Spring Semester So Far (Plus a Little Bit of Last Semester)

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Spring 2024 is already maybe the most vibrant semester in recent memory, even taking into account pre-pandemic semesters. Lots of energy in our student community, and lots of interesting projects, including our Free Little Art Gallery, for which we held an opening event where some folks dressed up for the occasion, and for which we had live music (provided by Lorenzo, a talented musician from our students community and Innovation Center regular).

Gallery Opening

We hung our 4th (or 5th?) show at the end of last week, including art from students, staff and families of staff, community organizations, other FLAGS in the U.S., and folks from a Northern California retreat center.

All the FLAG shows so far

The guest book we implemented says it all:

FLAG Guest Book

The maker-centered learning (MCL) professional development for teachers project I’ve been working on with John Pellman (Director of Curriculum and Instruction for Capital College & Career Academy) and the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) is picking up speed. We held last month’s session at a fabulous space called Community Shop Class in the Oak Park area of Sacramento.

Community Shop Class PD

For our first student-led workshop since lockdown, Rox showed folks how to make plushies.

Plushie Making

Adorable.

plushie

We’ve been flying our surveying quadcopter regularly to document construction progress on the new science building, which is coming along nicely.

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Depending on many, many variables (far outside of my control), there’s a possibility that we might be able to expand the Innovation Center into the labs and classroom spaces that will be vacated once this new building is up and running.

The Joy Agenda

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We’ve been working on (until recently mostly just thinking about) a project called The Joy Agenda, which conceptually is an alternate reality layer at the college – something like a combination of geocaching, faerie doors, escape rooms, and Meow Wolf – all motivated by providing opportunities for joy and wonder. We’re getting close to installing the first element of the project, a Free Little Art Gallery, housed in an old newspaper dispenser.

FLAG in a newspaper dispenser

The gallery will be housed in the Library, and folks from the Artist Guild (the college’s arts club), the Equity Center, and our own Innovation Center student community are making and sharing beautiful and tiny – 3″ x 3″ (x 3″ for sculptural works) pieces of art. The plan is to hang a show for a week, and then those works move to the top of the gallery to be taken home by interested art patrons, and another show hung. Rinse and repeat.

FLAG

We’ll launch v1.0 as soon as we get enough works for 2 or 3 shows, after which hopefully the project will chug along under its own momentum. Feel free to send some (3″x3″x3″) art, any media, to The Innovation Center, 10 College Parkway, Folsom CA 95630. Phase 2 will see the addition of cyphers and clues and puzzles, leading to fake books in the stacks containing hidden artifacts, tokens for a vending machine filled with arts supplies, and other things we have yet to think of!

Sonification and Visualization

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Years ago Max Mahoney (Chemistry) and I did some work with Chladni plates, but ended up breaking the speaker motor we were using. Lately I’ve been dreaming of different ways to visualize sound as part of ongoing data sonification efforts, so I knocked together a little prototype using a Bluetooth transmitter connected to the modular synth:

Bluetooth transmitter/receiver

and a little Bluetooth speaker driver thing:

Bluetooth speaker driver

Nothing spectacular, but the sand did indeed dance!

The Buoy is in the Ocean!

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After more than a year of planning, the Innovation Center successfully deployed a wind and wave data buoy (a Sofar Spotter) in Richardson Bay, a protected eel grass preserve between Sausalito and Tiburon in San Francisco. The project is part of an ongoing partnership between the Innovation Center, Professor Jason Pittman/FLC’s Geosciences Department, and the UC Davis Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute.

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David Dann (UC Davis Marine Operations Manager) was one of two scuba divers who assisted with the mooring, and did the heavy lifting of the deployment. David expertly navigated the complex regulatory environment of California’s coastal waters, which included securing permits and coordinating with the Richardson Bay Audubon Center, San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard, the City of Belvedere, and Clipper Yacht harbor.

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The data gathering buoy (which includes the Open Acoustic Devices HydroMoth audio recorder) is part of the Innovation Center’s larger “Quantified College” project, an effort to gather a variety of environmental data and to provide students with opportunities to use those data in a variety of ways, from sonification (i.e. creating music from data) to “big data” analysis as part of FLC’s innovative Artificial Intelligence curriculum. Data from the buoy will also be used to support coastal erosion research being conducted by UCD researchers. The project is the first of many for the partnership, with the overarching goal of providing FLC students with opportunities for hands-on field experiences, as well as transfer and career pathways. Have a look at the data!

Richardson Bay Data

Leprechaun Traps!

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Leprechaun Traps

Students are making leprechaun traps in the Innovation Center today, ahead of spring break next week. Here’s Sojourner’s (Makerspace Facilitator) very lethal version:

Lethal Leprechaun Trap

Sophie (Makerspace Facilitator) even created custom chocolate bait using a combination of the laser and vacuum former!

Leprechaun Bait

A student compared the activity to kindergarten, which makes me awfully happy.

DIY Vacuum Former

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DIY channels on YouTube are a source of inspiration, and lately I’ve been watching one in which the maker creates figures and environments inspired by Sylvanian Families.

https://youtu.be/_Ti2hTKZnmE

In one episode, the maker uses a DIY vacuum former (made from a plastic jar) to create little bottles. We have a commercial thermoformer in the lab – Sophie most recently used food safe plastic to create candy molds for our holiday party, and made this lovely Nova (our space bunny mascot) lollipop.

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I thought it would be fun to prototype a little DIY version, and so set out designing it, starting with a simple box (using Makercase, certainly in the top 10 of most useful makerspace software) to which I added holes for the vacuum hose and the top surface. A couple of iterations later, all glued and clamped up.

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Though I think it would have worked fine, I decided that the grid of vacuum holes needed to be smaller, so I altered the file in Illustrator and re-cut that piece with the laser cutter.

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I hooked up the vaccum and gave it a try, sandwiching plastic between various frames and heating it with a heat gun with promising but not perfect results. What ended up working best was just heating the plastic in place with a heat gun while the vacuum was running.

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Here’s a closeup shot of the resulting mold, which is a perfectly acceptable result for a quick protoype!

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Mobile Modular Peace Pole Prototyping

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The Innovation Center is collaborating with folks from the Equity Center, the PEAC²E (Peer Engagement for Achievement, Culture, Connection and Excellence) program, and Diane Carlson (Sociology) on a Peace Pole project. One of the many ideas that has emerged from the collaboration is to create a modular mobile “peace pole platform,” essentially a design specification and a set of affordances that will enable members of the college community – disciplines, student groups, classes, anybody – to create art and interactive content for display.

Peace Pole Platform Prototype Planning

Spent the day yesterday in the Innovation Center (I love having the lab to myself and locking in to the rapid prototyping flow), crafting a 1/4 scale prototype of the mobile modular peace pole platform prototype (M²P⁴?), and in particular exploring how the segments will connect. Nothing especially revolutionary about the basic design; each segment is a simple 12″ x 24″ rectangular box (our big laser has a cutting area of 18″ x 32″), and the pole itself will be three of these bolted together in a concealed way.

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The big circle in the middle of each end piece (Illustrator file above) is the access port, and so I think I’ll be able to reach in and connect them together with bolts. There are other ways of creating access panels from the outside – I’m thinking magnetic – that I might explore just to make the connection process simpler.

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Three of these stacked will be about 6′, and provide 12 possible faces for art and expressions of peace.

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Version 1.0 will be “static” – crawl, walk, run – but the long-term goal is to have the base of the unit equipped with power, sound, and a Raspberry Pi or similar, such that folks have a set of givens they can design for. Think lights and sensors and haptics and interactivity. Two peace poles communicating at a distance? A receipt printer that provides folks with a prayer for peace they can take with them? Lots of possibilities!

Spooky Soirée

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The Innovation Center @ Folsom Lake College held its annual spooky season party last week, and much fun was had by all. Activities included origami bat racing…

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cornhole…

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button making, pumpkin and cookie decorating…

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a costume contest, and some other things I’m probably forgetting.

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Students even hung out in the studio for some impromptu jam sessions. It’s nice to be back in person!