Software Freedom Day 2014 – Tsakane

by skullkey
September 22, 2014

A bunch of us celebrated Software Freedom Day this year at a very special school, African School For Excellence in Tsakane (near Brakpan). The day was a tremendous success, with 106 kids attending (on a Saturday!!) our technology roadshow.

The school consists of some pre-fab buildings and is in the process of creating more permanent structures

ASE from the skye taken by Arnold during one of the quadcopter demos

The day started at 9.30 with Jay (the school’s founder) introducing us to the learners (a very special experience – all of us got cheers, even the software developers!).

P1050353 — The day started with Jay introducing us and explaining the day to the learners

Then the group was split into three, rotating through two classrooms, each with three tech tutorials. The group not in either of the classrooms spent some time dreaming and scheming about their upcoming projects and interacting with demos in the tented area.

Class room 1

In room 1, Cable (assisted by Neil) presented electronics for kids and showed off some of his home built bots. Next, Toby was taking the kids through some tools for learning programming. And finally, Raoul brought it together with Arduino.

Cable show and tell about his electronics for kids project

Cable and Neil’s electronics4kids poster

Cable and Neil’s display of robots and electronic projects

Raoul introducing Arduino to the learners at ASE

Class room 2

In room 2, Guy was introducing the learners to InkScape and open clipart. This was followed by Jeandré, who introduced Blender. And, Richard showed how to turn a 3d design into a physical object. Philip demonstrated some 3d printed objects and the power of combining 3d printing, programming and electronics.

Guy is demonstrating the art of 2d design using InkScape

Jeandre showing how to turn 2d object into 3d using Blender

Richard fascinates the kids with 3d printing

Richard demonstrating the printing process

Philip brought along some 3d printed items

Philip combined electronics and 3d printing to spark some ideas

Demos outside

The kids that was waiting for their chance to experience the tutorials, were treated to some demos outside. This included 3d printing using the RoboBeast, vacuum forming, fpv flying planes, quadcopters, hexcopters, rc cars and Robohands.

Hands on training with the vacuum former

Arnold busy setting up the FPV projector.

Snacks

After having their brains loaded with lots of new ideas, their stomachs got loaded with some healthy snacks provided by Standard Bank – thanks Philip Snyman!

Making it last

It is phun to have these events, but we aimed to make a lasting difference. To this end we donated a couple of PC’s loaded with videos, tutorials, software, demo’s etc. and installed it in the library.

Guy busy ensuring that the software works as planned

A couple of donated (thanks Toby and Arnold) computers, monitors, keyboard, mouse, network cables was configured as learner stations in the library

Learning station installed in the library with free and open source software, tutorials and videos

University of Johannesburg solar car team sponsored a RepRapPro 3d printer:

Toby hands over to Jay (founder of ASE) the 3d printer sponsored by UJ Solar Car Team

UJ Solar Car Team sponsored this RepRapPro Printer

RepRapPro sponsored by the UJ solar car team

And RoboBeast sponsored a Morgan 3d printer:

Richard (from Robobeast & Robohand) hands over to Jay (founder of ASE) the Morgan 3d Printer sponsored by Robohand

The sponsored Morgan 3d Printer busy printing a demo piece

The Morgan 3d printer, designed by Quentin Harley, won the Gada prize for personal interim manufacturing

At the end of the day

Got this nice group photo taken at the end of the day. We were also thanked personally by (just about each and everyone of ) the students!

Timelapse of the ASE Roadshow

Philip build and setup up a Raspberry Pi with a Raspberry Pi Camera Module to take a photo every 10 seconds during the event. The product is this time-lapse video of the tented area at ASE and it condenses 4 hours into 1 minute.

Thanks!

Thank you to Standard Bank for donating and Philip Snyman for organising the snack packs.

Thank you to UJ Solar team for donating the RepRapPro 3d printer.

Thank you to RoboBeast for donating the Morgan 3d printer.

Thank you to Arnold and Toby for donating the hardware for the library servers.

Thank you to everybody from House4Hack that planned the event, made the website, prepared and presented tutorials, assisted in the class rooms, prepared demonstrations, made videos, took photos, made time-lapse videos, manned the demo stands, FPV plane flying, FPV quad copter flying, operated the 3d printers, operated the vacuum former, donated hardware, downloaded and configured (free and opensource) software, moved tables around, cable tied table cloths, answered millions of eager questions, loaded and unloaded cars, hearded cats etc. etc.

A special thanks to Beth van As for capturing the day in photos.

The House4Hack team consisted of

Cable and Neil Maharaj
Toby Kurien
Raoul Diffouo
Guy van den Berg
Jeandré M
Richard van As
Philip Booysen
Beth van As
Arnold de Bruin
Kobus van der Walt
Nico Rautenbach
Schalk Heunis

Thank you from ASE

Received this letter from Jay, head of school:

Hello team,

I would like to extend a heartfelt, if belated, thank you to the House4Hack team for your visit to our school in Tsakane on Saturday, 20 September. It was a day that our staff and scholars will never forget. They were incredibly inspired by the robotics, and began a process of inquiry that we hope will never stop.

Just one week after the event, we entered a few teams in the Lebati Science Fair, and achieved first place and third place! Considering that none of our scholars had ever seen a science fair before, let alone participated in one, and that they were Grade 8’s competing Grade 10 and 11 students, this was an exceptional achievement, and was a direct result of the inspiration from the House4Hack visit.

We are thrilled with the 3D printers that you have left at our school, and we are convinced that they will help take our school to a new level of quality, one that the township has never seen before.

Thanks again, and we would love to have you back any time!

Sincerely,

Jay Kloppenberg

Head of School, African School for Excellence Tsakane

A bunch of us celebrated Software Freedom Day this year at a very special school, African School For Excellence in Tsakane (near Brakpan). The day was a tremendous success, with 106 kids attending (on a Saturday!!) our technology roadshow. The day started at 9.30 with Jay (the school’s founder) introducing us to the learners…