The end of the year

The year is coming to a close and were not doing much. There isn't much to do because we've packed up all the tech stuff:( We've just been chilling so we will see you all next year.

Maker Fair

This year instead of the science fair we have a MAKER FAIR, ya! We will have things that kid or parents can come and interact with what we're doing. For example a team of kids are doing an egg drop, Stang and Quincy are working on why play-doh and pickles work with the MaKey MaKey. Those were just examples of the awesome things that we have. The Maker fair is on June 4 so hurry up on those.

New Little Bits How-To

Everything is mostly the same from our other little bits but this kit has a couple of different pieces like the cloudbit. The new Little Bits are the Smart Home Kit and the Arduino Coding Kit. The Smart Home Kit is the one we the tech group mostly played around with. The way its works is that from a website you can control the lights, use the coffee machine, and some other things like open your garage door and assort of other stuff.

Smart Home Kit Test:

Wi-Fi Setup:

Step 1: Plug in the powerbit
Step 2: Attach the button
Step 3:Plug in the cloudbit
Step 4:Plug in the LED light
Step 5:On the cloudbit hold the setup button until it flashes blue
Step 6:Go to your Wi-Fi and connect to the cloud bit wi-fi.
Step 7: Wait until the light stops flashing
Step 8: Hold setup button until it's flashing green

Control Setup:

Step 1: You need to go to the Little Bits website and make a account with Little Bits Cloud Control.
Side Note: you can also follow the steps on the Website.

Lamp Stetup:

Step 1: USB power + Cloud Bit + IR Transmitter + Bight LED
Step 2: Plug in the AC switch into the wall
Step 3: Plug the lamp into the AC switch (Lamp must be turned on)
Step 4: Take the other end of the AC switch and put next to the IR Transmitter (The AC switch has to be facing the IR Transmitter).
Step 5: Hold The button on the AC switch until the light on the AC switch flashes.
Step 6: Test the lamp by pressing the button on your cloud bit control on your Phone or Tablet (If it works then you have your wireless lamp).

Movie

                                                                               Movie    

   We have been making a movie for Mrs. Gagner. We've already done the storyboard and at Genius Hour this Friday (5/8/15) we will start taping. The movie we are making is going to be formatted like a Ted Talk, but for a meeting she's going to. The movie is about maker space, creating, and showing other teachers that maker space is not scary and really hectic, it's FUN. In the movie were going to talk about SCR&P, maker space challenges, and a lot of other maker space projects. The app we are using for the movie is iMovie.  It lets you film different scenes, and puts it into movie form.  With this movie, maybe other teachers would realize maker space is not a crazy time, but a creative time, and maybe soon more teachers will have a maker space.  

New Little Bits

We got the Popular Sciences kit of Little Bits. We researched how every piece works then we set up our "w20 cloudbit". Which is the bit that can connect us to the bits WiFi. Then we can go to there site and get the controls. There is a big purple button on the site to control a "o14 bright led". It was really cool when we saw it turn on. We just got a lamp to turn on with the big purple button because we had an AC switch. But then the fan did not work because of WiFi connection problems. Then we had to go.

New Little Bits Set

Our class (The Gagner Gang) will be getting a new Little Bits. We think that the Little Bits will be here on Thursday 4/02/2015. The Little Bits we are buying with the money from our dance in all the Little Bits cost $250. We bought a little bits set. This set can turn on the lights, the computers and make coffee, you do all this with one touch of a button.

Our Mission

OUR MISSION 

Our mission here in the tech group is to make a how to guide for every technical thing in our classroom 110 Mrs. Gagner's class. We already have a how guide for Makey Makey and Little Bits. What we do is play around with the technical stuff and make a how to guide for our class mates and other people who visit our blog.

MaKey MaKey

Quincy,Stang and Tyler work on the MaKey MaKey awhile back and we made a show me about how to play mine craft and at the end the basics of the MaKey MaKey. Here it is http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=VtQHGqm

How to-Little Bits

Little Bits

Blue outline = power (attaches to battery.)

Pink outline = on and off buttons and sensors.

Orange outline = wires.

Green outline = lights, motors and speakers.

Purple outline = tools.

Step 1: Take the pieces out of the box

Step 2: Connect the blue piece to the battery and switch on the power

Step 3: You can use the pink piece to control how you turn the green piece on and off.  Connect it to the blue piece-it’s magnetic on one side.              

Step 4: After the pink piece you can use a wire if you want to connect an orange piece ( wires ) so you can connect allot of pieces. ( this piece is optional. )

Step 5: Finally, you can attach a green piece.  This is the piece that everything else is powering.

Extra: There are tools that you need for some projects!  (talk to us about that after you master the “basics” and if you are interested.)

If you are still confused then you can talk to Grace, Sierra, Tyler, Stang or Quincy.

Tips and Tricks

• Little Bits- Pieces go Blue, pink, green, and orange is optional
• Little Bits- If you use the speakers remember to turn up the volume
• Little Bits- If you want to make a certain thing, you can look in the instruction manual to see if it has what you want to make.  You can also just experiment and see what happens.
• Little bits-

Printer

Printer

About a week a go we got a broken printer from Lorn Parren . The first day Quincy and I staid in for lunch to work on the printer. At the end of lunch we figured out the problem. It was that the ink wasn't coming out of the. At genius hour we unplugged the ink so that the ink would flow, we tested it a out and it was like brand new. Now the printer is ours.

Happy Birthday card Challenge

Laren Parren (The tech genius in the district).

Part of the tech support people got assigned a challenge to make Laren Parren a birthday card.  Yeah, so you can take some markers and start to color.  But actually, there's a twist.  The card needs to have lights and sound and other stuff like that. So we are using Little Bits. We've already now how to play happy birthday on the little bits piano. We found out that there's a piece that we need but we can't find it. But we were persistent and we found another piece that might work we just need to test it. That's what we have for now.