Technology — Paignton Library STEM Group

January 31, 2024

Major update announcement

We have decided to extend the STEM group to two Saturdays a month, so we will now meet on the 2nd Saturday as usual but also the 4th Saturday. The hours will now be 10:30 to 15:00.

We have room 12 available and will have some tables available for people to use. We want to keep this as one person (or small group) to one table. This gives people space to work on their projects.

A note on code club

Code club itself follows a specific set of activities, we had moved on significantly from this.

Code Club has therefore been shutdown. The IT learning centre will still be available to anyone wanting to carry on with what we were doing at code club. However, this will ONLY happen IF there is a library volunteer in the room.

There is no reason why code club can't restart once the computer room has been upgraded. For this to happen, we need two volunteers (who will need to apply to volunteer and undergo DBS and other background checks). Perhaps evenings after school.

We also need children and young people who are interested to sign up. As of Feb 2024. We can only really offer

Scratch
Python
HTML / CSS
Micro:bit

Based activities.

Tags

#STEM,#STEMGroup,#Science,#Technology,#Engineering,#Maths

#PaigntonLibraryStemGroup,#Science.#Technology,#Engineering,#Mathematics

February 14, 2022

Paignton Library STEM Group Feb 2022

Session write up

We had a really busy session today,which was really mixed in terms of activites. Firstly we had attendees using both Scratch and Python, with some in the slow process of transitioning from using Scratch to learning Python. This is slow as it takes time, plus myself and Lucy are trying to find the right resources to help with this process. We are, however mostly using Repl.it

There is a good degree of crossover with the Library Code Club too.

We are now making use of the Lego WeDo that we have access to, which is great. One project is built and working, another group will be bringing their tablet computer to the next session (probably Code Club too) with the WeDo app installed.

WeDo

Lucy did some demonstrations of her like following robot which went really well.

Line follow

Video Link

We also had a Micro:bit game board, this is a controller module, using a Micro:bit as a display so press buttons, in this case it just changes from an X to a Tick but is work in progress.

game board

I also had a discussion around some projects brought along by Harding, one is a Push – Pull Oscillator.

Push Pull Oscillator

The other is a Crystal Oscillator.

Crystal OSC

Crystal OSC 2

The two links above may not to be the right place or explanation. I will try and find a better source.

These projects led to a discussion on solder-able protoboards in the same layout as breadboards,

Finally I have a sort of demo of a particle accelerator, or the idea of this is to demonstrate how osculations are used in particle Accelerators. This is one of the demos provided by Symmetry magazine 5 physics demos

Physics

We also had a visit from TOPS school in Totnes, to discuss how we could possibly collaborate further.

So in all this was a really busy and varied meeting. Next event is on 12th March.

The March meeting is also at the start of Science week. The library are also hosting a talk about the Moon From the Torbay Astronomical Society. This will be downstairs. But is not directly related to the STEM Group.

Next week is the usual Paignton Library Code Club.

Links

TAGS

#YearOfTheFediverse,#FediverseRising,#Science,#Technology,#ScienceDaily,#PaigtonLibrarySTEMGroup,#Fedevolution2022