Are there any hackaday io teams creating projects for STEM education and want to collaborate?

Steve Schuler wrote 04/22/2016 at 18:29 • 0 points

Howdy folks. I'm working on a project "Teaching programming and Electronics with Snap Circuits and the Kano Computer." Starts here:

https://hackaday.io/project/10182-pi-day-2016-project

And I've gotten this far:

https://hackaday.io/project/11158-the-diode

My next post will be controlling the snap circuits relay with the Raspberry pi. I've got the circuit working, but need an idea for something to switch on with the relay. Right now I'm just switching the Snap Circuits fan on and off. Simple, though boring. Anyhoo, looking to collaborate with a person or team interested in education/teaching/science. Of course persons or teams interested in the Kano computer/Raspberry Pi, Snap Circuits, education/teaching/science are welcome to collaborate with me.

If you just want to be updated on my progress with my "Teaching programming and Electronics with Snap Circuits and the Kano Computer" project, follow me here https://hackaday.io/KRA5H and don't forget to like my projects--click the "Like" button at the top of the project page with the little Hackaday skull icon (which is why we used to call it "skulling" a project, but apparently "skulling" sounds like "sculling" a nautical term for propelling small watercraft with an oar or oars). So, now just click the "like" button at the top of the project.

If you want me to collaborate with you on a project or projects, or you want to collaborate with me on one or more of my projects, let me know in the "Bits" comments on my page: https://hackaday.io/KRA5H

Discussions

Phil Hazur wrote 04/25/2016 at 18:58

Hi Steve,

Please check out "Hadoop on a 100 Board Raspberry Pi Cluster." It will appear as primarily a hardware project but it is being built specifically for STEAM (A as Arts), as big data clusters have been excessively expensive in the past and we need a device that is less expensive, scalable, reliable, and fast. Hence, our project.

Where we would intersect with you is that we (EdTech Learning) are almost exclusively an elearning design and production company (very small company with high-octane managers, and we make good use of contractors). We already have one State that will be using both the PicoClusters (if we are successful in this project) and would like to link with your project to deliver to a number of learning institutions with whom we already have a relationship and who are waiting on content. In other words, upon successful completion we can offer an almost immediate income stream if we include your end product. If you don't wish to productize your project then we would be glad to do that for you. But we're proposing a pay-per-view basis in which a student, school, learning center, etc., pays a flat fee for any class in which they want to enroll.

At a minimum, I would like to speak with you about this. I don't know if this is a private message stream; I think not. I will send you a private message with my email and if you are interested please let me know as soon as possible so that we can start building a lesson around your assembly process. Once you sit down with an experienced Instructional Designer it is usually a surprise as to how much information has to be in a lesson to support the Objective, but that's what we're good at. And as I can share private details with you, it will become evident that we are assembling a world-class development company.

I hope to year back from you.

Phil

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Steve Schuler wrote 04/26/2016 at 12:55

Howdy, Phil.

I'm not sure if you are aware that sites like Hackaday/Hackady io and Instructables are places where information wants to be free. So much scientific research is locked up behind paywalls even when that research was paid for with public funds.

There is so much competition for public grants among scientists that they seem to only want pursue research that is "sexy" and likely to published in the most prestigious of journals--even when that research is flawed and sometimes dangerously fraudulent. Andrew Wakefield's MMR autism study in The Lancet comes to mind and to this day people still believe the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism (it does not and the study was retracted in 2010). Measles was wiped out in the United States by the year 2000, but we had 644 cases in 27 states in 2014, the most in 20 years because people refuse to immunize.

There is a growing citizen scientist (amateur scientist) movement spawned from the maker movement that is similar to the Gentleman (and Lady) scientists that preceded the Age of Enlightenment and before the professionalization of science. Citizen scientists are doing research that often rivals professional scientists and publishing their research in open journals and occasionally in prestigious scientific journals. Welcome to the revolution.

P.S. Scientist are now starting to come around and publish their work in open journals.

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Phil Hazur wrote 05/23/2016 at 23:32

Hi Steve - yes, our project here is intended for open use and the source code will be available to anybody who wants it.

As a point of interest, there was a recent project founded by a major industry player in education that helped individuals to measure electrical current use around the school, and when the results were published some schools were able to reduce their electrical bill by up to $150,000.

The extremely low power draw is only one of the many reasons that we have taken on this project. But we feel that every student should have equal access to resources from a basic PC-like device to the latest technology. There are plenty of projects out there to build a PC that has wi-fi, HDMI out, and Bluetooth for keyboard connectivity. We're working on a source for displays and keyboards for individuals that cannot afford them.

Schools need to provide access to new technologies such as big data.

Then, elearning homework and just plain experimentation and innovation will no longer only be the playground for those who's school districts can afford fancy hardware but also a playground to the disenfranchised individuals in our countriesl

Onward we go!

Phil

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Steve Schuler wrote 04/25/2016 at 14:37

Added my Lego Optics Lab: Laser Interferometer project which links to all the optics lab project parts: https://hackaday.io/project/11377-lego-optics-lab-laser-interferometer

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