Is the revolution going to be manufactured? People have always tinkered – working on projects in the garage or basement. But now the “maker movement” is moving into the mainstream. This summer, the White House even sponsored its first-ever Maker Faire.
According to Chris Anderson, CEO of 3D Robotics and the author of Makers: The New Industrial Revolution, the movement has brought about an “explosion of entrepreneurship and innovation.”
But who are these “makers,” exactly?
“Makers are basically anyone who’s creative and interested in technology, and they’re interested in using the new technologies that are available to create devices and projects and products around them,” says Limor Fried, the founder of AdaFruit, an online source for the movement.
It isn’t all high-tech tinkering and robots, though. Anderson expands the definition to include most peoples’ grandmothers. “If you’re cooking in the kitchen, you’re making; if you’re gardening, you’re making.”
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.
