Seeing Electricity Hackathon!

[N Y]

Hello all,

The AADL will be hosting us ( http://www.aadl.org/events/list?id=16603 )
on October 21st 1:00-3:00 for an event themed around seeing
electricity. We are looking for one or two more projects to round out
our presentation, and some volunteers who can help make those projects
happen.

So far, we have in the works a bicycle-powered generator, slow-falling
magnet in-a-tube demonstration, and a Kelvin water dropper apparatus (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin_water_dropper ). As an example of
something you could make, consider a simple DIY motor clearly showing
all the parts that make it work. This event is very free-form, so just
about any *visual* idea showing how electricity behaves could easily pan
out.

I will be down at the space this Thursday evening and Sunday afternoon
working on the bike generator. If you want to join in on the fun, I
would be thrilled to get you started and help out any way I can.

Cheers,
-- Nate Y.

[Greg Austic]

I doubt I can get my act together in time, but I'm making a game which models the electricity grid, with high (7V) and low (3V) trasmission wires, little substations, and brown outs where there's not enough power.  I have a simple version now which uses a hand crank to light up little LEDs on a game board, but it's fairly simple.  That may be a fun thing to show.  Let me know if that's a good fit and I'd be happy to share it -

Greg

[Michael Grube]

Greg, that sounds like a ridiculously awesome thing to show. 

[Dana Nelson]

Greg,

Both Josh W. and I agree that it would be awesome to show. If you think kids will get something out of it, then yes! We trust your judgement on that one. If you are concerned about a not-finished project, there are 2 things we can do if you are still in proto/construct-phase:

1. Bring it anyways, kids love to see parts of things, even if it doesn't work. You can still explain how it would work. This is engaging because it's not a fully constructed thing so it engages kids rather than spews facts at them. They can fill in the blanks and maybe even imagine different stuff it could do. Kids are awesome theoretical hackers in this environment, but I'm sure you know that :)

2. Build Nights. We have plenty of people who don't have stuff to work on coming down to build nights and would love to hang out and help. Let the group know what kid of help you need.

--
Dana Nelson

All Hands Active

AHAkids Class Coordinator

[Greg Austic]

Ok, cool.  Well, shoot me an email with everything I need to know, what when and where and I'll be there with the most recent version!

Greg