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OSDC 2015 talk: Skulling Around – Hands on History

Here’s the video of Claire’s talk at the Open Source Developers’ Conference 2015 (November) in Hobart, TAS.

Open source has opened up huge opportunities for archaeologists. As well as high quality tools for research, we can use open source to engage kids with the past. Addressing the new National Curriculum, we use 3D printed fossil skulls and replicas of archaeological material to give kids a hands-on experience, making the past Funky and Fun!

Archaeologists are usually very good at sharing knowledge with each other and the wider world. Under Creative Commons licences many files are made available, including scans of fossil skulls, artefacts and other archaeological material. Using a suite of open source tools, including a 3D printer, a series of interactive experiences for school children has been developed allowing them hands-on involvement with this material.

The kids love examining the replica fossil skulls in their hands and learning about the changing features through time, as well as learning to measure and compare in a very real sense. These experiences are modern “we had 3D printed stuff in History class!”, engaging and fun for students and teachers alike, bringing the past alive.

This talk refers to some of the materials used in the OpenSTEM Introduction to Archaeology and Fossils Workshop. We have been fortunate to find quite a few more fossil skull models, and have already printed some of those also. The “family” is growing!

OpenSTEM also has an Integrated History/Geography Program for Primary Schools (full set of resources for F-6, including teacher handbooks, student workbooks and assessment guides), available from term 1, 2016.

There were many awesome talks at OSDC 2015 (Youtube playlist). See also the OSDC 2015 program overview.

Archaeological Dig Experience

In this new OpenSTEM workshop developed and run by our resident archaeologist Claire, we set up a mock archaeological dig in a sandpit (or long jump pit) so that students can get a taste of life as an archaeologist.

History has never been so cool!

Scientific Investigation

Much more than just an interactive experience, we run the archaeological dig as a full scientific investigation. Students cover not only the basics of archaeology, but also how to conduct a scientific investigation.

For more information, see the Archaeological Dig workshop page.

The Robots Are Coming!

The first Mirobot v2 kits have arrived in Australia! Ben Pirt at Pirt Design & Technology in the UK has once again delivered a very neat product. OpenSTEM is the main distributor for Australia, because we regularly get in quite a few for schools and individual students anyhow.

Most of our Mirobots are extra special, because we get them un-soldered. That is, there are a few SMD (surface mounted) components, but other than that students (of all ages!) can do a bit of soldering! This is part of our Robotics Program, where Soldering and otherwise assembling a moving product from all the loose parts is a real enabler – so with the v2 coming out in pre-soldered form by default, we had a word with Ben to ensure that we can keep doing the great stuff with the classes!

This does mean that for every shipment we get, we need to prep a few extra bits before sending on the kits or using them in the classroom. So we’re working on that now for this first shipment. There’ll be more – if you want a kit (un-soldered or pre-soldered), do get your order in soon!

RCA Old Technology Video (1983)

It’s cool to look at past visions of the future, particularly those from companies in a sales/marketing context because they contain all the fabulous buzzwords from the time.

Entitled RCA Video Monitors: The Future Is Now (1983), the below is a segment from an extremely rare CED videodisc sent to dealers telling them about the then new concept in TV design: the inclusion of multiple A/V inputs and outputs for connecting multiple devices!

The intermittent skipping you see on the video was “normal” for that videodisc technology. Mind that videodisc wasn’t DVD, videodisks were quite big.

Note that, oddly, DVDs also exhibit a brief skip when (they switch from one layer to another on dual-layer disks). Technically it’d be so easy to avoid this visual annoyance!.

Compact Cassette — (image by GrahamUK, Wikipedia)

The Compact Disk (CD) was invented by Philips and launched around 1984. DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) is from 1995. Philips actually has a history of these broad innovations, in 1953 they launched the Compact Cassette.

Philips somehow misfired with video recorders (VCRs), adopting the technically superior Video 2000 format (1979), and as we now know VHS became the global standard. The VCR format saga is an interesting historical example of where factors other than purely technical superiority played a role in defining the winner. Among other factors, they came in late – but there was more to it. Anyhow, we know that even Betamax was regarded as superior in quality to VHS, Betamax remained in use for professional recording equipment for a very long time.

OpenSTEM robots visit Hobart primary school

On our last day in Tasmania (after the OSDC conference, about which I’ll do other posts shortly), Claire and I visited the wonderful Lauderdale Primary School in Hobart, where I did a version of our free Robotics Incursion with two year 5/6 classes, having a chat about robots, robotics, and more – and having our autonomous caterpillar and hexapod robots stroll around the sports hall….

The students were really engaged, they had thoughtful questions and great ideas – and the feedback from the kids as well as the teachers was that the session was fun as well as educational. Good!

We often do this incursion as a neat way for schools, teachers and students to get to know us before undertaking a bigger program such as the Robotics & Programming one. But, when we’re travelling somewhere with the robots anyway, it’s great to visit a local school. All our facilitators hold a current “working with children” card, so getting something like this organised is really quite straightforward.

George Boole Bicentenary Celebrations

Today is George Boole‘s 200th birthday. He lived from 2 November 1815 to 8 December 1864, so he was only 49 when he died!

In 2015, University College Cork (Ireland) celebrates the bicentenary of George Boole’s birth. Born in Lincoln, Boole was a mathematical genius who was largely self-taught. His appointment as the first Professor of Mathematics at the college in 1849 provided the opportunity to develop his most important work, An Investigation of the Laws of Thought.

Boole is a pivotal figure who can be described as the ‘father of the information age’. His invention of Boolean algebra and symbolic logic pioneered a new mathematics. His legacy surrounds us everywhere, in the computers, information storage and retrieval, electronic circuits and controls that support life, learning and communications in the 21st century.

Check out the georgeboole.com site for video and lots more information about George Boole and his wonderful achievements!