3D Designing and Creating

In an effort to bring more science, math, and creativity to those in need Yvonne will be working on 3D modeling and 3D printing with several schools over the next two years.  Imagine seeing an anime toy on the shelf for 50.00 then going home and designing and manufacturing your own. That's exactly what 3d printers can do, manufacture what kids design. You don't have to want to be an engineer or biologist to learn 3D tools.  Instead, you will be using technology to reach your end goal and this is what I love.  A set designer can use these tools to design quicker, an artist can incorporate his model into his art.

As always what I do is completely non profit and all cost will go into purchasing equipment and gaining more knowledge!  I was lucky to have someone inspire me as a child and my hope is that I continue to inspire others regardless of social or economic circumstances.

Consulting At Metro Campus

How exciting to see the kids working hard and getting things done. They are in the middle of their research on food contamination and developing a robot to solve food contamination issues. We discussed design flaws with the NXT robot and ways around these issues. We discussed torque, speed, and velocity. It's simply amazing to see young minds at work.

Thanks Metro!

Ingenuity Box

In an effort to increase art programs Kids Tech labs will be teaching art classes designed to demonstrate mixed media techniques, including transformations.

Yvonne Shortt Will Teach Robotics & Claymation for 2009 at P.S. 139

This season Yvonne Shortt will be teaching robotics and claymation at P.S. 139. It should be a fabulous year. The kids are creative and excited to do great things. This is a perfect fit for the type of classes Yvonne loves to teach. In 2009 Robo Tech, a First Lego League Robotics Team coached by Yvonne and her husband, came in 2nd for robot design and first for teamwork. It was such an honor

Yvonne has her M.S. degree and has worked in technology for over fifteen years. She has taught in middle and elementary schools for several years and has two daughters in the public school system.

Yvonne will typically choose to teach in one or two schools a year depending on her schedule.

Robot Sumo Wrestling

What should you be thinking about as a sumo wrestling robot? How important is size? Is it better to be skinny and fast or bulky and slow. These are the exact questions a group of students are asking themselves as they build sumo wrestling robots. They are also learning about friction and degrees of freedom as they work on building robots that can push, flip, or trip their way to victory.

Education Through Agriculture

Hydroponics, soil-less farming, has been around for many years, mostly at the university level. However, soil-less farming also promotes education through hands on experimentation. Why bother with hydroponics? Because yields can be bigger and better when using soil-less methodologies. Also, by not using soil, many diseases and problems that farmers have are eliminated.

Through asking questions and doing analysis young agriculturists are able to measure the growth cycle of several plants. They are also able to influence the life cycle by providing more or less of certain nutrients. This semester we will be working with several types of vegetables and fruits. How long does it take for a bean to produce and how can we speed up the cycle? These are some of the questions our young farmers are asking themselves.

Young Animators Using Animation

Young animators can have a great time using animation tools like Alice and Scratch to create games and cartoons. One young team of animators illustrated three girls and then used their keyboards to have the illustrations dance around the screen. This sequence fits nicely into a game or a cartoon.

FLL Queens Tournament

On December 20th P.S. 139 went to a robotics tournament held at Aviation High School. It was a great event. Many parents came to see Robotech, our team, in action. P.S. 139 worked as a team in everything that they did that day. They cheered each other on in the pit and everyone participated in the research. They also sang and danced beautifully. I was proud to be their teacher and coach.

P.S. We took first place in teamwork and 2nd in robot performance!

Robotics Team Helps Plant Trees in Rego Park

It took over three months but we did it! TreesNY donated 5 trees, two arborists, and an educational coordinator to help P.S. 139 plant trees, educate over 120 kids about trees and tree maintenance and help us have pride in our school. The educational coordinator went into over 5 classes ranging in grades 1-5, talked about trees for 20 minutes, took the kids outside, and helped them plant trees. Arborists were on hand to answer questions and help install the trees. NY1 also came and interviewed people from our school. P.S. 139 was on NY1 and had the opportunity to tell their story to all of NYC.

Rego Park P.S. 139 First Lego League Pre Competition

This was a fun day filled with learning and dancing. The kids had a chance to see other kids' robots. They also had a chance to practice with their own robot. We made sure to remember that gracious professionalism was an important part of the competition. When other children asked us about our robots we made sure to answer their questions and not worry about them taking our ideas. FLL is all about sharing and not being overly competitive or hoarding information. We also danced the Cotton-Eyed Joe. What fun!

P.S. 139 meets P.S. 40 kids and Environmentalist

It was such a welcome surprise to get an invite from Iffat to meet her team and at the same time hear a scientist discuss climate change. We learned a great deal. Did you know that the warm current from the Florida Gulf also helps warm Barcelona, and if climate change keeps occurring Barcelona may no longer be as warm as it is today? The children asked many questions and learned a great deal, I suspect so did the parents.

Getting Help From a 20 Year Veteran

This weekend several kids came over for pizza and robotics. They worked on several challenges with a programming veteran of over 20 years. The big challenge was restructuring the robot because its bottom piece was touching the ground. This meant that skidding of the wheels was occurring often because the treads were not on the floor.

NYC First Lego League Mr. K Visit

Today the robotics team received a visit from Mr. K. He's a teacher and FLL coordinator. He sat around the table and helped the kids come up with various ideas on what they could do with the cool new module they created. Another group worked on a component for another mission- the house. It was great to see the students working together on such a complex task. We lost one of the gears to elevate the house but luckily we had one the exact same size, although, the color was off. This weekend the team will come to my house and we will work on several missions and prepare for the research portion.

Robotics Kids Plant Daffodils in Rego Park Community

Today several members of the robotics team volunteered to work with P,S. 139's Green Committee to plant daffodils in the school yard and the local community. The kids came out at 9 and worked until 1:00. They planted on Austin Street, 63rd Drive, the schoolyard and Alderton Street. They dug 9 inch holes and placed the bulbs 3 to 6 inches apart. As they went out into the community they were suprised to see people pick up shovels and help them plant. We had a great time and look forward to seeing the daffodils bloom in the summer.

Quadruped Robot

BigDog is the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots. It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog's legs are articulated like an animal’s, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next. Click Here To See

NYC Robotics Kids Visit Polytechnic Institute

Today, two kids from the Robotics team went to Brooklyn to learn more about the FLL game. They were able to hear about the setup of the game, practice with their robot and talk to other teams and coaches. They had a great time. On the train they talked about some skits for the research portion of the project. It was great to see students at the University walking around, in the lunch room and acting as mentors to the FLL teams. Here are a few things we learned: no rulers allowed although you can make one out of legos, using rotation counting to get from one place to another can be difficult when your coaster tends not to stay in place and touch sensors are great unless they bump into an unplanned target.

NYC Robotics Kid Sees Science Barge

The science barge in Manhattan is a great place to go for parents and teachers. It demonstrates solar and wind power in action. It also demonstrates innovation: a greenhouse on a barge using soil-less gardening to grow strawberries, tomatoes, peppers and more. Rebecca, a robotics student at PS139Q, realized all the positive impacts that soil-less farming could have on an urban neighborhood. Imagine every apartment growing herbs and vegetables instead of having to shop for them in a grocery store. Imagine the environmental significance: less trucks bringing produce to stores. This means less fossil fuels being used. Schools could grow their own vegetables and feed students fresh vegetables grown by students in their own school. Rebecca learned that if every roof in Manhattan had an urban soil-less garden, those gardens could provide fresh vegetables for every person in Manhattan with zero carbon emissions.

NYC Roobotics Team Gets Visit From Climate Change Presenter

KidsTechLabs Robotic's team received a visit from Shino who discussed global warming and climate change. Shino is one of only 200 people trained by Al Gore to discuss slides from an Inconvenient Truth. Shino stayed for over an hour and after the discussion talked with the class about things they can do to impact their environment and reduce their carbon footprint. The team gave their thoughts: Walk more, use recyclable bags at the grocery store, use energy efficient appliances, plant more trees and become educated about what you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.

The team also learned about cool projects going on around the neighborhood. For instance, in Ridgefield Conneticut a company has built technology onto bicycles used in a gym to power the grid. What does this mean? Exercise classes create energy to power lights instead of using additional fossil fuels.

After Shino left, the class was given the challenge of coming up with additional technologies that could impact their environment. Their answers centered around capturing energy from a person's movement; Sneakers which obtained energy from a person walking, toilets that captured energy from a single flush ( a company actually invented a micro hydrolic turbine in 2006), gym floors that obtained energy from foot motion and more.

I loved their innovative and clever ideas!