Matt's Lab

My daughter’s doll lost a hand. After searching for a few days, she suggested I make her doll a new hand. My kids apparently think their dad can create and fix anything. While I had never attempted to create a solid model of a toy part, I was ready for the challenge. I began with some geometric primitive shapes in Tinkercad , a 3D-modeling application. For the palm of the hand, I started with a sphere and extended that with a rectangular prism. The post that extended outward from hand to attach it to the arm of the doll was created with a cylinder and a torus wrapped around it. This cylinder jutted outward from the sphere, and the torus would allow for the hand to snap into the doll’s arm - if only my precise measurements were correct. I used a caliper to measure the post and hand dimensions of the right hand and reversed it for my left-hand model. After building the solid model of the doll’s left-hand, I tweaked it and made adjustments to the dimensions. Trying to make i...

Studying light and the technology behind cameras, my 2nd-grade STEM students created light graffiti. Each team of students used a digital camera and researched the effects of different shutter speeds. What happens when you lengthen the shutter speed and allow more light to enter the camera lens? Students adjusted their camera’s shutter speed and explored the possibilities with different light sources. Their favorite tools were different colors of flashlights and light sticks. At first, teams doodled with the light and made artistic, glowing blobs. As they continued experimenting, they discovered how to make geometric shapes, reflective artwork with desktops, and even text. These are a few examples of their light graffiti. Many digital cameras or even smartphones today don’t include a feature to extend the time a shutter is open. It may be possible to download an app that allows more control of your smartphone’s camera and adjust the shutter time. If you try creatin...

My 4th and 5th grade STEM class students created an interactive light and sound dance machine. Using a Picoboard , a sensor board, the students designed and created mat switches to interact with a dance program they coded on Scratch. Two pieces of structure materials, such as cardboard, were lined with foil on one side of each panel. Students determined that the two pieces had to be separated slightly with the foil-lined sides facing each other. They used tissue, foam cutouts, paper, and other insulators to separate the two halves of their mat switches. While some student groups began mapping out their dance pad layout, others finished making their various mat switch designs. Speaker wire was used to connect the electrical current to each dance pad or switch. The wire then connected to the alligator clips on the Picoboard. The Picoboard connected to a computer that projected its screen on an interactive white board. Students created and executed their own computer program...

The cloudBit module allows tinkerers, kids and grownups alike, to connect their littleBit creations to a smartphone. This turns your littleBits into an IoT (Internet of Things) device. After I received my cloudBit Starter Kit, my daughter and I tried out a basic circuit to communicate with each other between the two different levels of our house. Each littleBit has magnets on both ends of the module. This makes it easy for kids to build circuits. The modules snap together when they are arranged correctly. The magnets push apart when the modules are not arranged correctly and do not snap together. Here’s the basic circuit my daughter and I created to test out our communication device idea. Connecting the cloudBit to our router was easy using a smartphone and the littleBits cloud start website . After our littleBits cloudBit was connected to the router, we set up some rules (or recipes) with triggers and events using my IFTTT (If This Then That) acco...

I had the opportunity to lead a paper circuit workshop at my daughter’s school with 3rd and 4th graders. This was a great way for them to be creative and learn about electronics. For each group of 3-4 students, I prepared a kit of hardware supplies. Students were provided instructions for using LEDs and copper tape. We briefly discussed the principles of electricity, conductivity, and circuits. Students had the option to use either LED stickers or traditional LEDs with pins. A traffic light interactive paper circuit example was shared to help students generate ideas for creating and designing their own interactive artwork. A template for this paper circuit design that can be printed for students struggling to create their own circuit is attached to this project. You can download, print, and use it as a quick circuit design to get apprehensive students started on their first paper circuit. Explaining why resistors were not necessary for this circuit can help st...