Does anyone in your household have the warped idea that electronics is hard to learn, not fun, way too wiry? (Ok, yeah, we concede the part about the wires). Well tonight, The Great Adventure Lab received its Makey Makey kits! For the uninitiated, Makey Makey is an electronics board that allows you to make anything into a key (as in key on a computer keypad) using alligator clips.

We used ours to make an Edamame piano!  THIS is the kind of thing we think of when we think of electronics for kids!

We’re going to make all sorts of strange pianos and other creations in our Fun with Electricity classes – they are part of every summer camp. Register here!

Edamame Piano – Electronics for Kids is from The Great Adventure Lab.

This is one of many projects in our Lego Robotics class, which your kids can take after school (here’s our list of schools) or … at any of our summer camps!

Lego Robotics – the most fun way to learn to program is from The Great Adventure Lab.

For super-nerds – apparently Makey Makey CAN work with Arduino — but beginners don’t have to know that. It looks like just plain fun.

We’re sending one to our summer camp director, because Makey Makey has to inspire at least one extra project for our Fun With Electricity classes, which run every day during all of our full-day STEM summer camps, including our new girls-only camp!

MIT — they’re the same folks who brought us the free program Scratch, the visual programming language we use to teach video game programming!

Has anyone out there played with one of these yet ?

Time to Makey Makey some electric fun! is from The Great Adventure Lab.

We have asked for permits for Farmland ES June 17 -28 and for Woodlin ES for July 8-26.

We are not allowed to open registration until permits are approved, and the county is not likely to approve for another week or two!

So rest assured, there is space in our camps, and we would love to open registration but we have to follow county rules.

Summer Camps 2013- proposed schedule is from The Great Adventure Lab.

So … how does ice skating work? is from The Great Adventure Lab.

NASA Johnson Style is from The Great Adventure Lab.

Note: turn volume low if you don’t want to hear “bad Kiwi Language.” (We listened and didn’t notice). Shot at Lake Lyndon, New Zealand.

Unexpected firefighter …

Fluid physics and logic is from The Great Adventure Lab.

I wanted to pass along some positive feedback from Principal of Wood Acres ES.

She commented this morning “the Great Adventure [Lab] teachers received great praise yesterday as the only group to ‘check out’ their students at the end of the after school events.” Apparently all of the other after school groups were more laissez-faire about kids leaving which, given the news of late, was viewed as bad practice!

I’ve also received lots of feedback from parents who’s children are enjoying the classes and want to sign up for the next session!

So please accept a hearty “well done” from all of us at Wood Acres!

Happy Holidays!
- Reid

Thanks to Wood Acres ES! is from The Great Adventure Lab.

Guess what? The Great Adventure Lab ranked NUMBER ONE! in the voting. Thank you Oakland Terrace. We are thrilled to be able to offer our Lego Robotics and other classes as part of your after school program!!

Thank you, Oakland Terrace! is from The Great Adventure Lab.

If you took our Lego Robotics class, or you attended one of our parties where the group built spinning tops, you learned about centrifugal force … and you had a chance to experiment with designs that make tops spin faster or slower.

But … what would happen if you tried to spin that same top in ZERO gravitiy??

Well now, you can find out. NASA astronauts took a Lego kit with them to the International Space Station, and built the same spinning top we built, with the same handle/ launcher, and then tried to spin it right there, in zero gravity.

What happened?

Check out this video to find out. (And no, you don’t need the worksheet to enjoy the video).

What happens when you spin a top in ZERO gravity? is from The Great Adventure Lab.