Ladies and Gentlemen, Children of All Ages...Welcome to the Circus!

This past weekend, YWiC had the honor of presenting to the Guts y Girls program of Santa Fe, NM. Five YWiC research assistants traveled to the Santa Fe Institute to conduct a PicoCricket workshop to 22 female middle school students. Also in the bunch were eight experienced Guts y Girls mentors.

The YWiC team started by introducing the PicoCricket parts to the students with a detailed slideshow. Students were also introduced to the PicoBlocks IDE, and how it is used to actually program their robotics systems.

Going over PicoCricket parts.

Students using the PicoBlocks program.

After introducing the parts, we got straight to business. The first activity was Magic Lights. The students had to use PicoCricket components such as a light sensor, motor, and an LED light to make the color of the LED light depend on the brightness value that the light sensor detects. For detailed tutorials please click here.

Nicole showing how to make the Catapult.

 After Magic Lights, we taught them a new PicoCricket project called Catapult. The students had to build and program the catapult system to throw a projectile (like a catapult would) after the click of a button, and reset the position of the catapult with another click of the button.

Prior to the workshop, the YWiC assistants built a Circus ground to server as a landscape the students' completed final project. They were asked to work in groups and brainstorm ideas about cool projects that were circus-related.

Brainstorming.

After deciding on a topic the girls got straight to work! Since we were doing a Circus theme we wanted the girls to incorporate their own creative element so we gave them a large supply of crafts: pipe cleaners, glitter, plastic googley eyes, ribbons, styrofoam balls, etc.

Craft Table.

YWiC was so impressed with these group of girls! They grasped on the concept of block programming and using the hardware to make anything imaginable! The mentors were able to help with student questions and kept each group on track.

Building their projects.

The final product!

Crafts + PicoCrickets = Circus!

The Circus included several projects such as: Clown Car, Acrobats, Popcorn maker, Elephant shows, Swings, Teacup ride, Cotton candy maker, and several more!

Here's a video of a Clown Car a group of girls made!

Overall, we had a blast in Santa Fe! The Guts y Girls were creative, innovative, and very welcoming. They inspired the YWiC assistants with their perseverance and overall interest in C-STEM. It was so much fun teaching them!

Thank you for joining us on the greatest show on earth! 

Want to see more photos from our circus? Click HERE!