CREATE Lab

ASSET STEM Education

Arts & Bots

Ages 8-14 Thursday-Friday 9 am - 4 pm

June 22-26
July 13 -17

Register for the first week HERE
Register for the second week HERE

For more information, call 412-481-7320 

What happens when you combine your creativity with computer programming? Craft and code your very own robotic creation using electronic components and recycled materials to amaze your friends and family. Each camper will take home the Hummingbird Basic Programming kit to power their robot.

Daily fee includes lunch and snacks; before- and after-care available for $10/day. Sign up for 1-3 days or the week to fit your schedule & budget!. All campers receive a camp t-shirt! Arts & Bots class includes a take-home Hummingbird controller kit.

$365 for full week / $200 for just Arts & Bots class

CARNEGIE SCIENCE CENTER

Create-a-Bot

Ages 8-9, Full Day Camps 9 am – 3 pm

http://www.carnegiesciencecenter.org/programs/summer-camps-full-day-8-9/

To register: call 412.237.1637 8:30 am - 4:30 pm Monday - Friday

Aug. 3 – 7

Create-a-Bot 

http://www.carnegiesciencecenter.org/programs/summer-camps-full-day-10-12/

Ages 10-12, Full Day Camps 9 am – 3 pm

To register: call 412.237.1637 8:30 am - 4:30 pm Monday - Friday

June 22-26
July 6-10
July 20-24

Technology and imagination unite as you combine craft materials and robotic components to build and animate robotic creations. Using visual programming software and Hummingbird Robotics Kits, campers will engage in the artistic side of robotics
$235 members / $250 non-members (price includes materials fee)

Register HERE

July 27th-31st

We will only be offering one week of this super awesome session! We will be using the fantastic Hummingbird robotics kit to teach programming. This versatile platform was designed at Carnegie Melon’s CREATE lab.

Art is a Catalyst in the Locomotion Lab

The Locomotion Lab is a STEAM lab in Chartiers Valley Intermediate School. It was set up through a 2013 STEAM grant that was sponsored by the Allegheny Intermediate Unit's Center for Creativity. The Locomotion Lab is a learning environment that centers on art to provide hands-on experiences and a creative means to teach science, technology, and above all creativity to elementary level students. Students have the opportunity to make do-it-yourself projects in screen printing, graphic design, robotics and recycled art. Each facet of the Locomotion Lab can be explored individually or combined depending on the depth of the project. 

A major component of the Locomotion Lab is Arts & Bots. Students in third, fourth, and fifth grade have used Hummingbird kits to unleash their inner maker through robotics. Students made robots to welcome spring, recycle materials, and animate animal habitats. During the upcoming school year all fifth grade students at Chartiers Valley Intermediate School will work in collaborative teams to design robots that can make art.

The Locomotion Lab was designed and run by the art teacher at Chartiers Valley Intermediate School, Mrs. Mary Mastren-Williams. The premise for using art as a catalyst in STEAM learning was an answer to a call from employers for a need of creativity in their employees. Using art to design and solve problems in a STEAM lab prepares our students for 21^st century skills at an early age.

“What I love about Arts & Bots is that not only are we incorporating 21^st century skills such as robotics and coding into all curricular areas, visual art is and the design process are being incorporated as well. Open any education book and you will read art and making are a catalyst in learning.”

-Blog post submitted by Mary Mastren-Williams, art teacher from Chartiers Valley Intermediate School

Our friends at BirdBrain Technologies have just launched a new KickStarter campaign to support production of the second generation of Hummingbird kits: the Duo! 

Building upon the Parents' Choice Gold Award-winning version one Hummingbird controller that operated as a tethered I/O board, the Hummingbird Duo is essentially two boards in one. It operates as either an original Hummingbird controller or as an Arduino Leonardo with an integrated motor/servo shield and improved connectors. The version one Hummingbird can be thought of as a "pre-Arduino," because using it helps build skills and confidence that make it easier to use Arduino. With the Hummingbird Duo, the Arduino is built right into the controller so that anyone who wants to can immediately take that next step! 

Please check out the KickStarter page for more information, and consider supporting BirdBrain Technologies and Duo if you can.

Create-a-Bot

Ages 8-9, Full Day Camps 9 am – 3 pm

http://www.carnegiesciencecenter.org/programs/summer-camps-full-day-8-9/

Call 412.237.1637 or Register HERE 

June 16 – 20
July 21 – 25
Aug. 4 – 8

Create-a-Bot 

http://www.carnegiesciencecenter.org/programs/summer-camps-full-day-10-12/

Ages 10-12, Full Day Camps 9 am – 3 pm

Call 412.237.1637 or Register HERE

June 9 – 13
July 28 – Aug. 1
Aug. 11 – 15

Technology and imagination unite as you combine craft materials and robotic components to build and animate robotic creations. Using Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE Lab's visual programming software and Hummingbird Robotics Kits, campers will engage in the artistic side of robotics.
$235 members / $250 non-members (price includes materials fee)

Register HERE

July 28 - Aug. 1

We will only be offering one week of this super awesome session! We will be using the fantastic Hummingbird robotics kit to teach programming. This versatile platform was designed at Carnegie Melon’s CREATE lab.

We're so excited to share this Arts & Bots story, featured yesterday on WESA, Pittsburgh's NPR News Station! 

Sue Mellon, gifted teacher at Springdale Junior & Senior High School and longtime friend of the CREATE Lab, describes her classroom's use of Hummingbird kits in the English curriculum. Mellon uses Arts & Bots as a way for her students to explore themes of poetry that might otherwise feel intimidating or uninteresting. “Repetition in poetry increases comprehension of the poem, so by building you get this natural repetition," says Sue. "They’ll have recorded the poem so it’ll run while their robotic actions highlight what’s going on in the poem. That’s another form of repetition. They have to keep referring back to it to make it come alive.”

Check out the full story here, and watch the video below for a demonstration from one of Sue's students.

The Bots and Books Design Challenge, at The School of Information Sciences (the iSchool) at the University of Pittsburgh, saw eight teams of undergraduate and Masters students design, program and build a robot to illustrate a theme from a children’s book. Their ‘bots were judged by Brian Beaton, Bob Perkoski, Martin Weiss and Corey Wittig. Many memorable presentations took place, including a Valentine’s Day dancing Cinderella and a reenactment of Disney’s The Lion King. The judges had a difficult decision to make, but in the end they selected three winning teams: Team Pizza (Ty Houy, Mandy Kendall and Tom Robinson), first prize for Bunnicula; The Carnegie Crew (Michael Balkenhol, Georgiana Deming and Bonny Yeager), second prize for The Invention of Hugo Cabret; and The Notorious Cardigans (Angela Bradshaw, Emily Mross and Jourdan Walls), third prize for Jumanji. 

Here is the winning bot in action:

The Visual Programmer software has been updated to enable you to choose the directory where your Visual Programmer files are stored. So, when a student launches the app, the first thing they'll do is go to the settings tab to tell the app where to store and find his/her files. 

The Installation and Connection Guide can be found HERE

The CREATE Lab Visual Programmer for Hummingbird and Finch has been updated. The update can be downloaded at: http://artsandbots.com/visualprogrammer/

Standalone versions are available for Mac, Windows and Ubuntu Linux. The Web Start version has been discontinued. If you have the Web Start version it will continue to work but you will be prompted to download the new version upon launching the program. A zip file version is also available for Linux users and users with complicated installation scenarios.

The software now automatically checks for updates every time the application is launched. If an update is available, the Settings tab (the one with the gear icon) will provide a link to download the latest version. To upgrade, simply download the latest version and repeat the installation steps. Your saved Expressions and Sequences will not be affected.

Java SE 6 or newer is still need to run the software and can be downloaded HERE

An updated version of the Installation and Connection Guide can be found HERE.

Installation Instructions for the Standalone Version:

1. Make sure you have Java SE 6 or later installed.

2. Go to: http://artsandbots.com/visualprogrammer/

3. Click the appropriate Download button for your robot (Hummingbird or Finch) and operating system (Mac OS, Windows, or Ubuntu Linux).

4. Installation:

• Mac OS: you will download a disk image file (.dmg). Double-click it to mount and open the disk image. Once it is open, simply drag the Visual Programmer application to your computer’s Applications folder. Once it has copied, you may eject the disk image.

• Windows: you will download an installer file (.msi). Double-click to open it and follow the installation wizard steps to install the Visual Programmer.

• Ubuntu Linux: you will download a package file (.deb). Double-click to open it and then select Install Package.

5. Running the Visual Programmer software:

• Mac: double click the CREATE Lab Visual Programmer application in your Applications folder.

• Windows: select the CREATE Lab Visual Programmer application in the Start menu, or double-click the icon on your Desktop.

• Ubuntu Linux: double-click the CREATE Lab Visual Programmer application icon.

6. If you run the software and see a screen like one of the ones below, you’re done!

Arts & Bots was recently highlighted in a White House "We the Geeks" Google+ Hangout on robots. Matthew Mason, the director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, showed off the King Tut bot and explained how robots can be used in an educational setting.

Skip to 6:00 to see the bot in action.

CREATE Lab projects were featured at the Allegheny Intermediate Unit's Center for Creativity for the grand opening of its transformED digital playground for educators on Wednesday. GigaPan and Arts & Bots were demonstrated to local educators by students. More about the event can be read at the Trib's website.

Mt. Lebanon School District fifth-graders Meghan Maselko and Maddie Ganoe demonstrate digital storytelling with Puppet Pals 2 app for an iPad to Carnegie Mellon director of outreach CREATE lab Dror Yaron during the transformED grand opening at the Allegheny Intermediate Unit headquarters in Homestead.