191–200 of 246 posts
Door sensors have come a long way and are wifi-enabled these days [1]. Link them to your phone (or iPad if doing a projection on TV). Tape the sensors to door, window, drawer, your jacket, etc. Open them and see the signal sent to your phone.
I was recently asked by a friend who teaches 5th graders to do something similar for their school's "career month." I tried a few different things, and found the most successful was showing them how to use a web browser's built-in developer tools to inspect the source of and make live modifications to web pages. My reasoning behind this exercise was: - I checked in with their teacher ahead of time and confirmed that…
To enable experimentation like that, I'd like to see mobile browsers include developer tools as well. More and more people grow up using a smart phone as their main computing device, and I think they should be given the opportunity to tinker with that as well. I realize that developer tools are information dense and fitting them on a smartphone screen would require a significant effort to redesign the layout (especia…
https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome-devtools/remo...
You can also load Eruda with Javascript. https://github.com/liriliri/eruda
During the demo, just take a wire, wind it around your hand a few dozen times, connect the ends to the LED, and put it close to a wireless Qi charger. It should light up. Its pretty cool to produce light just with wires.
Now if you reverse the concept and create a board full of Led rights and wound up wires, could you wave your hand (with the Qi charger) and get the lights light up based on your hand movement?
Kids love superpowers. If you use technology to simulate superpowers and make it seem easy, you will inspire them to become more curious.
I was recently asked by a friend who teaches 5th graders to do something similar for their school's "career month." I tried a few different things, and found the most successful was showing them how to use a web browser's built-in developer tools to inspect the source of and make live modifications to web pages. My reasoning behind this exercise was: - I checked in with their teacher ahead of time and confirmed that…
I've done an interactive "do you know how many types of engineers there are?" for this age group that's worked really well. Timeframe: 5-15 minutes "Can anyone name a type of engineer?" and for each shoutout, talk a little about what each does. The guessing keeps everyone's attention. Types: software/computer, electrical, mechanical, chemical, environmental, civil, nuclear, aeronautical, etc. Bonus: bring 2-3 props (…
>For drones, I like to ask: "how do you think the drone moves forward?" [over power the rear two, underpower the front] Careful - this explanation isn't just a simplification - it's outright wrong. Applying differential power to the front and rear rotors is how you initiate a pitch moment . You must reverse the pitch moment when the drone is at the desired attitude. This attitude may cause the drone to accelerate in…
So I usually start with "what if the back rotors go a little faster?": it tips it forward, beginning a series of operations leading forward motion (like turning the wheel of a car away from center -- what happens if you keep it turned?)
I've also found that words matter: "attitude", "differential", "pitch", "velocity", "acceleration", etc. -- may be hard to access, and simpler terms like "faster", "slower", "speed", "tipped" are usually more broadly understood.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That one is not a technology one indeed. I intermingle some non-tech ones just to show that there are curious simple things everywhere, and that there's more than just tech in their lives.
I don't think you can truly answer that question without it being part lie. For one, we don't necessarily know the real reason, plus there's multiple reasons anyways, especially since it's taken on a life of its own and culture/history is part of it now.
I was recently asked by a friend who teaches 5th graders to do something similar for their school's "career month." I tried a few different things, and found the most successful was showing them how to use a web browser's built-in developer tools to inspect the source of and make live modifications to web pages. My reasoning behind this exercise was: - I checked in with their teacher ahead of time and confirmed that…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are some interesting applications for drones in the nuclear industry. https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/multimedia/podcasts/monitori...
but no one in the nuclear engineering industry is involved in building any part of a drone