The Mind Lab

Wow, wow and more wow!  Today was a day filled with hands on learning experiences to excite our learners about some things they may not have done before. Tim was working with our tamariki on animation. Animation is when you use skills to bring static images to life and is achieved through a number of still shots closely linked together. We used a webcam to achieve this and manipulated characters and playdough on different backgrounds. We also learnt that when filming something, 1 second of filming equates to 24 closely linked photographs to achieve that. Andy was working with our Tamariki on a coding programme called SCRATCH. We went to google chrome and used this web 2 tool on line. We were practicing making a game and had to include characters, baddies, backgrounds, sounds, rewards and directionality. Using ‘blocks’ to code the software was challenging but very fun. Carl was working with our Tamariki on a robotics session. Firstly, we had to programme what we wanted the robot to do. Robots do not have brains unlike humans. We have to tell them what we want them to do. There was a robot in 1997 that beat a renowned World Champion Chess Player and this was when people started to become increasingly concerned that Robots would take over the world. And yes… our children all commented they were worried about this too. The word Robot derives from a Chekoslavakian culture and literally translates to slave. We started to realize that simple every day gadgets such as washing machines have robotic elements eg. The sensor that allows the washing machine to determine how much water to use in the load. 
Our day at The Mind Lab was lots of fun – please check out our blogs to see more photos and     videos of our awesome experience.  Many thanks to Ali D, Cherie, Petra, Nicky and Aunty Les for travelling with us all – couldn’t have gone without you lovely people!