At the end of the work day my husband will often pick me up to carpool home.  Often, I’m not ready to leave just yet; sometimes having to finish sending one last email, or in this case – working on the floor during the last week of Titanic.  He usually sits patiently in his truck listening to music or tidying up his paperwork.  That is, unless he knows we’re up to something big.

As I came off the floor finishing my shift; I took a look around the parking lot and noticed he wasn’t in his truck.  And so, I continued around the parking lot to our loading dock where I suspected Alex and Dana were up to something.  And something big  – Alex is testing some demonstration experiences, and today it was about exploding hydrogen balloons.  With rocket ignition.

Of course my husband is right in the middle of the action, helping to figure out the technique of ignition.  I asked how it was going, he replied, “I am SCHOOLING these two in science!”.  And under my breath, I murmured, “Well, they’re doing their job”.

Alex and Dana are not inept when it comes to science, nor were they playing dumb for my husband’s sake.  They were just doing their job well:  facilitating an experience.  Facilitating it so that my husband felt like he had viable answers, he had the opportunity to experiment and try his ideas, and all the while they were keeping the environment safe for him to test out these ideas.

Even though science demonstrations typically have a staff member displaying all the cool and dangerous tricks on stage; I have a feeling you’ll be amazed at what Alex is thinking up.  A demonstration where every bang, boom and whiz is performed by *gasp* a visitor in the audience.  Where visitors who wants to participate will have a chance to freely explore and test out their own experiments on stage.  I like to imagine the visitor who leaves the Presentation Theatre saying, “I’ve never got to do that before in my life!”.  Alex, don’t take it personally when someone proclaims they ‘were schooling you’ on the job.  It’s just a sign you’re doing a great job.

-stacey.

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The International Children’s Festival has come and gone for another year and not without it’s share of rain, imagination, more rain, building, pouring rain, fun and play, and again more rain.

It was a soaking wet week and we came prepared for an activity that can be done outside – building with PVC pipes and connectors.  Giant structures.  Not only did lots of people participate, but they did so happily in the weather.  Luckily it wasn’t too cold and so the kids had a great time building and the volunteers cheerfully helped out.  (Here’s a picture of Evelyn and Alan keeping warm and assessing the structures.)

The part I love about building like this is that it’s open ended; things can be anything you imagine.  If you ask two kids what they’re building, it could be a submarine with a tree house and the other kid helping out will say it’s a candy store with a hot tub.  And they are both right.  The part I trouble with is that it can be anything they imagine; “Boys could turn a grilled cheese sandwich into a gun“, the Festival Site Manager quipped watching a group of boys battle it out with their makeshift weapons.

The thing about gun play is that I truly believe it less about violence and more about imaginative play and understanding power.  The idea having control over being the ‘good guy’ or being a ‘bad guy’, hiding, sneaking and the thrill of being caught – it’s an all out competitive release not unlike pirates with swords, jedi knights welding a light saber, or throwing a dodge ball to tag someone out of the game.  It still makes me very uneasy as a facilitator.  I understand that some parents berate this behavior, especially if they’ve done diligence to protect their child from guns.  So then, what do I do when a mass of young boys take over in an all out battle?

Our colleague Pat has come up with a brilliant solution:  let them be good guys and bad guys.  However, before they engage in all out war they need to build their forts; their lairs, camps, and hide outs.  Excite them with the possibility of the best fort with crawl through spaces, lookout towers, back doors for sneak attacks and escape routes.  It’s a diversion tactic without having to be the real bad guy (shutting down their participation).  It worked and we had hallways and doorways, a small competition of whose then could be the tallest, collaboration of switching out connector joints to make it more stable, figuring out lengths, and how some connectors let them build only in one direction while others let them build up and out.  I’m not sure they had completely forgot about their weapons, but these boys had run out of time before they could continue the fight against each other.

-stacey.

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Its been a while since we’ve had the Prorotype Lab open, but you can still be involved.

Come to this DIY Instrument and Circuit Bending workshop this weekend at Local Library!

We’ ll be exploring the weird and wild side of DIY technology, Frankensteining beloved childhood toys and making our joints sing in a series of afternoon workshops.

The New Science Centre team will be doing a Circuit Bending drop-in program that we’re planning for the NSC. Our pal Craig Storm will be showing us how to make Light Theramins. I’ll be helping people (somehow) hack circuits to our bodies to make a giant dance piano. And there will be a free tour of Cantos at the end.

Come play and learn stuff!

This Saturday, June 4th, 1-4pm
Local Library
131 7th Ave SW. Entrance is from the alley behind the church.

-dana

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Inspired by many different outlets, at the April Market Collective we wanted to turn an entire room into a cardboard forest.  The best part – we started with an empty room papered in cardboard and had market participants add something to transform it into the forest over two days.

We set up our supplies (broken down cardboard, a table to cut on, hot glue, masking tape, packing tape, box cutters, and scissors) in another space just outside the forest.  It was interesting to watch the reactions of people as they approached us.  A lot of people just thought the building space was it.  One guy even said, “Well, we must be bored, cutting up cardboard”.  Then we directed him into the forest room.  That’s when the impressions turned to amazement, delight, respect, and awe.

It was crazy wonderful to see how one person’s small woodland creature added so much to the overall effect. Kris also had the great idea to outfit the room with bird and forests sounds.  It became an immersive experience; many people commented they wanted this in their house or bedroom.

Check out Day 1:

-Stacey.

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We piloted this program at Market Collective back in December because at the time toys and holidays seemed to fit really well.   Since then we have had requests to bring our toys and tools to other community partners any time of the year.  (Which is pretty great – I would gladly run this forever.  And we’ve kept all the creations.  They are on display at the current Creative Kids Museum and we will move them along with us to the New Science Centre).

Most recently we were at the International Festival of Animated Objects Opening Galabash hosted by the Calgary Animated Objects Society (CAOS) in March.  This is in part a bar with a concert showcase, puppet peep shows, and includes participants dressed like Muppets.

What I found really great about Toy Mash Up here was these people gave behaviors, voices, and in part played with their creations as they developed.  It was like a five year old birthday party full of imagination, but more wicked (no surprise these folks love puppetry).  Also, Quickdraw Animation Society was on hand with a city scene and cameras to create stop motion movies not unlike Godzilla.  Check it out:

Toy Mash Up at CAOS Gala

The CAOS crew hanging out after world domination:

-Stacey

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The premise:

A black tie event, bring something for teens, last 6 hours amongst 1300 guests including over 600 children.

Oh, and to make it worth your while, you must learn something about the activity and how it might run in the New Science Centre. Easy. And turns out, pretty amusing.

Being black tie everyone from the very old to the very young was in fancy dress clothes. Our usual materials of hot glue and recyclables were going to be tricky to entice participants – let alone teenagers. Instead of fighting it; join it – set up materials to make boutonnieres to wear with your black tie.

Using tissue paper, an LED and battery, participants were able to make paper flowers that were simple and yet beautiful.  We provided step-by-step instructions on an easel board – we’ve found this to be one the best strategies to facilitate multiple ages and abilities. Older participants can read and follow them on their own, and parents can read along and help younger children if the facilitator is busy helping those who are literally ‘dropped off.’  Labeled baskets hold smaller and specific materials. It helps to have enough baskets of repeated materials within arms reach of any walk up spot on the table:

The activity has all of the elements that normally appeal to a teen:  style, fashion, choice, technology, and the ability to work with friends. It also appeals very well to the average nine-year-old girl. So much in fact that, we barely saw teens at all – I imagine their thought process was, “Hey look, a batting cage, spray on tattoos, and oh.  Never mind, this isn’t for us.”

Fine. Teens didn’t do the activity and now we know things that look like ‘arts & crafts’ will appeal to those that love arts & crafts on a daily basis.

Also, a floor program should run no longer than 2 hours. After this point, everyone who wants to do the activity has done it and anyone who liked it stays and uses up materials by making one for their friends, mothers, brothers, and long lost pen pals. We knew going in that were to be there for 6 hours – but it was very clear that after 2 hours, we had seen everyone that was interested.

Highlights of the Night:

Three eleven-year-old boys came up and proclaimed, “We NEED to make some flowers!  We’re going to give them to the girls so they’ll dance with us.”  I had a laugh and helped them refine their skills to make ‘good ones.’  I was impressed they asked for help and spent time until they were satisfied with the result.

A girl returning: after asking what happened to her flowers she said, “My mother stole it she like so much.  I came to make another so I could have one too.”  We saw many parents (moms and dads) not only helping, but curious in owning one as well.

The LED’s were super successful. After we ran out of batteries, the activity was still OK but everyone still wanted to make them light up. A lot of parents commented how easy, entertaining and beautiful the flowers were – many mentioned that they wanted to recreate this as a birthday party activity.

Wishes:

No one iterated on the design. With teens, I was hoping that once they got the general materials figured out they would create new flower shapes. Our younger audience was appreciative of the praise they got from the first one; they just repeated it again and again.

Children younger than 5 had a difficult time with the dexterity required. Parents took over and were frustrated that they were doing all the work while their child didn’t pay attention.

Otherwise I would say overall successful.  We spent less than $100 for six hours worth of core materials and saw over 600 children!  And thanks to the clowns we were able to get a little silly too:

- Stacey.

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I am admittedly someone who sees a picture or reads book about how to do something – and then assume I can do it too. It’s so bad that I even think it’s possible to exercise by simply reading a Women’s Health magazine.

That brings me to the project I’m tackling—electric origami—and how I discovered that it takes way longer to actually do something than it does to research it and read about it. But it is way more satisfying to show off your goods once you get it right.

After reading many useful instrucables from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories as well as Geek Dad’s Make magazine post and a number of other origami balloon foldables, I set out to create a workable activity that I could facilitate with visitors:

Attempt #1:
Made a quick origami balloon from scrap graph paper at my desk. My origami skills leave much to be desired, but it soon becomes clear that this is going to be the easiest part.

Now for the circuiting: Using the super helpful pdf Evil Mad Scientist created for placement of the conductive material (http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/papercircuitry), I found some shiny aluminum foil tape. I cut and tore pieces together, sticking them onto my unfolded origami in patchwork style. I didn’t realize that the adhesive on the reverse of the shiny side is an insulator.
Fail.

Attempt #2:
Everyone here keeps alluding to conductive ink and how great it would be to use it in a neat way. Hurrah! An opportunity. After finding a box of conductive pens and realizing they are all dried out I switch to CuPro-Cote paint. The instructions call for mixing and straining. No thanks.
Fail.

Attempt #3:
I printed out the PDF again, this time enlarging it on the printer to match the size of my newly folded balloon. I cut out the conductive instructions and loosely taped them to the shiny tape and proceeded to cut them out of the tape. Carefully attaching them in the exact places along the folds – I can almost taste how good this is going to be. It looks good and folds back together nicely. Except now the battery doesn’t line up with the ends of the tape Grrr.
Fail.

Attempt #4;
Because I was so careful cutting and measuring I am not giving up on this one. As the team is having a meeting I fold and unfold the box several times, contemplating how to get the conductivity to work. Then by a fluke I fold the box the wrong way. Instead of working it from right to left, I fold left to right. Suddenly the battery tape ends line up and huzzah! Success. I may have even shouted, “Whoo-hoo!” loudly enough to disrupt some people.

Now I am on figuring out to how to facilitate this with public. I suspect it will take many more attempts to get the balance right between prepping the paper for them and allowing them to do the process themselves.

I found a great way to make the instructions appealing and self-guided by displaying each fold step-by-step:

I am coming across other problems though:

- This is tedious work to fold the shape and then to get it to light up. It seems people want instant gratification, unlike the week it took me to get it right
- The paper has to be translucent enough to allow the LED to shine through, and this type of origami paper is slippery. This causes the balloon to not hold shape as well nor hold the weight of the battery once assembled
- We tried using a power source instead of 3V round batteries – but then it becomes even harder to make with the LED leads point up instead of inside the balloon shape

I also learned that the circuit lines do not need to be so precise. Because the origami folds are symmetrical, as long as the two strips don’t touch each other on the half line they will work. (The switch occurs as the bottom right corner folds over the battery):

My next attempts include:

- Using wax paper sheets cut to a bigger size instead of ‘proper origami paper’
- Finding the exact right orientation for the circuit tape and pre-taping the circuits on for visitors
- Finding out at which step to add the LED and battery so that the visitor doesn’t have to fold and unfold as many times

–Stacey

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This afternoon Mike and I went to the amazing Black Forest Wood Company to search for materials to build the exhibit tables for TSA. We chose several types of wood that we thought would be good for TSA and I stained half of each chunk so we could see how the colors will shift once the tables are finished.

On the floor by Mike’s desk, we sorted our wood samples based on what they looked like. Then we remembered that durability matters a lot in TSA, those tables are going to get beaten up everyday for the rest of their lives. So to evaluate the hardness we invented the new NSC standard hardness test—we forked it.

We nabbed a fork off Stacey’s desk and poked each wood sample to see how it would wear. (Sorry Stacey, that fork was probably for your lunch or something.)

The results of the fork test… Beech and hickory are the hardest light colored woods. Yay for beech and hickory!! Unfortunately, we think that hickory is kind of ugly.  So you can expect to see some lovely tables made out of beech and maple in TSA.  Unless, of course, beech and maple turn out to be unbearably expensive and then I guess it’s back to Black Forest to find more samples of wood to poke with a fork.

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