View source for Family-Makers-Projects-List 2013

{| class="wikitable"
!Date
!Available?
!Topic
!Owner
!Deputy
!Meetup (y/n)
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|15/09/13
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|'''RubberBand Helicopters''' - If possible please bring a hotglue gun. This session will be to build rubberband powered helicopters and an automated launch mechanism.  The session is in two parts: building the copters followed by a competion for best decorated, maximum flight hight and most effective release mechanism.  A variety of propellers will be available and for the younger participants there will be preconstructed drive system (prop, hearing, tension bar and band).  The helicopeters will be made of, straws, lolly pop sticks, wooden dowls, rubber bands, card and copious amounts of hot glue.   If possible please bring a hotglue gun. <br />
[ Photos from the day]
|Rod
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|08/09/13
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|01/09/13
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|25/08/13
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|18/08/13
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|11/08/13
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|04/08/13
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|28/7/13
|Steve, Beck, Brian
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|21/7/13
|Beck, Brian
|'''Chain-reaction machine planning, how to make switches, and triggers events''' lets start planning what our machine is going to look like, and how to make basic switches and then trigger an event.
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|14/7/13
|Steve, Brian, Beck
|'''Water Rockets''' Stephen is coming in to talk about rockets and bring some of his to look at. we will also be making water rockets and launching them in a local park. This session could be a extend session due to the building and launching of the rockets, maybe best to bring a picnic along?
|Stephen Woolhead
|Brian Corteil
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|7/7/13
|Beck
|'''Banner planning''' - This session will be based around trying out some designs and augmentation ideas for the proposed Family Makers banner.  I'll bring the banner fabric, flipchart paper (for practice designs) and some pens.  I think it would also be useful to spend a short section of time discussing as a group how we might want to add to the banner with LEDs, 3D additions, e.g. sample makes built in previous sessions, etc.
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|30/6/13
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|'''Hydraulic Judo Bots''' - This session on building mechanical robots with hydraulic controls, followed by a competition to find the most effective design.      The robots will be built using experience gained in the projectile launchers session and also include bearings and hydraulic pistons. There are examples of designs and videos of example competitions at [http://www.instructables.com/id/Hydraulic-JudoBots/?ALLSTEPS Instructables]. <br />
[ Photos from the day]
|Rod
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|23/6/13
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|'''Projectile launchers''' - This session will involve building 2 different types of projectile launchers, cork disks and drinking straw darts.  The launchers will be make of lolly pop sticks, wood blocks, rubber bands and copious amounts of hot glue, the designs are from [http://www.instructables.com/id/Cork-Shooter/?ALLSTEPS Cork-Shooter] and [http://www.instructables.com/id/Slingshot-Dart-Shooter/?ALLSTEPS Slingshot-Dart-Shooter] <br />
[ Photos from the day]
|Rod
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|16/6/13
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|'''Open day: bring your own project to work on + show & tell'''
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|9/6/13
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|'''Chain-reaction machine planning''' the day started with a small demo, with four elements. A countdown programmed in scratch, with photos taken by Billy, who also programmed the countdown. Which fired a nerf gun. The dart hit a target, pushed a toy car(with a little help) that that knocked over some dominos. We made marble run machines that knocked over dominos. At the end we linked two of the machines together. Dave and Rosie from the Cambridge science centre came in to give a talk about the chain reaction and let us test drive one of their new activities.
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwestbury/sets/72157634113380875/ Photos from the day]
|Brian
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|2/6/13
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|'''Arduino 101'''
This session started with the setup of the Arduino software on a laptop and then connection to an Arduino and downloading a simple sketch. The first sketch was a simple blink of the onboard LED. This then progressed to wiring in an external LED and a pair of LEDs, to reproduce the electronics 'flip-flop' from a few weeks ago. We then moved on to a traffic light sequence and for the more advanced decoding a numeric keypad and use of an ultrasonic distance sensor.<br/>
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwestbury/sets/72157633892849827/ Photos from the day]
|Steve
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|26/5/13
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|'''Salt dough fun'''
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwestbury/sets/72157633800758113/ Photos from the day]
|Beck
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|19/5/13
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|'''3D-modeling with cardboard and glue guns''' - This session is in two parts: the first, crafting with hand-cut corrugated cardboard to make hats, helmets and masks, the main points are shaping structure from flat sheets, reinforcement and ease of major modifications; the second, assembling a number of precut models, to show that a 3D model represented in a computer can be produced with different construction techniques, layered slices, radial slices.  Finally, the attendees saw the laser cutter cutting one of the models, to show its just a quicker/more accurate scissiors. <br />
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwestbury/sets/72157633555023308/ Photos from the day]
|Rod
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|12/5/13
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|'''Basic electrical circuits''' - This week's challenge was to build a circuit that flashes two LEDs on and off. The children were provided with breadboards, resistors, capacitors, transistors, wires and battery packs. A circuit diagram was provided, but the children had to figure out how to map the circuit diagram to pins on the breadboard. Most families succeeded in the challenge though some of the younger children had fun just getting LEDs to light up in simpler circuits. One family went on to solder their circuit, make use of the soldering station available at Makespace while others connected their circuits to oscilloscopes. <br />
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwestbury/sets/72157633477369011/ Photos from the day]
|Nigel
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|y
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|5/5/13
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|'''Paper cranes'''<br />[http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwestbury/sets/72157633430008732/ Photos from the day]
|Chris
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|21/4/13
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|'''Egg drop''' - The idea of this project is protect a raw egg from a 2 meter drop, with the supplied materials. The materials used were bubble wrap, card, paper, tape, plastic shopping bags and glue<br />[http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwestbury/sets/72157633333368813/ Photos from the day]
|Brian
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|14/4/13
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|'''Paper aeroplanes'''<br />[http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwestbury/sets/72157633246156559/ Photos from the day]
|Steve
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|y
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