Category Archives: STEM

Hovercraft, Making, STEM, Uncategorized

Liquid Nitrogen – August Meeting

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What happens when you hit a marshmallow frozen at -196°C.
What happens when you hit a marshmallow frozen at -196C.

At our August 9th meeting we covered the Water Balloon Challenge, which is now up to 8 groups. Details on our project page, but they seem to be performing so well that we concluded that the Greencastle Farmer’s Market display in early September should be a demo, not the actual competition, since the Greencastle square may not be large enough!

What happens when you insert a balloon into liquid nitrogen. There's also a video where you see it shrink and then expand.
A balloon being shrunk by inserting into liquid nitrogen before re-expanding, the record was 4 times for one balloon!

For our ‘show & tell’ portion Chris brought liquid nitrogen in a dewar for experiments. After explaining describing liquid nitrogen and where it comes from, we poured the -196°C (-320°F) liquid over the marshmallows that Alice had brought in. We also froze a banana to drive nails into a piece of wood and then tried lots of things that kids and the adults suggested. Some that worked and some that didn’t!

A raw egg that was frozen first with liquid nitrogen then melted down during the meeting back into a normal uncooked egg.
A raw egg that was frozen first in the shell with liquid nitrogen then thawed down during the meeting back into a normal uncooked egg.

Freezing balloons was a big hit, the kids had tons of questions which you can hear and see in the balloon video that Brian H. took. For the coin collectors there, we showed how older copper pennies are more malleable at minus 200 degrees Celsius than the new copper plated zinc pennies – which shatter after hitting them with a hammer!

There’s another good regional event for science in Bloomington on 8/29, Makevention, along with some other events on our events page. Last year we took one of the shovercraft (shoveable hovercraft) to the Bloomington event and did demonstrations. It’s well worth the trip if even to just to look at what other people are doing.

Since we’re starting to look for projects after the Water Balloon Challenge, I can’t help but mention the Lexus created hoverboard that uses liquid nitrogen. I just watched a video (long version) on it, sort of outdid our shovercraft but a lot of more engineering in that design. Now that would be an awesome next project!

Greencastle's Makerspace, Making, STEM

July 2015 Castlemakers Meeting

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Alice tries flying Isaac's drone that he brought to the meeting.
Alice tries flying Isaac’s drone that he brought to the meeting.

At our July 26th meeting we shared and discussed the upcoming Water Balloon Challenge in August. Interested kids & adults signed up and there are 5 preliminary teams creating something to launch a 2″ diameter water balloon farther than you can throw it – but there are several more rumored to be forming and folks can join in at any time.

Some of the kids afterwards viewed the drone videos from earlier in the day. You can see one of them on our Youtube channel.
Some of the kids afterwards viewed the drone videos from earlier in the day. You can see one of them on our Youtube channel.

Special thanks to Isaac & Matt who brought their new drone for the sharing portion of the meeting. All the kids that wanted to try it got to fly it. We also learned that one is very durable!

Artistic Endeavors, Making, STEM

Making Ideas from Art

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While you hear a lot about STEM, many in the Making community talk a  lot about STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Art Math). Attend a Maker Faire or look at any Make magazine and you can’t help but notice how many artistic creations (how about an electric giraffe) are being made. Many of the same things shown at the bigger Maker Faires have also made appearances at Burning Man, arguably one of the most creative artistic community rituals that I’ve encountered.

Clay Sculpture by David Katz at Peeler
One of the traveling exhibits at Peeler Gallery.  This  temporary clay sculpture in 2014 by David Katz seemed to be attached to the walls.

A good Putnam County art resource is the Peeler Art Gallery on the DePauw campus. A lot of people forget about it and it’s open to the public for free. One of the current exhibits has some Andy Warhol photos and prints, but it changes every few months. If you look at this exhibit link read it very closely, summer hours are reduced from regular hours during the school year.  It’s not a huge gallery like IMA, but I’m always amazed at the quality of the exhibits at Peeler.

3D Printing, STEM

3D Printing & Math in a Classroom

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Printrbot 3D printer in classroom
Kids look over the a mini-whistle being printed in their math class.

Last Friday I got to talk about how 3D printers work & demonstrate printing to a class at Tzouanakis intermediate school in Greencastle. A lot of the math skills being learned in 4th and 5th grade math, at least in the current common core curriculum, are used when printing on a 3D printer. Obviously simple length and dimensions are needed and almost all 3D printer software controls are entered using metric dimensions. In contrasting a 3D printer with an ink jet printer (which the kids all have seen) we could bring in how coordinates are used with the printer head so the plastic goes on the right place on the printer bed (some of the kids have already been plotting x and y coordinates on charts).

Cura Software Screen printing whistle
The Cura 3D software screen used to show some of the things taught in 4th and 5th grade math.

There was lots of other things briefly covered related to math & science, including how the software being used (Cura) estimates how much plastic will be used (both length and weight). By having them measure the diameter of the filament used, we worked through calculating the circle’s area and then volume so they could see how much plastic will be used. Some of the kids have been exposed to unit volumes in the current curriculum, and while it was covered pretty rapidly perhaps the rest will remember it when they get that in more depth next year.

We also talked about the temperature settings and how that melted the plastic, asking if the 206 degree setting was hot enough to melt plastic. Some of the children that have been overseas immediately recognized that this was in centigrade rather than degrees F, so we worked through a conversion equation so everyone could realize these were oven like temperatures.

Mrs. McCoy's Tzouanakis Class with their 3D printed whistles
Kids trying out their mini-whistles… outside!!

After printing out a mini-whistle, I then showed them how the scaling function could change the size with a few clicks and re-printed a larger whistle. Most of the kids guessed correctly that the larger whistle would have a lower sound/pitch, but there was a lot of looking around to see who was raising their hand when they were asked to vote.

A special thanks to Mrs. McCoy for allowing me to come into her classroom for the printing demonstration. The class was scheduled at the end of the day & each of them got a 3D printed mini-whistle. Hopefully their parents are still speaking to me! I certainly hadn’t realized how loud 28 small plastic whistles blown at the same time would be!! You can listen to it in a video here…

Amateur Radio, Making, STEM

Amateur Radio Convention

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Dayton Hamvention Slow Scan Video Transmission from Balloon at 1000 feet
Dayton Hamvention Slow Scan Video Transmission from Balloon at 1000 feet

It’s that time of year again when amateur radio operators, descend upon Dayton, Ohio for the annual Hamvention. This weekend (May 15-17th) in and around Hara Arena 25,000 people or so will be there to learn things at seminars, buy, and swap things. This is the biggest event in the Midwest for folks interested in making anything electronic – although the focus of the event is on amateur radio. But if you’re interested in making things, especially electronics, someone will be there selling what you need (or what you want!). I’ve seen everything from electronic kits to build almost anything to Geiger counters, it’s an amazing gawkfest that even includes some military surplus (I remember the collapsible towers were a big item, literally, several years ago).

While you’re there it may be worth a stop at Mendelson’s Surplus in downtown Dayton to check out the 6 floors of surplus ‘stuff’ in their main building (their website doesn’t do the place justice). And of course the USAF Air Force Museum, which I’ve written about earlier, is a great stop to make it an awesome STEM weekend – that’s worth a trip on it’s own.

This Friday we’ll be doing a 3D printer demo for a class at Tzouanakis intermediate school in Greencastle to show them how math is used in making 3D models and prints.  Will also be bringing the Printrbot printer to our next general Castlemakers meeting, which is being set up for late May.

3D Printing, STEM

Making Persistence

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raspberry pi case 3D print
3D printed Raspberry Pi camera case that will be used with Octoprint to monitor/control a 3D printer.

One of the things that makers (and good entrepreneurs) have is persistence. It’s a basic part of the DIY (Do It Yourself) culture, you don’t give up even if you don’t know exactly how to do it. A fair amount of uncertainty and vagueness are expected, you simply believe it will work out in the end. Even if it doesn’t work the first time. Or the second.

I’ve been going through a lot of that in building a 3D printer the last few months. Picked a kit versus a fully assembled so I’d learn more about how they work. But have to admit, there has been several times that I’ve felt like throwing in the towel. Even with good documentation it’s hard to cover every possible wrong step. And the technology is still… ‘developing’…

What has been a key has the online 3D printer community. When I had a problem with a z-axis nut that wouldn’t fit, others with the problem confirmed that grinding off some metal would fix it. When my first prints had problems and I posted a picture of the problem, I had detailed suggestions on what to change in the software parameters within 30 minutes of my post!

But writing out detailed questions and getting answers still takes more time than talking in person. While I love the sheer number of people you can reach with an online post, it still has some disadvantages versus talking to an expert in person or sharing what you’ve learned with others directly.

A local community of makers could help that. There are at least 3 other groups of people here in Greencastle using 3D printers that I know of and I believe there are more. We need to create opportunities for people to share their experiences and help the knowledgebase to grow.

Castlemakers as a group is exploring some events to do exactly that, including a local competition for 3D printers and designers. If you have an interesting in helping, please contact Chris directly or send an email to chris@castlemakers.org .

 

Making, STEM

Indoor Castle(un)maker Meeting

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things that we can tear apart to see what's inside
Come on, admit it!! You’ve always wanted to know what’s inside this stuff… and at our next meeting you can find out!

For our March 8th meeting we’ll be dismantling DVD players & chopping up Cuisinarts. Goal is to find out what’s inside electronic & mechanical devices, toys, and appliances.

We’ll be meeting at 605 Crown Street on Sunday March 8th at 2pm. Bring anything that you have a burning desire to find out how it’s made. Or to destroy (“deconstruct” for you food network folks out there).

Anyone is welcome to join us!

Note: 3/1 meeting has been cancelled due to the snow.

Making, Robotics, STEM

Brushbot Build

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Some of the kids try to figure out the effects of toothbrush bristles, we had 3 different designs and a few added toothpick stabilizers. Several tried 2 vibrating motors and different sized batteries, which could change the Brushbot’s path and speed.

Our Brushbot build this last Sunday turned out well. This is a popular kids project, to the point now where you can even buy kits to make them. We did it the old fashioned way with a toothbrush, pager motor, battery and double-sided tape.  Thanks to Dollar Tree and a bulk order of motors from China, they cost less than $1/piece and many of the kids made them with their own toothbrush!

testing brushbots
An old hexbug track made a good testing course for the Brushbots, although several kids also used notebooks and other obstacles on a large flat table to make a track to test different Brushbot configurations.

If you’re like many parents looking for summer opportunities for your kids, this coming Saturday February 21rst, the 26th Annual Summer Camp Fair will be going on from 11-3 in Indianapolis at the Fashion Mall. I try to keep the events page updated with other regional STEM opportunities, if you hear of something you feel others would be interested in let me know.

Also a few of the adults have started building a Robobrrd, a felt-covered interactive robotic bird made of popsicle sticks that uses an arduino micro-controller. At this point it’s still for adults (or older kids) as we figure out how it could best be made by the larger group. Feel free to join us, you’ll be helping other kids down the road. We’re meeting on Tuesday nights at 7 pm, 605 Crown Street at least through March. Again you can always check the events page.

Greencastle's Makerspace, Making, Robotics, STEM

January Meeting Update

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Henry's solar car gets ready to take on the Cubelet built robot. Rebecca shows Cam how the sensor on the back causes it to run away from your hand.
Henry’s solar car gets ready to take on the Cubelet robot. Rebecca shows Cam how the sensor on the back causes it to run away from your hand.

At our first meeting of 2015, the kids brought in things they got or made over the holidays. There was a pretty wide range – from Ryan’s “Cool Circuits” and Boyd’s Tinker Crate (creative building/experimental kit in-a-box that comes monthly) to an owl pellet (no, Eli didn’t ‘make’ that!). Very encouraging seeing all of the other STEM related things they brought and all seemed to have a great time showing them off and trying them out.

We talked about some upcoming projects: Brushbot parts are on the way, watched part of a short demo reel on Robobrrd, and discussed a couple of different paper air rocket launcher options we could build. Based on the votes we’ll try to do both of the latter two, but both are still early in the planning stages.

Lego Robotic Catapult
Clay demonstrates the Lego catapult that he and his dad built while Alice, who built the wooden Ferris wheel, looks on. The catapult uses a Lego Mindstorm controller to voice activate projectiles, which were seen flying around the room frequently.

We’re going to prototype the Robobrrd first, it looks like fun project that could involve both young and older kids. It’s a robotic bird made out of popsicle/craft sticks, felt, glue, servos, and controlled by an Arduino controller – there’s lots of options and a good open-source community behind it. Several adults (and a DePauw student that’s volunteered) will be building the prototype on Tuesday evenings. Let Chris know if you’d like to participate or help.

We also briefly discussed the catapult build and developing a more regular schedule given the problems last month of finding a regular time. For now we’re going to meet on Sunday afternoons at 2 pm, working on a project every 2 weeks and a more general meeting once a month. Our next meeting will be February 8th and will be either the Brushbot build or work on the big trebuchet. After the meeting most of us walked down to the Brickmania  Lego event at City Hall.

Making, STEM

2014 in Review

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Mark Evans talks about the 4H robotics workshop he attended and was planning to bring to Putnam County. Below the screen you can see several examples of the Area 30 Robotics Club robots that they have built. The Castlemakers November event included speakers from the DePauw Robotics Club, Putnam County 4H, and the Area 30 Robotics Club.
Mark Evans talks about a 4H robotics workshop he attended and was bringing to Putnam County. Below the screen you can see some of the Area 30 Robotics Club robots they built. The Castlemakers November event included speakers from the DePauw University Robotics Club, Putnam County 4H, and the Area 30 Robotics Club.

With everyone being so busy for the holidays, December is a good time to reflect upon what’s occurred during the last year.

Personally I’m encouraged by what all happened in Putnam County related to making things. There were many others besides Castlemakers involved: Area 30 expanded and won their Robotics competition, TZ started a cardboard creations making club, Putnam County Library started a summer making series, DePauw Robotics club hosted a making event for area kids, 4H held a robotics workshop … the list could go on and on. Castlemakers grew too, a lot of it is in our blog, but even that didn’t cover it all.

We don’t have makerspace/fab lab yet locally but I wouldn’t be surprised to see one in 2015. And the physical space/equipment shouldn’t be the main goal anyway IMHO, that’s only one of the tools that can help. That can be a ‘build it and they will come’ kind of goal.

It’s more about getting kids and adults to learn-by-doing; some often call it a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) culture. Actually, I’m going to rephrase the DIY and instead call it DIO – Do It Ourselves! To me the real goal should be creating, making, and innovating things in our community. Developing and using the skills that you have, along with sharing them with others.

Then everyone gains; harnessing one of the strengths of teamwork and groups. Infusing a culture of learning into our youth and adults; that way you’re better prepared to face challenges & issues that you may not know how to solve. Maybe too just to have some fun while working on something… or maybe even creating new things that can help others.

Castlemakers reached an important milestone in 2014: we formed a working group to create an official organization. The ‘Knights of the Castlemakers’ met and agreed to do a filing with the state. And as a January update, we’ve got our articles of incorporation accepted by the State of Indiana. We’re not a 501c3 yet (the IRS makes that decision), but we’ll be working on that in 2015.