Learn about Making, 1: 

Going on NOW! [#makehealth]

HealthDesignBy.Us

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Courtesy of @pfanderson, Co-Conspirator of the We Make Health Fest

Maker learning events NOW

Maybe you’re not in Washington, New York City, or San Francisco. Maybe you’re not in Chattanooga, Pittsburgh, or Boston. Maybe you’re not even in Ann Arbor! But you want to know more, you want to do more, and you want find other people to do things with you, to share learning and making and troubleshooting. We’re going to do a series of blogposts on exactly that, on topics like videos, online classes, maker communities, online spaces, books and blogs. To get you started we’re highlighting three special events going on right now, just as examples: MakerCamp & Tinkering Course & the Google Science Fair.

MAKERCAMP

The annual Maker Camp is a several week even each summer, while kids are out of school. Officially, it is designed to engage kids and have activities at an appropriate level, but, I can tell you, a lot of what they do is just as challenging and fun for adults as for kids. Each week has a different theme, and here’s the line up for this year, followed by links to more information and an example video of them showing folk how to DIY safety features for your bicycles.

Week 1: Makers in Motion
Week 2: Art & Design
Week 3: Fun & Games
Week 4: Science & Technology
Week 5: DIY Music
Week 6: Make: Believe

Maker Camp: http://makercamp.com
MakerFaire: Maker Camp 2014: http://makerfaire.com/makers/maker-camp-2014/
G+: Make Media: MakerCamp: https://plus.google.com/+MAKE/posts
G+: Communities: Maker Camp: https://plus.google.com/communities/107377046073638428310

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi16PvNtiFc&w=560&h=315

TINKERING FUNDAMENTALS

I cannot tell you how excited I was when I saw this MOOC (an online class) was coming from Coursera and the Tinkering Studio folk! Unfortunately for me, the class is going on at exactly the same time that we are swamped with planning our own MakeHealth event. I hope that they offer it again!

A MOOC is a Massively Open Online Course, usually from teachers famous for the topic. In this case, the Tinkering Studio is part of the famous Exploratorium, one of the most recognized museums based on the hands-on science learning approach. Even though I can’t do what’s needed for the assignments in the class, I am lurking in the hangouts and watching as many videos as I can fit in. They’ve done a phenomenal job of integrating social media, which you will notice from the links below. They are also asking the students to use social media to turn in their homework, posting videos of the robots of light shows and photos of objects. Here is the very high level overview of their course content, followed by links and an example video from one of the hangouts.

Week One: Introduction to Tinkering
Week Two: Initial Explorations
Week Three: Learning Dimensions
Week Four: Tinkering Tenets and Personal Expression
Week Five: Coding, Computation and Facilitation Strategies
Week Six: Putting It All Together

Tinkering Fundamentals: A Constructionist Approach to STEM Learning https://www.coursera.org/course/tinkering
Exploratorium: Tinkering Studio: http://tinkering.exploratorium.edu
Art of Tinkering (book): http://www.artoftinkering.com
G+: The Tinkering Studio: https://plus.google.com/116350164652876977257/posts
Facebook: Tinkering Studio: https://www.facebook.com/thetinkeringstudio
Twitter: Tinkering Studio: https://twitter.com/tinkeringstudio
Instagram: Tinkering Studio: http://instagram.com/TinkeringStudio/
Youtube: Tinkering Studio: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtx1xfSh01cJ8WYsFeKt7RQ/feed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeV-h6LGoAM&w=560&h=315

GOOGLE SCIENCE FAIR

We’ve had a camp, a course, and now a science fair! Google Science Fair (GSF or #GSF2014) is actually something kids work on all year. The main event is coming up early in August, and is usually live-streamed. This is less about learning how to make things, and more of an inspiration to see what kids are doing with science and technology. For us, of course, part of the real excitement is seeing how kids are doing research to support health and learning about health. Here are some of the topics being highlighted at this year’s GSF.

* Acidic pH determines if Cryptococcus neoformans can survive in the environment and within the host
* Haptic feedback e-reader for the visually impaired
* The Synthesis of oleic acid core silica nano particles for the safe delivery of enzymes
* Improving Raloxifene’s affinity with er-Beta through synergy with S-Equol as a novel chemopreventive treatment

… and SO MANY MORE! Several on assistive technology, technology risk, ecology, sustainability, bullying, solar power, bacteriology, stroke management, stem cells, etcetera. In this case, you really have to question what “etcetera” might mean! Again, they are doing an exceptional job of integrating social media, taking things to the next level with an active hashtag, and including a rather sleepy looking blog. Here are some links, and an example video.

Google Science Fair: https://www.googlesciencefair.com/en/
Youtube: Google Science Fair: https://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleScienceFair
Facebook: Google Science Fair: https://www.facebook.com/GoogleScienceFair
Twitter: Google Science Fair: https://twitter.com/googlescifair/
Twitter: #GSF2014: https://twitter.com/hashtag/GSF2014?src=hash
Google Science Fair Blog: http://googlesciencefair.blogspot.com
G+: Google Science Fair: https://plus.google.com/+GoogleScienceFair/posts

Isn’t this just too cool?

https://twitter.com/googlescifair/status/490141474034843648/photo/1

Google Science Fair Example Project (Detroit): Caloric Content of Zoo Animal Food:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y67sM5ZgkWA&w=420&h=315

BONUS FEATURE!

Just because it was too cool not to share. Storytelling has become absolutely integral in healthcare because of its power for health literacy and inspiring both community and individual behavior change. In this video, the Maker Camp leaders take a tour of Cartoon Network and the folks behind the very bizarre and popular show Adventure Time, showing the steps behind the process of telling the stories. This goes from concept, to storyboarding, to backgrounds, character design, voicing, and more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwfh7ueFy1E&w=560&h=315

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