I had the good fortune to visit the East Bay Mini Maker Faire in Oakland CA yesterday, a one-day event impossibly packed fractal-like into every nook and cranny of Park Day School and the Studio One Art Center.
This was the mini-faire’s third year, but my first time visiting. I’d heard this tends to be more earthy and homespun than the giant official Maker Faire shows, and was hesitant that a techie like myself (with no kids in tow) might lose interest after an hour or two. No dice. So much to see, so many engaging makers to talk with…I was among the first in the gate and among the last being shooed out well past the official closing time!
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell with Google Hangouts On-Air is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
