This Thursday and Friday I’m teaching an all day, 2-day workshop at the Lawrence Arts Center called Robots and Rare Visions for 1st-5th graders. There’s probably still space if you want to sign your kids up. We’ll be talking about robots, artificial intelligence, functional and aesthetic design, and I’ll also be talking a little about the inner workings of things. We’ll also be doing some innovating and creating.
So, as I spiral my way to greater nerd status, behold: photocells, piezo, LEDs, etc. I just spent a few minutes picking through the goodies at Radio Shack. It’s been awhile since I’ve messed around with any of this stuff. Back in my NYU days, I spent lots of time hooking up wires to breadboards and making things do things. The level of function that I was able to achieve is about as deep as my description.. which is why I went the art route and not the technical route. But it’s fun if you’re curious about the inner workings of things.. I’ve always thought piezoelectricity was really interesting (read more about it here) so I’m going to disassemble a piezo buzzer that I picked up and see if I can spark an LED with the disk inside.. If you’re interested in signing up for the workshop, go to the Lawrence Arts Center website and enroll under “School’s Out Days”.