EDW 2024 Blog: July 8th 2024- First Day-Learning Names; Ideation Round1; String Racers

Project 1: Learning Names:

Learning the names of everyone in the group- forming a community- "the place where everybody knows your name."

Project 2: What do you want to do?

Put ideas on the board. Everyone should come up with 5 ideas, including one stupid one.

Musical Tesla Coil

Sea Perch ROV

P.O.V Light Saber

EDW is about focusing on imagination and crazy ideas.

3rd Project:

Break into groups of four- everyone has to draw something in 5 seconds

Find an idea that you want to know more about. Find an idea that you want to know more about maybe because you think it's great, maybe because you think it's crazy, maybe because they're words that are maybe not really words right here. It's the essential part of what we're doing. We're just doing some exercises right now to get it to where you're comfortable being silly. You're comfortable thinking about craziness because what's fun is that the bunch of ideas you came up with at the beginning, the crazy ideas, were things that we've been doing.

You should remember that letting your imagination leap out frequently is where the key idea that no one even remotely considered comes from. For example, the idea that the speed of light is constant. Where did that come from? That was a leap of imagination that was incredible. It's in a lot of little things too. That leap of imagination is really important. What we're doing right now is valuing those leaps of imagination and craziness. Please value them. Don't be afraid of them. Don't be afraid to be silly. Don't be afraid to express an interesting, off-the-wall way of doing something. That's what we're doing right now.

This process we'll do a few times. The first time you do something, generally, you're pretty bad at it. You guys are pretty good at it so far. These are good. I just wanted to put that perspective here. We're actually focused on imagination at this moment. Later we'll get into how might you implement it. When you start getting into how you would implement it, you also need those crazy leaps of imagination, believe it or not. This bit about being able to stop preconceived your realm and allow it to stretch is really, really important.

It's also important in these kinds of efforts when we have a big group thing where someone's presenting an idea. Try not to have a side conversation in this particular setting. Try very much to have the one person own the topic at that point. Especially the people who are the mentors who feel like they're not involved in this, you are involved in this just as much as everybody else. That's really important. When we break into smaller groups, go nuts. But when we bring people together like this, focus on the one person that should be talking.

Project 4: Zipline String Racers:

Using Legos, build a device that can race down a string. Use pins to make it mechanically secure,as to safely carry Ed's cell phone,,,. The device must attach to the string without needing to thread the string through the device.

Background:

A force on an object can be either a push or a pull.
Two forces at play on a zip line are gravity and friction
When two things rub together, it causes friction, which is the force that resists motion. In other words, friction is a force that slows a moving object down. Surfaces that are bumpy or rough will produce more friction than a smooth surface. Friction is often used to slow or control the speed at which an object travels on a zip-line.
Gravity is a force between two objects that pull them toward one another. Earth's gravity is a force that pulls objects down the ground. The zip line moves down the line in part because of the force of gravity pulling down on the zip line basket (cup).

Below: String for pre-testing in the hallway.