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| Presentation by Yasmin Kafai |
I attended the "Get excited about Maker Culture in Co4Lab- Event"!
After the coffee and karjalanpiirakka (Karelia pastry) we listened the talk by Dr. Kafai. Her talk lasted for one hour and it was truly educational. She has developed a new curriculum “Stitching the Loop” to teach electronics to high school students. She had a pilot school in Los Angeles and she showed a video on how the students followed the curriculum. I asked her the name of the school, but she refused to tell, siting privacy laws. The video will be available later this fall and supposedly the curriculum will be available online.
After the presentation, participants divided into three groups based on pre-registration. Mine was E-Textiles.
This is the add of this workshop that was circulated among the teachers.
"Wed, March 7 from 10.30 to 16.00 in Minervatori at the University of Helsinki Faculty of Educational Sciences. This event was partly in Finnish and partly in English because the keynote speaker was from the United States.
Agenda
10.30 Welcome, coffee/tea
11.00-12.00 Keynote presentation by Yasmin B. Kafai, University of Pennsylvania: Stitching the Loop: Re-Crafting the Maker Movement with Electronic Textiles
12-13 Lunch (separate charge)
13-16 Workshops; three options to choose from during enrolment.
Workshop descriptions
E-textile Basics
"This workshop introduces the basics of e-textiles, the components used in e-textiles and a simple circuit. We’ll also get to know sewable circuits with a switch. The workshop was facilitated by Yasmin Kafai".
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| Making a simple circuit using electrically conductive tape. |
The first task was to create a simple circuit using conductive tape. The circuit was linked to a 9-volt battery and once connected, a LED light turned on.
The second task was to create a bracelet, using only a watch battery, fabric, pins, and 3 LED lights. When you connect the bracelet, it turns on all the three LED lights. This exercise encouraged me to search more information about “Stitching the Loop” because I plan to add this exercise as one of the units to my engineering class.
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| My bracelet! |
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| I am preparing for my bracelet using conductive thread. |
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| Presentation by Yasmin Kafai |
I talked to the presenter, Dr. Kafai, and she said in order to adopt the curriculum, I need to attend a summer workshop at a University. I looked into it and applied Pathfinder Institute at Indiana University. It turned out that in order to use the curriculum, you need to adopt the whole program, year-long Exploring Computer Science.
I applied and said that I will not adopt the program, but I still got accepted. Hm… All my expenses, travel, meals, lodging have been paid by NSF and Infosys Foundation. In addition, at the end of the summer workshop, I get $1000 stipend. Let see if this is true.
