelve, good news travels fast.

Worst Part: It is always better be over prepared than under prepared. We would have had a few more kids participate if we had a few more mat boards.

Improvements: Get internet access and bring more supplies.

Pumpkin Bash

2007-01-03T13:56:00.000-06:00

A few weeks before halloween Panther teens explored the art of pumpkin carving with a little electronic twist.

The first task was to do the dirty work and that consisted of cleaning out the pumpkins. (This was a lot of fun and it was also my first time doing it thanks D.I.)

Second task was to carve into the pumpkin. Many images ranged from evil bats, to hands growing out of the ground.

Third task was to take a pico cricket and light up your pumpkin. Then we placed our pumpkins into Panthers Hunted House and as club kids walked by the pumpkins began to wake up.

Two of our pumpkins where entered into the Boys and Girls club pumpkin carving contest and they both won us Second place. Good job Panther!!!!

Light Painting

2006-12-27T13:41:00.000-06:00

Who would black out a room with construction paper and trash bags (boy what a task) move everything in the room to one side, set up a couple of tripods and place digital camera's on them and say, "Alright you guys, you ready for your photo shoot?" Good question only D.I.S. teens would be outrageously up for this challeged. Check out this pic!!!

Panthers LED Throwies

2006-12-27T13:24:00.000-06:00

Graffiti has been taken to the next level and it has sparked the idea's and thoughts of the D.I.S. staff. What if we could tag objects, buildings, and walls and leave our mark and make it last for a couple of weeks or so. LED throwies are very fun and Panther teens took it as far as they could from becoming fashion statements to taggin the D.I. cabinet to leaving their mark on the ceiling for everyone to observe.

Panthers Short Stop to Stop Motion Animation

2006-12-27T13:01:00.000-06:00

Why not take a little time and become a "Life Givers." The idea of becoming a Creator of something takes time and it takes practice but the best thing about being a Creator is making your creation come to life. Teens at Panther were game when it became time to make simple crafts sticks come alive and take motion to form things that only their minds could imagine. In groups of two, teens were given laptops and intel cameras and sent to explore the wonderful world of stop motion there were many things the teens learned in there first few minutes like the importance of making small movements and keeping your hands free of the camera while taking shots. Panthers will see Stop Motion Animation again in the near future but what I cant wait to see is the wonderful things the will create with the emotional challenges that will be presented next time.

The beginning of the Panther DesignIt take over!!

2006-12-27T12:10:00.000-06:00

The beginning of another wonderful year of D.I.S. here at Panther. Today not only were the teens presented with a delicious pizza party but they also were faced with their first D.I.S. challenge. There were about 10 pico crickets that each were equipped with its on sensor. Today's challenged was to understand what type of reaction made the pico change it's current state. The teens had a lot of fun passing pico's back and forth seeing if they could accomplish the challenge. Great start Panther many wonderful things to come in the Future.

LED Christmas Ornaments

2006-12-21T11:58:00.001-06:00

Big Idea: Have kids made Christmas ornaments for decorating their Christmas tree or house for the holidays using LED lights.

Time: Great activity for the Christmas season

Participants: Northside Boys and Girls Club

Activity: Using felt, popsicle sticks and other craft material create a Christmas icon or decoration. Use lithium batteries and LED lights to give your ornament a bright and festive look.

Best Part: The kids now have a unique, creative and high tech way of decorating their home for the holidays.

Worst Part: Not having enough time to work on project with kids before the winter break. Not having a way to preserve battery power. After being made the LED light will last a most two weeks and may not be reusable.

Improvements: Try adding a switch to the LED lights.

Mini Christmas Tree

2006-12-21T11:58:00.000-06:00

Big Idea: Create miniature Christmas trees that play music or light up when the sensor is triggered.

Time: Great Christmas project

Participants: Northside Boys and Girls Club

Activity: Create three triangular pieces using six wire hangers. Electrical tape is good to bind the wire. Attach a set of 35-50 count Christmas lights. Cover with any style Garland. Add a PICO cricket that perform the task of your choice.

Best Part: Having a room full of tiny Christmas trees

Worst Part: Not being able to keep the PICO cricket

Improvements: Find a way to sustain the lights without using the power outlet.

Christmas Card Light Painting

2006-12-21T11:57:00.001-06:00

Big Idea: Create pictures using light painting techniques that can be turned into a unique Christmas card.

Time: Great activity for the Christmas season

Participants: Northside Boys and girls club

Activity: With the lights turned out in a totally dark room set your camera's shutter speed for 5-15 seconds. While you are taking the picture draw in mid-air a Christmas icons or scenes using Lithium battery powered LED lights. The LED lights can be soldered to a switch which will make it easier to get the light when and where you wanted for a better outcome.

Best Part: Being able to give someone a unique hand made Christmas card

Worst Part: More practice in painting with light will help you create a better looking picture. The switches are not always easy to make and maintain.

Improvements: finding a better way to make and maintain a switch for the LED lights.

Christmas in the Stockyards

2006-12-21T11:57:00.000-06:00

Big Idea: To take Mindfest components and recreated them outside the museum, within the community.

Time: Saturday December 2nd

Participants: All interns

Activity: Bottle rockets, social and interactive PICO creatures, Liquid nitrogen shows, Diet Coke and Mentos experiments

Best Part: Seeing how some of the more shy interns learn to interact with the public, also Diet Coke fountains/ showers.

Worst Part: The weather a bit chilly for a hay ride

Improvements: Having more activities and hopefully draw a larger crowd.

What I learned today: Social Intelligence in the Studio

2006-11-07T14:17:00.000-06:00

We have powerful influences on the brains and bodies of the people we interact with every day. From the perspective of recent nueroscience, our person-to-person interactions turn out to be tightly linked circuits, shaping our brains, our hormones, even the expression of our genes. In his latest book Social Intelligence Havard scientist Daniel Goleman takes us on a tour of this new science at the intersection of biology, nueroscience, and psychology. The implications for education are profound.

Here's an excerpt:

Mounting research shows that students who feel connected to school -- to teachers, to other students, to the school itself -- do better academically. They also fare better in resisting the perils of modern adolescence: emotionally connected students have lower rates of violence, bullying, and vandalism; anxiety and depression, drug use, and sucide; truancy and dropping out.

"Feeling connected" here refers not to some vague niceness but to concrete emotional links between students and the people in their school: other kids, teachers, staff. []

In a study of 910 first-graders from a national sample representative of the entire United States, trained observers evaluated their teachers, and assessed the effect of teaching style on how well the at-risk children learned. The best results were found when teachers:

Tuned in to the child and responded to his needs, moods, interests, and capabilities, letting them guide their interactions.
Created an upbeat classroom climate with pleasant conversations, lots of laughter and excitement.
Showed warmth and "positive regard" toward students.
Had good classroom management, with clear but flexible expectations and routines, so that students followed rules largely on their own.
The worst outcomes resulted when teachers took an I-It stance and imposed their own agenda without tuning in, or were emotionally distant and uninvolved. Such teachers were angry at students more often and had to resort to punitive methods of restoring order.

Students who were already doing well continued to do so regardless of the setting. But at-risk students who had cold or controlling teachers floundered academically--even when their teachers followed pedagogic guidelines for good instruction. Yet the study found a stunning difference amont at-risk students: if they had a warm, responsive teacher, they flourished, learning as well as the other kids.

The power of an emotionally connected teacher does not end in first grade. Sixth-graders who had such a teacher earned better grades not only that year but the next as well. Good teachers are like good parents. By offering a secure base, a teacher creates an environment that lets students' brains function at their best. That base becomes a safe haven, a zone of strength from which they can venture forth to master something new, to achieve.

The Great pumpkin Patch Experiment

2006-10-17T13:52:00.001-05:00

Big Idea: Take the pumpkin carving tradition and give it a high tech twist. Carve a Pumpkin with any pattern you feel you can comfortable with.

Time: This is a great Halloween activity.

Participants: Northside, Panther Boys and Girls Club and ALA

Activity: Find a pumpkin pattern on line or in a pattern book, or you can also create your own pattern. Tape the pattern sheet directly onto the pumpkin and poke dotted lines along the pattern lines puncturing through the pumpkin. Once you have the pattern dotted onto the pumpkin you can start to cut out the pattern. Next you'll have to clean out the inside of the pumpkin until the mantle is less than 1" in depth.

IT: Now that you have your pumpkin ready, you can add light, sound or movement using a PICO cricket. Add a sensor to make the pumpkin interactive.

Best Part: Seeing the different creative ideas the kids come up with.

Worst Part: unfortunately the pumpkins do not have a long life span and will begin to decay soon after carving.

Improvements: Find a new way to extend the life of the pumpkins.

Fit Future Event @ Will Rogers Memorial Center

2006-10-17T13:52:00.000-05:00

Big Idea: Design IT Interns set up booth and incorporate IT technology such as PICO Crickets.

Time: Saturday; October 7, 2006

Participants: Design IT Interns: Joey Cardona, Valerie Tovar, Valerie Raya, Caroline Ludwig

Activities: The interns created a reaction time game using PICO Crickets . People were able to test how fast their reaction was to sight and sound. They also used the less high tech reaction ruler as well. They also created a melon Harp that created fun sounds.

Associated Concept: The Fit Future Event was to promote health and fitness to children 12 yrs. and younger. Reaction time games are a way to check one of the many aspects of fitness and making it fun and interactive for the kids. The Melon Harp showed the kids the fun side of fruit and vegetables.

Best Part: Giving the teens and opportunity to work with the public.

Worst Part: complications with the Melon Harp cause them to shut it down and stick to just the reaction time games.

Improvements: Have backup crickets ready in case one breaks down.

Interns Help Out With Family Science Nights

2006-10-12T13:31:00.000-05:00

Due to the changing out of museum exhibits at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, the Design IT Studios interns had opportunities to help entertain the families who attended the Family Science Night events. During the previous School year and summer the interns had a chance to learn many different computer programs, new technology, and new venues for art. In one of the empty galleries of the museum the teen set up display tables and with the aid of Saafir adjusted the lighting to accent their placement.
There first table had the melon harp made up of watermelons and pineapples. On one whole side of the room the interns set up a giant chain reaction area. Here families could create their own chain reaction and connect it to that of other families. On someday they had the Social Fireflies experiment out and on other they set up reaction time games to challenge our guest and entertain them at the same time.
Overall the experience was a positive one for the interns. It gave them a chance to interact with the public, which came in handy later on in the month as they participated in the Fit Future event at the Will Rogers Memorial Center.
In the next even it would be helpful to have back up projects to use in case one of them brakes down. We had a difficult time keeping the melon harp in working condition. After a few days we noticed that the social fireflies did not attract a very big crowd, so we figured to give the reaction time games a try. They were a big hit; kids and parents alike rose to the challenge and tried to bet their best scores.

Mindfest is coming...

2006-08-31T11:09:00.000-05:00

Big Idea: Mindfest is coming early this year and the teens at ALA and the Boys & Girls Club are reviving up for the big event.

Time: The whole month of August anytime that they are free.

Participants: Design IT coaches from all the sites, Boys & Girls Club teens , the Applied Learning Academy, and the interns that where previous Design IT Studio members.

Activity: Everyone has been pitching in to get ready for MindFest on September 8th & 9th. This years theme for MindFest is Trip the Light Fantastic. The Design IT teens are getting crash courses in Spirograghs, Animation Zone, Building-A-Blinkybug, Scratch Animation, Stomp Rocket, Light Painting, Throwies, and many more events. In the picture above, Tyler has just completed his yellowjacket blinky bug. The interns that are coming to the studios had been building wandering wands activity seen in the pictures below. We are excited and pump for the big day!

Best part: Everyone in the Design It Studio program has been extremely helpful towards building cool projects forMindFest.

Worst Part: MindFest is a week away!

Juan's Social Butteryfly is ready to interact with another insect.

Rachel and Wes are cutting and stapling the paper for flipbooks.

Blinky bugs unite!!!

Tanner and the Scorpion Blinky bug.

Tanner and Tyler's bugs are ready to rumble.

Joey is making consellations for the Throwies table while Rachel decorates his head with the laterns.

2006-08-12T11:19:00.000-05:00

2006-07-15T11:31:00.000-05:00

Animation Vacation
Museum Shcool July 10-14

Big Idea: To learn Stop Motion Animation using Digital blue Camera technology and the art of storyboarding and storytelling in a fun and interactive classroom.

The following is a day to day lesson plan followed during the week. The challenges were modified for each age group, 4th and 5th grades in the morning, and 6 and 7th in the afternoon. Classes were 2 hours in length.

Monday
Objective: To explore the idea of animation, learn basic camera techniques, and produce a 15 second film.
· Introductions and ice breakers (10 minutes)
Explain how class will work
1. Sign in with museum school attendant
2. Discuss/Debrief previous day’s exercises
3. Show example of daily challenge
4. Teach new lesson
5. Produce film
6. Showcase
· Brainstorm about animation. (5 minutes)
What is animation? Where have you seen animation? What aspects do you like/dislike?
· Flipbooks (10 minutes)
Pass out supplies-paper, pencils.
Show examples of bat and bird in a cage
· Show short animation film that exhibits ONLY the basic concepts. No special effects or sound.
· Pair up groups and assign laptops (6 to 7 groups of two kids)
· Daily lesson (30 Minutes)
Camera Introduction
Supplies needed: laptop, digital blue camera, straw, pipe cleaner, popsicle stick, backdrop (tri fold foam board.)

· 1 second of filming = 15 frames
· small, slow movements = fluid appearance. Example: wave of hand. Take a pic, move hand little, take a pic. Move hand a lot, take a pic. Run film. Looks like hand is normal, then it jumps.
· Stable background = no distractions. Always use a background!
· More frames per movement = slower speed of character. Example: take five pics per hand movement. Take 1 pic per each movement. Compare the speeds during play back.
· Link clips in a storyboard reel.
· Trash function/ delete if hand is filmed
· How to save work. Export to desktop. Save as museum school-name, time

· Set free with supplies and make a 15 second film (50 minutes)
· Showcase (15 minutes)
· Clean up

Debriefing AM: Ideas of animation were limited to cartoons. Some spoke about digital technology in reference to Pixar Studios animation. Therefore, flipbooks were a fun activity to show how simple sketches can come to life. Kids wanted to make more, and everyone took their examples home. Showing the example films really fired them up! Some kids wanted to begin to tinker immediately instead of listen to instructions. I feel that the approach I tool to the class, with a short lesson at the beginning was the best solution for such a large group with the time limit. Had the workshop been longer, I would have definitely allotted time for them to play first, ask questions later. However, since time was limited, they had to have a basic foundation first to orient them with the program and then have time to create. Kids really picked up techniques fast. They were able to make two or three films by the end of the day. The showcase was a good idea, but I feel like the kids would like the full time to tinker as the challenges get more complex. Therefore, after today, the only showcase will be the final films on Friday.

Debriefing PM: Concerning the ideas of animation, the older group spoke of some animae animation as well as Disney films. Lots of video game references that I was not hip to were also examples given. After the lesson, the second group took more time to digest and analyze the example film. They took their new knowledge and had a short discussion that I was happy to facilitate. Like the morning group, they worked well and were able to make several films. Therefore, each student had the opportunity to not only use the computer, but also manipulate the characters.

Tuesday
Objective: To learn how to incorporate special effects, sound and text into films and to produce a 45 second film.

· Discuss and debrief about previous day’s lesson (10 minutes)
· Show a short animation film that exhibits all of the concepts. (5 minutes)
· Daily Lesson
Supplies needed: laptop, Digital Blue Camera, straw, pipe cleaner, popscicle stick, lego piece, backdrop

· Linking clips with different transitions
· Insert text box (film a blank screen)
· Insert special effects
1. graphics (explosions, alieans, etc.)
2. change color of camera film
3. Add movie clips
4. Edit length of clips
· Sound
1. Insert music clip in one scene, and it goes entire film.
2. How to get a music clip in only title scene (export, import)
3. Stock sound effect insert
4. Recorded sound effect

· Set free with supplies and make a 45 second film (65 minutes) or until 10 till end of class
· Clean up and save! (10 minutes)

Debriefing AM: Beginning of class was brilliant. It really helped to do a refresher course. I made sure I listed all of the previous day’s points on the board as a reference as they announced them. Students were anxious to see a new example film and were ready to learn how to make all of their characters interact with sounds and graphics. After the film, students had a short attention span. They wanted to film immediately. I quickly showed them the menus of where to find the special effects, how to make title screens and record sound. After that, they had about 80 minutes to film. The most popular new character was a lego man. It is important to challenge the students to create non violent films. Encourage them to be “more creative.” They want to be original, and they want to make their parents proud. With the explosive graphics and siren sound effects, it is easy for them to fall into the “battle scene.” I created some examples of how to make pipe cleaners into characters instead of “swords.”

Debriefing PM: High energy. Wow! This group of students is a lot of fun. It is amazing what more sleep and lunch will do to a student. Today, there were no strangers. Everyone came into class jesting each other about the previous day and challenging each other. Several students had stories in mind about their new films. Therefore, we made it through our lesson quickly, and they had well over an hour to work on their films. Most films lasted over a minute. They filmed quickly and spent a substantial portion of the time editing the film.

Wednesday
Objective: To explore the necessary elements in a successful story and learn how to storyboard.
· Welcome and debrief (15 minutes)
· Show a storyboard example from ALA and online
· Lesson
Supplies needed: laptops, pencils, colored pencils, storyboard sheets (3 per student)
1. What does every good story have? Conflict/Resolution
2. Why are storyboards important? Get ideas on paper before filming. Saves money. Allows one to organize thoughts and supplies.
3. Who uses them? Movies, commercials, TV
Note: Do not stress about following storyboard exactly. It is merely a tool to help guide, it is not a recipe. Only provide “big picture” ideas. Do not sketch every movement. Use arrows to show direction. Write any dialogue on lines below. Write any special graphics or sounds near the frame.
· EACH student creates a storyboard using yesterday’s film. Must be one page in length (6 cells). No stick figures, must show dialogue and special effects. Once approved my Crystal, may begin next challenge.
· Each team will prepare a two page storyboard for their final film. Must include dialogue, character interactions, audio and graphic effects, no stick figures, no blood, no violence, no killing. Before next challenge, storyboard must be approved by Crystal. Can be colored if time allots.
· Clay will be passed out to begin to sculpt characters. (30 minutes)
· Clean up. Store characters and spare clay in plastic ziplock bags.

Debriefing AM: Not all students were able to finish audio from previous day. Therefore, I gave them the first 20 minutes to finish up any loose ends. All cameras were then taken up and they were forced to focus on storyboarding. Since there were several challenges in the day, students moved at different paces and motivated each other to work. When one group finished another would speed up to catch up. Not all groups were able to finish storyboarding. Therefore, I gave them the option to take home their sheets so they could immediately begin to sculpt once they arrived the next day.

Debriefing PM: They hated storyboarding. They wanted to film. They wanted to film violence. It was a big challenge to redirect some students. Two were forced to start over their storyboards when they turned in fight scenes. Hopefully, they will be able to bounce back and come to class tomorrow ready to sculpt and film.

Thursday
Objective: To create a cast of clay characters, an environment, and a backdrop to film a two to three minute movie.

· Welcome and debrief. (15 minutes)
· Introduce idea of forced perspective and discuss character interactions. (15 min)
· Show example films.
· Approve any finished storyboards.
· Produce final films
Supplies: clay character, backdrops, markers, legos, pipe cleaners, straws, popscicle sticks. There are no limits to the amount of any supplies (with the exception of clay.) Each group is given two packages of Crayola multicolored clay. They can use all or some of the clay. If more is needed, they must share with other groups.
· Clean up. Pass out invitation for parents to attend Final Showcase on Friday.

Debriefing AM and PM: Today, I found that the students spent a lot of time creating elaborate sets and characters. I am nervous that they will not have enough time to film and edit tomorrow. I am not sure where I could have cut time out earlier in the week. With this age group, it is necessary to have plenty of time in the beginning of the week to learn the program. Combining the concepts mastered in the first two days would have been too much information. Likewise, storyboarding is an important tool that I think they all needed to participate in. Simply, for their final projects, this class needs to be longer.

Friday
Objective: To finish final film and present work to parents.

· Welcome and Review the week’s accomplishments. (10 min)
· Explain how students will receive copies of films.
· WORK!!! (until 40 till)
· Clean up (10 min)
· Showcase (30 min)

Debriefing AM: We will live and die by the computers. Unfortunately, we found some computers were not cooperating. For some reason, two were not recording sound. I will have to troubleshoot with them to see if the camera was malfunctioning or if it was the computer. Nevertheless, the students were able to find a good solution; sub titles. Parents were extremely anxious to get inside the classroom. We had to do a bit or rearranging. Many stood at the back. I gave each team the opportunity to introduce their films and speak about their plot. As noted yesterday, students had very elaborate stories. All of the films turned out well. One group even explored the live action feature on the camera.

Debriefing PM: Again, this group was extremely successful. Backdrops were colorful and diverse. Students took advantage of both sides of the foam boards to show changes in scenery. I was very impressed. For different reasons, the afternoon group had some absences during the week which challenged some groups to work as individuals. Regardless, they were able to finish their films. Absolutely great work!

Without a doubt, all week, my job was made easier because of my helpers. Two student assistants and a museum school attendant were essential to the success of the students. This technology is easy to learn and the students have lots of questions about just how far the programs can go. It was great to have experts round to help answer questions and help sculpt characters for some individuals.

Northside Boys & Girls Club taking over the PICO crickets

2006-07-05T09:36:00.000-05:00

Big Idea: The Northside Boys & Girls Club summer interns created contraptions using the new PICO crickets.

Time: July 27-30, 2006 from 11:30am to 3:30pm.

Participants: Valerie T., Valerie R., Angel, Rachel, Diana, Joey, Juan, Blanca, Lazaro, Rosie, Rockey, Saafir, and Sammie.

Activity: The Northside Boys and Girls Club teens began their training on the new PICO crickets. They found that the new technology easier and better than the old Bluedot crickets. The teens quickly mastered programming with the PICOs and continued toward building new projects. Lazaro (left) puts finishing touches on his retro lamp.

Best Part: The new PICO cricket were so much easier to use that each teen picked it up quickly.

Worst Part: It is very difficult to build new sensors for the new PICOs

Valerie R. programs her lamp.

Blanca and Rosie put the finishing touches on their lamp.

The Turtle Game

2006-06-21T15:40:00.000-05:00

Big Idea: Get the teens to learn code language in an entertaining way...

Dates: June 20th, 2006

Groups Participating: Summer Institute Teens

Attendance: Myself, Gabe, Crystal, and Rebecca, Ashley, Meleny, and Caroline from ALA and Marcus and Joshua from Panther.

Materials: Clear cups (at least 6), red cups (at least 6), and one blindfold.

Directions: This game is awesome...Establish a field of play using four boundary markers (we used four red cups) about the size of a classroom. One person stands inside the boundries and is blindfolded. The rest of the players line up at the edge of the boundries and stay in order. The person blindfolded in the middle is the turtle. Place a cup with stars drawn on it far from the turtle. The goal of the turtle is to make its way towards that goal (the cup). However, the turtle cannot move without properly stated directions from the computer: thier teammates. The directions must be given in order, one person at a time, and correctly (ie. "forward 5" is "fd 5" or "right 90 degrees" is "rt 90", ect.). Once the direction is given, it cannot be withdrawn. To make it challenging, we added various obstacles to navigate the turtle around, including red cups that were "landmines", where if stepped on it, it "cleared graphics", or, you had to start over. Also, unmarked cups were "bk 5's", where if they were stepped on, the turtle had to move back 5 steps. Once the entire team has had a chance to retrieve the goal, the team wins.

Associated Concepts: Its a fun way to practice understanding the programming language used in Microworlds.

Best Part: When someone got within inches of a landmine, everyone freaked out.

Improvements: That we didn't start playing this game sooner, its a blast, and I highly recommend taking a half-hour out of the lesson plan to play. The teens love it.

Panther Final Party of 2006

2006-06-21T15:13:00.000-05:00

Big Idea: Display the teens art and projects they created during the Art Cycle, get them information about Summer Institutes available, possible paid summer internships, let the 6th graders know about DesignIT Studios for next year, and draw for and give out the free Nano I-Pod (which Jazmine won and nearly cried when gettin it)!

Dates: Wednesday, May 24th

Groups Participating: Panther teens, including sixth graders, and panther kids.

Attendance: At least 15 teens and lots of kiddos.

Directions: Not only did we provide pizza to draw in the teens and sixth graders to get them info about Summer Institutes available, possible paid summer internships, and DesignIT Studios for next year, but after they ate, we had the teen members man stations around the teen room to show-off thier spin art machines, robo art-bots, and night lights.

Associated Concepts: Get the teens to confidently show of and discuss thier inventions with others.

Best Part: How excited 6th graders were about being in DesignIT next year.

Worst Part: Saying goodbye. This was my last day at Panther for quite a while, and possibly the last time to see some of our teens I've watched grow up and hopefully helped have fun while learnin a bit.

Improvements: Just be sure to come and set up early for culminating events like this, you can never prepare enough.

Panther First Street Audio Field Trip

2006-06-21T14:31:00.000-05:00

Big Idea: This trip is best taken during the sound cycle, but since we could not scheduale at that time, and my band was recording that week in the studio, I contacted Bart and arranged the trip for my Panther teens. It is meant to show the teens possible IT careers in the music industry behind the scenes.

Dates: May 22nd, 2006

Groups Participating: Panther teens

Attendance: 8 teens

Directions: Be sure to contact manager Bart Rose to scheduale a 1/2 hour to hour time slot. Have him give him a tour of the mix and mastering studio and the recording rooms, then possibly arrange for him to record each of their voices into a min to see what thier voices look like in pro-tools, hear what they sound like, then hear them when he distorts them. After the tour, discuss all the diffeant possible jobs involved in recording.

Associated Concepts: To see the various tools a recording studio uses similar to what we've used in DesignIT, and to get an idea of various IT careers there are in the field.

Best Part: When the teens got to hear a song in the process of being mixed from our CD (Standard Transmission's "Water's Edge") They loved it and loved to see where music was actually created.

Improvements: We ran outta time. Be sure to scheduale enough time to do some activities with Bart like the ones listed above.

Panther Throwies

2006-06-16T17:04:00.000-05:00

Big Idea: This project can work in either the circut cycle or the art cycle, but when used done .together in high quantity, it is definately a collabritive work of art. Strays from programming, but is definately a fun, interactive art experience.

Dates: Wednesday, May 17th

Groups Participating: Panther teens

Attendance: 4 teens

Materials: various LED's, watch batteries, tape, (see website for specifics)

Directions: see...

www.graffitiresearchlab.com/?page_id=6

or

www.instructables.com/ex/i/7DBB34EAEDFF1028A1FC001143E7E506/?

As you see, its an exciting collabritive art, and the teens get into it. Simply 2 suggestions. First, try to scheduale this activity in the late fall or winter so it getsd dark early and you can see the full effect of your work. Second, a perfect spot for Panther to toss them is just outside the front door onto the rain cover above the entrance walk way. I would love to see the entrance glowing with thowies someday.

Associated Concepts: circuts and LED's, and getting them to understand two artforms, collabritive art (art created by a group) and gorilla art (public art created where the artist does not take credit).

Best Part: The throwing. The teens had a blast.

Improvements: Simply that it needs to be done in the winter when it gets dark early, and the more throwies that are made, the better your collabritive art will look.

Photo Stories at Panther

2006-06-14T11:09:00.000-05:00

Big Idea: Educate the teens in a fun, challenging way on how to properly use the digital cameras, download thier photos with a USB cable or card reader, use a thumb drive to transport the photos, and finally label and arrange them into a slide show.

Dates: Monday, May 15th

Groups Participating: Panther teens

Attendance: 8 teens (4 on each team)

Hardware: 1 digital camera per team, 1 laptops per team, universal card reader, USB cables, computer with the digital projector, thumb drive

Directions: Have the teens seperate into teams of no more than 4. Explain that this is a "photo story telling competition" (competition always gets teens motivated). Have the teams determine a certain order 1 to 4 of who on thier teams will go first to last. At this point, before the game begins, take time to discuss with the teens what makes a good photograph, with examples of good photos verse bad photos on the digital projector, such as being in focus, composing it straight and not crooked, having a subject matter, correct lighting, when to use a flash, ect. Also at this time, show the enire group how to shoot a photo, load the photo onto the computer into a new folder you create, then also show them how to use the thumb drive to transport thier photos, explaining their team will have to do this in the game. Then explain the rules...

Each teen will take the digital camera by themselves and have 5 minutes to take 5 photos of anything they want in the club. When they return, they pass the camera off to the next team mate. When all 4 teens have taken thier 20 shots, they then download thier images. After they are downloaded, they have 15 minutes to arrange 10 to 15 of thier images in an order that tells some kind of story. When both teams are done, have them use the thumb drive to transfer thier photos to the computer with the digital projector, then present like this...

First go through one team's slides twice, and have the opposing team try to guess their story line. Then, have that team explain what their storyline actually was. Then switch as see which team got the storyline the closest.

Associated Concepts: Again, how to properly use the digital cameras, download thier photos with a USB cable or card reader, use a thumb drive to transport the photos, and finally label and arrange them into a slide show, plus discuss what makes a successful phtotgraph.

Best Part: The stories the teens came up with were hysterical, almost abstract. (Above are some examples of the teens photos for this project).

Improvements: Any improvements I thought were needed were things I did not think of doing until I wrote this blog, so I wrote them into the directions for next time this activity is done, which should help the teens learn about the steps of how to shoot and download. While you have the groups attention BEFORE the game is when you should go over the steps on the projector with the group.

Panther Night Lights

2006-06-12T17:13:00.000-05:00

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: monday, may 8th and wednesday, may 10th

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

attendance: 8 teens

materials-

software: logoblocks

hardware: laptops, transfer wires, transfer crickets, crickets, bus cables, l.e.d.'s

other: hole punchers, scotch tape, 1 black sharpie per student, at least 4 plastic translucent (fogged) shot cups per student, and at least 4 translucent (fogged) picnic cups per student

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 (see www.pienetwork.org/a2z/n/nightlight/ for details).

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.

Panther Tour of the FWMSH for an Art Field Trip

2006-06-05T13:22:00.000-05:00

Totally blanked on blogging this field trip, but its a great one for the middle of the Art Cycle. Check it out...

Big Idea: Take the teens to the museum for a behind the scenes tour and test thier skills in identifying art to reinforce the teens understanding of various art mediums, to show how art is used in the real world at a commercial and educational level, to introduce the teens to potential careers if pursueing the arts, and to have the teens see parts of the museum other patrons never get to see and understand what our employees do there.

Dates: Wednesday, April 5th

Groups Participating: Panther Teens

Materials: Clipboards, pens, and the questionaire.

Directions: We started in the DesignIT lab, and as they ate thier snacks, I asked them to look around the room to name an example of each of the following...
A painting, a sculpture, a photograph, and a computer generated art.
That got thier minds going the direction the rest of the afternoon would go. So next, simply print out the questionaire below (delete answers provided for blog), and take them into the depths of the museum for a tour, and have them answer the questions for an in depth look at how our artists work to build the various exhibits we display. Again, below are questions to print, but I've provided some answers our teens gave...

Museum Tour Art Questionnaire

Collection Library
-Name the 3 coolest objects you saw in the collections gallery…

A. A dead bird
A. A dead Bear
A. Spiders in a jar

-Of the 3, choose the most interesting object or an object you have a question about and present it to the group…

A. The black widow cause they can kill.

The Wood Shop
-Name 3 tools you saw in the wood shop you have used in Design IT…

A. Hand drills
A. Scroll saw
A. Sander

The Exhibits Shop
-Guess what the giant vent and fan used for?

A. Paint

Explorazone
-Name one thing in this gallery that is a…

-painting - A. Sand Painting

-sculpture - A. Chaotic Pendalum

-photograph - A. Photos that change color in light

-computer generated art - A. Color Contrast game

Risk
-Name one thing in this gallery that is a…

-painting - A. Picture on wall that says "Risk"

-sculpture - A. Biulding with steel beam

-photograph - A. Photos of workers

-computer generated art - A. Photo looking down below steel beam

Associated Concepts: Again, to reinforce the teens understanding of various art mediums, to show how art is used in the real world at a commercial and educational level, to introduce the teens to potential careers if pursueing the arts, and to have the teens see parts of the museum other patrons never get to see and understand what our employees do there.

Best Part: Either the collections library (in the Kids Space closet), taking them through the Wood Shop to below the Omni to see the boiler room, or taking them through the Exhibits Shop and up the stairs and having them guess where we were in the museum before we opened the door. They all got it wrong.

Improvements: Needed a little more time so we could have shared our at the end.

Panther L.E.D. Races

2006-05-23T16:30:00.000-05:00

Big Idea: Logoblocks competency through learnng to program L.E.D.'s FAST!

Date: Monday, May 1st and Wednesday, May 3rd

Groups Participating: Panther boy's and girl's club teens

Attendance: 6 teens

Directions: 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, 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), a stoplight (green, yellow, red), a sunset (yellow, orange, red, purple, blue), the American flag (red, white, and blue), or their favorite challenge, a rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple). And for your eyes only as the instructor, here are the numbers to most of the colors we could think of...

white - 100 red, 200 green, 100 blue
pink - 100 red, 0 green, 20 blue
red - 250 red, 0 green, 0 blue
orange - 200 red, 100 green, 0 blue
yellow - 100 red, 100 green, 0 blue
green - 0 red, 250 green, 0 blue
blue - 0 red, 0 green, 250 blue
purple - 150 red, 0 green, 100 blue

Software: Logoblogs

Hardware: Laptops, transfer wires, transfer crickets, crickets, l.e.d. wires, l.e.d.'s

Other: Jolly Ranchers

Associated Skills: Cricket programming, l.e.d. programming

Associated Concepts: relating l.e.d.'s in everyday life (ie. cellphones, beepers) to thier own programming ability

Best part: The excitement of a win happened for everyone, and this activity forces them to quickly navigate logoblocks so the learnin' happened fast.

Panther Pride for Design IT!

2006-05-23T13:56:00.000-05:00

As the end of the year comes closer, so does our group of teens. I've noticed some positive changes over the past 6 months that I love, and that I hope continue. One, we regularly met with the same group almost every day we held DesignIT, and were able to establish friendships that way. Two, we added more and more teens to our DesignIT team, making the membership at Pather almost the largest its ever been. And three, now they are regularly wearing thier DesignIT T-shirts to the club and to school! I am definatley proud that they are proud, and everyday am thrilled to be a part of DesignIT.

Panther Robo Art @ Family Science Night!

2006-05-23T13:44:00.000-05:00

Attendence: the Panther teen inventors of the Robo-Art Machines

Dates: Wednesday, April 26th

Big Idea: To get the teens to explain and show off their inventions to the public at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History's Family Science Night. We set up in the rotunda, and as visitors entered they were greeted by our teens explaining their art and how it was made.

Associated Concepts: Public interaction with presentations of thier inventions.

Best Part: I was particularly impressed with a few of the teens outgoing attitude in explaining thier work, and loved the curious crowd we drew.

Panther Robo Art

2006-05-23T13:20:00.000-05:00

Big Idea: To Create gyrating robots which make random and colorful art patterns with their marker legs.

Dates: Monday, April 17th, Wednesday, April 17th, and Wednesday, April 24th

Participating: Panther Boys and Girls Club

Attendance: 8 Panther teens plus the Panther kids to view

Software: Cricket Logo Blocks

Hardware: Laptops, transfer crickets, crickets, motor connectors, motors, light sensors (optional), flashlights (optional)

Materials: Legos, foam board, Dixie cups, crayola markers, hot glue, glue guns, power drill, 7/16th drill bit, zip ties

Directions: Start by cutting two foam boards or peg boards of the same dimension. Connect the two pieces of board with Dixie cups fusing them together with hot glue. Drill small holes at the corners of the board to place the markers which will serve as legs for the robot. To secure the markers, hot glue them to the bottom of the the robot's top after they are fit through the holes. The zip ties are used to hold the cricket and lego motor in place. On the top surface of the robot we placed the lego motor with spinning motion modules. The spinning creates a swinging motion which makes the robot gyrate. This movement makes the robot move and dance. Once the robot is complete, the kids have a chance to decorate the top surface personalizing their creation. To test the robots tape a large sheet of paper to the floor, remove the marker lids and turn the robots on. For more programming, add light sensors to the robots and make thier movement light sensitive to flahlights. Also, the teens loved putting all the robots in a confined arena and seeing which ones would knock ove the other ones. See the pie network for our inspiration for this project:
http://www.pienetwork.org/ideas/?Idea=61&s=0&search=paint

Associated Concepts: Observing the patterns made by each different style robot and each different program.

Best Part: High attendance, great interest and involvement. The kids learned to write cricket programs which we use for most of Design IT projects. Also the battle royal between the bots when confined to small quarters. When we invited the younger kids from the club to view our work, they got the mst kick out of that. We named and numbered the bots and started betting who would win. It got nasty and exciting and very fun.

Worst Part: None on my watch.

Improvements: Adding more steps or activity challenges to the project, or bringing in more decorative material.

Panther Shadow Painting

2006-05-23T12:41:00.000-05:00

Shadow Paintings

Dates: Monday, April 10th and Wednesday, April 12th

Groups Participating: Panther Boys and Girls Club Teens

Attendance: 5 teens

Big idea: Create 3 dimesional sculptures that caste shadows creating 2 dimensional paintings.

Directions: Each teen had an overhead desklamp above the butcher paper, a hot glue gun and various wooden materials to work with. They also started by building a wooden stand to start thier sculpture with, that being a wide, flat wooden piece with a long wooden dowel attached by being drilled and stuck into it. From thier stands they built thier shadow paintings depending on the challenge presented. Here are some challenge ideas...

1) Create a shadow painting that looks like the first letter of your name.

2) Create a shadow that creates a shape (square, triangle, rectangle, circle), however, the sculpture itself looks nothing like the shape.

3) Create a shadow that looks like your favorite animal. Then trace it on a piece of paper to keep.

4) Create a sculpture that has a shadow that creates half an image, where the other half of the image is drawn on the table itself, therefore the image is incomplete without the light.

Attendance: Panther Boys and Girls Club Teens

Supplies: Overhead desk lamps, stools (to put lamps ontop of), vices (to tighten lamps onto stools), extra lightbulbs, butcher paper, hot glue guns, hot glue, various small wood pieces, other assorted craft materials, markers

Best part: Seeing the images come alive as they worked. This activity takes time and patience, but as you can see from the pictures when kid's got going they came up with some creative images. Also, putting the final sculptures on display in our "window gallery" for passer-biers to view. Even without the shadows they turned out looking like modern art.

Hardest part: Just as when we tried this in this past, the hardest part for our group was crafting stable structures that would not bend after a certain amount of time. This part took patience and some time learning the best way to craft the structures. Another challenge was keeping the sculptures themselves interesting looking, even without the shadows. This was best done by creating the lines in your shadow image through crafting the wooden pieces at variuos unexpected planes above the table. After learning that trick the sculptures started coming alive.
Improvements: Allow plenty of set up time, bring extra lightbulbs in case they burn out, and don't forget to give a quick reminder about the safety issues with glue guns.

Panther Spin Art

2006-05-23T12:22:00.000-05:00

Big Idea: Create spirals and shapes from paints and markers using crickets to spin the canvas.

Dates: Wednesday, March 29 and Monday, April 3rd

Groups Participating: Panther Boys and Girls Club

Attendance: 6 teens plus Panther kids visiting

Software: Cricket Logo Blocks

Hardware: Laptops, crickets, transfer crickets, lego motor and motor connectors.

Materials: Legos, peg boards, foam boards, drill, exacto knife, wire ties, crayola markers, squeezable paints,

Directions: Start by cutting a piece of peg board and foam board of the same dimensions. The two pieces of board should be connected by motion module spinner. Tape a piece of paper to the top board, turn cricket on and begin to to create. Take markers and touch them to the spinning paper or splatter paint onto the canvas for a more experimental design.

Associated Concepts: http://www.pienetwork.org/a2z/s/spinart/

Improvements: Something thought of later by a father at Northside, we did not have boxes to put the spin art machine in when attempting to use paint as a medium, so it got messy. Its best when you introduce paint on the final day of spin art to bring large boxes to put the machines in so the teens and kids can get as messy as they want.

Best Part: By bringing in an example of a spin art machine, then breaking it down and showing them what it was made of and how it was built by other teens, it presented a challenge they all immediately got into. We built 7 machines total. Also, it was a blast when we invited the kids from the club in to try them out.

Northside Robo Art

2006-05-23T09:49:00.000-05:00

Big Idea: To Create gyrating robots which make random and colorful art patterns with their marker legs.

Dates: May 16th and May 18th

Groups Participating: Northside Boys and Girls Club

Attendance: 28 kiddos

Software: Cricket Logo Blocks

Materials: Legos, logo motor, foam board, Dixie cups, crayola markers, hot glue, drill, zip ties

Directions: Start by cutting two foam boards or peg boards of the same dimension. Connect the two pieces of board with Dixie cups fusing them together with hot glue. Drill small holes at the corners of the board to place the markers which will serve as legs for the robot. The zip ties are used to hold the cricket and lego motor in place. On the top surface of the robot we placed the lego motor with spinning motion modules. The spinning creates a swinging motion which makes the robot gyrate. This movement makes the robot move and dance. Once the robot is complete, the kids have a chance to decorate the top surface personalizing their creation.
To test the robots tape a large sheet of paper to the floor, remove the marker lids and turn the robots on.

See the pie network for our inspiration for this project:
http://www.pienetwork.org/ideas/?Idea=61&s=0&search=paint

Associated Concepts: Observing the patterns made by each different style robot and each different program.

Best Part: High attendance, great interest and involvement. The kids learned to write cricket programs which we use for most of Design IT projects.

Worst Part: The teens at Northside are fast learners and finished their projects fairly quickly.

Improvements: Adding more steps or activity challenge to the project.

Northside Spin Art

2006-05-22T14:00:00.000-05:00

Big Idea: Create random works of art, using crickets to spin the canvas.

Dates: May 9th and May 11th.

Groups Participating: Northside Boys and Girls Club

Attendance: 25

Software: Cricket Logo Blocks

Materials: Legos, peg boards, foam boards, drill, exacto knife, wire ties, crayola markers, squeezable paints, transfer cricket, lego motor and sensor connector.

Directions: Start by cutting a piece of peg board and foam board of the same dimensions. The two pieces of board should be connected by motion module spinner. Tape a piece of paper to the top board, turn cricket on and begin to to create. Take markers and touch them to the spinning paper or splatter paint onto the canvas for a more experimental design.

Associated Concepts: http://www.pienetwork.org/a2z/s/spinart/

Best Part: The kids love any project dealing with art, which helped boost our attendance. Once a few of the teens had finished there spin art, their finished projects helped draw in others.

Worst Part: Not having anticipated a larger group left us short on art supplies.

Improvements: Not each kid needs to make a spin art table. It helps to have them working groups if there is not an abundance of supplies. Even if each kid does not have an individual spinner, they will still have a chance to create their own masterpiece.

Northside Spin Art Gallery

2006-05-22T13:39:00.000-05:00

Art Cycle Intro: Art Interpretation Activity

2006-05-10T17:02:00.000-05:00

Thus far, the art cycle has been a complete success, each activity drawing more teens than ever this year, most of whom return every Monday and Wednesday expecting to find something new to try. Here is how our introduction activity for the art cycle went, the Art Interpretation Activity...

Big Idea: Get the teens thinkin about the depth of art in its various styles and themes of each piece, plus get them excited for the potential creativity they are capable of with the upcoming cycle.

Dates: Monday, March 27th 2006

Groups Participating: Panther teens

Attendance: 6 teens including Eddie, Angel, Jonathon, Jarvis, Cedrick, and Tikiah

Hardware: laptop and digital projector

Materials: Paper and pens for each teen

Directions: Before we got into the slides, the first thing I did was ask them this question, and here were a few answers...

Q. What is Art?

A. Something that someone makes or do!

A. Something you think about.

A. Color, drawings, music

A. I don't know

After that, I asked them to list differant artforms, and they listed drawing, painting, music, sculpture, dance. Finally, like past art interpretation activities, we took about 17 slides of various pieces of art by various artists and, 5 slides at a time, asked them various questions about the pieces and had them write thier responses. After each slide we shared our thoughts with the group. Here were the questions...

1) What is the first word or few words that immediately come to mind when you see this piece?

2) What emotion do you feel when viewing this work of art?

3) What story do you think this work of art tells?

Associated Concepts: Group discussion and sharing of various ideas and philosophies, and stimulating creativity and interpretation of art.

Best Part: Some teens shared some unbelievably intelligent and intense responses, and really got into the excersice. My favorite responses were from Picasso's "War", pictured above, including "People dying so they sad." and "Its telling me what they been through".

Worst Part: That I can't do this activity with every teen in the world.

Improvements: Just make sure to show up early before the teens arrive, so they are curious when they enter the room.

DragonFly Landed!!!

2006-04-28T11:24:00.000-05:00

Big Idea: DragonFly will be showcasing some DesignIT teens on their show and guest are able to meet the stars of the show.

Time: April 22, 2006, Saturday from 11am-2pm

Participants: About 10 ALA teens, 1 Northside Boys & Girls teen, Floor Staffs, and DesignIT coaches.

Activity: The day for DragonFly has come! Today was a day for visitors to interact with the stars of DragonFly and DesignIT teens, who has a clip in the show. DesignIT Studios volunteer to bring back Spin Art Tables and Chain Reactions. Live Animal Biologist, Lucy, displayed animals and brochures for visitors to explore. And the DragonFly table was handing out magnifying glasses and other cool items for everyone to enjoy. Visitors seem to be having fun and was interacting with the DragonFly girls and DesignIT teens. At the Chain Reaction section, the DesignIT teens set off the first practice countdown before the big finally. The next set up more visitors became involved with the teens and built there own design. When it was finally time to start the chain reaction Dynamo, the museum dinosaur, brought other visitors to help countdown and cheer the young builders on.

Best Part: Watching kids who are not acquainted with each other interact together to build a stronger chain reaction.

Worst Part: None.

Pictures...

Jade and Madison demonstrating how Spin Art works.

Lucy talks about varies animals.

Ashley and Brandi signed autographs.

Wesley started the first chain reaction.

Armondo's chain reaction lost its balance.

Guest asking Cooper questions on crickets.

Guest helps rebuild.

"I'm going to make it taller than me!"

Dynamo leads guest to see the final chain reaction run for the day.

2006-04-28T10:43:00.000-05:00

We're at Claymation Station, and the Train is Leaving!! Hop Onboard!!
Week Five and Six

Big Idea: To create an 18 cell (three page) storyboard illustrating the stop motion animation film created in week four. One this task has been completed, and new storyboard for their week six film is to be drawn and approved before filming can begin.

Dates: April 24 through 28

Daniel sculpts his characters from clay.

The hands of an artist

Lauren and Rebecca form their cast.

2006-04-14T09:45:00.000-05:00

An Overview of the Week 4 Animation Progression

Big Idea: To masterfully produce a 30 second film including music, dialogue or voice, and starring not only the same character elements (popsicle sick, straw, pipe cleaner, and single lego piece of their choosing), but also a COMPLETELY new character creation!! This character could be, but is not limited to, being birthed from clay.

Dates: April 10th thru the 14th

Groups Participating: Bluedot and Pico ALA students, Jonathon, Crystal and Sammie

Materials: Laptops, power cords, popsicle sticks, straws, pipe cleaners, various lego pieces, package of crayola polychrome modeling clay, quaint resealable storage containers

Associated Concepts: Storytelling-Theme, character, and plot development. Stop motion animation techniques with fluid motion movement and sound effects. New creative freedom is bequeathed upon the picos from their bluedot mentors this week, as they are allowed to explore new effects. Time management is a key concept we hope to see the Bluedots master and enforce.

Best Part: Creativity is streaming from their minds straight to the screen!! What began as a simple exercise in filming techniques using a popsicle stick, straw and pipe cleaner, has now progressed into a thirty second musical jewel starring lego pieces and clay figures. From troll staff surfing snowmen to cowboy lego men braving the mighty seas upon disgruntled marine monsters, the characters are diverse and interesting. Students have created evolving stories that have branched past the basic fighting scenes, and given the viewers a chance to see the events leading up to the quarrel. With each week, they are exploring new ways to enrich their scenes. For example, with the addition of text boxes, students are able to present title scenes at the beginning as well as subtitles throughout the film. They have also constructed backgrounds and props such as trees that interact with the characters.

Worst Part: Due to the limited number of available outlets in the room, groups are corralling around one table. At times, many cords are fanning off of the table, making it hard to navigate through a sea of cords. We have encouraged them to spread out, but they seem to be too engrossed in their projects to worry about personal space. :)

Improvements: YEA organization!!! All groups are now assigned their very own computer. Therefore, groups are able to work on their projects any time they choose to do so. They have all scheduled when they are working, so that proper supplies are made available. They are saving their work in Animation Projects 2006 folders on the desktop for easy access.

Tentative Scheduale for Panther's Art Cycle

2006-04-11T15:52:00.000-05:00

Just to fill everyone in, this is what we've been up to out there, and where we're going. So far its been great and both the teens and I have learned alot, and I'll be blogging about each activity individually very shortly...

Panther's Art Cycle

Monday, March 27th
Art interpretation Activity:
Interactive exploration of slides of various works of art and what they make us feel and what they may mean.

Wednesday, March 29th & Monday, April 3rd
Spin Art machines:
Using crickets and motors to build rotating palettes to create “spin art” using various mediums (markers, pencils, paint, etc.)

Wednesday, April 5th
Museum Tour & Art Questionnaire:
Visiting places in the museum the public never sees where our museum artists create and store exhibits, including the Wood Shop, The Exhibits Shop and The Collection Library. Then exploring the exhibits and identifying each installation's medium (sculpture, painting, photograph, or computer generated art).

Monday, April 10th & Wednesday, April 12th
Shadow Painting:
Building sculptures from light woods and hot glue and using their shadows to create images.

Monday, April 17th & Wednesday, April 19th
Robo-Art (cricket powered):
Building sturdy, durable 3 and 5 legged robots running on crickets and lego motors that create spiral and scribble art

Monday, April 24th & Wednesday, April 26th
Art Story Telling:
Begining with a field trip to Modern to photograph art, we then arrange our images to tell a story of our own and present to the group to guess the story it portreys.

Monday, May 1st & Wednesday, May 3rd
L.E.D. Art:
Using L.E.D.’s to create various sculptures and works of art, including the never done L.E.D. “Throwies”, where L.E.D.’s are attached to magnets to create magnetic night lights, where when thrown together create a 3 week glowing collaborative work of art.

Monday, May 8th
TCU Art Department Field Trip:
Take a tour of the TCU sculpture lab, photo lab, and painting department, and perhaps bring some of our pieces to show professors and students.

Wednesday, May 10th
2nd Annual Panther Boys & Girls Club Gallery Night (Culminating Event):
Display one or two of the best pieces created during our art cycle and open it to the public.

Countdown to Dragonfly TV Show!

2006-04-11T10:51:00.000-05:00

Big Idea: Dragon Fly is on the flight back to the museum, so a couple of the teens from ALA wanted to prepare for the big day.

Time: Saturday, April 8, 2006

Participants: Sammie, Augie, Eddie, and Rebecca.

Materials: K'nex, legos, marbles, and lots of blocks.

Activity: Since Dragon Fly is coming back to the museum in about two weeks, a couple of the teens felt the need to prepare for the television show. Although, dragon Fly is not focusing on DesignIT Studios, they have asked that we put on a little display in front of the cameras. Some activities that the DesignIT teens will be showcasing are: Spin Art and Chain Reactions. For this open studio day, they decided to work on some models for the Chain Reaction. For the teens, it was interesting for them to see the reknown artist, Augie N'Kele, struggle keeping the blocks steady. By the end of the workshop, the teens help Augie with his blocks, ready for the final countdown. In the picture above, Eddie is building the ramp that will hopefully be set off by a balloon.

Best Part: The two teens that showed up for extra hours had just finish testing for school and still showed up prepared to work.

Worst Part: The blocks were not steady enough and can easily be triggered by anything.

Rebecca tying the string to give her swing a more fluent flow.

Augie concentrates on making the k'nex stay together.

Sammie adds the last k'nex piece the ferris wheel.

Augie and the fallen blocks...

Rebecca's organic styling with the blocks...

The tower hovers over the diamond for a dramatic fall...

Eddie makes is bridge steady by clamping it to the table.

The final picture before the countdown: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!

Coffee, Music, and More...

2006-04-07T10:42:00.000-05:00

The Big Idea: Starbucks invited Fort Worth Museum of Science and History and DesignIT Studios to come show some of the fun stuff that we do in the museum.

Time: Thursday, April 6, 2006

Place: New Starbucks Coffee Shop on 7th Street.

Participants: Jonathon, Sammie, Judy, Carol, and lots of coffee drinking people.

Activity: Jonathon and I had a blast with the guest that came into Starbucks. At some point Jonathon and I were having more fun than the guest, but no worries here, we never leave people unsatisfied playing with Melon Harp and Coffee Therom. As seen in Jonathon's picture above, sometimes we learn new things that completely takes our full concentration. Kudos to all of the Starbucks staff for letting us come play in their new store and the people that stop by our table. They made the hours fly by so fast! We didn't realize that it was already time for us to go.

Best Part: The looks on the kids faces when they made music come from two forks.

Worst Part: Unfortunately, the crickets and midi died on us a couple of times.

More fun pictures...

Northside at the Museum

2006-03-17T13:38:00.000-06:00

Big Idea: Teens from Northside visit the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. This gives the kids a chance to see the perks that come with joining DesignIT Studios. Being SpringBreak the kids got a break from the traditional DesignIT lesson plan. Little did they know, that they were still learning.

Date: Thursday; March15,2006

Participants: 28 Teens from the NS Boys and Girls club

Activity: Visit the museum exhibits and view and Adrenaline Rush at the Omni Theater

Best Part: The excitement of the kids as they played in the Risk! Exhibit. During the Omni some the kids felt the movie was to real.

Worst Part: Because it was Spring Break the museum was overly crowded and it was hard to thoroughly enjoy the exhibits.

Spring Break Workshop part 3

2006-03-15T09:50:00.000-06:00

Big Idea: The adventure of a turtle in the MicroWorlds EX Robotics.

Time: Thursday, March 9, 2006

Partcipants: Eddie, Caroline, Marcus, David, Jared, AJ, Lauren, Sammie, and Saafir.

Activity: Saafir, our fearless instructor for the day, taught us how to play on MicroWorlds EX Robotics. For those who never played with MicroWorlds Robotics, this is a game were you can make graphics by telling the turtle the proper command. If you tell the turtle the correct instructions, he/she will do as it is told. First challenge of the day, make a square. That turn out to be quite easy. It just took a bit of directional skills and a lot of geometry. The next challenge, make a triangle. That was not too bad but it did take some trying. The third challenge, make a circle and from there a spiral circle. I was now lost. Fortunately, the teens caught on quickly and came to assist me on telling the correct commands to the turtle.

Best part: The newer DesignIT teens, did a great job on their first try at MicroWorlds.

Worst part: Our time was running out so we didn't have time to learn the other cool stuff on MircoWorlds.

The teens concentrating on the challenges.

AJ starts his exploration in MicroWorlds EX Robotics.

Marcus spiral design.

Spring Break Workshop part 2

2006-03-15T01:20:00.000-06:00

Big Idea: Although this is Sammie and Jonathon's brainchild, I thought it wouldn't hurt to give my take on the activity I participated in with the ALA teens during thier spring break storytelling workshop.

Dates: Wednesday, March 8th 2006

Groups Participating: ALA teens

Software: Microsoft Windows Slideshow

Hardware: 1 digital camera per 2 students, 1 laptop per 2 students, cardreader or USB cable for downloading images

Directions: First, while on a guided tour of the entire Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, we gathered intersting images through digital photography from artwork we found intriguing. After the tour, we spent a little more time photographing any we may have missed during the tour. We then returned to the museum, downloaded our images, and reassembled them on our laptop in an order to tell a story of your own. We then renamed them numerically, and showed them as a slideshow to the group. However, (here's the catch) we could not tell the people in the other groups what our story was about before or as we viewed it. They first had to guess its plot before we revealed it.

Associated Concepts: Prophiciency in digital photography, Encouraging creativity through storytelling in a different medium, encouraging appreciation of modern art.

Best Part: The crazy stories people came up with according to the images. The creative plots were incredibly imaginative, and the game was a blast. In fact we'll play right now...

Above are the 7 images Crystal and I took. They lie in order from top to bottom. Go ahead and take a look at the images and determine thier plot according entirely to your own imagination...

...DON'T CHEAT, come up with your own plot before reading on...

Now, below is descriptions of the plot in each frame (top to bottom) that we were thinking of...

1) Drinking martinis, to the point where I drop one.

2) Drinking martinis to where I am cross-eyed and intoxicated.

3) Getting in my car with my buddies and driving intoxicated, very fast.

4) A chihuahua wearing a cape jumps out into the street.

5) AAAAAAAHHHH! We cover our eyes as I swerve to avoid the chihuahua.

6) I poop my pants (The teens got a kick out of that one, especially because nobody could guess it).

7) The car gets mangled in the resulting wreck.

8) My mangled body in a hospital bed.

9) My mangled body after all the surgery possible has been attempted.

10) My mangled body in old age.

11) Upon my passing, I look long and hard at myself and ponder my decisions in life.

12) The ascent from this world.

How similar or different was our plot from your plot? Cool, huh? I had a blast with the teens during this activity. It was a great way to spend some fun, creative time with them outside the studio.

Football Anyone?

2006-03-15T00:38:00.000-06:00

Big Idea: Why not finish off Design IT before spring break with a classic game of touch football?

Dates: Friday, March 3rd 2006

Groups Participating: ALA teens

Materials: A football

Directions: Okay, so its two even teams on opposite sides of the goal line, one defending thier enzone, one attmpting to score what's called a "touchdown" worth 6 points by...just joshin.

Associated Concepts: Teamwork, excercise and fun.

Do, Re, Mi Challenge

2006-03-15T00:14:00.000-06:00

Big Idea: After Pico visited with Justin Pate and witnessed the mighty power that the MIDI board can hold, we had enough time to run downstairs to the studio to play with these wonderful mini-computers. Finding out they had already run through a basic introduction, and been challenged to create a basic recognizable meledy, I presented a new challenge to the group that furthered thier understanding of how the notation in this MIDI program works.

Dates: Wednesday, March 1st 2006

Groups Participating: ALA Pico group

Software: Cricket Logoblocks

Hardware: 1 laptop per 2 students, each with a transfer wire, transfer cricket, cricket, speaker wire, speaker, bus cable, and MIDI board

Directions: This activity works the best following the "Intro to MIDI" activity. Have them all pick a meledic instrument (it cannot be a sound effect), then present this challenge...Starting at the note number 48, write a program that will sound like the octive of a C major scale, that is, "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do". The notes must each be 5 (or .5 of a second) long. After five to ten minutes (depending on thier progress) have each group play what they have thus far to the group individually. After they have, present the concept of thinking about the numbers as the numbers of a keyboard. Draw it out and label the keys (see pic above), then have them re-configure thier numbers. After a few minutes, have everyone press play at once, and you should have a chorus of MIDI boards all singing an octive of the C major scale.

Associated Concepts: Combining programming MIDI with musical concepts.

Best Part: When all the MIDI boards sing together in harmony.

Worst Part: Not having enough working equipment to work with (see improvements).

Improvements: Due to lack of time, we could not test each computer and cricket set-up before the teens arrived, so we had alot of the infamous "no cricket in sight" issues, and therfore three teens per laptop. Be sure to prepare whenever working with MIDI by testing each set-up before the teens arrive to ensure less frustration and a full learning experience for all involved.

Justin Pate meets ALA

2006-03-14T23:46:00.000-06:00

Big Idea: To finish up the sound cycle and have a fun, memorable activity going into spring break for our ALA teens, we brought in our good musician friend Justin Pate.

Dates: Wednesday, March 1st 2006

Groups Participating: ALA bluedots and pico’s (& Cale in small, lost sweatshirt - see pic above)

Materials: Be sure to check out a “rhythms the world” instrument kit from the museum library.

Directions: For Justin’s workshop, we followed the same scheduale with ALA's as Panther's, but we decided to present it upstairs in “Hands On Science” so the public could watch his and our performances as well. We first introduced Justin, and then introduced his technology by distorting each teen’s voice in his I.R. midi voice distorter. Then, after a brief performance of Bobby McFarren’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” to present his looping instruments, we had the teens create their own tune by looping an 8 measure sound they made individualy into a microphone from an instrument of their choice. After we all recorded our sounds, Justin added his own instruments to build it all into an awesome orchistra of sound and music.

Associated Concepts: This not only is a fun, climactic event to end their sound cycle, but by meeting an artist like Justin, it encourages them to see that there are opportunities out there to make a living in science, engineering, or at simply doing what they love.

Best Part: The songs we made as a group, our audiences reaction to the music, and the teens sense of accomplishment in taking part in composing thier song. Its been said that "musicians are magicians", and I cannot help but think of Justin Pate when hearing these words.

Worst Part: Buses ran late so some of parts of each workshop were cut short, but not to the point where the teens did not love what we did.

Improvements: More time for more fun with Justin Pate.

Special Announcement

2006-03-14T23:21:00.000-06:00

Just thought I'd let everyone know, that as of Wednesday, March 8 2006, it was announced from the National Headquarters of the Boys and Girls Club that two projects created in the Design IT studios at the Panther Boys and Girls Club recieved national recognition and praise. Jasmine Jackson's original score entitled "Jazzy Girl", composed with the help of the software "Acid Pro" and with the help of our Design IT coach, Gabe, was awarded 1rst place in the South West Region and placed nationally in the 2006 Boys and Girls Clubs of America's "Music Making Festival". Also, with the help of Design IT, for the second year running, the Panther teens have once again won the South West Region's short film competition in the "Digital Arts Fest", with thier film entitled, "A Glimps At Our Life At Our Club", which is also advancing on to the national finals. Be proud, gang! We do great things!

Panther's 2006 Sound Sculpture Gallery Night

2006-03-14T22:51:00.000-06:00

Panther’s 2006 Sound Sculpture Gallery Night

Big Idea: In a culminating event to show off their works, we programmed and finished the designs for our Sound Sculptures, and prepared the room for our first annual “Panther’s 2006 Sound Sculpture Galley Night”.

Dates: Wednesday, March 8th 2006

Groups Participating: Panther Teens

Attendance: Jonathon, Joshua, Thomas and all the patrons from Panther visiting our gallery
(in all, about 15 kids)

Materials: One flashlight per sculpture, paper, markers, a photocopier, pizza and soda for Design IT teens, cups, plates, napkins, snacks for visitors

Directions: We cleaned and set up a table in the middle of the teen room where we placed the sound sculptures. Next to each light sensitive sculpture we placed a flashlight. We then designed, photocopied and distributed press release cards stating the time the gallery would be open. Finally, we had each artist stationed by their piece to be ready to answer questions, and when the gallery opened, we had each artist introduce and give a brief explanation to the group. Then we let the patrons explore.

Associated Concepts: Learning how to curate a gallery and public speaking.

Best Part: I enjoyed presenting the challenge of public speaking to our teens, a skill we definitely should include and encourage with each culminating event in Design IT. Many of them, though nervous, flourished when presented with this challenge and took on the role with confidence. By publicly presenting their work, it gives them a deeper sense of accomplishment.

Worst Part: The fact that we really only had four artists with completed works, although the four were amazing. I wish teen attendance was greater at Panther. Perhaps it will increase.

Improvements: Definitely leave time to make a big deal about the “gallery night” concept with brocheres created and distributed by the teens. It simply adds to the teens’ sense of accomplishment in their final projects.

Building Sound Sculptures @ Panther

2006-03-14T21:58:00.000-06:00

Sound Sculptures

Big Idea: We ran into some issues with getting a van to run us to the museum, but that did not hinder the creative teens at Panther as they worked towards completing their Sound Sculptures out at the club.

Dates: Monday, February 27th, Wednesday, March 1st, Monday, March 6th 2006

Groups Participating: Panther Boys and Girls Club Teens

Attendance: Jonathon, Braela, Thomas, Joshua, Michael, and Lahmia

Software: Cricket Logoblocks

Hardware: Laptops (1 per every 2 teens), laptop plugs, transfer crickets, transfer cables, crickets, motors, motor connectors, extra lego motor attachments and gears, light sensors, digital projector

Materials: please use this as a checklist...
-Miter box (saw guide)
-wood hand saw
-metal hand saw
-hot glue guns
-hot glue sticks
-lenths of peg board to use hot glue guns over
-hand drills
-drill bits
-various lengths of screws
-extra charged batteries for hand drills
-quick grips
-table vices
-various wood pieces
-various sound making materials
-soldering irons
-soldering stands
-sponges for soldering stands
-solder
-wire
-shrink wrap
-wire cutters
-scissors
-zip ties
-duct tape.

Directions: Let ‘em go. Make sure to bring in one completed sculpture for inspiration, and encourage them to begin by pointing out various objects with sound making potential, then building a stand to hold up the objects. Also have the digital projector set up to go through the logoblocks program needed as a group or individually according to the needs of the sculpture.

Associated Concepts: Tool and programming proficiency, confidence in creative process

Best Part: Definitely finishing projects successfully, however one thing I enjoyed was letting Michael go. I’ll explain. The other teens were determined to finish a working sound sculpture, however Michael simply wanted to use the tools and that’s all. We definitely encouraged him to go past the point of simply sawing and drilling, but that’s what he wanted to focus on. I thought about it and realized one concept of Design IT is our open studio policy. Michael showed up everyday, worked as long or longer on his “project” and loved being there. I simply realized that one idea of Design IT is to guide a teen to their path of interest, and from their let them takeover. Though he wasn’t completing the project we had in mind, in the end he completed a sculpture of his own that he was proud of, and had increased his tool proficiency ten fold.

Worst Part: Of course not getting the teens to the museum when I promised, and occasionally forgetting materials needed to continue on certain steps on thier sculptures. Please read “improvements” for that reason.

Improvements: You can build sound sculptures at the clubs without using power tools, but it’s simply a matter of bringing all the necessary materials. So PLEASE use the list of needed materials (the hardware and materials lists) above as a checklist and guide. Bring more crickets, transfer crickets, motors, and extra batteries then you think you'll need, and you and your teens should be successful.

Northside Weekly Plan: March 15 - March 17

2006-03-11T14:22:00.000-06:00

The Students
Twenty-five 7th through 11th grade kids at the Northside Boys & Girls Club.

Learning Objectives
Have a little fun in the exhibits and watch an Omni film on Wednesday. Then do a two day workshop that is a balance of directed Cricket projects, electronics take apart, and electric circuit exploration. More on this later.

Wednesday
11:30am - 5:15pm The students arrive at the Museum at 11:30 for lunch. The we go upstairs for the 1:40pm Adrenaline Rush show in the Omni Theatre. We spend the rest of the day in the exhibits Sandwiches, chips, apples, and cookies.

Thursday
Cricket Workshop: 1:00pm - 5:00pm The teens will work through several cricket based activities. The first will be a directed project
Twelve laptops. Fifteen Cricket set-ups with extra batteries (9V and AAA). Twelve MIDI set-ups (MIDI board, bus cables(2), speaker, speaker cable, headphones). Snacks. Keyboard. MIDI handouts. m

Friday
Cricket Workshop: 5:00pm - 7:00pm Part 2...I will explain this in more detail tomorrow.

Museum School Digital Spirograph Workshop Plan

2006-03-10T17:25:00.000-06:00

Big Idea
Introduce a group of students to the Spirograph toy, then show them how to create Spirograph images with MicroWorlds by programming in Logo

Time
Saturday, March 4th. March 11th. 10:00am - 12:00am
Groups Participating

Museum school students, Saafir, David (ALA), and Eddie (ALA)

Plan
Introduction (Fifteen minutes)
Have the students "interview" each other and report out to the group. Make sure I learn the students' names before they come. Talk about how simple rules repeated many times can lead to complexity. Show the example of "Life."
Materials: Nametags, a few examples of "Life" games, projector, website handouts

Real Spirographs (Twenty minutes )

Give the students a chance to create Spirograph drawings on paper
Show them how to mount their drawings on a construction paper backing

Materials: Spirograph toy sets, a variety of colorful ball point pens,

Introduction to Programming (Ten minutes)
Do the "Saafir-o-bot" demonstration, in which I turn into a programmable robot that understands only basic commands and the students' job is to get me to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. A gigantic (and hilarious) mess ensues as I take their instructions in the most obviously literally way and "put the peanut butter on the bread" or "move your hand forward".
Materials: Peanut-butter, bread, jelly, a plastic knife, goggles, gloves, a lab coat, something to protect the tabletop,

Microworlds Intro (Thirty minutes)
Introduce Microworlds, turtles, and basic Logo commands. Give them the challenge of writing a procedure that draws a square and a circle. Show them basic spirograph programs.
Materials: Laptops with Microworlds already open and several sample spirograph programs saved, spirograph handout

Digital Spirographs (Thirty minutes)
Show them some additional commands (setc, random, sliders, etc.) Begin creating interesting Spirograph patterns. Print out the students' patterns to take home. Wrap up with a discussion of the morning and a share out of interesting things the student's discovered while exploring Spirograph patterns

Spring Break Workshop part 1

2006-03-10T16:39:00.000-06:00

Big Idea: Using nonverbal communication towards telling a story.

Time: Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Participants: Marcus, Eddie, Lauren, Caroline, Jade, Jared, David, Jonathon, and Sammie.

Activity: Is it possible to tell a story? Yes, of course! But is it possible to tell a story by using only nonverbal communication? Well, that was the challenge for the teens today. First, we divided to teens into pairs. Then the real task came. The teens had to use two Lego motors and a cricket to create a scene. After some discussion with their fellow partner, they all set out to work. The materials were already laid out for them to choose. After everyone was done making their characters and scene, they then had to program their characters. When all was finish, we took turns telling our own version of the story before the creators tell us the actual story.

Best Part: It was hysterical to hear the teens various stories.

Worst Part: The characters that were connected to the motors would not repeat the same outcome that the story teller wanted them too.

Eddie programmed the characters, while Jared tested the character.

Jared repairing the character.

Marcus programming the characters.

David connecting his characters onto the motor.

Caroline changing the program of the motor and Jade repairing the fallen character.

Lauren putting the finishing touches on the lego board.

Panther @ Museum

2006-03-09T14:50:00.000-06:00

Big Idea: We finally got the Panther teens to the museum to get them through a Power Tool Safety and Proficiency Test and get them started on building their Sound Sculptures.

Dates: Wednesday, February 22nd.

Groups Participating: Panther Teens

Attendance: Joshua, Jonathon and Michael

Software: None

Hardware: None

Materials: Miter box (saw guide), wood hand saw, metal hand saw, hot glue guns, hot glue sticks, lenths of peg board to hot glue over, hand drills, drill bits, various lengths of screws, extra charged batteries for hand drills, quick grips, table vices, power scroll saw, power drill, power sander, various wood poeces and sound materials.

Directions: To get them comfortable with thier working envirnment to build sound sculptures, I first gave them a tour of where to find things and I encouraged cleanliness by showing them where the trash cans were. As we toured we went from station to station and reviewed safety issues for each activity (ie. create a "safety circle" when working with any tools, glue guns are hot, use a vice grip when sawing, use table vices and first create a guide hole when drilling, etc.) Then we went to the power tools and did a detailed review of how to use them safely and proproperly...

1) Use safety googles
2) Check safety circle for people
3) Show the teens an example of safely using the tool first
4) Have each one of them safely use the tool in front of you
5) Make sure they know to use pieces of guide wood when cuts are made 3 inches from the blade/drill/sander or less.

After each teen passed our Power Tools Safety and Proficiency Test, we headed over to the supply table, where we first viewed an example of a sound sculpture. Then we had the teens spend some time exploring sounds some of the materials could make, and discussed how that sound could be incorporated with the motion of the cricket motor into a sculpture. Finally, we started building.

Associated Concepts: Confidence in using power tools Safely and creatively.

Best Part: At the end of the day, we alread had 3 sturdy stands built ready for addition of crickets.

Worst Part: Too short of a time period.

Improvements: Get the teens there right at 5:15pm

2006-03-07T20:27:00.000-06:00

2006-03-02T19:13:00.000-06:00

Northside at the Museum

Tuesday at Northside

2006-03-01T15:57:00.000-06:00

Intro to MIDI

2006-02-28T15:36:00.000-06:00

Intro to MIDI by sharing discoveries

Big Idea: Due to our inability to get going on sound sculptures until Wednesday when they would get to the museum, I went a bit out of order of the scheduale and introduced the Miti-boards. I thought we had spent quite a bit of time away from programing, so this was a fun way to get them back on the laptops and comfortable navigating logo-blocks again. Plus I came up with a fun activity to introduce it in an organized and fun "share out" fashion, instead of simply letting them go.

Dates: Monday, February 20th

Groups Participating: Panther Teens

Attendance: Only three, but they got into it bigtime...Lahmia, Joshua and Braela

Software: Logoblocks

Hardware: One laptop per student and one midi-board set up per student which includes a transfer cable, a transfer cricket, a cricket, a bus cable, a midi-board, a speaker cable and a speaker, and extra midi-baord and crickets

Materials: extra AA, AAA, and 9V batteries, the "MIDI Quick Start" worksheet, and the "Exploring MIDI instrument sound guide" packet

Directions: Starting them with a blank logoblocks page on each computer, I had them first "test beep" thier cricket (something they should know always to start with). Then I handed out the "MIDI Quickstart" worksheet (I had not yet handed out the "instrument guides") and had them create the exact same program on it. Then I had them program thier cricket, and, one at a time, each play thier cricket and MIDI for the group. If thier MIDI sounded different from another's, that's how we knew something needed to be fixed, and they had to work together to find out what it was. After they finally all sounded the same, we explored together by changing one catagory's number, one at a time, to whatever number they wanted (within the capability of the program), and not playing thier results until everyone was ready. For example, I had them change the "set instrument" block to any number between 1 and 128, and then we individually played each person's results for the group. Then I had them change the number next to the note graphic on thier "mnote" block to any number between 15 and 120 (anything lower or higher is usually inaudible), then played that for the group. Then finally, we changed the numbers next to the clock graphic on the "mnote" block and the number on the "wait" block to explore how it changed time, and played those results individually for the group. This activity shows how the program works while keeping the group together and focused and having fun by hearing unexpected and variedresults.
After that, I asked them what thier favorite instument was. After they all answered in front of the group (a mini icebreaker), I handed out the "instument guides" and told them to find their favorite instrument and program it on their cricket. I next challenged them to change the note values and write a song with thier favorite instument, or they could just explore. By the end they were all in thier own worlds in MIDI until time was up.

Associated Concepts: Programing, sharing out with a group, listening

Best Part: Hearing how different the results were when changing the same values, and when they found the sound effects section of the instrument guide.

Worst Part: The standard "no cricket in sight" fumbles, but we fixed 'em before anyone lost interest.

Improvements: Make sure to test all the MIDI set-ups before you leave for the club, and bring extra in case they backfire. More attendees would have been nice too.

Overall, a successful intro, and I recommend this activity to anyone starting up MIDI exploration with a middle-sized group.
Next time I blog, I'll fill you in on our successes during construction of sound structures with a few Panther teens, both at the museum and at the club, and we'll let you know how it went with ALA's day with Justin Pate. Until then, I wish you the best.

Myles

A Week Of Soldering

2006-02-28T15:10:00.000-06:00

So, we had trouble getting vans organized. So instead of hauling half the supplies they needed to the club to begin building sound sculptures, I decided why not teach them a skill none had tried yet, and get some sensors and motor cables fixed and built, which we needed desperately. Plus, I still have and they will use the very same sensors they built, so soldering the sensors is part of the cycle as much as anything else.

Big Idea: teach them the useful skill of soldering

Dates: Wednesday, February 8th to Wednesday February 15th

Groups Participating: Panther teens

Attendance: Eddie, Michael, Braela, Thomas, Joshua, Lahmia, Gabe and myself for one of the three days (thanks Gabe!)

Software: None

Hardware: None

Materials: soldering stands, soldering irons, sponges, soldering wire, pegboard to work on, wire cutters / strippers, shrink wrap, wire, sensors, motor connectors

Directions: Like drilling, I made sure to show how to solder and express any safety issues first, soI had them group up around the table and had them watch me solder first as I explained.

Associated Concepts: Learn a valuable skill, trust them with a potentially dangerous activity

Best Part: I'd say the fact that they loved this activity and asked to do it more. That and no burns.

Worst Part: Learning patience in holding the wire steady over the wires. Took a couple groans of frustration here and there, but they got used to it.

Improvements: Make sure to have enough materials to go for a while. The first day, the teens ot so into it and worked so fast, we ran out of things to fix within an hour.

"Drill-Off" / 2006 2nd Annual Panther Film Festival

2006-02-28T14:01:00.000-06:00

"Drill-Off"

Big Idea: I knew we had an audience coming in at 6:15pm for the presentation of our 2nd Annual Panther Film Festival, but from 4:30pm until then, I wanted to get the teens familar with one of the several tools they would be utilizing in the next few weeks. So I came up with a safe but fun, timed competition called a "Drill-Off".

Dates: Monday, February 6th

Groups Participating: Panther Boys and Girls Club Teens

Attendance: Seven teens including Jasmine, Eddie, Michael, Andrea, Thomas, and Joshua.

Software: None

Hardware: None

Materials: 3 drills, lots o' scraps o' wood, various sized wood screws, vices and vice grips, and safety googles.

Directions: First, I grouped all the teens around our work table. I then had them watch me use the drills properly using safety googles and vices. Then I had each of them drill in one screw in front of me to make sure they could do it correctly. After that, I split the teens into groups of two. Then I gave each team a drill and screws. I then told them they have 1 hour to build a wooden stand that is at least 4 iches off the ground that will support my wieght, and we will test the stands in front of our film festival audince as a preview to the movies. When it came around to testing the stands, I made sure to announce the team members and have them stand-up for the big moment.

Associated Concepts: Teamwork with a team-mate, tool competency, design and engineering.

Best Part: The drum roll before each test, and the fact that they all past the tests.

Worst Part: None, it went over perfectly.

Improvements: A camera! always have a camera!

2006 2nd Annual Panther Film Festival

After the "drill-off" presentation, it was time for the public premier of "A Glimps At Our Life At Our Club", a film created by the Panther teens of DesignIT. I sincerly hope this tradition of our annual film festival continues for years to come. Like last year, we created tickets to get in which they handed out to the kids, we had snacks for all those who attended, had theater-like seating (not stadium, but pretty good) and like any other premier, we introduced the makers of the film. Something differant from last year was, before we showed the new film, we played last year's film, "Leaders Of Love". This film, by the way, won the Boys and Girl's Club regional film competition. The kid's got a kick out of this part because of the fact they got to see how different everyone was from a year ago. Alot of laughter and alot of fun.

Northside Weekly Plan

2006-02-24T21:59:00.000-06:00

The Students
7th through 11th grade kids at the Northside Boys & Girls Club.

Learning Objectives
Get a group of teenagers who have only passing familiarity with Crickets to become engaged in programming with Logoblocks. I want them to understand the basics of how Crickets operate and be able to set-up a lap-top with a transfer Cricket, a Cricket, a motor, and a sensor plugged into the proper ports. They should be able to turn the Cricket on and off and create a simple program that includes an "IF-Then" block, a math operator, and a "Loop" block. The goal is to get them familiar enough so they can make independent progress on building thier musical projects. My other objective this week is to get the teens accustomed to regular activity in the new DesignIT Studio at Northside.

Saturday
12:00pm – 4:00pm Make sure the internet works at Northside. Give the teens the schedule for the week. Gather and organize materials for the entire week. Take whatever we can spare to the club and go shopping for the rest.

Monday
Saafir and Rockey are at school Get Santiago to set up the laptops? Set some programming and internet challenges for the teens. Get eight of the teens to clean the front half of the room. Five wireless internet adaptors. Five serial-USB adaptors. Ten laptops.

Tuesday
2:30pm – 630pm Arrive at the club at 3:15 and set-up laptop/Cricket/alligator clip/motor sensor setups. Bring notebooks for a journaling exercise. Bring fruit and a nice snack (microwaved popcorn?). Setup a projector and do a Cricket tutorial. Five wireless internet adaptors.Five serial-USB adaptors. Ten laptops.Fifteen Cricket set-ups with extra batteries.Microwave popcorn and microwaveTen journals with pencils and markers
Wednesday
4:00pm - 6:00pm Have Santiago setup the laptops and have Cricket sets available for checkout.
Thursday
3:00pm - 7:00pm The teens will come to the Museum from the site. As soon as they get here we'll do some fun get-to-know-you games. ???Then we'll do a tour of some of the cool areas of the Museum??? We'll then spend an hour exploring mechanical contraptions (that will happen to be run by Crickets) The students will get to try their hand at programming the contraptions to run with Logoblocks programs. A writing exercise will close out the evening. (Rockey -- please help me refine this)
Five wireless internet adaptors.Five serial-USB adaptors. Ten laptops.Fifteen Cricket set-ups with extra batteries.Snacks. Ten or fifteen motion modules
Friday
5:00pm - 7:00pm More open Studio time. This time we'll have the PieIDEAS web site up with some good LEGO kits and art materials to spark some exploration. We'll see how many kids just surf the net.

JUSTIN PATE LIVE!

2006-02-24T17:06:00.000-06:00

Justin Pate Live!

Big Idea: Knowing that during the cycle we would soon be introducing midi-boards, I felt it would be important to show these teens that, after college, one can make a living doing what they love involving the exploration of sound. And so I introduced them to my friend Justin Pate. Justin is officially a professional musician. He is a keyboard player and vocalist in four different successful local bands including Confusatron, Pablo and the HempHill 7, Horses, Darth Vato, and is working on his own solo project. He is talented in many rights, but I was excited to show off his speciality, his talent in, through midi board technology, digitally looping sounds and voice.

Dates: Wednesday, Febraury 1st

Groups Participating: Panther Teens and kids

Attendance: about 35 teens and kids combined. The teens included Michael, Braela, Jonathon, Eddie, Thomas, and Joshua

Materials: Jusin's keyboard, PA, sound pedals, gadgets, one speaker, 2 microphones, plus objects to make sounds (pots n pans, shakers, spoons, tubes, ect.)

Directions: First I had everyone leave but DesignIT teens so they could have personal time with Justin to ask questions and experiment with his equipment. We had one teen at a time step up to the mic and digitally distort thier voice by someone else waving thier hand over an infa-red distance sensor, which everyone got a kick out of. Then when they were done they rotated to the sensor to disort the next person voice. After that we all picked our favorite sound we could make out of the objects I brought, then one by one we stepped up to the mic to record about 5 seconds of that sound in a rhythm. After all were recorded, Justin looped them all together to make a song. After the teens had time with Justin, we let any kids in the club to see Justin Pate Live. Because it got so crowded he had to perform 2 seperate shows. For each show, I gave him a brief intro, then he showed off the voice distorter, then we played the loop song the DesignIT teens composed, then finally he performed 2 songs involving his digital looping technology.

Associated Concepts: I really think this helped encourage the teens to understand the technology we're just messin around with now in our after-school program couldlead to an interest in a future career if passion and hard work are invested.

Best Part: Either Justin's performance of Bobby McFaren's "Don't Worry Be Happy" and seeing the kids' faces when he began looping his voice or the teens rapping with distorted voices. Beautiful DesignIT moments happened with this visit from Justin.

Worst Part: That not all DesignIT teens were ther to witness it, however we are working on it.

Side Note: The pictures above were taken by our new DesignIT photographer Michael, who has an abstract style of his own. Even if it doesn't quite capture the events of the show, he did have a blast photographing the event.

back to bloggin

2006-02-24T16:39:00.000-06:00

Sorry gang, had a crazy couple weeks there. But I'm gonna catch up quick. I'm going to knock out a few activities to get everyone back up to speed with Panther's successes...

Wire Sculptures

Big Idea: Bummed out that none of my teens could make it to our resident artist Augie's workshop on Saturday, January 21st, I decided to keep the interest in his art alive (they had met him at the museum the previous week on Wednesday, January 18th) by creating my own wire challenge. It was the first activity we tried before going into planning our movie later that afternoon. I realize this strayed from the sound cycle a bit, but they showed so much interset in his work, I had to give them some feeling of his creative medium.

Dates: Wednesday, January 25th

Groups Participating: Panther teens

Attendance: 4 teens, including Breala, Eddie, Jonathon and Joshua

Software: none

Hardware: none

Materials: 2 staightened coat hangers per teen and 2 needle-nose pliers per teen, paper and pens

Directions: So I had the teens think of at least a dozen three dimesional objects, write them on suares of paper and put them in a box. Some of them included a flower, a car, a dog, a gun, sunglasses, achair, ect. Then we each drew an object. Using the needle-nose pliers and 2 wires, they had to form that object the best they could out of the wire coat hangers. After we finished that, we took the objects and tried to combine them into new objects. A few pics of thier sculptures are below.

Associated Concepts: Familiarizing them with Augie's medium, introducing that art can come from anything.

Best Part: Seeing the teens work together to try and creatively combine the two.

Worst Part: Trying to get them started. Wire coat hangers don't seem appealing to teens, but once the challenge was presented through drawing specific objects, they got into it.

Improvements: I really wish we could have had Auggie see all the teens somehow. Perhaps organizing a provied ride by the club on Saturdays would help workshop attendences.

Pico's First Kinetic Sculptures

2006-02-23T11:53:00.000-06:00

Time: Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Participation: Crystal, Sammie, Myles, and Picos.

Gameplan: The Picos finished their Kinectic Sculptures for E-week and were able to bring their work onto the floor. This was their first time to build Kinectic Sculptures and presenting their work on thier own. The coaches are their to help guide them in difficult situations but the Pico will be responsible answering the guest's questions. The Picos should be very proud that their sculptures worked on the floor and impressed many of the Bluedots that were there. Big KUDOS for all the Picos that worked hard on their sculptures!!!!!!

Best Part: All the Pico teens did a great job explaining their sculpture to the guests.

Worst Part: Two members of the Pico teen sculpture did not worked on the floor and had to take their project downstairs to re-design.

Created by: AJ and Jared

Creator: Unknown

Created by: Tyler and Hannah

Created by: Madison and Tanner

Created by: Allie and Chris

Created by: Stepahnie, Jazmine, and Ashley

ALA Pre-Eweek Preparation

2006-02-16T13:13:00.000-06:00

Big Idea: Bluedots and Picos prepare their work for E-week.

Time: Wednesday, February 15, 2006

participation: Bluedots and Picos

Gameplan: Today is the last week for the teens to finish their projects for E-week. Since the Bluedots have their own station, they worked together towards building their projects. Lauren thought of the idea to make the Spin Tables, but unfortunately she was sick and wasn't able to put the rest of the spin tables together. Fortunately, the other Bluedots pitched in to find the design and lego parts, write the program, and build the machines. After much hard work the Bluedots completed four spin tables. Now the big question for the Bluedots, will it work?!?
The Picos were also putting in major effort to get their first Kinectic Sculptures to work while displayed on the floor. This will be the first time the Pico teens will be displaying their work on their own. They will have to answer various guest questions and explained their work thoroughly. Everyone worked so hard and deserve major kudos for all their effort.

Eddie attaching the Lego motor to the spin table.

Wesley adding the finishing touches to his Solar Car.

Leland testing out the spinner for the spin table, while Matt waits patiently to add the base.

PJ and Matt testing out the spin tables.

Caroline finishing editing her movie.

Austin and Jacob finishing their program for their Kinectic Sculpture.

Jade and Daniel taping their box down to the base.

Joe and Tyler debating on the use of their materials.

Museum School Animation Workshop: Before

2006-02-11T07:48:00.000-06:00

Big Idea
Build thaumatropes and zoetropes, then try creating simple Microworlds animation

Time
Saturday, February 11th. 10:00am - 12:00am

Groups Participating
Museum school fifth graders, and Saafir

Plan
Introduction (Fifteen minutes)
Have the students "interview" each other and report out to the group. Make sure I learn the students names before they come. Talk about animation and let them browse some historical websites
Materials: Nametags, sample animation toy, flash animation example, projector, website handouts

Thaumatropes (One hour)

Build thaumatropes. Give the students a challenge to create a thaumatrope that they all agree looks like a good superposition (but do not use that word under any circumstances). :-) Give them three levels of challenges 1) One object on top of another, 2) An object in a scene, and 3) One object inside another
Get them to write down their observations about their creations a) what worked well? b) what didnt' work so well? c) why do you think this works?
Introduce the idea of persistence of vision. Use a visual aid if possible

Materials: Straws, index cards, markers, stapler, three sample Thaumatropes, string, scotch tape, pencil and lined paper, an example of persistence of vision (movies?)

Microworlds (Thirty minutes)
Introduce the software on the projector. Have the program already up and a starting page loaded. Demonstrate how to add pages. Get them to create a simple flipbook animation and share out about it.
Materials: Four laptops with Microworlds already going on them, and the program, and sample flipbook going.

Sound Cycle Continues

2006-02-07T17:29:00.000-06:00

With a lack of vans here, and a re-tiling of the club there, through thick and thin we continued to have some great days of learnin' with the teens at Panther the last few weeks. I'll seperate this blog into two sections representing two different activities involved over the last few weeks. Here we go...

Section 1 - "Light Hunting"

Big Idea: Review with the teens the crickets and logoblocks software we'll be using to program thier sound sculptures, but make a game out of it.

Dates: Monday, January 23rd and Wednesday, January 25th

Groups Participating: Teens from Panther Boys and Grls club

Attendance: Myself, Gabe and 5 teens including Braela, Michael, Thomas, Jasmine, and Joshua

Software: Logoblocks

Hardware: laptops, crickets, transfer crickets, transfer wires, light sensors, motors, motor cables

Directions: I split the group into 3 grops of 2 and named them "team 120", "team 150" and "team 200" and wrote them on a notepad. The team names related to light specific values they were going to set on their crickets. The challenge was to program your cricket for the motor to run only when your light sensor read your team's sensor value, then find how many differant places in the club (outside the teen room) had that light reading, signified by the motor continually running.
Whoever could name the most spots in the club and could report them back to me won. I let them know that I would go with them and test thier claim occasionally, so it had to be accurate.
Just so you know, Thomas and Micheal of "team 120" won with places like, "behind the soda machine" and, my personal favorite, "inside my mouth".

Associated Concepts: Create a fun competition while learning how to program crickets.

Best Part: The race to find spots, and testing to see if they were right.

Worst Part: On Wednesday, I got everything prepared to get the teens to the museum, but there were only 3 teens at the club - not enough to make a run. So, I went out to the club and gave Eddie his T-shirt after his completion of 12 hours.

Improvements: Be sure to create a game out of it - it pumps them up.

Section 2 - Movie Making

Big Idea: We found out last minute that the club wanted DesignIT to submit another entry to the annual national short-film competition. Last year we worked on the film over a period of 2 weeks and ended up winning regionals and going onto the national rounds. This year we found out with 3 days. I give all the credit to Gabe on this one, since they did most of the shooting and editing when I couldn't be there. Overall, for the time we had, the movie "A Day Glimpse At Our Life At Our Club" was a success.

Dates: Monday, January 31st and Tuesday and Wednesday February 1st and 2nd

Groups Participating: Panther teens

Attendance: Gabe and mainly 4 teens - Braela, Micheal, Joshua and Thomas

Software: Movie Maker

Hardware: the clubs digital camera and our laptop.

Directions: On Monday I brainstormed with the group. The theme of this year's competition was "Life at the Boys and Girl's Club", so we sat down and listed all the things they like to do at the club. We then wrote them all down and decided what order they should go in. We then decided on a specific caste of actors, camera people, and directors. Overall, it worked out that everyone got to play the role in the film they wanted.

Associated Concepts: Filming, acting, directing a group, cooperation, editing, working under pressure.

Best Part: Seeing the final product and premiering it at the 2006 Second Annual Panther Film Festival (to be blogged about later).

Worst Part: Lack of time, but Gabe and the crew did a great job.

Improvements: Simply getting going earlier and tying it into a cycle plan.

I still have to blog about three fantastic events in the last few weeks, including a musician named Justin Pate visiting the club and showing what you can do with experimenting with sound and technology (got some great photos of the event taken by one of teens, Micheal, who has a very abstract style), our "Drill-Off", the Panther Film Festival, and also the ALA bluedots' public display of thier projects. Until then, u-n-i-t-y.

myles

Bluedots Presentation

2006-02-01T12:42:00.000-06:00

Time: February 1, 2006 (12:00pm-1:00pm)

Activity: Bluedots present their individual projects.

People: Myles, Crystal, Jonathon, Sammie, Caroline, Lauren, Eddie, Wesley, Leland, Matthew, Joey, David, and Daniel.

The Bluedots finally finished their individual projects and were presenting their work in Exlpore Zone for all to see. They were a little nervous, but they took their solar and IR cars, Intelplay movies, and power point video down to Explore Zone to show visitors and staff their inventions.

Although most of the visitors had left for the day, museum staff and other ALA students came to the museum to see their projects. Fortunately, the Bluedots took it very well and welcomed anyone that was interested. I was very excited for the Bluedots because this was their time to shine and challenge themselves to do greater things.

Many of the Bluedots had difficulty while working on their projects. Some of the problems that occurred were the labtops were not corporating, cars falling apart after hitting a wall, clay people falling apart, and powerpoints not downing loading. Lucky for us and the Bluedots, everything was working fine.

Crystal and Lauren working out minor details on her powerpoint.

Eddie and his car.

David gets a congradulations out of a
fellow ALA student after
seeing his video.

Sammie trying to make Leland's car to pop a wheely.

David showing visitors his Clay Animation
Movie.

Wesley showing the Pico girls is solar car.

Preston showing the Pico group his
Microworld video game.

Eddie inviting the cameraman to come look at his car and cricket program.

Matt showcasing his marble run.

Metal Men

2006-01-28T10:09:00.000-06:00

Big Idea: Create small statues of people using, different types of metal.
Dates: Saturday, January 21, 2006
Groups Participating: Northside Boys and Girls Club
Attendance: Augie (Resident Artist), Saafir and Rockey (coaches), Armando, Angel, Rolando, and Valarie.
Materials: aluminum gutter guard, 17 gauge electric fence wire, 14 gauge electric fence wire, pliers, wire cutters, and gloves
Directions:
Associated Concepts: This activity gives kids hands on experience with using everyday materials and creating art. They will then use this understanding in creating IT sculptures.
Best Part: Giving these kids a chance to work with an experienced artist, who has exhibited his sculptures in Texas, and Norway.
Worst Part: Forgetting to wear gloves. Also some of the thicker fence wire can be hard to manipulate, I recommend using pliers.
Improvements: Having examples of each step of the process. Some people are visual learners and need to see what they are trying to create. This also helps create a goal for which they can aim to achieve.

Augie's workshop

2006-01-24T13:45:00.000-06:00

Time: Saturday, January 21, 2006

Activity: Making sculptures using metal wires and other scrap metal.

People: Augie (the workshop guide), Sammie and Crystal (the ALA coaches), Wesley, Eddie, Leland, and David (the Bluedots.)

We had a blast on Saturday! There were music, artistic images to be created, an awesome workshop leader, and food. What more could we asked for. I was first surprised about how easy it was to work with metal. When we first started making our metal figurines, I didn't realize that we started. It felt like we were playing. We were cutting the gutter guards and transforing them into a head, arms, legs, and a body. Augue took us step by step into creating our own figurines. The biggest challenge with using aluminum gutter guards was that they were extremely too flexible and it can be very sharp. I kept folding the gutter guard to thin and everyone cut or scratch themsleves at least once. But this did not stop anyone from creating their metal person.

The metal wires that we used were to form the body into what looked a bit like muscles. We all used about three different size metal wires. The wires were push through the gutter guard and wrap around different parts of the body, such as the head, arms, and legs. The thicker the wire was, the harder it was to wrap the figurine. As we were working on the figures, Augie would tell us interesting and hysterical stories about the people that he had met and growing up in the Congos. Every now and then he was dance a bit too. With all the laughing, you would think that we weren't working. But by the end of our workshop we had a standing metal figure. Augie promise that the teens will get to decorate their figurines in the next workshop.

First Panther Field Trip

2006-01-20T13:18:00.000-06:00

Hey gang. Our first field trip for Panther went brilliantly. We got 5 teens to get out of thier comfort zone for a trip to the museum. here's the over view...

Big Idea: Get the teens aquainted with thier new Wednesday working envirnment, inform them about the activities to come in the cycle, introduc them to Augie, our resident artist, and get them interested in the study of sound through ebtertaining games and challenges.

Dates: Wednesday, January 18th

Groups Participating: Panther Teens

Attendance: 5 teens including Joshua, Jonathoan, Michael, Eddie and Thomas along with Augie, Saafir, Gabe and myself

Materials: Bucket o' objects that make interesting sounds

Directions:
Since we checked out several activities in the hour and a half we had, I'll run through them and explain a bit about each...

1) For an icebreaker, we played the game I called "rhythm challenge". We circled up and sat so we could stomp our feet. We then all picked a differant short sound we could create, such as a snap, a clap, a grunt, a word, etc. After all of us announcing our sounds to the group, I then explained the rules. All of us stomp the rhythm to "we will rock you", but in place of the claps, the person who starts places thier sound. Immediatly after, they then place another persons sound in the group. That person then must repeat thier sound, then make another persons sound. If a person messes up on the rhythm by not mimicing or choosing a sound in time, they are out. Definatley run a couple practice round first, cause it took our crew a while to get in the rhythm. However when we started the competition iwas fierce and fun. If the gruops really good, pick up the tempo for more of a challenge.

2) Next I explained our upcoming cycle, showed them the power tools they'd be using on Wednesdays, and told them about our various visiting artists they would get to meet, including...

3) Augie! We spent about 15 minutes with Augie where he gave a little bio, we checked out his works online, and passed around a few sculptures and musical instruments he made.

4) We then passed out snacks and proceeded to watch a video where the subject matter is sound: "Stomp". As we watched I asked them to watch for the various materials used to make such a variety of sounds.

5) After snacks and 15 minutes of the film, we listed on the board all the different objects they could think of that they saw used in the film, then we picked a few of those and discussed how many differant sounds could be made with just that one object. This activity led to what I thought was the most fun part of the day, the...

6) "5 sound challenge"! I had each of us pick 3 objects from a box of assorted materials (ie, pipes, wooden blocks, tin plates, wooden spoons, etc.) Then I gave them 5 minutes to discover 5 differant sounds with thier objects. We then individually presented them to the group. After that, I had them each pick thier favorite of thier sounds, and again sit in a circle facing eachother. We then beat the same "We will rock you" rhythm, but tried making our sounds in different orders. For example first we simply started on one end and went around the cicle one at a time. Then we started on one end and split so 2 were playing at once until it came all the way around. Then we built up one at a time and came down one at a time. Fun stuff.

7) Finally, we filled out paperwork and gave away T-shirts to those who have turned all thier things in.

Overall, we had a blast and left these teens wanting to come back for more. I'm definatley looking forward to out next Wednesday here.

myles

near forgotten pics!

2006-01-17T15:36:00.000-06:00

Before we move too far ahead, I have to throw these pics on the blog. These are various images from ALA's showcase day on Wednesday, December 21st that I forgot to include on past blogs. The first few are the the Pico teens working hard together under serious pressure to complete thier chain reactions in time to get them upstairs. I love some of these shots because of the intense teamwork you can see going on. The second set are pics from Bluedot's party downstairs in the studio, which was just as much of a success as the one up-stair's due to such a high turnout of parent participation. We even took Wesly's IR powered car outside for a test spin. However, like Wesley, many of the teens are looking forward to when we will showcase thier projects upstairs for the public. Should be sweet. I especially look forward to when we can get more brownies like the ones we had that day as well. mmmmmm, brownies. Great day overall.

myles

Let The Cycle Begin (for Panther)

2006-01-17T14:18:00.000-06:00

Big Idea: We had a meeting for all Panther teens to inform them of the up-coming cycle and of benefits for joining or continuing thier membership in DesignIT. The meeting also included two questionaires to fill out, one to check proficiancy on activities we will pursue in the next cycle, and the other to find out more on thier interests in music. We then followed the meeting with an activity outside to briefly introduce them on the concepts of listening to sound around them.

Dates: Wednesday, January 11th

Groups Participating: Panther Teens

Attendance: 7 Panther Teens including Dominique, Jazmine, Joshua, Thomas, and Braela

What We Covered:
After a welcome back, I went over how many hours each person had completed thus far, and announced two more additions to our official membership since they had completed thier twelve hours. With the addition of Thomas and Eddie, with Lianthia, Marcus, Jonathon and Michael, that's a total of 6. However, there's good news and bad news to add to that. Good news is Braela and Joshua are two hours away from also joining, however, bad news is Marquas found some basketball friends outside the club, and Lianthias moving away. So even with two more we're stayin at six.
We then listed together as a reminder the benefits of being a member of DesignIT. These included free museum membership, free DesignIT T-shirts, new DesignIT journals, weekly fieldtrips, possible paid internships during the summer, and a positive extra-cirricular activity listed on college applications.
Next we had them complete the proficiency questionaires, so we can have an idea of what they knew before the cycle. Then in a few weeks, we'll fill them out again to see what this cycle taught them.
After a snack break and fiding out everyone's favorite part of thier break, we moved onto letting them know what the next cycle includes. I told them about exploring various sounds with particular objects, learning power tolls to build sound machines out of the sounds we found, then exploring the Midi software to create our own songs with crickets. To accompany this, we next filled out a music questionaire to get some insite on thier interests in music, which we then discussed the answers as a group to get the teens to get to realize some of thier same interests with one another. Some of the questions and answers included...

Q. If you could instantly know how to play any instrument, which instrument would it be?
A. drums
A. electric guitar
A. violin

Q. Name 5 different styles of music…
A. Rap
A.Trance
A. R and B
A. Blues
A. Pop

Q. What are your top 3 favorite music artists/groups?
A. Chris Brown
A. Usher
A. Slim Thuga
A. 2 Pac

Q. Where do you like to listen to music?
A. Car
A. Room
A. Bathroom
A. School

Q. What do you think was the first musical instrument ever made?
A. Drums
A. Reed Instruments
A. Xylaphone

Q. If you were to try and build an instrument, which would you try to build?
A. Guitar
A. Turntables
A. Drums
A. Tuba

This activity simply got them to think in the direction of music and open up to eachother. Its funny how people are proud and willing to openly share thier interest in music far more than many other things. There seems to be a pride in the music one listens to, like it represents them in some fashion.
Finally we went outside and did the one-minute litsening activity. Closing the eyes made a big differance, and although giggling is usually involved, it lends itself to the activity when answering the follow up questions. Some include...
-Name two noises that were each, without repeating the same one.
-What was the furthest noise you heard?
-What was the closest noise you heard?
-What noise did you hear that you hadn't noticed before we started?
-What noise did you hear that you had notced before we started?
-What was the highest pitch noise you heard?
-What was the lowest pitch noise you heard?

Best Part:
The music questionaire and the listening activity. Tey sincerly seemed to be interested in eachother's responses.

Worst Part: I had promised them a weekly field trip starting this week. We had discussed with the club on Monday about needing a van for a ride to the museum on Thursday to work with Saafir, and they said it would not be a problem. It was. Now the damage control comes back to me and my false promises. So we have learned we cannot depend on the club for rides. From now on, Wednesdays are our field trip days, and we can only depend on ourselves. The #1 thing that hinders attendence in DesignIT is false promises. Make sure once you give these teens a reason to get excited, you follow through. If you do not, thier revenge is through no longer participating. I'm heading over to do some healing today, but let this be a warning to the rest of you - no promises until they are 100% possible.

Overall, they seem excited for what's to come, as long as I can bring them back with some exciting stuff. Should be exciting.

myles

Holiday Animation Festival

2006-01-17T13:23:00.000-06:00

So with a few obstacles in the way, we managed four workdays, December 13th, 14th, 16th and 19th, before leading up to our culminating event, the Holiday Animation Festival. We moved the showcase day to a day earlier because Wednesday would be a half day, and many of our teens would not be there. In the time we had to create, the teens managed to finish some short but sweet interactive stories and simple games. Finally, thier newly gained knowledge of Microworlds programming was proudly displayed in thier work...

Big Idea: Set up the teen room for Panther kids to wander through our "gallery" of interactive works while asking questions of the artists.

Dates: Tuesday, December 20th

Groups Participating: DesignIT teens and all Panther kids who wanted to attend

Attendance: 6 Panther DesignIT teens including Eddie, Michael, Joshua, Thomas, Leanthia, and Breala, and at least 20 Panther kids

Software: Microworlds

Hardware: 1 laptop, 1 power cable and 1 mouse for each project presented.

Materials: Paper and markers to label each person's laptop with the artist's name and title of thier piece, and create and hand out flier's for the gallery's opening.

Directions: Have an open gallery setting where kids can grab snacks and drinks and walk around to try each interactive game or story and ask artists how they created it.

Associated Concepts: Creates an envirnment where teens can be challenged by questions asked about how they went about creating, and provides a sense of pride while showing off thier hard work.

Best Part: My favorite part was the impromtu Q and A session we held, where, after viewing the works, all the kids sat down like a studio audience and asked the artists anything they wanted to about thier peices. It put the teens on the spot to talk about thier work, which Lianthia and Thomas really were great at (see pics). They took the teaching role and ran with it. One of my favorite questions a kid asked was, "What does it feel like to create something?" The teens answered it sincerly, and I believe it summed up the good feelings they had about the pieces. A few of my favorite pieces included...
Eddie's "Skating Monkey"
Jonathon's "Stampeed Down Under"
Lianthia's "The Chase"
and Joshua's "Fly"

Worst Part: Not having enough cupcakes for all. Definatley make sure the snack amount is even and just when dealing with the little ones.

Improvements: More time for creation of projects, however the weather was partially responsible for that. Just make sure to organize a calender before you start any cycle, and check it with the clubs for any potential obstacles or interuptions.

Learning to Listen

2006-01-14T15:59:00.000-06:00

Big Idea: Listening for natural sounds
Date: Tuesday; January 10, 2006
Groups Participating: Northside Boys & Girls Club
Attendance: 12
Materials: A stop watch, and at least three different locations.
Directions: Find a location, close your eyes and concentrate on listening for one whole minute. Try and listen for the furthest, closest, loudest and faintest sounds. Example: The park, inside the gym, and a parking lot.
Associated Concepts: This will help inspire students to
find ideas for musical instruments that are naturally occurring in their environment.
Best Part: Students realize how much effort listening requires. This allows them to become aware of sounds they would normally overlook.
Worst Part: It can be difficult for the students to keep from being distracted for one whole minute.
Improvements: Three distinct locations, try inside and outside. A location of high traffic, and one with little to no traffic. Bring examples of instruments created
when inspired by nature.