Anyway, a lot has happened since my last post 161 days ago! So I thought I'd try to do a general round-up (with pictures!) of my first semester at GreenFab and then what we've been doing during this Spring semester. Hopefully I'll be posting more often for reasons that may become clear in my next post.
After our turbine demonstrations, we introduced the fundamentals of electricity and circuit building. On breadboards, we built simple circuits with batteries, a switch and various actuators: LEDs, buzzers motors, etc...We introduced resistors to the circuit and measured the difference in voltage with multimeters. We discussed voltage and resistance.
The next class, we introduced the ideas of varying resistance and Ohm's Law. We discussed several types of variable resistors. The students introduced potentiometers and photocells into their circuits from the last class. We measured the varying resistance with multimeters and observed the dimming/brightening of LEDs. We talked about different types of sensors and discussed the difference between analog and digital sensors.
The following class, we talked about transistors: what they are and why they are so damn useful! We built a simple nightlight circuit using a transistor and photocell. We looked at the schematic of the circuit and followed the path of electrons (not literally) in a dark room and a light room. I found this to be a very helpful exercise for me in understanding how a more complex circuit can work.
In the next activity we introduced voltage regulators and capacitors and showed how to use them in circuits. Over the course of a few classes, the students built their own battery powered USB charger circuits, first on breadboard, then soldered to perfboard. We discussed each step along the way including the history and beauty of USB.
For the next few sessions, we changed pace and learned InkScape, an open source vector drawing program. This was helpful for me, because I have not done much work with vector drawing. We designed and built windmills and tested them with multimeters with varying degrees of success.
For the last few weeks of the semester, we worked with Arduinos, every hobbyist's favorite microcontroller! I'm not going to dive into the lessons now, because I will be devoting much space here to Arduino in the near future.
At the end of the semester, we had a show that was open to the public for our final student projects. It was a hoot. For pictures from the semester and that show, see below! And come back soon for the Spring round-up!
Students in the Sustainable Design class came up with a guerrilla marketing campaign to promote trees in Hunts Point. Here is one of their laser-cut signs out in the field. These were posted right outside a NYPD station. I was surprised when they stayed up for a few weeks!
This is one corner of the Sustainable Design Lab.We are really lucky to have spacious facilities with tons of shelf space.
And we have great equipment donated by MIT's FabLab initiative.In the foreground is out Laser Cutter and in the background, our bandsaw.
Some plants germinating on the windowsill of the Sustainable Design Lab.
Every two weeks the Resident Researchers from ITP come up to GreenFab to help facilitate an afternoon activity. Here is Kacie demonstrating proper setup of helping hands. The following few pictures were taken during a Solar Robot project that Chris Cerrito designed.
I hope nobody is offended if I point out that the girls tend to be much better at soldering and following directions.
This is the top of the robot that the students were building...
...and the bottom.When light is shined on the solar panel, the pager motors on the bottom pulse and make the robot skitter across the ground.
Students hard at work on their robots.
A student showing off impeccable soldering technique.
This activity was done in the Green Tech Lab, where I teach. There I am with long hair.
Pretty lights...
These pictures were taken during the final project show. Here is one of my students with a remote controlled robot he built.
The number of lit lights on this box changed according to light levels over the box.So if you wave your hand over it, the lights magically respond.
One of my students made a pong controller to control Tom Igoe's Pong Client from Making Things Talk. Great book. Go get it! 
Carlos, the Sustainable Design teacher playing with the light box.
A student demonstrating his alarm box. Reaching into this box to take the dollar bill at the bottom would result in your hand breaking a laser beam and setting off an alarm. Ha!
The students from the Sustainable Design class collaborated on some environmental design precedent studies on the the wall and their own design for an eco-friendly building below.
Another funny alarm project.This one used a motion sensor to detect when people were in the hallway and set off a buzzer.
What a great experience I had my first semester!