Next Meeting Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Happy Holidays!

Due to the break, the Club will skip the next few weeks. Set your time machine for the next meeting

Wednesday, January 8, 2014
5:00-6:30 PM

Agenda:

• The Tech Challenge
• Basic Circuits - LEDs, Ohm's Law, diodes, transistors
• If you couldn't make the last meeting, more soldering. Yay!

The Tech Challenge

The challenge is to harness wind power to move water uphill. Review The Challenge at http://thetechchallenge.thetech.org/challenge and note the specific points below:

Test rig:  

Engineering Design Journal

In The Tech Challenge, how the teams develop their solution is as important as the solution itself. The judges will ask the team members about the process used to design and build the device.

Judging Process

The Tech Challenge judges will evaluate your team's project as a whole, including your device's performance, your engineering design process and journal, and your style and presentation. The judges also award points for teamwork, perseverance, and other categories.

Applied Platonics Sponsors SIL Maker Club with Donated Soldering Kits

San Francisco based Applied Platonics has become the first sponsor with donated retros scanner soldering kits.

 SIL Maker Club members will solder the kits at the December 18 meeting.

Agenda:

1. solder kits
2. discuss The Tech Challenge, "Harnessing the Wind"
3. introduction to programming
4. introduction to arduino

It's a full agenda, and we likely won't get through it all.

The New SIL Maker Club !!!

School for Independent Learners started the SIL Maker Club last night, Tuesday, December 10, 2013, at 5PM. We had a spirited discussion about what the Club could accomplish. There were lots of ideas, such as robots, coding, and blowing things up.

Our first orders of business were:

• Agreed on the name "Maker Club" (not Robotics Club) because the Club wants to do much more than just robots.
• Agreed that Wednesdays at 5PM is a better meeting time. All current members can make it, and it enables some LAHS students to make it too.
• Brainstormed what the Club wants to do. See the attached whiteboard shots.

Tasks to complete before the next meeting:

1. do the "Hour of Code" at https://www.khanacademy.org/hour-of-code/hour-of-code-tutorial/v/welcome-hour-of-code
2. see if you can figure out Snap (similar to Scratch) at http://snap.berkeley.edu/run/
3. create a free account at https://codio.com/
4. review http://thetechchallenge.thetech.org/challenge - does the Club want to participate?

At the next meeting, we will get started with some circuits. We will learn about:

• LEDs and resistors
• solderless breadboards
• Arduinos, if we have time

Please bring a laptop if you have one.