Hey all,
I have noticed lately a lot of kids of members who have an interest in engineering. Is anyone interested in joining a group that does engineering projects together? (If there is enough interest, I will add a calendar event and we can get them all together.)
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Very much so.
I met a [Mark was it? ] a couple weeks ago who was restoring a roughing pump and a turbomolecular pump. [Attempting to define the project anyway]. Those bearings may be flat spotted if the sat too long, but most TMPs used maglev type bearings for full speed.
I have watched youtubes about building your own electron microscope. I yam interested in being on such a team.
[If Lockheed doesnt pull me down to Georgia for a long stay. Still waiting]
We could engineer a new inner roof solution. Or build that new router. Its actually more interesting to me than making parts.
I do know my vacuum pressure sensors and may even know a guy who will sell me old ones he removed near the end of their life. If he hasnt retired as an Electron Microscope repairman. But i do know from bedeviled and dumguy experience, that without protection circuitry… you are wasting money and time on such sensors. That isnt the hardest part. But it is A hard part.
My connection to a repair guy now deserves an email check in with him. I will get back on that.
Should most of this been submitted to the electronics forum? I was just riffing about [some] engineering. Sorry. I know how to sound smarter than I yam.
But I did not kill the deputy.
Btw, Im a [materials] chemist who learned biomaterials in college. Which knowledgemap overlaps with 80+% with aerospace materials and material test.
40 years ish, not counting machinist and NC Programmer days in the 70s and 80s. Yup… im old].
Composites [fiberglass career began in 1980 at WSU Industrial Arts Lab where I was a TA for ten or more mentoring demonstrations.
High temp composites and then Ceramics processing. [ I had peers from ebeam training who did this stuff on a daily basis. Access to experience helped.
So, after graduating in 87, and making gasoline for 3 yrs in Augusta, as well as working part time at the Orthopedic Research Inst, Boeing made an offer I couldnt refuse.
I spent a career building a 2 million$ test lab for Boeing and persistently and successfully advised lots of engineering projects on cure, adhesion, part cleanliness etc. Stress review, and material compatibility and proper cure eval. I attended as a team mate. Not a boss or project mgr.
I left some out too. Ask for my resume. It all checks out.
And yes, i can help with sending off forensics samples of blood from the table saw to help tell who almost lost a [fingertip].
I like to say i still bleed Navy blue. Even if Im usually purple. [Yr’sposed talaffat that, we ALL bleed red] Serving my country [yall] with pride was a lifelong highlight and my proudest moment. Until kids]
You are always welcome to ask why i say “You are welcome” when you thank me for my service. It might not be what you think.
Btw i appreciate all of our volunteers who make my most interesting teaming here possible [Raises a lamp… Asking politely for an encore. You guys ROCK.]
a kid group? I’d for sure bring mine.
my 10yo has interesting experiences at makeict. sometimes I take her to the fablab with me and she finds someone cool to chat with, draw with, a project to watch. other times it’s just my stuff and she’s bored and begs to go off and forage or worse, just go home. honestly just getting the kids together to collaborate might be valuable. a little us guided, a little them guided.
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Yeah I was thinking kind of like the explorer scouts do… mostly them guided… but I figured we might have to kick them a bit at first… and show them the possibilities… but maybe we luck out … 
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On Sat, Mar 23, 2024 at 8:04 AM Kim Burton via MakeICT Forum <noreply@talk.makeict.org> wrote:
| kim Past President
March 23 |
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a kid group? I’d for sure bring mine.
my 10yo has interesting experiences at makeict. sometimes I take her to the fablab with me and she finds someone cool to chat with, draw with, a project to watch. other times it’s just my stuff and she’s bored and begs to go off and forage or worse, just go home. honestly just getting the kids together to collaborate might be valuable. a little us guided, a little them guided.
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I like coming to fablab and tinkering. But often choose to socialize more. And yeah, Ive chatted with a kid of yours Kim. That was indeed pleasant. ] BUT…
If we didnt already know each other i might have looked for a nod of parental consent before more than “hi, my name is Teya.” Safety. Kids NEED to be skeptical of EVERY yackety stranger.
I coached ScienceOlympiad for ten years+. I try to talk to them like a standback-and-let-them-fail-and-learn kind of coach. I get responses not unlike teachers get.
With Scouts, sometimes it might be helpful to have a form they sign. It just looks like an official MakeICT thing they just gotta do. But it asks the project planning questions,
-what is your reasonable goal for just today?
-what if you dont get that done today?
-how will you deal with obstacles or other frustration?
And saying “i dont know yet” is a perfectly acceptable answer from them. And an opportunity to say while smiling warmly… “im here to help if you feel like you are stuck”…These kids might need to [ learn to] plan 2 or 3 steps on paper or in their heads … and realize more of what they need to know… on their own. But i hope to never lead imposingly supervisory, nor inducing humility/timidity/ guilt. Just praise for the fraction of the task they got done and the fails they maybe learned from.
Dos centavos mio.
Guidance suggestions only.
Hi Guys. I really like this conversation. I always thought we should focus on inspiring the next generation. I’ll keep an eye on this thread. I have some ideas.
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I’m part of the local combat robots group and last month we had an event with a good number of kids there. They were using everything from hexbots to some kind of legos. The process designing, prototyping, building, and competing is a lot of fun and I believe it can be made simple enough for a large number of kids. There are also many downloadable design on thingiverse.
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Awesome. I think we have enough helpers to make it a go. What would be good times to offer…maybe Saturday mornings or afternoons?
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Weekends are good but what are we doing exactly?
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That kinda depends on what the kids interests are. I am just looking for us to supply a few mentors and when we find out what the kids are interested in, we facilitate them learning… and having fun. (Bonus: for the right adults, it should be fun for them too)
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I guess I can run with that and see how it goes.
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On Thu, Mar 28, 2024 at 10:42 AM LaDeana Dockery via MakeICT Forum <noreply@talk.makeict.org> wrote:
| ladeana Board Member & Classroom Management
March 28 |
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That kinda depends on what the kids interests are. I am just looking for us to supply a few mentors and when we find out what the kids are interested in, we facilitate them learning… and having fun. (Bonus: for the right adults, it should be fun for them too)
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I vote for sunday night. I can’t get my kids up in the morning to do a dang thing. then again it depends on our target audience… other parents, especially the homeschooling ones, might not mind getting up and out on a saturday morning?
Maybe a newsletter survey could collect names and interest and we could vote? We need a list of like 12 interested kids if we want 6 to show up. Call it a K-8 group, say we’ll meet once or twice a month, then see what day works best for them?
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Would this group be limited to member’s kids, or would non-members be able to bring their kids too? There have been some non-members who took classes and talked about how much their kids would like to get involved.
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I would want to open it to a wider audience
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On Sunday, March 31, 2024, 9:35 AM, Gemma Blackburn via MakeICT Forum noreply@talk.makeict.org wrote:
| gemma MakeICT Member
March 31 |
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Would this group be limited to member’s kids, or would non-members be able to bring their kids too? There have been some non-members who took classes and talked about how much their kids would like to get involved.
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I could go with Saturday or Sunday.
Seems like we need some kind of a theme or maybe a base project or something to draw them in. You wouldn’t want to say “Just come and bang around in the makerspace for an hour or so” would you?
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Sometimes I have too many ideas:
I checked out a book from the library for inspiration.
We could start with some classics:
Build a bridge from popsicle sticks
Build a tower with spaghetti and marshmallows
Build a crystal radio
Drop an egg from a certain height
what else sounds fun?
Make robots?
Design and build a solar car?
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In one of my past lives I created STEAM programs for kids at schools. Some of the ideas were a big hit, like the paper rocket launcher we did at Makerfair one year. It can be a great indoor/outdoor project.
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