Thursday, February 26, 2015

Let's Make a Song!

We finally made a beat!  Every student has their recorded and put into the software.  Now comes the easy part of building an entire song around it!

Needless to say I went ahead and booked two extra days for this class because I don't think we would have enough time to finish today.  Or at least if we did, I don't think you the listener would really be enthusiastic about hearing these early results.

Stay tuned!

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Angie Day

Angie was the only one who showed up today so she got full undivided attention and got further than anyone else on her song.

First thing we did was record the beat she made on her MaKey MaKey over at www.makeymakey.com/bongos then we fed that audio into Mixcraft and turned it into a sample loop.

Then we found the beats per minute (BPM) of the song and started pulling in other samples from the sound library to go with it!

We're off to a great start, although I'm not 100% sure that we'll be able to finish on Thursday.  We might have to add a couple more classes if we want to finish this right!

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Makey Makey Music

Today we continued making music with our Makey Makey instruments.  Today was also an introduction to Acoustica's Mixcraft software.

If you're familiar with Apple's Garageband then you'll be somewhat familiar with how Mixcraft works.

Today we tried not only recording our Makey Makey instruments into Mixcraft but also using our Makey Makey to play Mixcraft's virtual instruments.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Let's Make a Beat!

What do you get when you combine Makey Makey's, music and audio software called Mixcraft?


I have no idea, but over the next 4 classes we are going to find out!

First we're going to take these Makey Makey's and use them to play some drums and bongos over here.

Then we're going to record that and see if we can build a song out of it and upload it to our Soundcloud page!


Thursday, February 12, 2015

Valentine's 3-Day

Today the kids made a ridiculous amount of 3D designs.  I have no idea when we'll ever be able to print them all out on the Makerbot, but we will try over the next few weeks.  Our Makerbot is acting a bit crazy, but we'll get it sorted out.





Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Valentine's 3-Day

Today we made 3D valentine charms on the computer using Cubify's web-based 3D object generator.

This is very similar to the activity we did for 3D holiday ornaments.  Between today and next class on Thursday Ahren will try to print out the student's designs on the 3D printer.

The results are usually mixed but we'll see how it goes!

Monday, February 9, 2015

Vinyl Superheroes

Today we celebrated superheroes by making silhouettes out of images from the Internet and running them through our vinyl cutter and then applying the results to a nice piece of canvas.

Omar got the idea from this picture:

The results are pretty fantastic!





Wednesday, February 4, 2015

You can't spell SPRING without PNG!

Thanks to our record snowfall and frigid weather we've been thinking a lot about Spring lately.  We're excited to announce our upcoming PNG programs for Spring 2015!

First up in March is Teen Tech Week!  Project Next Generation at Elmwood Park Public Library is doing our part to get teens involved in technology with a whole week's worth of classes, everyday from 4pm to 5pm.

Teen Tech Week:

March 9th (4pm - 5pm) - Makey Makey 
Makey Makey's are cool kits that allow you to hook everyday objects up to computers at input devices!  The possibilities of what you can do are pretty much limitless.  We'll show you some cool basic ways to use a Makey Makey kit and some fun activities to try and then we'll let you try to come up with something cool and new!
March 10th (4pm - 5pm) - Hour of Code
Not only is coding massively important to the fabric of your digital world, coding can also be pretty fun!  Sign up for this quick introduction to activities on Code.org and play fun games while learning the fundamentals of basic coding! 
March 11 (4pm - 5pm) - Bristle Bots 
What happens when you combine a toothbrush, a tiny motor and an electric current?  Bristle Bots!  Sign up to construct your very own Bristle Bot and then race them against your classmates! 
March 12 (4pm - 5pm) - Photoshop Face Paint 
Join this Project Next Generation class if you want to learn Adobe Photoshop basics.  We'll use a combination of cameras, tracing on paper, and photoshop to produce a one-of-a-kind self portrait! 
March 13 (4pm - 5pm) - Open Lab 
We're throwing the doors open and letting you repeat any of the activities from Teen Tech Week or maybe try out some things we didn't get around to.  The PNG Lab is open, come and play!

March

Photoshop & Photography - Tuesdays & Thursdays, March 24th, 26th & 31st 4pm - 5pm

Let's use cameras to take digital photos and then edit those photos in Photoshop!  We'll teach you the basics of how to compose a photograph and how to use Photoshop to edit your subject into all kinds of crazy backgrounds and special effects!

April 

Soldering - Tuesdays & Thursdays, April 2nd, 7th, & 9th 4pm - 5pm

Join this Project Next Generation class if you want to learn how to solder!  We've got cool electronics kits that light up, drive and scurry.  When you're finished you can take your creation home with you and you'll be an expert in circuitry and soldering!

Tinkercad - Tuesdays & Thursdays, April 21st, 23rd, 28th, & 30th 4pm - 5pm

Let's use the computer to create 3D models and then print them out on the Makerbot Replicator!  This 4-part class will teach you the basics of 3D design and how to use Tinkercad.com to create 3D objects that can be printed on any 3D printer!


May


Superheroes - Tuesday & Thursday, May 12th & 14th 4pm - 5pm

Just in time for a new crop of summer-time superhero movies, we're going to make our own superheroes on the computer and then print vinyl silhouettes of our creations using PNG's Silhouette Cameo vinyl cutter!