Sylvia's Super-Awesome Maker Show! - teaching http://sylviashow.com/tags/teaching en Conference wrap up, and here comes another one! http://sylviashow.com/blog/techninja/2012/02/28/conference-wrap-and-here-comes-another-one <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Sylvia and I had an awesome time at our very first local conference, <a href="http://www.dare2bdigitalconference.com/">Dare 2B Digital 2012</a>! And now coming March first, our second, the <a href="http://dml2012.dmlcentral.net/">Digital Media &amp; Learning conference</a> in downtown San Francisco. <em>Oh, so much to do....</em></p> <!--break--><p> <a href="http://sylviashow.com/sites/default/files/post-images/Dadmin/d2bd2012_002.jpg" class="yoxview_thumbnail"><img class="post-img-c" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://sylviashow.com/sites/default/files/styles/blog_large/public/post-images/Dadmin/d2bd2012_002.jpg?itok=9zWG44K6" alt="Sylvia teaches girls about 3D printing and Tinkercad." title="One of our tables covered in printed parts (most will look familiar to thingiverse peeps)" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://sylviashow.com/sites/default/files/post-images/Dadmin/d2bd2012_001.jpg" class="yoxview_thumbnail"><img class="post-img-r" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://sylviashow.com/sites/default/files/styles/blog_small/public/post-images/Dadmin/d2bd2012_001.jpg?itok=kaBeiZWI" width="200" height="200" alt="The front of Sylvia&#039;s Makerbot" title="We printed up the letters for sylvia&#039;s name with tinkercad, and the MB logo was carefully split and printed in 2 pieces" /></a> After a chance meeting with the awesome Mozilla staffer Lukas Blakk, Sylvia and I were invited to the Dare 2B Digitial conference to help teach girls about tech, so of course we said yes! On February 11th Sylvia and I got up at 5am with CraftNinja mom and headed out to the eBay campus in San Jose to get ready for troves of young women (7th to 10th grade), eager to learn all about technology. <a href="http://sylviashow.com/sites/default/files/post-images/Dadmin/d2bd2012_005.jpg" class="yoxview_thumbnail"><img class="post-img-l" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://sylviashow.com/sites/default/files/styles/blog_small/public/post-images/Dadmin/d2bd2012_005.jpg?itok=RfNA5uEH" width="200" height="200" alt="Sylvia instructs a volunteer on how to use Tinkercad to create a 3D model" title="Tinkercad is so easy to use, most girls didn&#039;t need much help." /></a> With her trusty Makerbot, and laptop primed and ready with the incredibly awesome HTML5 powered <a href="http://tinkercad.com">TinkerCad</a>, Sylvia walked them all through the history and basic workings of DIY era 3D printers, followed by helping excited volunteers through creating their first 3D model, then printing it before their eyes. With most being able to design, print, then take home their very own piece. Though it was planned we'd be able to borrow some Mozilla laptops for the girls to each use Tinkercad in groups, this fell through and we improvised with paper and taking turns (which <em>almost</em> worked). With the exception of a sudden Makerbot power supply failure 10 minutes into the 2nd session (and subsequent fevered run to Frys electronics to replace it), everything went smoothly, at least for our first conference.</p> <p><a href="http://sylviashow.com/sites/default/files/post-images/Dadmin/d2bd2012_004.jpg" class="yoxview_thumbnail"><img class="post-img-c" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://sylviashow.com/sites/default/files/styles/blog_large/public/post-images/Dadmin/d2bd2012_004.jpg?itok=Ky4LvqYA" alt="Conference goers draw out their ideas for what to make in 3D" title="Without laptops, the girls are forced to use pencil and paper to sketch out their ideas" /></a></p> <p>After 8 hours of teaching, learning and making <a href="https://tinkercad.com/users/7SV6AlRnwhD" title="Sylvia's Tinkercad user page where most of the models made by the girls were saved.">things</a>, we ended up with a great sense that what we're doing (no matter how imperfect), is really helping kids get connected, not to mention we made a lot of new friends (including our new awesome buddy from Microsquish, <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kennyspade/">Kenny Spade</a>!). Sylvia even took up the first half of the <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_19946507">San Jose Mercury New's take on Dare 2 be Digital</a>. One adventure down, a few million more to go. </p> <p>Next up on the agenda, DML 2012: We'll be in town for all three days thanks to the incredible people at <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</a> for sponsoring us!! Sylvia and I will be up on stage for the featured panel on Democratizing Learning, and then later on for the "Science Fair" where we'll be showing off my "Sylvia inspired" <a href="/squishy">Squishy Circuits</a> powered rocket ship game using HTML5 and CSS3!</p> <p>Also some exciting news, during DML we'll be taking a quick side Adventure over to Make Magazine headquarters in Sebastapol for a 3D photo-shoot on a zipline. The fun never stops :)</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"> <h3 class="field-label">Tags&nbsp;</h3> <span class="field-items"> <a href="/tags/conference" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">conference</a>, <a href="/tags/dare2bdigital" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Dare2BDigital</a>, <a href="/tags/dml2012" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">DML2012</a>, <a href="/tags/fun" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">fun</a>, <a href="/tags/teaching" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">teaching</a>, <a href="/tags/away" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">away</a>, <a href="/tags/san-jose" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">San Jose</a>, <a href="/tags/mozilla" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mozilla</a>, <a href="/tags/makerbot" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">MakerBot</a>, <a href="/tags/soft-circuits" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Soft circuits</a> </span> </div> Tue, 28 Feb 2012 19:34:18 +0000 TechNinja 52 at http://sylviashow.com http://sylviashow.com/blog/techninja/2012/02/28/conference-wrap-and-here-comes-another-one#comments