After a great year of running the worlds easiest PCB creation and fabrication service we have to announce, that our last Fab round this year will be closed this Sunday 15th of December and be shipped the 20th. Next year Fritzing Fab will be closed the 7th of January and be shipped one week later.
Thank you all for using this service, which was considered as »impossible« just some years ago.
"It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I’ve done some pretty difficult things, like military service." - Stefan, Fritzing Coordinator, on working with kids.
When you are little, you don’t want to wait. You want to cut up some paper and glue it to the moon. You want to get your hands dirty. You want to (with a little assistance, maybe) make a light blink, attach it to a CO2 sensor, put it inside a balloon full of helium, and send it into the sky. That way you can figure out how much CO2 those big cars are coughing out.
I had the chance to do some heavy learning over the weekend as a mentor for children’s workshops, so I saw kids’ impatience firsthand. Hackidemia organized the workshops during the Singularity University EU Summit in Budapest, with the goal of bringing the possibilities of complex technology to children. The Creator Kit has a similar goal, to bring Arduino and electronics to children. The topics are tough, though!
My main takeaway was that teaching kids can be more complex than the technology. Here I outline some of my issues and provide some tips that you can use while using the Creator Kit with your family.
During the Air Pollution Workshop, I saw that one of the main barriers to teaching youth was keeping their attention. If you asked me to explain something, chances were that I’d quickly slip into my natural tendency toward dry, theoretical, and factual information (in lots of detail). Long story short: that didn’t work so well with 10 year olds. I got this look:
And I noticed over at the next table the mentor Clément got these looks:
What was he doing differently? What can you do differently when you play with children and the Creator Kit?
2 things mainly: metaphors and questions.
So you want to get the idea of an Arduino across. Ok, how about forgetting about the pins for the time being, and instead making a diagram like this. Extra kudos if you make the diagram on the spot and say a couple of words about each piece along the way.
Imagine you are at a cocktail party. To learn about another guest, you probably wouldn’t say, “Tell me everything about you, ordered by year, and please do not stop talking for at least 45 minutes. I do not want the chance to add anything, discuss anything, or ask you any questions.” Nope - instead you would probably ask a series of questions, which lead you to an enjoyable exchange where the person felt like they could express themselves.
Let’s apply this to children. Put the tools in their hands and ask them questions about it. Let them ask you questions. When they answer your questions about the Creator Kit, they are learning by doing and answering.
Do you think there is more CO2 in the air at street level or at the top of a building? If you make it to Mars, what will you have to take with you from Earth? Oh, so you say you want to be a lawyer when you grow up? Well, ever consider being a lawyer for robots?
With the Creator Kit, you might use it with your children. You should use it with your children. Use these tips! Engage them in the kit, play with the content, and get creative. The Creator Kit is a perfect jumping off point, so now it’s your turn to take it to the next level and keep them engaged.
For a long time it was unfortunately very expansive for our customers of the US and of Asia to order our products like the Fritzing Creator Kit. Now we’ve found a partner, who will fill the gap. We are very happy to welcome Seeed Studio as a reliable company selling our Kit.
Direkt Link to the Fritzing Creator Kit at Seeed Studio.
We have heard a lot about synthetic 3D printers for home use - now we are entering the home use metal age! A US startup wants to make metal printing available at a small cost and is presenting its project on Indiegogo, where you can get the MiniMetalMaker already from 500 $ on.
https://vimeo.com/78961565
The MiniMetalMaker prints 3D objects from digital files in metal clay, such as copper, bronze, steel, silver and gold but also ceramic and porcelain clays.
For now, the printable size is still quite small compared to the synthetic 3D printers: the object can have a size of max 6 cm x 6 cm x 6 cm. The extrusion trace is around 0.5mm. Nevertheless the team around founder David Hartkop states on their Indiegogo project page that with the monies raised this will be improved. This shouldn’t be a problem now as their campaign has currently raised already more than 15.000 $, which has been 1.5x their actual goal.
From now on you can get our Fritzing Creator Kits also at the Reichelt elektronik online store! Reichelt sells them in English language version as well as in German.
German Edition: www.reichelt.de English Edition: www.reichelt.de
Reichelt elektronik is one of the largest electronic distributors in Europe. A big plus is that you can order from Reichelt also in very small quantities without any disadvantage concerning the price - it will stay the same per item, whether you buy one or hundred.
Check it out!