Maker Education is such a valuable role. These stories will bring you the latest information and tales of maker educators who area spreading the maker mindset. Help others learn how to make things or how to think like a maker at makerspaces, schools, universities, and local communities. The importance of maker education can not be understated. We appreciate our educators.
A month ago, I blogged about Ron Doerfler’s beautiful Age of Graphical Computing calendar for 2010, lamenting the fact that it’d only appeared on my radar at the end of the year. Well, I’ve been keeping an eye peeled, and Ron just released his 2011 calendar. It’s not about graphical computing, but about what is perhaps an equally interesting mathematical curiosity: Techniques for doing fast mental math. And it looks to be just as beautiful.
When I was in graduate school, I took a seminar class from a chemist whose work in developing self-healing polymers was widely admired. I had seen these self-healing cutting mats in the MicroMark catalog, and always wondered what they were made of. So I asked him, in class. He looked at me like I’d grown a second head: “You mean to tell me you’ve seen self-healing polymers on the market? In a consumer product?” Later I brought him the catalog, and showed him the listing. He was stumped, and more than a bit dubious.
They just put up a great article about the machines people used to lift and move heavy loads before the advent of steam power. Arguably the pinnacle of human-powered lifting technology were Sir William Fairbairn’s hand-cranked “Tubular Cranes,” one of which is shown above as illustrated in Fairbairn’s 1860 Useful Information for Engineers, Vol. 2:
If you’ve been around long enough to have ever actually blown out your flip-flop, stepped on a pop top, you’ve already got one great reason to appreciate the 1975 introduction of the stay-on tab or stay tab: No more little metal razors littering the beaches.
Now, “Engineer Guy” Bill Hammack helps us appreciate the stay tab for another reason: It’s a little gem of mechanical poetry. There’s a lot going on when you pull that little ring. Bill’s video exegesis of that action, like all Bill’s videos, is a little piece of poetry unto itself. I can’t get enough of ’em. [Thanks, Bill!]
A comment on this morning’s cometarium post reminded me of this famous axiom in the history of science: “No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer.” Stigler’s Law is named for University of Chicago statistician Stephen Stigler, who attributes it to sociologist Robert K. Merton. [Thanks, Rahere!]
Maker Media’s Education Director, Michelle Hlubinka, writes: We’re so pleased to share with you some more details about the new season of the Young Makers Program. For those new to our network: the Young Makers Program is a collaboration between MAKE, The Exploratorium, and Pixar. The purpose of the program is to inspire and develop […]
As evidence, nothing beats one’s own senses: I’ll have to see that for myself. But some experiments are too expensive, too time-consuming, or too dangerous for most folks to reproduce on their own, and for these, well, the next best thing is video. And the tubes are rich with great footage of phenomena that have to be seen to be believed. Here’s a sampling of some of the gems we’ve covered, over the years, to get you started.
