Embedded - 374: Getting Rafty

Episode Date: May 27, 2021

Tenaya Hurst Conklin (@TenayaHurst) discussed STEAM teaching tools and kits from RAFT (@RAFTBayArea).  RAFT is at raft.net. The Abiotic Dissection activity is pretty amusing (from the STEAM Learning Sheets) as are the games in the idea sheets. They also have a summer camp and a Youtube channel. Tenaya’s website is roguemaking.com. She was previously on Embedded 49: Is that an Arduino in your pocket?

Welcome to Embedded. I'm Alicia White, alongside Christopher White. We are happy to welcome Tania Hurst Conklin back to the show. She was on in 2014, just starting her maker career. And now she's working for resources for making teachers more able to teach them. Hi, Tania. Welcome back. Hello, Embedded FM listeners. Could you tell us about yourself?

I am a girl raised in Berkeley and Lafayette. I am an actress. I'm into geology and anthropology. I love traveling, and I'm a teacher, a writer, a rock climber, and recently a mom. Well, we have a lot of questions about that, but you also have a job at a company called Raft. Sure. I have accepted the position as student program coordinator, and Raft is a company that does many things, but it all comes down to hands-on learning, inspiring learners in teachers and students. And I think a big part of what Raft does is they save teachers time by creating kits and by having access to all these materials in one place. So they are really amazing. And right here in San Jose, and hopefully,

you know, affecting people all over now that their kits are online. Okay, so before we talk more about that, we want to do lightning round. I don't even know if we had lightning round when we talked to you. I don't think so. I think it's new. It's where we ask you short questions. It's new as of seven years ago. And we want short answers.

And if we're behaving ourselves, we won't ask how and why. Are you ready? I'm ready. Favorite development board for a third grader? I still got to say Arduino Uno. Favorite development board for a third grader? I still got to say Arduino Uno. Favorite development board for an eighth grader? Ooh. Fancier Arduinos like the Mega or the Due and Lilypad.

Favorite fictional robot? I really like R2-D2. Something you wish you'd known before you picked up your first Arduino? Oh, man. I would love to know everything about electricity and what microcontrollers really are doing inside that tiny package. If LEDs only came in one color, which one would you want it to be? Red. Well, that's what I came in for a long time, so you're in good shape.

Do you have a tip everyone should know? Oh, if you want to get into soldering, it's actually better for beginners to use fancier, more established soldering irons because the cheaper ones are so frustrating and you never get it. But if you use a fancy one, like I have a Metcal. I'm a big fan. It's hot and people get it. Oh, this is what is happening and the tip is really hot. So beginners go straight to the top.

Do you just need temperature control or you need more than that? I think it's just in the quality of the way the whole thing is made, but also these fancier ones, and I literally can speak to Metcal because I have like seven of them. They are hot, but then they heat up really fast. So you can, and the heat gets all the way into the tip. And so you do your soldering points and you put it back in the cradle and then you turn it off. And so you're just really efficient with the process. Whereas some of the ones that are intended for beginners, like take all this time to heat up like a glue gun.

Yeah. Okay. When we talked to you before, it was episode 49 and 2014, and you were at San Jose's Tech Museum of Innovation, known as the Tech. And then after that, you went to Arduino, you went all over the world. Maybe you should tell us more about how your career has gone. Oh, I have had the best experiences and some crazy ones along the way. And I wouldn't trade the journey for anything. Being at the Tech Museum really opened my eyes completely to the maker movement. And as I had said in a Dale Doherty article, I was like, I've always been a maker. I just didn't know that's what it was called. And then when I went to my first maker fair, it was working for the tech. And I had two half hour breaks. And I used that time to go meet the Arduino team and to see one of their talks. And it just was one of those things that doesn't always work out for all of us. But I

talked to the CEO and I said, I'm a teacher. I want to make content about Arduino projects. And you know, and then he was like, give me your resume. And it just kind of went from there. And I was always the last to know anything, but yet the front end of the company and always in social media and doing fun interviews and videos and promo at the booth. And then sometimes I would be like, oh, I didn't know that was happening. So it was still just the best to get to be an emissary for just the idea of Arduino and let alone the actual company. It was just such a dream come true. And you went all over the world. You went to the opening of an Arduino store in Germany, an actual physical walk-in store? Yes. We had this great distributor at the time

called Allnet and a German company. And they have a couple other products that were there, like Shining Stars, this very weird one called Brick R Knowledge. I was like, I love this product. I wish you guys had talked to me about this weird name. So the store was kind of to shine onto Arduino and to this brick product and a couple other maker supplies. And it was a really cute store. And it's still there in Berlin. And it was kind of shaped like a V. So one side of the V was the store, lots of hardware, jumper wires, all of those kind of fun things, shields and things like that. And then the other side of the V was a workshop space. And I just had the best time getting to be there a couple times to teach workshops and

be there for the launch. And alongside that, I got to go to so many cool Maker Faires in Germany. Like, they are so amazing there. The projects, the booths, everyone is so inspired. It was great. Go Germany. Where else did you travel to? Oh, I was able to teach in Hungary. And of course, I've been to Italy, Italia. And one of my favorite gigs that I got, I should remember exactly how I met all these folks, but I got to go, oh, no, wait, I really do remember. Okay. I was in the airport. And I was doing that nerdy thing where this was the time I was in Make Magazine, which is so rare. So I was in the airport and I was doing that nerdy thing where this was the time I was in Make Magazine, which is so rare. So I was going into the airport magazine store to see if this was the

issue I was in because I didn't know what was on the cover or anything. And I met a guy and we're just talking and he's like, oh my gosh, you should go teach Arduino in Guatemala. I will connect you. And we've all been there where there's a million of these that happen to you. And it's like, oh, I'll send an email. Oh, sure. But this actually happened. And these Guatemalans, at least the ones I met, they are so driven and also inspired and prolific and just really eager to support their students. So there's a place called Galileo University in Guatemala City. And I went two years.

And we did amazing wearable tech workshops with the students. And other people were brought down to teach robotics and other maker skills. And the second year I went down, we had an official wearable tech fashion show and classic with this guy, I was working with Oscar. He's like, this is the first wearable tech fashion show in Guatemala. And, you know, I hope he's right. So, but I had such a great time with the people there and getting to teach Arduino in Spanish. Whoa. Did you know Spanish?

Oh, yes. What kind of curriculum did you make? I mean, were these all very similar curriculums or were you focused on what the students did? I mean, third grade and eighth grade are pretty different. What were you teaching? Sure. In Guatemala specifically. Well, all over, but yes, Guatemala. Well, related, I've never taught the same workshop twice. I wish I could, but you know, makers, they take the invitation of what you're trying to do in a workshop and they go crazy directions.

But when I teach wearable technology, it's the classic example of everyone's project is so personalized. But with LilyPad, as with Arduino, I do have two sets of curriculum that I start with the students. And so with LilyPad, I bring my alligator clips and all the sensors and lights and of course, conductive thread. And we prototype and we program the Lilypad to do what we want in that project. With Arduino, I bring, of course, my breadboards and my jumper wires and all my cool sensors and motors and things. And I have a curriculum called Light Sound Action. And I would love if one student would actually go through the whole thing. It's not that many projects.

It's like maybe 10 little circuits, but they get so excited at some point in the game that they just riff off and start doing their own project. And how can I suppress them? So I support them instead. And fashion tech, that has some personal meaning for you. Oh, certainly. I mean, I've been a sewer my whole life. And my mom and her mom were like those epic people that could sew and tat and crochet and knit. And it kind of all whittles down to me that, you know, I mean, I'm a sewer. I'm not like Project Runway status.

But when I found out about sewing with electronics and conductive thread, the synergy was exploding in me because my grandpa was also an electrical engineer and of the same side of the family, mom and her mom and my grandpa, if that all makes sense. And so it all came together for that side of the family for me is that I'm a pretty good sewer, but I know I can sew this circuit and have the vision of where lights should go and where a cool sensor could be and what programming would make this really spectacular. And honestly, I found this niche where I was invited to participate in fashion shows because maybe I'm not this like epic fashion designer who went to FIT, but I had the lights and they wanted a designer who did that. So I was able to dress 12 to 15 models at, I think I did at least six fashion shows over those couple of years since I've talked to you guys last.

So that was a really great experience too, to be like, wow, I know I'm not so epic and we all feel that imposter syndrome, but actually I was epic because I actually got to show in those shows. And you did this on your wedding dress. Yes, yes. It wasn't my first thought.

Everyone's like, oh, my God, you just wanted someone to marry you so you could do this dress. It's like, okay, obviously. Whoa. You know, that would be even crazier. But yes, I met the man. These are people who don't know how difficult weddings are. It's like, there's a lot that has to come together, but I definitely said, I'm going to buy a wedding dress, you know, classic Taniya is of course, I'm going to buy it used.

And there are many places you can get a lightly used wedding dress. And also, it just worked out. The first dress I tried on, it fit like a glove. And when I examined it, I said, oh, cool, there's this lace applique and I can get under there and I can add lights to it. And so you can't forget that first dress. So I tried on a few others, but I was like, let's just go with it. And then it took some time, but I was like, let's just go with it. And then it took some time, of course, before, but I was really happy. I added lights tastefully

from the top to the bottom. But tastefully, yes. I'm glad you put that in. Did they blink? Well, I chose to not have any of my blinking lights in this scenario, but I did have a program that kind of went through the rainbow of the RGB, so it's kind of more subtle. And then other lights were just on, but my crowd was impressed. That sounds pretty cool. So now you're working at Raft, and you said a bit about that. They do some curriculum development for teachers, and some of that, quite a bit of that is online.

Are you doing in-person things now, or are you online, or what are you doing day to day? Sure. We are doing some professional development remotely for teachers directly. So, for example, we did a big teacher appreciation week recently where what that meant at Raft was there were cool sales at the store for the members. And then remotely, we offered a couple workshops from the education department. And we have some Saturday workshops that teachers can sign up for. So it's kind of frustrating because we know we're all vaccinated and it would be so simple, but we're just trying to wait for our county to give us those kinds of clear go-aheads. We do have a big tent outside that we've set up in the shade, so that gives us another outdoor meeting space for options. And really, in my day-to-day, I'm just preparing for

our summer camp. Is that for students or is it for teachers? Well, it's a relatively new offering that Raft is going directly to students, and this is just because we want to have more impact. So the camp is for students ages 8 to 13. And teachers can, you know, promote this to their students, or we are just reaching out to folks in the PTA and PTO organizations. That's redundant. And we have done this for a couple years, but of course, we were building and everything and then the pandemic. So we did have a camp remote last year. And this year, we're sticking to it remote, but just kind of in a good way. We have some kids joining us from Lodi and like South San Francisco. So maybe in a year that the camp would be in person,

they couldn't participate because that's a big commute for a day camp. So we are finding that it's probably easiest to stay remote, especially since students eight to 13 are not in that vaccination category fully yet. So we hope that will happen or that, you know, the numbers will go down so much that our kids can be safe. Remote electronics. Sounds difficult. Do you just ship kits out? How often do they lose all the parts before you start the workshop? That would be me. That would be me. That would totally be me. Oh, completely. We were even just discussing different tactics of what people do when they get a kit. And some of us like to lay out all the parts and do a checklist and make sure we have it all. And others are like, this thing's cool. And I'm going to pull that out first.

And the whole bag goes everywhere. Yeah, I'm more like Cookie Monster with resistors flying everywhere. Not doing the mise en place. Exactly. That's a perfect way to describe it. And I guess with Raft, we will be doing this this summer. And before I joined the team, I have done a couple of these remote workshops. And wow, I thought teaching sewing with electronics was hard in person, but remote without being able to see your peers at a table doing everything. And it just actually takes longer because it's not that people are in a rush or students. It's that when you are in this group,

everybody's moving at more of like a group pace. And your brain is like seeing what you're doing, seeing what someone else is doing, hearing what the teacher says, and you just move a little faster. I found with one of my kits I love to do, it's called the Paper Gem, I had to send basically three times the amount of materials home because just for that reason, like in a classroom of 30, if someone breaks their LED, you know, I have some extra up at the front of the class. But if they break their LED or run out of copper tape at home, it's like now all of a sudden they're going to sit there and not participate. And it's like, wow, it's this whole other dynamic.

So a lot of the raft kits we'll be using don't have electronics, but each of the six sessions that we're planning, believe me, I am infusing some electronics. And Raft has some kits with motors and different things, and they have a really great breadboard circuit kit. And so I'm making sure that we have a couple of those in each session. The idea that you would need backups, that you need to send larger kits because you can't just pick one up out of your toolbox. I don't know that I would have thought of that. How long did it take you to realize that was the way to go? Well, I suppose in the kits that I've been making for several years, I include a couple extras of things because I know, I mean, the hardest thing about a paper circuit, right, is the copper tape because it's this unwieldy sticker.

And you can't make people feel bad for messing up on their first try at something. So I find when I add a volume to a kit, even though it adds, you know, the bill of materials goes up and everything, I'm just showing them like it's okay. But also without a teacher there, they might think, do I need all of this? You know, on a paper circuit, you should just have like two pieces of copper tape and then you tape your LED down with two more pieces. But if they found all these backup pieces, they might think, oh, I need like three layers of copper tape here or something. So it can definitely go into other categories of like, wait, no, it's sort of not what we meant. So some of those could be happy accidents or you just find, you know, weaknesses in your kit. Or you have to just be really specific of, you know,

you should only need two pieces of carpet tape, but we gave you extra. So. Teachers, teachers of grade school students aren't necessarily technologists. That's tough. I mean, you want to teach good STEM, but most people who have STEM backgrounds can get higher paying jobs. Hmm. How do you help the teachers see that STEM isn't so scary? I feel I am doing this and raft all the time as well of really saying that steam or stem is all of these subjects together which might seem even more overwhelming but that they really are a thing to teach where they there isn't a line drawn in the sand. Like any project, any challenge combines at least two or three of them.

And I find with what Raft, a big part of what Raft does is make these STEAM project kits because it saves teachers time in that they can figure out, okay, week seven, I have a little less reading for them to do, or it's a four-day week, so I'm not going to expect as much here, or after they have a test on this Friday, maybe we could have a little

fun and do this. So I think it allows them to look at the STEAM kit and see what grades that it matches up with the Common Core, and then they can just find a place to weave it in versus having to invent an activity to get all the materials together, to have instructions, to have, you know, just extra support content. So we don't have it on everything, but our goal is to round out every kit. We'll have an instruction sheet. We'll have an online extra science resource page of what else does this connect with, and then hopefully a video. And my whole thing I've always wrestled with and definitely at Raft is like my whole thing is I don't like to show examples at workshops. So in the context of you

have a bunch of kids or, or, you know, parents or teachers in a room, I don't like to hold up a thing and say, huh, we will be making this because instantly we all are like, oh my God, if mine doesn't look like that by the end or close to that, or, you know, whatever you see in that example that you're like, oh, and it, it may be like, I'm going to make mine better than that. You know, it could be a positive thing, but if I'm in the workshop, I don't show an instruction sheet. I don't show an example.

I keep it all secret. However, when a customer buys something at raft, cause that could be a teacher or a parent, they're an adult usually and we all do this where it's like to facilitate this for a group of kids or just for myself i need to know what's the bottom line what's happening here what is this thing going to look like you know what's the goal i need to like see that end part before i go through the process and so we understand that so in that i want to offer some videos and things, but I hope that some teachers out there will just be like, here's a raft kit, go. And, you know,

then later come to that supporting material, which of course can enrich the learning and can tie it into what they're doing that week and that month. What's the landscape like for curriculum? Because I get a sense from talking to other people who have kids that things have changed over the last few decades. And there's kind of a lot of stuff that kids are't have time for this where you have to kind of educate and say, well, this is important because, you know, it actually covers these topics and makes them more relevant? Or is it like, are you mostly having teachers come to you and say, hey, we want to do this? I think we, especially in the Bay Area, have converted a lot of teachers where they get it. They know that hands-on learning is really helpful because people learn differently. If you're teaching a topic about cells or, you know, something in biology, you want them to read. You want them to do a worksheet. You want them to make a diorama. You want them to do a project that is maybe a raft kit, you know,

that's like a little like 30-minute activity that understands it. And then putting all that together, you know, hopefully a student will really learn it through one or two of those ways. And, you know, the good old like no one will be left going, I didn't learn anything. And we did it in all these different, you know, means of learning. So I think teachers are really on board actually with, they know which raft kits they're going to do which weeks. And really the feedback I've been sensing and hearing here and there is that teachers want more. And they're like, hey, I already do these kits, but I want something new. I want something that hasn't been a raft kit for all these years. So that's what is so epic about the education team, and I'm lucky to be a part of it, is we are working on new kits all the time. And we do some kits that a school or a company will actually commission us to make. And then that can end up being like an official raft kit on the floor, on the website that

anyone can buy. And sometimes we get some pretty out there suggestions where it's like, I don't know if we spent like three years focusing only on that idea, we could make a kit. So raft is definitely a little bit more about let's focus on the upcycled materials. And, you know, anything involved in STEAM is definitely where we like want to make sure any kit we put out can cover a couple of those letters in the acronym. And Raft is a nonprofit. Does that drive how you approach the kits? Certainly. It's kind of funny.

It's like we want a kit to sell, but from the nonprofit perspective, it's like then we know we've had impact. So that's what I'm always hearing is like, this is a great kit. It's a great idea. But if we can't get it in front of a teacher and they have this aha moment, oh my God, I need a hundred of these, then we don't get the impact. So I think Raft is just full of like these kits, these activity sheets, these other, you know, online resources. And I think they are underused, but each teacher that's going down the rabbit hole of like, I need a kit for physics for fourth graders. So then they kind of narrow it down themselves of like what they need because we have these cool like search filters.

So I think that is, you know, it is out there. The teachers can find it and apply it. But I think a lot of our members, like they already know these are the kits we have every year. And if you guys come out with new ones, we're going to pay attention and hopefully add that in if it applies, you know, to their subject. You said upcycled and looking at the website, there's a pretty big focus on recycled materials. Are you sending out used Arduinos? I would love to. Well, you know, we have a donation of some boards. I'm not sure of the brand, but this is where I am hoping to make my own impact within Raft

because we have the upcycled materials down. Companies donate really cool foam, corks, plastic lids, weird wood things. Oh, we have the coolest like biotech pipettes and tubes and we have fabric and, you know, we have all these cool things, but we don't always get a lot of electronics donated. So those are the items that if we design a kit, we are purchasing, you know, from our own sources, you know, a couple motors, a couple, you know, electronic pieces. But we got these boards donated, and yet it's one of those to make a kit where a teacher who doesn't have time wants to just, you know, pull out the kits and do the lesson or leave it for a substitute or something, we have a long way to go. I'm hoping

to use those boards at least to be like in this kit and it does one thing. But in my heart with microcontrollers, I want to be like, here's this whole curriculum. You could do one of these projects like every Friday for 10 Fridays or something to really get some use out of it. But you know, I mean, you show a kid an LED with a resistor and some wires and an Arduino, you're like, cool, it can power a light. But even within that project, it's like, you can dim it, you can blink it, you can add more lights, you know, and follow the pattern, and then you change your code. And so there's so many lessons, but I'm hoping to start at Raft more in person with lots of Arduino workshop series for both the teachers and parents who are members and students.

Well, you don't need to be a member to get a lot out of Raft. I mean, there's, there's, there was this game, one of the, uh, surfing around the website, there, there were a couple of games that just totally entertained me. There was one where you, you hand out, uh, cards that have numbers on them, single digit numbers. And then the goal is to add up to 1,000 with six cards. And whoever gets closest wins or gets points or whatever. And I was just like, you know, I bet I could play that and still be amused. Because it does, there would be a little bit of strategy and maybe you change cards and you could easily add a bunch more rules. But there were a whole bunch of sheets like that that made sense and didn't require a kit.

Do you have any of those you've seen that you like? Oh, certainly. And it's seriously in the realm of like 700 that are available for free for everyone, whether you're a member or not. And exactly like you say, they don't go with a raft kit of materials in a bag. It requires something, of course, that you can find around the house or in your classroom. And like you say, I mean, this is like, it's a game that's created. Even the iteration of how you would make it, you could do anything you want with that. But this is really a compliment to the amazing people that Raft has attracted over the years, and not even necessarily full-time

employees, but we have some amazing retired teachers and folks from, of course, Silicon Valley. I am really fortunate. I'm working closely with a volunteer, and he's a retired Intel engineer with patents for the internet that we all use. And so he just cares about the same thing. He's like, how do I inspire kids to become the next me? Not in a conceited way, but he's like, how do I inspire kids to become the next me? You know, not in a conceited way, but he's like, it takes so many little steps to get a kid to be excited about being an engineer. And STEAM and STEM are not all about making engineers, but it's about appreciating how you work between those disciplines and among those disciplines. And we all know the scientists and folks in technology we meet who, you know, they are lacking a little bit in the social department of just even

working across, you know, those departments. So getting kids comfortable talking about science, presenting, sharing their process, that to me is like the gold right there. And along the way, if we do show them that they're actually good at some of these subjects, then wow, you know, the whole universe opens up to you because then you have access to really amazing jobs. And I know you guys love that thing we hear too, which is like the jobs that kids will have don't even exist yet. And I'm sort of one of those people, you know, I'm an elder millennial, as they say, and who knew that I'd be like, I'm an elder millennial. I'm born in 83.

So, you know, it's like, I, you you know in some kind of you know uh version i was like a social media person and i'm like social media didn't even exist when i was a kid so how could i have aspired to do that let alone going around conferences showing this tiny micro controller when you know my grandpa like played with wires he got in the street from when the first electricity was being installed. It's like, we've come so far in having these great tools, but, you know, getting kids confident. I will also say like in the Arduino world where I'm teaching kids, sometimes they do get too confident too early on. And that cracks me up where, you know, like I'll meet like a 10-year-old and they're like, oh, yeah, I'm a Python programmer. And if you really unpacked that, it would be like they've taken a class.

You know, they've watched some YouTube videos or something. But, hey, go with it. You know, if they are, you know, are confident enough to say that and other adults are like, that's great, show me what you can make, that will still send them on their way. If we can just get people to stop saying I'm bad at math because they didn't have a good algebra experience or because they can't add 12-digit numbers in their head, that would actually be pretty... That's arithmetic. Yeah. And yet people say I'm bad at math and it's,

it's just not, there's all these things that are so fun and yet they are easy to make difficult. So it's important that the teachers know how to teach things without making them seem scary. Definitely. And the attitude is a huge part of it. Like, I don't know when it became cool, dare I say, to be like, oh, yeah, I'm bad at math. But it's like, no, people should get, you know, with the Silicon Valley emergence and, you know, the dot-com boom and everything,

it's like, no, the people who are smart are actually, they have the best jobs with the most flexibility. They can work anytime. They, you know, have great perks, you know, all these things. So it's like math is the gateway to programming. And I think, you know, if teachers don't already say that to their students, like that's the foundation. Cause I'm one of those folks. Like I grew up in a very nice city, uh, town, you know, and, uh, the high school was great. We had everything, but I don't recall one adult ever saying to me, if you're good at math, cause I was, uh, this is what programming is because it was like so new somehow, or those math teachers were amazing.

I had great math teachers, but they maybe didn't have that connection to the industry. So math specifically is that one that's like, oh, I'll never use this. Or there are calculators. But that's not the full story. One of the learning activities that I clicked on, because I wasn't sure what those words meant, abiotic dissections. And if Alvaro or Jen from the Unnamed Reverse Engineering podcast are listening to this, you should consider abiotic dissections as a name. I love it too. Yeah. It's a little late for them to do their podcast at this point. Tanaya, could you explain what this is and why we should all do it or

only teach other people's kids how to do it? I definitely can. And I'm so glad you picked this one out. So this is one of those like 700 activity sheets out there that you can browse around, search with filters, all that. This is about teaching kids to take something apart and to be methodical about it and to observe where things were so you know how to reassemble it. And a bunch of years ago, I was with Arduino and going to these events. And I'm almost remembering the name of the conference, but basically it was electrical engineer department heads of colleges, okay? And they would all come to this conference and there would be booths of different companies and they would be, you know, shopping around for how do we inspire our freshmen and sophomores? Because like 50% of students that declare an EE major quit, or maybe they move over

to mechanical, you know, or something like nearby, but they were like, how do we keep them interested? So I interviewed a lot of people at this event and I just said, you know, how did you become an engineer? Like what little like nugget can I pass on to kids or, you know, whatnot. And almost all of these people, and they were men, there weren't a lot of women at this event, but all of the men said, as a kid, I took stuff apart. And they said, you know, the VCR is like big, you know, electronic equipment or, you know, just toys they had and things like that. The other thing they did say is that the moon

landing inspired them. So go Gen X. And so when we see these opportunities that you can have a child take something apart and not break it, but like really notice how they're putting things back together, then this is gold. So this specific one is about a VHS and these are harder to come by. Of course, you know, Raft is, we're not that old. It was started in 1995, but we have some great kits, kits with like film canisters. Those are hard to get. We have this great activity with a VHS. Where are those? They're still in thrift stores. You can't really take apart a CD itself. Yeah. And we have so many great kits with CDs as well. But yeah, those are even... What about the zip drives? Where are my

zip drive people? You know, so, but this is a great project if you can do with your own child or with your class. I met a guy in the maker movement and this was his thing is he got laptops and phones donated and he showed kids how to take them apart and even fix them and put them back together. And I was like, wow, I know you don't charge a million dollars for your services, but I haven't met a lot of people that do that. And so, yes, this is a way we can make engineers. when I would visit kids in elementary school was to take apart their Kleenex box and show them the little markers that indicate ink is running out and show them how it's designed to have the Kleenex go one and then the other. Because it's all very designed to be cheap and to be user-friendly. And like the teachers would invariably say,

I hate you because now the kids take apart every single thing in my class. Yes. And this learning activity, it does have VHS, but the idea is that you could do it with whatever you had. And the subtitle is Open a World of Possibilities by Dismantling Nonliving Objects. I just really liked that. Oh, it's fabulous. I got to find out who specifically wrote this one because it's true. You can do it with anything. And, you know, I think, honestly, all the way back to when I was at the tech and we taught chemistry.

And a big part of that workshop, because it was just, you know, an hour-long class, the students had a basket of materials. And, of course, when we let them, they just took everything out and started doing the experiment. And at the very end of the class, we said, hey, we need you to put this basket back exactly how you found it. And, of course, a lot of them are like, oh no, I don't remember. And so, you know, as an adult, and I have, you know, a cell phone, I will often take a picture of something before I take it apart, you know, or, you know, take it out of the packaging or something just because that helps me remember, or if I'm not going to put it back you know for days or weeks or something but this is where that steam thing it's all integral of you know design and I love this Kleenex box example because I'm actually going to be learning

all about the laser cutter at Raft which is awesome and that would be a really cool project that can even carry on down its own rabbit hole of how could you design a box that when folded together with glue or whatnot you know would be a shape that you want it to be and uh you know and kind of designing in the 2d becomes 3d take it apart i love it. write down everything you do sort of method that we don't need to talk about the scientific method and how to do everything. We just need to sneakily teach it to them. And documentation, I'm a big fan of everything, but I love writing. I love handwriting. And I've seen handwriting of kids these days, kids these days, and it's pretty scary. So also at Raft, but please other teachers, it's like if you give them a journal or you have them make

their own journal, and this is a place for random notes, data, process. I had this crazy idea. I'll probably never use it, but putting it down on paper, not just like a Word doc on your computer, there's something physical about it. And you can flip back and you could have graph paper in a journal you make, all these kinds of things, and really have a cohesion to the whole project you're working on. And you never know when you're going to go back to something or you're thinking of it and you want to write it down so you don't forget it. So I recommend that too. And I think that's great in that activity sheet that they also encourage that. Are you seeing more parents coming to RAFT given the last year and the rise of homeschooling? Yes, we are. At some point, it was kind of officially opened for membership where any parent could join. So essentially, anyone who wants to join,

it's like a $20 a year membership. So that's not the threshold. And yes, we've had a lot of parents who are, whether they're a homeschool parent or not, or, you know, have a group in that way, or they run a troop, a scout troop where they needed an easy way to say, I'm going to send everybody this raft kit. All the materials they need are in this bag, you know, granted maybe except for like, you know, some tape or, you know, something like that, scissors, you know, so they knew that everybody could work on it together. And so parents are definitely around the store a lot more often, which is great. It's been a weird year that way. And has Raft had to shift from kits of 100 to kits of one and two, or have they always supported the small numbers?

I believe for several years that, because I was of course just a member, a shopper before, they always have like a single pack of each kit. And then they do packs of 10 because classrooms have all kinds of wonky sizes. So that's kind of the bulk. But we have supported all kinds of like steam maker nights where schools are ordering hundreds of kits. And when students come in to pick up packets and everything, everyone has their kit already ready to go. And so the school doesn't have to do some middle step of like sorting or, you know, redoing things. And it's been really successful in that way, because of course we're all, you know, over the online, everything, meetings, school, everything. So a hands-on kit, you are looking at the screen and maybe you're showing yours in the camera to

your teacher to be like, does this look good? But you don't have to look at the screen the whole time. So we found a lot of schools are like, this is great because a three hour class or, you know, session, we like to break it up and we just say, hey, it's raft kit time. And, you know, that's a great way also to just, you know, get physical, you know, get with your hands. Maybe you're doing like a cool, one of our rocket kits where you need to like clear away a spot on the floor and like, you know, launch your rocket. And so we've had a great response. It sounds like it's really devoted to be hands-on. Like you're not asking kids to sit in front of a computer and typey, typey, typey, and, and see, you know, this isn't a programming course or programming curriculum. It's, it's synthesize all of these things together to try to kind of stimulate their imagination rather than here is some stuff you have to learn.

Exactly. And one thing you guys would love that I learned here too, is there's this idea of convergent and divergent. So there are kits out there at Raft, we have both types, where it is kind of like we're all working towards our project looking kind of similar. We're converging to where we all kind of want to be like everyone's will be a little different. And then there's divergent where it's like, here's a kit of materials and we have no idea what you're going to come up with. And it's going to go in whatever direction of creativity that group of students has. And it's just been, you know, such a joy to see what the kids have made because we get to see a lot of

those pictures if we're not directly involved in that event. And then the whole thing with Raft 2 is this upcycled materials thing. And I've actually been a one-woman raft for years. So I collect plastic caps and these like orange things that come off of printer ink that people just throw away. I collect scoops from protein powder and baby formula. And I love those plastic pizza tables that prevent your pizza from getting crushed. So I've been collecting all these things. And when I use it in a workshop, kids are getting

the message, oh, I don't have some like fancy custom made just for me kit thing, which is fine. Those exist, you know, like all the building kits. We love those. But I'm making the coolest robot I've ever made with a pizza table and this weird piece of foam that Tanaya brought from Raft. And so then they say, oh, if I want to make stuff at home, I don't need a million dollars either. I can save my oatmeal tub and I can make a prototype for a pet feeder. And I can save these, you know, crazy like pieces of trash, like a mochi tray. And I can use that to sort my parts or I can use it as a paint palette. And so that's what I love about Raft is like the materials are recognizable, but they, you know, have come to us in donations and things. And I always like to clarify like a Popsicle stick,

right? That has had someone's mouth on it. If you're literally saving a Popsicle stick from, you know, a Popsicle. So I would never put that kind of upcycled material in a kit, but things like a cork that we get from these vineyards that it's like, oh, it wasn't to specification. And so the cork is, it doesn't have wine on it or anything, but we can do a million things with it. And the biotech stuff we get donated is sterile, but we can use it to make super creative things. all of this expensive stuff to looking around. And it's so easy to just click on Amazon and buy what I need when the truth is I probably could make that cable if I just was willing to take a few minutes to see what I had. I completely agree. And we love that found engineering.

And you surprise yourself, honestly, with with like I just grabbed all this random stuff in this drawer and cool you know I completed the challenge amazing and we even did a workshop the other day where we didn't have time to get the teachers like an actual kit because we do have like this maker space in a box kit and it's a bunch of cool random things. But I was so impressed with these teachers that just were like, okay, cool. I'll be right back. And they just, you know, they, they're teachers too, but they just had random household stuff. And so it's, it's really a thing that's coming to a head where I can't reference the exact article, but the the idea that if, if you spoil your own kid with lots of new things and lots of toys, even these cool like Lincoln Logs constructs are one of my favorites from the 80s, Tinker toys, that's great.

And there is creativity and those materials are flexible. Before that, you know, cardboard boxes and, you know, just weird fabric scraps and things like that. Because this prototype word is so fun. Because you can encourage kids to be like, you made this one, and then you can refine it. And then, sure, 3D print, laser cut, like learn these cool tools. But, like, physically make something and see where it goes. And then that will inform your decisions moving forward. For you personally, how often are you teaching teachers versus having kids?

Well, with, with raft, because I'm new, I have taught just teachers so far actually with our teacher appreciation week. And my goal is to be at the top of the pyramid scheme to teach teachers and kind of give them an influx of my style and my passion, not that they don't have their own, and really be able to teach like 30 teachers a bunch of my Arduino curriculum and have them go and actually teach the kids. That is like my biggest dream that I've been really working towards my whole career. And I think once we are allowed to open up and have more of these in-person professional

development opportunities, I will get to do that. And then for students, I'm really looking forward to testing out some of our kits and seeing what kids have to say about raft kits, specifically in summer camp. So I'm currently at about half and half, but I hope that I can still, you know, do a little bit of both. But I love really to teach teachers to give them my strategy and kind of things to look out for. And of course, my tip of like, don't show them exactly how to do it and get them started with this circuit that is pretty easy. And I've even taken it back with my Arduino programming courses that I teach, where I have a bunch of projects they do with no breadboard,

just the Arduino and the USB cable. And they get that going. Then I have them build it on the breadboard. Still no programming even. Then I have them add the programming. So I really have found this great progression that, you know, you get, there's so many Arduino kits out there and a lot of them start with blank, but it's like too much. It's like hardware, software, what's an LED? It only works one way. Do the colors of the wires matter? Like there's too many like great questions all at once. So I like to ease them in and I would love to help teachers find the best way to do that.

And I think learning Arduino would be great. Like every Monday we do some or, you know, twice a month, like with your teacher that you are comfortable with year round, if they're the ones teaching you about microcontrollers, that's the power. It sounds like you've been really excited about this. I was wondering if the teacher instruction would be more difficult or less exciting, but it sounds like it's not. Do you miss teaching the kids? I definitely miss this activity that I've done hundreds of times at the tech all over the world, where I bring out my lily pad components, which are surface mount LEDs, and my alligator clips

and battery holders that I purchased but also solder a little thing on. And I let ages five and up just have fun at my table trying to make this circuit. And it is so fun when, of course, they do get the light to turn on because that's what we're all hoping to get when you're making a circuit. But even when they're frustrated, it's so cute. And then I've seen it happen so many times where even the first part of my little, you know, booth project here is to put the battery in the battery holder. And rightfully so, sometimes the parents go to help them with this step. They're like, yeah, let's get this going. Okay. You know, oh, I'll just do it for you.

And I'm like, wait, even that is this great learning moment because I have a battery holder that isn't labeled plus or minus. And we use this coin cell battery, which is a little more familiar, but not as familiar as like a double A. And so I've seen kids put this battery in the battery holder, like at least four different ways. So even if they do it, quote, wrong, it's so creative. And I'm like, whoa, that is neat. And then I don't tell them it's right or wrong. I say, cool, let's go with that. Let's see if we can turn the light on. You know, so

I've found this great way of coaching them, but I only occasionally have to step in. Cause I'm, I don't want to like, you know, make a parent angry or anything, but I occasionally I'm like, Oh, Hey, here's another set. Why don't you try it? Like next to them? Or I'm like, wait, I'm like, that's part, that's part of the project is the battery. And then, you know, really I have the parent be the assistant because alligator clips are the hardest part of that activity. The circuit, they, you know, kids are like, I know I just have to get it going. So you can tap with the alligator clips. So you don't even have to actually clip them, but I will encourage a parent to be like, let them tell

you where they want to clip it and let's see what happens. And, you know, that's that thing I know now as a parent, it's like, you have this instinct to be like, oh, they're reaching for this thing. Let me just hand it to them. But it's the reaching, you know, it's that struggle, even if they're frustrated and crying and, you know, that's how they're going to learn to do it. I have one more question from a listener, Bailey, who would like to know, do you yes so i think anybody could start a raft small or large uh raft itself of course started small you can begin with the materials themselves so this would involve just reaching out to anybody and everybody in the community sending out emails just saying, we exist, bring your random stuff here. You can get in touch with existing thrift stores and say, hey,

if you guys get any great art material donations or any weird materials in volume, we can totally use them. So you get that part going and you make those materials available to teachers. Kind of the next level with materials that Raft has done a couple years ago, they said, we're going to buy really low cost like pens, paper, pipe cleaners, which we call chenille stems, poster boards. They have a bunch of like bouncy balls. So like, you know, classroom basics that are really low cost. So those are new at Raft, but, you know, can fit into the budget. So that would be kind of the next layer. Then if you want to keep getting Rafty, you create this content, you start making like a bag of materials that's ready to go for some purpose. And it could be a great kit,

anybody's welcome to steal it is like a mural kit. This is awesome for coming out of this pandemic where we want to work together and maybe it still has to be done kind of socially distanced or like a piece at a time. But we have a kit with a bunch of random stuff and the whole class can contribute to where it goes. And do we glue it down or is this a mobile? Do we make like something hanging from the ceiling as our quote mural? So it's like a class art project. So you could definitely do that. And then kind of beyond all of that that we offer is the workshops, the summer camp. We have a mobile maker space. We have a laser cutter that members can use.

So those are bigger things you can aspire to. But I would say start with the materials, upcycle in your community. I have an add-on next door and people bring me little protein powder scoops and caps and mochi trays. So you can do something really grassroots like that too. That sounds like great advice. And now I am going to ask you another advice question, maybe. Do you have any thoughts you'd like to leave us with? I really want to see America succeed in education. It's something I'm really passionate about. And I believe we do live in the best country in the world. I think we've got so much handed to us just being lucky to be a U.S. citizen. And we can go so far. And so when I

hear about kids who might feel a little more discouraged in the way that we have everything handed to us. So it's like, I'm looking at the world as a kid. I'm like, I could just work at like a restaurant, which is a fine job. I can come home and I can watch, you know, any content in the entire world on my computer or my TV and just have a great life and just kind of like be, but to really strive and push yourself and to see education as this opportunity to be like, I'm going to try everything and see what I'm good at. And I'm going to try everything and see what I'm really excited about. And then I'm going to go with that. And my own experience, I always tell kids and teachers

too, is like, I found that when I found theater. So that was my initial thing. And I loved other subjects, but I was like, that's what I'm going to go with. And only to my detriment, I was actually a little closed-minded. I was like, I found my thing. I'm good at it. That's all I'm doing. But then when I went to college, I was like, oh man, I really like archaeology too. And I made it work to get a major in that. And then even worse, I was like, oh darn, I love rocks. Oh, I can't deny. And so I was like, oh, I'll be a geology major and I'll make it work. And so all of those subjects and interests, they still are infusing back into my career now. And none of it was to waste. And it turns out I'm good at other things too,

like programming Arduino and making circuits and sewing with electronics. So it's a journey, but for kids, you got to try hard. You got to really push yourself and study, study, study, and get ahead because then your life will be easier. You'll get this amazing job with benefits, with flexibility, with upward mobility. You will meet cool people who are also smart like you. You'll make startups. You'll get hired by Intel because they've heard so much about you. It's all there for you. And we have those tools in this country. And one of my things I would love to do eventually is to travel the world and do electronic workshops just anywhere and everywhere with kids in third world countries who just like, I just want to show up in a village. I want to show up in a market and be like, I want to teach you guys because in America, I do think we take it for granted and we're like, oh man, I just want to be on TikTok or I need my Facebook time tonight. It's like, no, you don't study, get sleep, you know, uh, work on your papers and, you know, really, really push because, uh, you know, you get that one chance and you on, once you have your transcript, it's done,

but you can always do better and make it happen. So that's my little patriotic message to the students. Our guest has been Tania Conklin, Student Program Coordinator at RAFT, which is r-a-f-t dot net. She's also a maker and a new mom. Thanks, Tania. Thank you. Thank you to Christopher for producing and co-hosting, and thank you for listening.

You can always contact us at showatembedded.fm or at the contact link on Embedded FM. You can support us on Patreon, which I think just search Embedded FM. And now a quote to leave you with. This one from Aristotle. Those

who know, do. Those that understand, teach.