Ben's big HAB project for Burlington Maker Faire 2020

[Paul Lowell]

Ben Harris is formulating a plan for a large HAB and STEM event to take place during the Burlington Maker Faire next April.   As he put it:

"Our goal is to get at least ten schools (Upper Elementary, Middle, or High School classes) from around the area to participate in this semester (and/or multi-semester) project. Each school will design and build one or more balloons for launching at the Maker Faire."

Holy NOTAM !

He is holding an initial meeting for educators, Thursday June 13th (6pm free pizza) at his maker-space in Burlington. Please see https://www.facebook.com/AlamanceMakersGuild for details & RSVP.

I'll be there to find out what he has in mind.  Does he really want to send up 10 balloons?  Or perhaps stack several payloads under fewer large balloons?   Considering April's weather, this could get interesting.

At 7pm that night, Chris and I will have a presentation to the more general maker crowd during their June Open Meeting of the Alamance Makers Guild.   This meeting is free, open to anyone, and family friendly.

--

Paul   KD4BFP

[Christopher Gorski]

On Wed, Jun 5, 2019 at 12:24 PM Paul Lowell <pa...@lowell.to> wrote:

"Our goal is to get at least ten schools (Upper Elementary, Middle, or High School classes) from around the area to participate in this semester (and/or multi-semester) project. Each school will design and build one or more balloons for launching at the Maker Faire."

Holy NOTAM !

 

… Just came for the Batman joke, today.

--me

[Aurora Toennisson]

I was hoping to make it to this meeting, but got delayed at work.  Inquiring minds want to know.  How did it go?  What all was planned?

[Paul Lowell]

Sadly, several educators had to back-out at the last minute also, so we only had a handful in attendance during the educator’s forum.  There was interest, but no consensus.  Getting teachers together in a room during end-of-year grading and such is difficult.  Ben is going to reach out one-on-one.  He will probably put together a brief video/package to explain things to educators and administrations.

 

As mentioned earlier, Ben has a desire to do the 2020 Burlington Maker Faire a bit differently:

-Maker Media (MAKE magazine etc) just went out of business.  So the event may not have the name “Maker Faire” associated with it.  It may be a STEM Fest, or some other Maker-ish name.

-Due to construction, the event would not take place at the Holly Hill Mall.  The plan is to take over several blocks of downtown, using the streets, plazas, and local businesses.  The mayor is onboard.

-Earlier I heard dates in late April, but I think he is now shooting for May 2020.  I’ll get clarity on this.

-Ben would like to fly 10 balloons during the event – lots of schools – lots of balloons.

-I introduced the idea of sending up larger balloons with multiple school payloads on each.  That would reduce the number of expensive trackers and cameras.   It should also reduce the hassle to the educators as they would only have to concern themselves with a payload box.

-The Alamance Makers Guild also has a microcontroller group.  There is interest in having them produce a bunch of LoRa GPS trackers.  Whether they use Arduinos, Raspberry Pis, or those TTGO T-Beam units, they can get the trackers down to about $35 each.  Cameras could be added to those as well for minimal cost.

 

Ben and I want to get some sort of framework settled before the next school year starts.  So I’ll be posting updates…

 

The Open Meeting of the Alamance Makers Guild went well.  Good turnout.

Thank you Christopher Gorski for the assist with the presentation!   It was cool to see Ben’s Steam Junction.  If any of you have not been there, you need to check it out.