Doing anything crazy?

[Travis Smith]

Goldfish with lasers?
Mr. Fusion prototype?
Rube Goldberg machine?
Machines that recognize smells?
Quadcopter ballet?
Halloween costumes?
Snozberry wallpaper?
Killer BBQ sauce?

-Travis

[Eric J. Kaplan]

Wiring up controllers in the MAME cabinet.
Making a 12-foot Halloween skeleton have flashing red eyes and make spooky sounds, via remote control.
Thinking about another design for a PVC-pipe lamp.

Sent from Eric's iPhone

[Jesse Koester]

Fitting together all the components for my RIMS system and taking gravity readings of my beer.

[Kevin Fusselman]

Pardon my ignorance, but how many components are there? Tire, wheel, done, right? :)

[Tyler Swain]

I would really like to choreograph a quadcopter modern dance routine. I saw a group do it at UNL on Nebraska Stories on PBS.
I've also received about $25,000 in start-up funds to build a makerspace for children 0-8 as the target age range, I'm not sure if that qualifies as crazy, but the powers that be would like to see it open and operating by January, so I could definitely use some input on that.

[Travis Smith]

Tyler:

Who are you, where do you live, and how can I help?

Someone gave you money to make a makerspace?  Please (please) elaborate.  That is highly interesting.  Also, who did the quadcopter thing?  First I've heard of such an effort in NE.

Travis

[Travis Smith]

Oh!  Omaha Children's Museum.  Excellent!  I'd definitely like to help.

Travis

[patrick]

Can I help remotely?

[Marc M]

Yea thats cool Tyler!!

[Tyler Swain]

Yeah, I run the Creative Arts Department at the Omaha Children's Museum. I recently visited the Pittsburgh Children's Museum where they have a makerspace for children.
Most of the Funding I have received so far has come from The Criss Foundation, which is a local philanthropic organization dedicated to promoting non-traditional science education. I am also hoping receive another substantial sum from a grant from the Nebraska Environmental Trust, which I should be hearing back about within the next few weeks.
My idea is to build a mini makerspace that can be expanded as the program grows.
I would like to focus on Textiles, Woodworking, and Electronics in in the initial phase, and then later expand to include a Fabrication lab, and maybe build a robotics program.
If anyone is interested in touring the space, and making suggestions for the lay out, let me know.
I popped into the makery about a month ago, and met a few of you working down there, but haven't been able to get back as I've traveling quite a bit the last few weeks.
When I was there I saw some quadcopters being worked on and asked what the plan was when they were finished, because I was thinking of the modern dance quadcopter choreography idea.
It was done at UNL as a joint effort between the University, one of their robotics engineering classes, the schools modern dance group, and then facilitated by another modern dance group called Parabolas. I'll see if I can find the video online and send the link out

[Tyler Swain]

Okay, here is the clip from NET Nebraska Stories about the Quadcopter modern dance performance from UNL.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-s_eqSyW_E

And a little Story from the university about the project

http://cas.unl.edu/possibilities/pilobolus.shtml

 

If anyone wants to do this I have about 10 years of modern dance and ballet experience under the belt, and could pull together a troupe, or bring one in.  I get revolving grants from the Nebraska Arts Council to bring in dance groups and things all the time.

 

 

 

From: omaha-ma...@googlegroups.com [mailto:omaha-ma...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Travis Smith
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 2:46 PM
To: omaha-ma...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [OMG] Doing anything crazy?

 

Oh!  Omaha Children's Museum.  Excellent!  I'd definitely like to help.

Travis

[Marc M]

Man Tyler my kids would go nuts at a makerspace.

My son keeps buggin me to go down to OMG... But yea thats not happening.

Marc

[patrick]

What about the OMG is not suitable for your son?

[David Knaack]

Speaking as a parent, it really isn't a kid-friendly place. If one wanted to bring a child to do something, I'd recommend picking an off-day so it's quiet and easy to supervise. Having more than a few people around would be distracting to both a child and whomever is supervising, and there are far too many hazards around for distraction.

[Marc M]

Hes going on 5 years old...lol

[Travis Smith]

I think this is a fair argument.  The Makery is really meant for about 16 and up, a few exceptions notwithstanding.

Travis

[patrick]

Havent we had parents with as low as 8 there? I know at the bridge breaking had a young girl there who seemed to be enjoying her self.

[Eric J. Kaplan]

Agreed. While I don't think we would actively market to under-16, the kids that we HAVE had there have been assets, not liabilities. 

Sent from Eric's iPhone

[Stephanie Jensen]

As far as younger visitors go, contests, where there is group focus on a specific activity, and limited usage of machinery (if at all) are different, though...