Barnes & Noble Mini Maker Faire- you're invited!

[tech1014kids]

We would be happy to show Little Bits at the B&N Makers fair near our town in NJ. Please send us more information.

Bryan

Info@Tech1014Kids.com

[chris101]

I'm giving a talk about 'extending littltBits' this afternoon at Barnes and Noble in Tempe. I don't know the demographics of the participants, so I'm prepared to talk about experimenting at several levels.

If it's mostly younger kids, I'll focus on LEDs and making dials using servo motors. Older 'kids' will get an introduction to interfacing arduino, including the tiny's. Of course there will be proto bits, breadboards, and wires, lots of wires!

The talk is about 20 minutes long, with some hands on parts. At school, my audiences are held captive in class, but here, I will need to keep them interested all the way through.

Wish me luck!

[chris101]

I had a blast. The store was quite crowded, in fact the entire mall was packed. I got there about 1/2 hour early,. Rainer from B&N met me and helped me set up. They supplied a powerstrip and a large table. On one side was a guy with a 3D printer, and on the other were some robots. I brought a bunch of bits, but they also had a workshop kit on hand.

The folks were about 60-75% adults, most of them had heard of litteBits. Most of the folks my age had some arduino experience, and many did hobby electronics. TheWorld Time clock was a hit, and everyone enjoied snapping bits together. I showed lots of folks how to combine a number bit with a pulse and a threshold.

I had planned 20 minutes of material, but ended up staying for a couple hours. The printer guy counted 104 attendees during that time. As I said, it was a blast!

[JackANDJude]

great job, @chris101! Thanks for letting us know how it went! Showing people how to use the number bit with the threshold and pulse is a great idea! 😀 Do you happen to have any pictures you can share?

[chris101]

I didn't have a chance to take any pictures - I was up on my feet the whole time. But I think Rainer (of B&N) did take pictures.

[jae_hess]

That is fantastic and I am really glad to hear! I had 3 other committments so I was unable to participate in the South Bay Area events.

[JackANDJude]

@shaiss, can you share pics here? How did it go for you? 😀

[shaiss]

Hay Jude! Bet you get that often

I had a great time. My son and I had a 6ft table with LittleBits, arduinos, rocketdept soldering kit, peltier module, diy flashlight and some other stuff. Our juke box LittleBits robot upgrade for day 3 was a hit!

There was a workshop kit and we shared our bits with my son old leading the sessions teaching other kids about LittleBits. We did this throughout the day 11am-5pm sat & sun. There was no specific time for the workshop. Here's some pics we took.

More pics @ https://goo.gl/photos/1PWy9xCvHKUL4CMy8 for now

Picture upload not working on my phone atm. I'll upload it in a min

[rosierjay]

I was able to host the littlebits part at my barnes and noble, and we had a really good response.
I don't own my own sets so far, so we used the ones the store had (not the ones for sale.) the kids had a lot of fun, and made all sorts of cool things. i wish i had thought to take pictures.
I'm going to talk to my manager to possibly host more events like this in the future.
I also wish i would have had more premade examples. recommendations for next time?

[ptreadwell]

Looks like most folks had decent turnout, so I hesitate to be the outlier here, the proverbial killjoy but....Attendance during the couple of hours I was at the Ithaca B and N was sparse. And while the B and N staff were all nice enough and seemed to want things to go well, they also seemed wildly unsure as to what it was all about, why they were doing it. And there was very little promotion of the event - I spoke to a couple of colleagues who I know have children last Thursday and they were totally unaware of the event and activities.

The few kids and parents who did show were engaged and interested. so it was a positive event in that regard but I had really hoped for more than a handful.

And as a disclaimer it is possible that once I left on Saturday afternoon the store filled up and maybe Sunday was a blockbuster as well, but my experience tends otherwise.

[JackANDJude]

All feedback is valuable, @ptreadwell! Thank you very much!

[nickweinberg]

@chris101 so glad you had a good time! thanks again for participating.

[nickweinberg]

Thanks for sharing those photos @shaiss!

[nickweinberg]

hey @rosierjay, what part of the US do you live in?

[nickweinberg]

@ptreadwell this information is super useful. thank you for sending it over.

[rosierjay]

i live in minnesota. i tried looking up chapters near here, but i think the closest was chicago.

[nickweinberg]

hi @rosierjay, we currently don't have a Chapter in Minnesota. Do you know any makerspaces who might be interested in taking this on?

[rosierjay]

I'll be honest. i'm not sure what a makerspaces is.
I'm still really new to this and trying to learn the terminology.

[nickweinberg]

No problem @rosierjay. A maker space is a learning environment where children, teens, adults and families can tinker, design, and create together.

[rosierjay]

hmmm well. i know b&n would be willing to host this from time to time, but i can't think of anywhere else off the top of my head...
my local library does have a conference room that can be used, you just need to reserve it.
that might work.
how large are the groups when they start normally?
i read a little bit on the chapters, but i'm always happy to learn more.
i'd love for one to start in my area.