[Noisebridge-discuss] a little bit of info on the excel program, and an idea to move forward

[Mitch Altman]

I really like the idea of each kid having their own Arduino.  If each could have their own Arduino environment (laptop or desktop), that'd be even cooler.  Of course, kids could share, but that adds frustration (which some kids can handle, and others not so much).

 

 

I just finished a week of teaching at a middle school / high school for learning disability kids in NYC.  They have kids with any learning disability that keeps them from doing well at a public school, including: dislexia, Assburger's, ADHD, etc.  Winston Prep is a private school that has mostly kids paid for by the NYC public schools (since the public schools don't have programs, they resort to private schools to fill the gap).  The public school system does whatever it can to keep kids from successfully obtaining the necessary funds to pay for going to Winston, making parents and kids jump through zillions of obstacles.  That is way awful, but the interesting up-side of that is that the kids that get through all the hoops are all kids who's parents are way supportive and who are involved with their kids education, which is a huge advantage for any kid's education.

 

 

Anyway, the experience was great.  I taught kids about the basics of electronics, and then taught them to solder, and gave them a choice of making many projects, including:  MiniPOV, TV-B-Gone, Brain Machine, Trippy RGB Waves, Mignonette Game.  They were all popular.

 

 

I taught 118 kids (a little over half the school).  All of them volunteered for the classes, which makes a huge difference. Getting kids with various learning disabilities focused is a challenge.  But once these kids were focused, they were FOCUSED!  Each class was 3 hours long, and many kids who were not finished with their project by the end really wanted to stay longer.  The computer teacher is providing time after school for these kids.

 

 

This experience shows me that there's lots of kids way hungry for what we can teach them!

 

 

I got to go now -- people are calling me to go to Boston Bar Camp, and the Cyberarts Festival.   More later...

 

 

Mitch.

 

 

 

 

-----------------
 
> Subject: Re: [Noisebridge-discuss] a little bit of info on the excel program, and an idea to move forward
> From: jim at well.com
> To: michaelshiloh1010 at gmail.com
> Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2009 22:28:53 -0700
> CC: noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net; adi at hexapodia.org; lee at lee.org
> 
> 
> i'm pretty much out of town as of a couple of 
> days ago, to return mid-may 20090514). 
> after i return i can loan an eee or an XO box 
> (or both). 
> jim 
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, 2009-04-24 at 19:38 -0700, Michael Shiloh wrote:
> > 
> > Andy Isaacson wrote:
> > 
> > > The whole Arduino package is around 30 MB, including the IDE and
> > > everything. I doubt it'd be OK to run on a 128MB machine, but 512MB
> > > will be fine. (Unfortunately Ubuntu has abandoned the low-end, you
> > > can't even run the 8.10 installer in 128MB.) I bet you can do a
> > > bootable Ubuntu+Arduino thumb drive in 512MB.
> > 
> > We can certainly avoid Ubuntu for one of the less demanding options like 
> > Puppy or DSL or even Xubuntu, but if the Arduino IDE and Ubuntu are both 
> > happy with 512MB we may as stick with the default.
> > 
> > Does anyone have an underpowered laptop with only 512MB? The first 
> > experiment would be to make sure you can boot from a live Linux CD. I 
> > can provide one if you don't have, or can't create one. Booting off USB 
> > thumb drive would be an extra benefit, but probably only works on more 
> > recent laptops. I'm trying to determine the low end here.
> > 
> > Does anyone else agree this is a useful path to follow? If we can bring 
> > Arduino to the class at the price of a $12 RBBB plus assorted components 
> > and a discarded laptop, I think that would be immensely cool. If we can 
> > control something that will impress high school students, like a high 
> > powered light (no, we are not using lasers) on a pan/tilt mechanism 
> > (servo motors), or car horns, or a subwoofer, we may just be able to 
> > interest those folks who would benefit the most from our program.
> > 
> > We have only about 5 days left to finish our proposal. I'm having a 
> > really hard time getting any concrete answers. The best advice I've 
> > heard so far is to aim for the sky, and allow for the program to be 
> > reduced to bring the price into what they can afford. To this end, I'm 
> > in favor of proposing the Arduino project.
> > 
> > 
> > > 
> > >> Netbooks are also somewhat fragile, so the price would have to consider 
> > > 
> > > My Eee 900 is a lot *less* fragile than my Thinkpad X40 or any Dell I've
> > > ever touched. I think nothing of throwing it in my shoulder bag without
> > > a sleeve. The smaller monitor means less leverage on the hinge.
> > 
> > Excellent point. I'm sure the solid state disk is less fragile as well, 
> > and the cheaper price makes it less fragile in a monetary sense. I'll 
> > have to check my original source.
> > 
> > 
> > > 
> > > Also, Arduino should run OK on OLPC's XO-1. Now *there*'s an intriguing
> > > idea...
> > 
> > 
> > Hmmm!!!!!!!
> > _______________________________________________
> > Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> > Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> > https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
> > 
> 
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