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I've been thinking about designing shelves for my office since our Innovation Center opened in 2020. I began exploring ways I could create a curved shelf that appeared to be bent, but is actually created out of multiple sections of CNC cutter plywood and stacked to create a much greater depth than the 1" thick material it was created from (actual layer thickness is 0.92"). For this project, I am planning on creating two shelves that come together in the corner of my office. I started by creating the design for the front wall and then created the accompanying shelf for the left wall (relative to my desk and window into building).
This cutting board has been a great opportunity to refresh my understanding of a techique to use V-Carve to create intricate wood inlay patterns into end-grain cutting boards. It has been a few years and some of the process felt like it needed to be refreshed, so it was a great opportuity to collaborate with a colleague and talk it out. Coming up with the idea to use Sashiko inspired patterns for the inlay was an exciting idea that came from my recent introduction to the Japanese embroidery technique. Sashiko patterns offer so many possibilities to explore and I'm excited to continue working with this idea!
The main assignment for my Fall 2024 Inventing with Technology course is for students to prototype a project that solves a problem using some of the features of a micro:bit microcontroller and mounts to the project's intended location via French cleat. While that prompt may seem simultaneously vague and specific (it is), this was the framework I decided to explore with my students this semester.
Whenever possible, I try to complete a project in parallel to the projects that my students are working on. This skateboard hanger hangs via French Cleat and includes embedded lever switches to sense when a skateboard is placed in the hanger and lights up two strips of LEDs controlled by the micro:bit.
Our lower school technology teacher asked me if we could get a new worktable for his classroom that students could use for building projects. Rather than buying a table, we decided to fabricate our own. This design is based on a robot sticker that our team printed on holographic sticker paper to adorn all of the laptops in their classroom. The concept was to print a much larger version of the sticker and use it as the surface and outer contour of the table. The project ended up giving us multiple opportunities to explore new fabrication techniques.
I've been trying to conceptualize the concept for a game that could be played using the embedded LEDs in our French Cleat prototype. In talking with my colleague (Nar!) today we brainstormed a version the classic snake game where each "snake" would live on it's own LED strip. The snakes would move back and forth along their own path and players would control their snakes side-to-side movement using their own micro:bit controller. The controllers could work using the A | B buttons or potentially use the accelerometer to add variability to the speed of the snake based on how far the micro:bit is tilted in either direction.
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