Logan Fischer, 9, of Ferdinand and Grace Weigel, 8, of Huntingburg, laughed while using an app and device called Makey Makey at a 4H hosted activity called Makers Spark Club. Through a circuit board and the wires, the kids are able to create different functions with the application on the computer. For example, if they touch the apple when it is connected to the alligator clip while holding the other clip in their hands, a circuit is completed and it triggers some action on the computer. In this moment, Grace touching the apple is causing a farting noise on the app. This is just one of several activities this week for the club being held at the Center for Technology, Innovation and Manufacturing at VUJC
Kids will be working with robots, circuit boards, computers and cardboard this week for a special club hosted through Dubois County 4-H.
About 20 kids showed up for the first night of the Makers Spark Club being led by Sheila Hurst and Marti Mauntel at the Center for Technology, Innovation and Manufacturing (CTIM) at VUJC. Designed to stimulate the kids’ imaginations and promote collaboration, the club offers activities centered around using technology and common materials creatively.
The evening started with an icebreaker and some quick instruction on the different activities available for the attendees. A short video about Caine’s Arcade — an inspirational story about a boy who created a worldwide phenomenon after building a mechanical arcade out of cardboard boxes in his father’s car parts store — had most of the group heading to a table covered with cardboard, tape, and scissors before the end of the two-hour meeting.
The group will meet each evening from 6 to 8 p.m. over spring break.
From left: Chase Niehaus, 9, and Bryce Memmer, 9, point at one of the other 20 kids attending the Makers Spark Club at the Center for Technology, Innovation and Manufacturing held Monday evening. Colton Parr, 8, is holding a card that one of the other kids wrote a fun fact about themselves as part of an icebreaker before the club began. After reading the fun fact, the kids had to guess who the card belonged to.Logan Fischer, 9, works on creating a crane using cardboard, tape, and balloons. Fischer was inspired by the story of Caine’s Arcade (Google it) to build something using the common materials and his imagination. The majority of the 20 children attending the Makers Spark Club Monday evening gravitated towards the cardboard and other scrap materials to build something like Caine’s Arcade despite electronic offerings that were also available.Victoria Vanegas, 9, of Huntingburg, blew up a balloon as she and her new friend Abbagail Collignon, 9, of Ferdinand, worked on their own cardboard creation.Celia Neukam, 15, of Jasper, and Sarah Whitehurst, 11, of Huntingburg, celebrated as they completed the 15th level of a programming challenge on a tablet supplied for the Makers Spark Club. For the activity, one of the pair is the navigator and the other the driver of a robot that they must program to perform various tasks and move through obstacles. For this level, Sarah gave an instruction to Celia for each step finally being able to successfully guide the robot through the path to freedom. The activity teaches programming and is also used for Lego robot challenges.Victoria Vanega, 9, of Holland, and Abbagail Collignon, 9, of Ferdinand, attempted to construct a tent using simple building blocks during the Makers Spark Club held at the Center for Technology, Innovation and Manufacturing Monday evening.
