Sylvia's Super-Awesome Maker Show! - Maker Faire

Distractions, Adventures, and a year making a book that’s finally here

Super-Awesome Sylvia — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 01:13:15 +0000

Hello everyone! I’ve been busy!! ...course I’m always busy. Since I left you last on the blog, I’ve traveled to the White House Maker Faire, Rome Maker Faire, Disneyland, and between every trip, I’ve been writing and finishing my very first book!

The book is called “Sylvia’s Super-Awesome Project Book: Super-Simple Arduino”. It’s got three awesome projects, bonus ideas for you to explore, and fun little doodles and robots to help you along! It’s based on the episode I did 4 years ago when I was 9, but it has a whole new project, tons more about programming, and its COOLER!! It also has some science project ideas, builder ideas, and artsy ideas too. The first of a series of books I plan on making about making stuff, the series even has it’s own dedicated website at superawesomebook.com. If you're wondering, I got my glasses only a month ago! Yes they're perscription, everything is IN FOCUS!!

This book was the most difficult project I have worked on yet. At first, I totally thought it would be easy...and it wasn’t. It took a lot of drawing, writing, revising, revising again... and again… It got quite frustrating. But I am super excited it’s finally done though!! I hope my book can be an opportunity for kids and adults to get into making and building, and to let their creative juices flow!

Anyways, for my second trip to DC: The White House Maker Faire was so cool (even though it was 95 fahrenheit with 90% humidity)! It was a flipping Maker Faire inside the White House! The robot giraffe was even on the lawn! I met amazing people, got to hear the president speak, and saw a lot of old friends. It was really great, and I was very honored to be there. Even though I didn’t get to present anything, I can’t wait for their next one.

Next up in September, I went to Rome in Italy, which was not only my first time to that country, but one of the most memorable trips I have ever been on. I got up on stage and talked about my adventures in making, then we walked around the HUGE Maker Faire there, which was AWESOME. There were a lot of aspiring makers that got to talk to amazing people, see incredible projects, and ask questions. Rome was beautiful, exciting, and a crazy trip. We walked around for hours around the city and saw all the ruins, and we got stuck waiting for a bus that never came and ended up getting soaking wet in a minor flash flood. We ate pasta, and pizza, and weird licorice gum. Italy was extraordinary, and even though we missed our flight on the way back, we got to stay an extra day outside of Rome, and I can’t wait to go again.

After that and just for fun, for the first time in my life, I got to go to Disneyland! I know that doesn’t seem like much, but I seriously felt like a 6 year old again, and I had a ton of fun. I went with my sister’s girl scout troop and I totally thought the whole trip was going to be boring...but I actually made some new friends. I went on a bunch of awesome rides and met a few princesses. Unfortunately on my last day, I sprained my ankle running around on pirate island! I was in crutches for 2 weeks, and I have to wear a brace for the next month... but I still had fun!!

SO! You’re probably wondering whats going on with my videos. Yea, I haven’t made any....in a really long time. Making a book, taking trips, 7th and 8th grade homework, doing talks and leading my younger siblings at home has taken all my time. But now since I’m older, the style of videos I made when I was eight doesn’t quite match up to who I am right now. I plan on changing it up. The videos will include more silliness, references to awesome shows and fandoms and stuff, and I may even try to get out video blogs more regularly. It’s very hard for me to make videos, with school getting in the way. If I don’t make a video, I will make a instructables or a blog post on what’s going on! =D

I hope you guys enjoyed your summer and have a happy thanksgiving/holiday season! Always remember... GET OUT THERE AND MAKE SOMETHING!!

Tags

White House, Super Awesome Book, Arduino, Rome Maker Faire, Italy, Massimo Banzi, away, home, distractions, adventure, tapper, strobe, RIFF, growing up, Maker Faire, glasses

Project Books and White House Maker Faire

TechNinja — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 19:45:19 +0000

For those that missed it, Sylvia has been working like crazy for months cooking up a brand new set of real life project books! ...also she's been invited to attend the White House for their very first Maker Faire on Wednesday June 18th, 2014!

Announced as her surprise project at Maker Faire Bay Area 2014, "Sylvia's Super-Awesome Project Book" series is going to be a set of books published by CMK Press featuring project topics from various episodes, along with a bunch more in-depth details and project extras that we just couldn't cover in the show. First book should be out late July 2014, titled Super-Simple Arduino.

Happening a little sooner, Sylvia (along with me, CraftNinja mom and little sister Terrific Talulah) will be in Washington D.C. this week for the very first White House Maker Faire, thanks in part to travel sponsor Atmel's unwavering dedication to education and the young Maker community, they rock!

For the majority of Makers wishing to take part in the festivities, don't worry! June 18th has been officially proclaimed as the National Day of Making. Get together with your local maker space, hacking group, or just your family, and get out there and make something! Post pictures and use the hash-tag #nationofmakers to let the world know that you're doing your part and making something awesome together. There's tons of other suggestions on the Day of Making site, so go check it out!

We'll be tweeting from the event live as long as we've got connectivity, so check @MakerSylvia for updates before, during, and after for all the fun and surprises we're bound to find there.

Good luck makers, young, old, and future. Lets all get out there and make something this June 18th and prove we are (even around the world) a #nationofmakers.

Tags

White House, Maker Faire, secret, Bay area, Washington DC, Day of Making, away, #nationofmakers, SSAPB, book, Atmel

I'm not dead! Just busy. Also: MAKER FAIRE!

Super-Awesome Sylvia — Thu, 15 May 2014 18:19:17 +0000

HI GUYS!!! So, How have you been doing? Good, good. Oh really? Awesome!

Well, I have been doing pretty well, but I’ve been hecka busy. Sorry even though I keep promising new episodes it just doesn’t happen. School has been torture, I started Karate, and Girl Scouts has been fun but selling cookies is a chore, and I’ve also been working on secret projects (hee hee hee) and traveling the world for STEM and showing the WaterColorBot.

It’s been crazy. Everything is crazy. You’re crazy. I’m crazy! No, just kidding... let’s get on with the blog post!

GUESS WHAT: January 2014 was the first WaterColorBot anniversary! 1 full year of awesome progress and watercolor painting awesomeness. Yay! I wanted to make a birthday cake for it to paint.. but then got busy again. Geeez! February and March were boring catching up with school and stuff, but also some planning for April!

I was invited to go to Geneva, Switzerland to talk at the UN for International Girls in ICT day! The UN peoplez!! It was so cool, and I got to talk about ICT (Information and Communications Technology) and STEM and why I think it’s really awesome for girls to get into it and work it. Also talk had fun and made and made an awesome mobile app and showed off the WaterColorBot (which everyone really liked)! I’ll have to do a full post on that one day soon. Here's a quick video they shot to give you an idea of what it was like.

So yep! That was fun. Oh! And hey, I’m making this awesome- wait! It’s secret!!! I almost told you what my super secret project is. Phew! If I did, you would know all about-OOP! I almost told you again! Well, I guess I could just say that we will be announcing something incredibly super awesome on Saturday at Maker Faire Bay Area 2014! And, soon after we will blog about it and how its about- ARG. Anyways...

This summer, I really want to take charge and own my time. Here’s my goal list for the next four months:

Make 5 episodes or more, changing to format of the episodes a bit: More humor, easier editing! :D
Try and build more stuff and explore new fun ways to make the shows.
I want to make at least 100 different projects
Aluminum casting my own sword with lost PLA casting from 3D printed thing!
Begged parents for Ukulele, earned money from WaterColorBot, got it, learning right now! YAY!
Mostly built an electric Go Kart for my science faire project, but couldn’t find the right parts in time, argh! I want to finish that puppy NOW! (Well, not now, but as soon as possible. ;) )

But before all that... Come see us at Maker Faire!

We don’t have a booth this year (I need my time to go see the faire!), but I will be doing fun demo stuff with the WaterColorBot and an Arduino at the Make live stage in the Expo hall on Saturday at 11:30 with the special announcement at the end. On Sunday at the education stage at 11:00am, we will be talking in detail about the announcement, and you can ask questions and stuff then too! Also I’ll be hanging around the Atmel Truck both days and building simple Arduino projects with kids for a bit. Hope to see ya at Maker Faire!! :D

EDIT: Oh! Almost forgot, my latest fun project with my dad and @MakerBlock is MakerBingo! Print your own bingo card for Maker Faires everywhere! Share it with your friends, give em to family! Go out and have fun!!

Tags

Geneva, Switzerland, United Nations, Girl Scouts, fun, summer, away, go kart, Maker Faire, San Mateo, special announcement, secret, Atmel, Arduino

A Maker Summer to remember 2013: Part 1

TechNinja — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 15:04:54 +0000

TV show appearances, Multi-Maker Faires, and Crazy Robot Adventures? All part of a regular summer for us here at SSAMS.

When we last left our heroine “Super-Awesome” Sylvia, she had just started to recover from a whirlwind trip from RoboGames to the White House with her Watercolor painting CNC platform, the WaterColorBot. Now in only a short 2 and a half months, we’ve gone around the country and back again. Here’s the highlights, in reverse chronological order:

July 16th: Sylvia launches her very first original product, the WaterColorBot, as it’s own educational kit on Kickstarter. Supported and manufactured by the incredible staff at Evil Mad Scientist, this one is sure to be a game changer, not to mention it’s fun and incredibly educational, but we’ll have to make our goal of $50k before August 15th! Can we make it? Check out the widget on the front page, or just tell all your friends, family and teachers to go to watercolorbot.com for more info.

July 16th: Sylvia and Lenore of Evil Mad Scientist will appear on Maker Camp! Sylvia will be driving up to Makezine HQ and talking all about the bot, and taking questions from viewers around the world. Check the Maker Camp event page to ask questions and see them in action!

July 11: To New York, for a quick appearance on the Katie Couric show, airing Tuesday July 16th, 2013! Sylvia shows off a few awesome science demos, and the WaterColorBot tries to draw the Katie show logo. To a nation looking to improve their science and engineering literacy, hopefully this will help to inspire them all. Check out more and some web exclusive content from Sylvia on KatieCouric.com

July 6: Sylvia turns 12! This anniversary also marks the beginning of her fourth season of Maker Show, this year is going to be spectacular.

June 29: To Missouri, for Sylvia’s third year at the Show me state’s greatest show and tell, Maker Faire KC! Sylvia and her bot painted over 35 portraits over 2 days, not to mention we had a great time at Hammerspace, playing with the robots, and playing around at Science City.

June 19: To Atmel, microchip headquarters of the world! Sylvia was featured at their bring your kid to work day, celebrating education, engineering of all kinds, and awesome experiments, most involving microprocessors like our favorite, the Arduino. Read more about Sylvia's jaunt into integrated circuit fame on the EMSL blog post.

May 18: Maker Faire Bay Area, and incredible bustling non-stop exciting amazing everything at once kind of thing. Lots more makers this year, so much to see. Sylvia manned the booth for a while, but still got a chance to escape and really enjoy the faire, always a good thing. Thousands came to see the bot, and almost everyone walked away with a smile.

To the future!

This summer isn’t over yet, Sylvia will be co-leading an Extreme Engineering camp July 22 to 26 with Gary Stager, then off to Space camp in August thanks to the amazing support of fans. Not to mention so, so much more to come, like new episodes (really, we mean it!), books, and things we can’t even imagine. See you all soon, and don't forget to breath... and get out there and make something!

Tags

Maker Faire, Maker Faire KC, Maker Camp, WaterColorBot, STEAM, Gary Stager, Katie Couric, Lenore Edman, away, New York, Kansas City, Kickstarter, robot, Atmel, Arduino, Science City, Mark Frauenfelder

Look out road: Here we come!!

Super-Awesome Sylvia — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:10:51 +0000

Thanks to all the awesome people out in the world who helped me get to my fundraiser goal of $5,000, me and the family are heading out on the road immediately!

We're driving up Interstate 5 through Oregon, making a stop in Springfield, then early tomorrow morning we'll be in Redmond Washington for my very first TEDx Talk! I'm super excited (and nervous) but I know it's going to be awesome no matter what!

Then next week on Friday we fly out to spend the whole rest of the month in New York City! Saturday I'll be teaching how to make Cardboard Robots with MakeDo at the Smithsonian National Design museum's Target Design workshop for kids!!, then I'll be visiting Makerbot, Adafruit, NYC Resistor, then off to the Open Hardware Summit at Eyebeam, then Maker Faire New York and Education day!!

Did I mention it's been busy? I think I did. But, at least I will have the best trip EVERRR!!!

Tags

away, Redmond, TEDx, New York, Maker Faire, Open Hardware Summit, OHS, Smithsonian, Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum

Maker Faire Bay Area 2012: Day 2

TechNinja — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 14:59:38 +0000

(Continued from Maker Faire: Day 1) The streets strangled by traffic, we arrive a bit late (show up early folks!). Hopping out of our car and hoofing across the south lot, we're totally ready for Adam Savage's talk at 11. First a quick stop off at the magical steampunk village, to see the amazing machines, sculptures, and perchance to write an olde fashioned letter with a fountain pen.

Just as we finish our letters, we got a call from our pal Brooklyn to head over and see our friend Joey Hudy in the Maker Shed, he was sad that Becky wasn't there to walk around and do interviews with Matt for MAKE Live, so he suggested that he and Sylvia fill in! Who would pass up an awesome chance like this? Not us!

Off we ran to the Shed for some preliminary interviews, then Adam Savage himself, then onto the back of a golf cart to tour the sights and sounds of the Faire. Soon seeing such awesome things as Makerbot's robot petting zoo, the giant fire snorting dragon, and Los Angeles Maker Extraordinaire, Tara Tiger Brown (all seen in the video)!

Rounding out a long fun tour of the grounds and sights, they headed over to the Whiskey Drunk Cycles arena, it was time to dunk a MAKE editor! Sylvia was first to pitch, and without breaking a sweat somehow managed to pull out a fast ball and dunked her on the second shot! I guess that single season of softball finally paid off.

After her fun trip with the Make crew and Joey, we set out on our own to inhale the last invigorating breaths of Maker Faire. Into the expo hall we stopped by and said hi to all the booths we could. Handing out stickers, cards, smiles and hugs. Met up with incredible electronics master Andrew 'Bunnie' Huang, he even signed Sylvia's Chumby One!

We saw our nice friends from Parallax showing off their red line follower bots, and Sylvia's favorite Ping))) BOE bot, then over to the fabulous Tinkercad, showing off 3D printed versions of their favorite models, some even in ceramic and metal. Stopping by one of our favorite booths, Sugru showed off their awesome "kid-proof" camera made safe with only their colorful air-curing rubber. Then finally off at the Robotis booth to check out the awesome Ollo bug bot kit, and to even hold one of the incredible DARwIn-OP humanoid bots (too bad his battery was dead).

By the time we finished strolling through the expo hall, it was time for the very last EepyBird Diet Coke and Mentos show! We ran outside and set ourselves up in front before the crowds got too thick, hoping for to get close enough to "experience" the soda fountains, and we were not disappointed! (totally got soaked when the wind picked up)

Not long after, it was time for the awards ceremony for the Fun Bike Unicorn Club Figure 8 races. Due to our constantly popping tires, derailing chain and eventually the front right wheel coming off, we were tied for last place. Though because we kept on trying, and even went to a store to buy replacement tubes to race again the following day, we won "Best Effort", and hold the trophy proudly (Actually, driver and welder TheD holds it)

The fair has now officially ended. Patrons and booth runners alike; pack, clean up, and head out. People gather outside as they leave to marvel at the eclipse, turning simple tree shade into a crowded sea of crescents. We make our way through buildings, slowly meandering our way to the exit. We love to walk through the slowly emptying halls as the excitement, stress and heat of thousands of hurried bodies drains out, leaving only the people who came here some few days ago to put everything up, just to take it all down again. On our way through we spotted a hard at work Sophi hacking away at an cell phone signal detector hat for the big post-Maker Faire hack dinner at Harry's Hofbrau. Sylvia helped her solder a bit, and then we headed out to the dinner ourselves.

It was packed. Almost every patron was from Maker Faire, and an entire section of the restaurant was devoted to the elite hackers showing off their incredible inventions and physical sketches. Everything from Jeri's C-64 Bass, Benheck's briefcase 3D printer, Garret Mace's LED matrix glasses, to a high pressure CO₂ fruit carbonator. After an hour or more of mingling, showing off of cool things, and planing with like minded makers, Sherry and Dale walked in causing every single table to erupt in spontaneous applause. The entire event after the event was incredible, and we ended up staying far beyond our limit, leaving over three hours later than we expected... of course, it was worth it.

Sylvia finished collecting her "photoception" picture-in-a-picture shots as best she could on this last day of Maker Faire. Sunday netted her: Mr. Mythbuster Adam Savage out signing after giving a great talk and getting interviewed by Sylvia herself! (3 years), head of the Maker Shed, Mr. Marc de Vinck (2 Years), MAKE editor in chief and Boing Boing founder Mark Frauenfelder (2 years), Masters of soda fountains, the Eepybird guys, Fritz and Steven (3 Years), and uber-modder and pinball fanatic Ben Heckendorn (2 years).

And thus concludes our tale of Maker Faire Bay area 2012. Made lots of friends, saw lots of amazing things, got so many ideas, only good can come from so much sharing.

Stay tuned for another multi-part tale of our adventures at Maker Faire Kansas City, 2012, then Make Summer Camp 2012, then Constructing Modern Knowledge 2012!!

Tags

Maker Faire, Bay area, away, steampunk, interview, Adam Savage, Mythbusters, video, Tara Tiger Brown, Maker Shed, dunk tank, photoception, Parallax, TheD, welding, pedalcar, Bunny Huang, Tinkercad, Sugru, Eepybird, award

We're at Maker Faire Kansas City 2012!

Super-Awesome Sylvia — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 02:51:46 +0000

Hey everyone! Even though we didn't finish our Maker Faire Bay area posts yet, here we are at another one, Maker Faire Kansas City!

Last year we didn't have nearly enough time to explore, so we this year we stayed for a whole week! We went to the absolutely incredible MCC FabLab and made wooden trinket boxes on their laser cutter, then off to the HMS Beagle Science Store for the MakeKC meetup, pizza and looking at all their amazing stuff.

Then I got to teach some Science City Day Camp kids all about squishy circuits, and how to solder for the very first time!! They all did really great, learened a lot, and left with their own blinky Maker Faire robot pins they made all by themselves!

Then we met up with our maker buddy Joey Hudy and did a bunch of other stuff, eventually getting to go to the absolutely amazing Hammerspace!!! Sooo cool!

A LOT happened so far, with even more still to come! Techninja will help write it all down in a blog post soon. See you out there!

Tags

Maker Faire, Maker Faire KC, away, fun, Joey Hudy, education, Science City, Hammerspace, science, FabLab, KC

Maker Faire Bay Area 2012: Day 1

TechNinja — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 13:36:18 +0000

(Continued from Maker Faire: Day 0) In no time, the first real day of Maker Faire was upon us, and we were as ready as we could be for the onslaught of wonders.

First things first, we set off to the Fun Bike Unicorn Club racing area to prepare our pedalcar. The D, our driver for the "Flying Fishmonger", was out in spades right off the bat, ready for the qualifying run. Once brakes were checked and the chain stayed on long enough to run around the track a few times, we were ready for our first race! Even though we'd only spent about $80 and 2 weeks building it, we thought it held up pretty well. Even though by the second race our rear drive tire completely blew out, it was still a lot of fun and we wouldn't trade it for the world. The overlapping CD fish scales were also very popular with the crowds of people coming to ogle the incredible pedalcars.

Due to a fluke of failed communication and our family in the middle of moving to a new house, we didn't have a schedule this Maker Faire, so we decided to head out and see as much as we possibly could. Out on the grounds, Sylvia found two of her favorite hackers/makers, Joe Grand and Zoz Brooks of Prototype This! Joe even recognized her and everyone got some stickers.

At the Craftsy "Make & Take" booth Sylvia made herself a stylin' star-and-ribbon-wrapped headband, then off to the FYFFH booth where we made our own "Freak Flags" to fly, then over to Autodesk to get a 3D head scan at their super camera photo booth. After a quick snap, we ran into Jeri skating around with her hard rocking Commodore-64 Bass Guitar, then we found our good friend Gever Tulley (we first met at DML). Sylvia and little sister Talulah sat down at his Brightworks booth to try the "Tinker your way out of this!" challenge. After totally winning (really!) we hopped around the corner where we learned all about simple binary computation with 8-balls and wooden flip-flops at EMSL's Digi-Comp II.

Outside, we ran into so many amazing sights, too numerous to count. A spiral sculpture of fire, a robotic band playing every instrument imaginable, a life-size Dalek from Doctor Who, a towering 50 foot tall flaming umbrella tree, electric vehicles galore, a giant rubber and steel fire breathing dragon, and then an EVEN BIGGER than life-size Dalek!

Throughout the day, Sylvia worked on collecting her "photoception" picture-in-a-picture shots with previous Maker Faire phenoms... Saturday got her John Park with his Arduino Grande (3 years), Dale Daugherty (2 Years), Jeri Ellsworth with her C-64 bass (2 years), and Lenore Edman of EMSL (2 Years)

Our first day of Maker Faire was outstanding, and we just couldn't wait to see what day two had in store! Learn all about our adventure in the next action packed blog post soon...

Maker Faire Education day

TechNinja — Fri, 18 May 2012 22:04:33 +0000

(Continued from Maker Faire Kickoff) After a short snafu with a missing labcoat, we managed to find a brand new one at LabPro in Sunnyvale, and with it we arrived in scientific style at Maker Faire Education Day.

When we arrived, we were amazed at how much everyone had worked to get there, and wanted to enlighten both kids and educators. With Intel making a huge presence volunteering to lead the huge troves of student groups, eagerly awaiting a glimpse at the wonders awaiting inside the gates.

We found our way to the exit accidentally, and Sylvia hopped on board to sign about 100 of the special "School's Out" MAKE Magazines being handed out to students as they leave! Sylvia had a blast playing celebrity for the moment, then it has back to the cool stuff.

What few makers were setup, still had lots to show off. From a kickstarter we'd only seen last week was Makey Makey, an instant touch interface for makers to turn anything conductive into a keyboard key. With beach balls and bananas kids were amazed at how easy it was to turn every day objects into interfaces with just alligator clips and a simple little board.

After the students had all left, it was time for the teacher education portion of the day, and with us squarely in both categories, we stayed for the fun. MAKE: Education was announced, with conversations by AnnMarie Thomas, Gary Stager, Steve Davee and many more big personalities in real world hands on education.

After a fun romp talking to educators, signing magazines and eating pizza, we headed out to Evil mad Science headquarters, for an impromptu tour and opportunity to try out their brand new industrial embroidery machine.

And all this before the actual event! Friday is shaping up to be a lot of fun on its own, and maybe with a bit of luck and elbowgrease, we can find a time and place to remake our DML demo for a new audience at Maker Faire 2012.

(Continue the adventure with Maker Faire: Day 0)

Tags

Maker Faire, away, electronics, touch interface, education, Makey Makey, Vacation, banana, Intel, teachers, students, autograph

Maker Faire Bay Area 2012

TechNinja — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:51:26 +0000

The first and best Maker Faire is coming around again this year, and for our 5th year, we'll be there!

Unfortunately, because of a badly timed whole house move of our family of 6, the projects and demos we had planned on bringing have been completely disrupted and left in a state of half-packed and half-done.

Not to worry though! We'll be there for the entire event and hopefully be out and about for Maker Faire fishbowl interviews and possibly a makeshift demo, and we'll be rooting for our very own Pedalcar! Family friend "TheD" brought his welding skills and we created our very first real steel construction. It's far from perfect, but with a little work and not very much money, we were able to make something rideable.

We'll be posting more updates soon, so stay tuned! But real quick, here's a few things we can't wait to see at Maker Faire:

John Edgar Park's Arduino GRANDE
All the awesome pedalcars for the Death Defying Figure 8 Races
Joe Grand's favorite Prototype this projects
Getting to meet Bunnie formerly of Chumby
Other great young makers like Caine Monroy and Joey Hudy showing kids that making something is always awesome

(Continue the adventure with Maker Faire: Education Day)

Tags

Maker Faire, away, pedalcar, welding, steel, construction, Bay area, San Mateo