Following a successful career in medicine, Winston has become a recognisable TV personality presenting shows such as the BBC’s Human Body and Child of Our Time. Now a member of the House of Lords, Winston speaks often about science and education which sit at the core of what we do

It was an honour to have such a successful visitor among us while we tinkered away at our robot arms. The kids had a great time chatting to him too and we even got a group photo!

The post A Special Guest Comes to Visit! appeared first on MakerClub.

It may be small in stature but it’s always been able to compete with the goliaths when it comes to breeding creativity and new ideas.

Makerspaces and Fablabs are the embodiment of that pioneering spirit, and the brilliant thing is, they’re springing up all over the city!

If you are unfamiliar with these terms, a ‘Makerspace’ or ‘Fabrication Laboratory (FabLab)’, are basically, communal workshop spaces.

They contain tools, workbenches and high-tech manufacturing machines, like laser cutters and 3D printers.

Imagine them like a larger, more organised version of the classic British inventors shed at the bottom of the garden, but for the whole community!

They are places for play, innovation, creativity, education and socialising, and have been proven to boost local economies and encourage entrepreneurship.

In short, they are amazing.

Makerspaces act like accelerators for the imagination, blossoming new opportunities through a shared loved of building cool stuff with cool people.

At last count, there were 97 in the UK (Nesta), situated in Universities, converted lockups, abandoned buildings and even former banks!

So far we have 3 spaces in Brighton, but it’s growing and with it, the chance to build a better city…

In a scheme that feels like a natural progression from the Digital Eagles and Code Playground campaigns, Barclays is slowly turning its recently shut branches, into fully fledged makerspaces, all over the UK.

And one of the first to open is in Brighton – lucky old us! Set up for young businesses as well as makers, anyone can pop in between 9am and 5pm to see it in action and get involved.  

The original Brighton space with over 100 designers, makers and tinkerers. Local residents from all kinds of backgrounds, share experience and work on all kinds of brilliant projects.

Awesome ones include, a motorised robotic elephant (seriously!) and ‘genetic standing lamps’ that can be programmed to use your DNA sample as a basis for their colour!  

Build Brighton has regular open days and anyone can become a member and start train on the equipment.  

This one isn’t open to the public quite yet, but situated on a former barracks site, it’s home to 13 young manufacturing startups that are testing it before a more permanent space in built in a couple of years time.

With electric motorbikes, 3D printed learning kits, edible insect chocolate bars and handmade wooden cameras!

It’s a crazy place to visit, where you can feel the ideas bubbling from every nook and cranny!   

Started as a 6-month pilot project in April – September 2015, we launched a makerspace just for young people that was a phenomenal success.   

We believe that these spaces should be accessible to all age groups, the ‘maker mentality’ is just as valid for young people and spaces like this represent the ultimate playground for an inquisitive child’s vast potential.

We’re working with Barclay’s EagleLab’s to run a new kind of weekly after school club for ages 10 to 16, to encourage the next generation of young inventors.

You can check out more about that here.

For a city in the middle of a digital transformation, maker spaces represent an opportunity to connect communities, explore ideas and develop new ways to harness the potential for cross-curricular innovation.

They are set to become a key part of the city’s infrastructure and another output for Brighton’s creative business culture

The post How Makerspaces and Fablabs are transforming Brighton appeared first on MakerClub.

Design our new mascots

The robot can be whatever shape or size you like, the wackier the better! The only guidelines are that your robot should at least have a name, a purpose, and at least one special ability or power.

This contest can be entered in any variety of ways – from sketching or painting your robot to  building a 3D model. We really want you to think outside the box with this one!

The 5 winning designs will be picked, fine-tuned by one of Brighton’s top game designers and transformed into the M-Bots – MakerClub’s new mascots!  They will then be displayed at SPARK festival in September, and seen all over the country in our campaigns. The winning contestants will also receive a voucher for £25 to use at any Big Tech Summer event.

How to enter

To enter simply take a picture of your entry, and send it to us with your name, age and email address.

Email entries to: Hello@makerclub.org

Facebook entries to: /MakerClubUK

Tweet entries to: @Maker_Club

Good luck, you have until Friday 14th August to send in your design.

Entrants must be aged 6-16.

Winners will be notified via email on Monday 17th August.

Visit us at MakerClub.org for Terms and Conditions and more info about Big Tech Summer

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This event is part of Big Tech Summer, 60 events over the summer holidays to get young people building cool stuff with technology. Check out the full list by going to makerclub.org and say hello to us on Twitter or Facebook.

By Miles Rowland

The post Big Dream Robots Competition! appeared first on MakerClub.

With Roborigami, Big Tech Summer is offering you something truly original, and the chance to come away with a usable lamp which is not only beautiful but futuristic! The course, run by Coco Sato, combine the ancient Japanese art of origami, with very relevant basic coding and electronics skills. The iconic design of Roborigami would make it an ideal addition to any modern, stylish household.

Workshops

Firstly we’ll get you involved with the basics of how to code with an Arduino microcontroller – specifically controlling the motion and internal lights of your lamps in preparation for the origami section of the course. This can be taken from scratch as an introduction to coding even if you’re a total newcomer to this, but alternatively for the more experienced coders amongst you there will be additional challenges and the opportunity to tinker! During this workshop you will also design the electronic insides of your lamp: the LEDs and motor which moves the head of the lamp.

The second workshop will involve the creation of the origami shell. An art form which dates from 17th century Japan, origami traditionally involves the intricate folding of paper into a finished sculpture – usually something inspired by nature such as the iconic paper crane.

Coco, blending her artistic expertise and her passion for modern technology has created a stylised, contemporary take on the art form. Using translucent polypropylene with the choice of five colours, her workshop offers participants the opportunity to create an elegant lamp shell in the shape of a fox.

Unique

Having combined the efforts of these two workshops, you will be left with an attractive lamp which using micro sensors can be controlled by simple hand motions. With our help you’ll be able to give your fox its own coding, meaning different motions for different hand gestures. A unique personality some might say…

All of the materials for this project are included in the ticket price. After the workshop you’ll be able to carry on creating at home with the lesson materials we give you, and you can bring your Arduino microcontroller along to future Maker Club Arduino events and receive a ticket discount.

Your Roborigami kit includes;

• Roborigami Fox Shell
• 1 x Arduino
• 1 x Servo
• 1 x Head lever
• Connecting Wires
• 1 x USB Cable

If you already have your own Arduino and want to bring it along to this workshop, enter the promo code ARDUINO1 at the checkout, and you will receive a £20 discount.

Secure your space here

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This event is part of Big Tech Summer, 60 events over the summer holidays to get young people building cool stuff with technology. Check out the full list here and say hello to us on Twitter or Facebook.

By Miles Rowland

The post Roborigami – A unique fusion of robotics with traditional Japanese art – 30th August appeared first on MakerClub.

The game inherently has a number of passive benefits to young people;

• It pushes their imaginations to the limit and allowing them to be creative in ways not possible in the real world.
• Inherently about problem-solving, the game can inspire students’ higher-level and critical thinking.
• Minecraft is also a very social game, where students can rely on other players for help in the sometimes-unforgiving Minecraft world, teaching collaboration and teamwork in a way that’s more organic than, say, being assigned to work together on a project. Students who might not get along in the real world can become allies in the Minecraft world.

Building Worlds

Studies published over the past two decades support the idea that video games can increase students’ spatial knowledge, improving their aptitude for math and science. It’s also an implicit way for them to develop self-regulation skills that then transfer to offline spaces—through having this freedom to create on Minecraft, they learn how to identify and work towards offline goals like finishing course work.

From sky high tower blocks, to recreations of entire cities, where minecraft gets interesting is its creative build mode, where multiple users can work together to create monumental structures that require basic engineering skills to work. Users can also use ‘Redstone’, a type of Minecraft electricity based on Boolean algebra, to create working inventions, perfect for budding engineers.

Engaging Teaching Tool

At a higher level, some are looking at Minecraft as a technology-teaching tool, particularly in computer science and computer-aided design (CAD), both critical building blocks for the emerging maker movement of 3D printing, amateur electronic design and high-tech craft.

Other uses include;

• Teaching Java and other coding languages through Minecraft using MCEdit. The reward for this is complete control over the environment, something  very appealing to young players.
• Looking at biomes and communities of plants and animals. In Minecraft, Biomes are created by the map generator and display Different heights, temperatures (indicated by leaf color, Water color, presence or absence of water or desert), humidities and foliage.
• Have students write how-to guides for building structures, mining, fighting monsters, and other in-game activities.Students can write day-in-the life journal entries about their characters, making up back stories for their characters. Who are they, and how did they end up alone in the Minecraft world?

What Next?

This Summer we have a number of workshops and courses that use Minecraft as a learning tool, teaching collaborative skills, coding and hardware in a way that young people can really connect with. Click the links below to find out more about our Big Tech Summer program events involving Minecraft…

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Real world Minecraft

Use hardware like motors and microcontrollers and activate them with actions in Minecraft. Electronics combined with blockbuilding fun!

Team Minecraft

Collaborate of Minecraft EDU to excavate dinosaurs, build elaborate traps or invent with a team of up to 16

Raspberry Minecraft

Learn to code with MC Edit on the Raspberry Pi micro computer

The post Can Minecraft be educational for my kids? appeared first on MakerClub.

John Gay, 17th Century poet

Life is messy. It’s not compartmentalised into 10 or more subjects that we do for an hour a day. It’s challenging, it’s rewarding and at times it’s simply bloody difficult, but to get the most out of it, you need to get out of your comfort zone. It’s the same with learning. Central to this is letting kids learn by doing, educator John Dewey wrote: “The school must represent present life — life as real and vital to the child as that which he carries on in the home, in the neighborhood, or on the playground.”

We need to arrange the curriculum around big ideas, questions, and conundrums that resonate with young people. What does learning look like in this model? Well it could be to let kids travel to places, work with mentors, inquire about the world around them and perhaps use modern technology to empower them to learn whatever they want!

Teach them ‘how to learn.’

In a summary published on Edutopia, Brigid Barron and Linda Darling-Hammond reviewed numerous studies and found that:

1. Active-learning practices have a more significant impact on student performance than any other variable, including student background and prior achievement.
2. Students learn more deeply when they can apply classroom-gathered knowledge to real-world problems, and when they take part in projects that require sustained engagement and collaboration.
3. Students are most successful when they are taught how to learn as well as what to learn.

Experimentation!

In very young children, messy play, in that play that involves trying things out and experimenting, is key to cognitive development. It encourages children to set their own challenges, to problem solve and find out about cause and effect. As they get older, this shouldn’t change. Messy play, or discovery through doing, is central to the ‘Maker Movement’ which fosters respect, collaboration and empathy while encouraging independent thought to allow new ways of thinking and doing things. And, guess what? That’s exactly the kind of young people we want to bring into this world.

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This Summer we’re running over 60 workshops for young people in creative technology, from videogame design to squishy circuits and all taking place in our Brighton HQ. Check out more by heading to our homepage and scrolling down! Click here for more.

The post Why education should be messy! appeared first on MakerClub.

Taking place in Brighton from the 23rd July to the 5th September, Big Tech Summer is run by MakerClub in association with O2, Mind Candy, Code Club, Technology Will Save Us, MakerFaire, Crumble, Young Rewired State, Roborigami, STEM Sussex, Curiosity Hub, MakerFaire, Let’s Make Robot’s and PiMaker.

Learn how to make video games, understand electricity through squishy circuits, build your own robotic origami or speak to plants with technology!

There’s something for every level for ages 6 and up – if you’d like to get your kids into tech or encourage those who already have a passion, this is the festival for you!

Take a peek at our growing list of events here.

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Do you want to get involved?

Could you teach coding through Minecraft or help kids to learn hardware through conductive playdough? If so, get in touch.

We’re looking for

• Coding Champions
• Lego Leaders
• Robot Wranglers
• Minecraft Masters
• Computing Kingpins
• Raspberry Pi Pro’s

If you’re interested we’ll find a role for you! Email Morwenna if you or your company would like to get stuck in!

The post Brighton’s Youth Technology Festival! appeared first on MakerClub.

The Brighton Makerlab is the regions first space dedicated to teaching people how to create with technology, or in other words, how to build cool stuff. With sessions in robotics, game design and electronics, the space uses tools like 3D printers, Occulus Rift and Minecraft to bring the sessions to life.

While coding has never been more important to learn, the soft skills that come about from simply making something as part of a team are invaluable. Its not enough to just teach someone how to code, you need to give them a context, a challenge, something that engages them in the process and gets them working collaboratively. These are exactly the skills needed for the next set of leaders and facilitators, the type of awesome people that your business is desperate for.

Silicon Beach Party

For a rising tech hub like Brighton, the next generation are particularly pressing, retaining talent in the city as well as training up the old guard are equally important, and centres like the Brighton Makerlab have an important part in developing skills early or making technology something that isn’t so terrifying.

There are already a number of fantastic initiatives that if you haven’t tried, you really should. There’s Codebar, a non-threatening coding session for under represented groups in tech such as a little group I like to call, women! You should also put Coder Dojo and Exploring senses on your radar, both amazing for kids and each teaching not just coding and tech skills, but creativity and expression – the kind of things that make your average developer, exceptional.

Feeling comfortable with emerging technologies and their use, makes for happier, more creative and capable human beings. It simply works – so if you’ve never tried building a cardboard light up robot, or explored a 3D world in virtual reality, maybe now’s the time to start.

Join Us

The Brighton Makerlab opens on the 30th March, but we’re launching the space on the 25th February with mini-workshops from some of our providers and a bit of networking. We’d love to see you there – please RSVP here.

The post How do we make the next generation of leaders, better? Let them have fun. appeared first on MakerClub.