Teen Tech Week Day 3 - BristleNOTs

Well, today we were supposed to put together our own Bristlebots. But that didn't pan out because we don't have any motors!

We decided to do Tinkercad instead and had a lot of fun!

Teen Tech Week Day 2: Hour of Code

It may sound boring, but Code.org's Hour of Code activities are a lot of fun!

Today we spent the second day of Teen Tech Week learning some basic coding!

Teen Tech Week Day 1: MaKey MaKey

Today is the first day of Teen Tech Week!  We started things off easily enough with an introduction to MaKey MaKey.  You may have read about us using MaKey MaKey's in our last class, but this is a new group (mostly) so we wanted to let people see what they missed.

We Made a Beat

Behold our finished songs!  Be gentle with your criticism, these were valiant attempts.

Let's Continue to Make a Beat

Once again our recording artists picked up today where we left off.  After today there is only 1 day left and we'd like to use most of Thursday's class to get the songs uploaded to our SoundCloud page.

The anticipation builds along with the tracks!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!

App Design

Today we continued working on our apps.  Progress is pretty slow, but we're getting there.  Maybe if we're lucky we'll get to start uploading the mockups of our app pages to Marvel App so that we can make a half-way functional prototype.  Here's hoping!

Vinyl Cutting!

Today the kids got to check out the cool world of Vinyl Cutting.  No, we're not talking about spinning records on the wheels of steel, we're talking about the Silhouette Cameo Vinyl Cutter.  This little machine is a lot like a desktop printer but designed specifically to cut fabric and vinyl!

We've been using the vinyl cutter here at the library for a while now, so we enlisted our resident expert Omar to help out.  Check out the cool results!

App Design

Today we continued work on apps.  This class wasn't originall scheduled, but we wanted to make sure we finished, so we scheduled an extra class.  We'll keep on going until we're done!

App Design

Today we finished up the images for our apps.  We're so close to being finished but we're going to have to add another day or two to the class before we can finish.  Tune in next Thursday for the exciting results!

App Design

We continued working on our apps today.  With only today and Thursday left we are trying to finish up our images so we can start uploading everything to Marvel next class!

There's an App for That - Photoshop!

Ok, we have our app designs down on paper, now it's time to get digital!

First thing we did was to create mockup screens in Adobe Photoshop.  For some kids this was their first experience with Photoshop so we had a quick lesson on how to use the program and some core concepts.

The Photoshopping was fun and the kids had to create every element of their app, even buttons and menus!

Check it out!

There's an App for that

Today we tried our hand at designing an app. These apps aren't real, but rather design proofs. Each student came up with an idea for an app and then did a rough sketch of what the screens would look like and put it to paper.

This is a 4-part class, so on Thursday we will reconvene and start using Adobe Photoshop to create some snappy looking images that we can then upload to Marvelapp.com to create a functioning prototype!