Pics & videos from the 13th annual @RoboExpoNYC! Thanks for hosting, @MarymountNY! #STEMed #STEAM

More info about the Robo Expo can be found on our website: http://robo-expo.org

Follow us on Twitter for updates about our next event: http://twitter.com/RoboExpoNYC

One of my favorite days of the year is the RoboExpo. It’s a sweet, kid-friendly, age-appropriate celebration of robotics, programming, and physical computing for students in the Metro NYC area. I’m proud to be a founder and annual organizer along with Michael Tempel of The Logo Foundation, Lan Heng of Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Tracy Rudzitis of The Computer School, Hope Chafiian of The Spence School, Erik Nauman of The Hewitt School, Erin Mumford of Friends Seminary, and Francesca Zammarano and Javier Alvez of The UNIS School. 

The line-up of challenges changes a bit from year to year, and this 2017 event included: Follow the line, Get out of the box, Stay on the table, and Collect/avoid the obstacles. This year we introduced a dance-a-long where children choreographed their robots to boogie to the tune of Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling — it was equally hilarious and magical. One child wondered if there were a Sumo Bot ring like last year, and I offered, “Maybe next year?!”

Many thanks to The Marymount School for hosting our Robo Expo for a second year in a row! (We’ve been so lucky to have a network of schools graciously offer their spaces to us over the years.) Marymount held a mini maker fair in the morning (dubbed Marymount Maker Day), so it was especially awesome to be part of a full day of programming celebrating STEM and STEAM! To top it off, I wore my prized Girls Garage tshirt emblazoned with Fear Less. Build More. Thank you for the constant inspiration and glorious shirt, Emily Pilloton and Christina Jenkins!

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Pics from my #FunkeyFunkey session at #ScratchDay hosted by #TheComputerSchool & @LogoFoundation!

Today marked another free, fun, and family-friendly Scratch Day organized by Michael Tempel of The Logo Foundation. This season’s event was held at The Computer School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Tracy Rudzitis and her awesome students generously, graciously, and smoothly facilitated throughout. More information can be found on the Scratch Day website here: www.logofoundation.org/scratchday

My particular workshop was something I’ve led many times before. Today was special, though, as Stephen Lewis provided FunkeyFunkey boards and sensors for us to use and was available to help and troubleshoot when needed. Here’s the description from the program:

Scratch, Cardboard, and FunkeyFunkey Musical Instruments
FunkeyFunkey is a microcontroller board – just like MakeyMakey – that allows you to use every-day objects and materials such as aluminum foil, playdough, and bananas to interact with your Scratch projects. We’ll construct cardboard shapes, add conductive elements, connect them to FunkeyFunkey, and program different instruments, sounds, and notes using Scratch to play music and form a band! Audience: People of all ages (children under 8 years old should bring a parent or older sibling to help out) no prior Scratch experience is needed.

Steven (@inventionlab), created the FunkeyFunkey as part of his Make!Sense line of reasonably-priced and accessible micro-controllers and sensors. It’s a pleasure to be able to purchase great tools from Stephen, as he also provides assistance, resources, information, and local delivery! The FunkeyFunkey Simple is only $9.95 and the FunkeyFunkey Sensor starts at $29.95 plus whichever sensors you purchase. At The Brearley School, we invested in class sets of FunkeyFunkey Sensor boards, Infrared (IR) breakbeams, hearbeat sensors,tilt sensors, three different kinds of touch sensors, and a bunch of his well-designed alligator clips.

Finally, below are some pics from Tracy’s awesome Makerspace at The Computer School. Tracy is such a rockstar, and if you try to gush about her or the magic that happens in her classroom (which I do often), she’ll always say, “It’s not me, it’s the kids!”

.@EagleNewsPH interviews @Michael_Tempel of @LogoFoundation at @RoboExpoNYC!

Along with a handful of awesome educators, I’ve been a proud co-founder and co-organizer of the annual RoboExpo for over a decade. A bunch of us had been to the FIRST LEGO League competitions, and while they are amazing and important events, we yearned for something more low key and kid-friendly. At RoboExpo, students celebrate robotics and programming, share their awesome projects, and participate in a few light challenges for sticker prizes.

Here is a photo album from this year’s 11th annual event: http://robo-expo.org/photos2016/ 

Also, check out the segment below about this year’s event which was broadcast on Eagle News in the Philippines!

Some photos from the 10th annual @RoboExpoNYC!