janet's blog

Projects are starting to come together. The whole group has a lot of questions that Clement and i can't answer immediately. Janaki, Mirjam and Laura powered three lilypads of one AAA battery pack, two LED on each. We tried a button but had trouble with it. I am getting a feel for the kind of documentation to share. How many LED are possibleand  off what amount of power.Everyone still excited. Planning on continuing a once a month drop in.

Day 2 of High Fashion  particpants saw examples of building the Lilypad into garments, programing multiple petals to control lights, fading from the pb petals and programing a light sensor. Now that everyone has their own materials and spools of conductive thread the projects are beginging to ferment.

"Michelle Khine, 32
University of California, Irvine
A children’s toy inspires a cheap, easy production method for high-tech diagnostic chips"

http://www.technologyreview.com/TR35/Profile.aspx?Cand=T&TRID=764

Found this on BoingBoing.

Wednesday night Ryan showed six LTC teachers how to make a simple reposition-able

This fall we have a LEGO class for ages 6-8 making LEGO cars with lights to imitate the holiday parade in Minneapolis. What i like about this solution is that we discovered the square geared LEGO motors can act as generators. Asia and i discovered this ability when we where planning for a home-school class about wind power. Using that knowledge we will connect a breadboard to the motor with alligator clips. By pushing or pulling the car, the wheel will turn the generator and power the lights on the breadboard.