During the first White House Astronomy Night in 2009, President Obama asked students, “What will your great discovery be?”
Inspiration can come from anywhere, but the mind truly expands when the eyes turn skyward and take in the vast expanse of stars and planets visible in the night sky. There was a time when setting foot on the moon was just a dream. Now, not only have we visited the moon, but we have sent robotic explorers to every other planet in our solar system – and Pluto – and are looking ahead to future missions sending American astronauts to Mars.
That inspiration is one of the many reasons why President Obama is hosting White House Astronomy Night on October 19, to encourage students to pursue education and careers in the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. We are bringing today’s students – and tomorrow’s engineers, scientists, and innovators – to the South Lawn of the White House to gaze at the moon and the stars, to learn through hands-on STEM activities, and to hear from astronauts and other scientists about their exciting experiences.
Make a robot friend with Adafruit’s CRICKIT – A Creative Robotics & Interactive Construction Kit. It’s an add-on to our popular Circuit Playground Express, FEATHER and other platforms to make and program robots with CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. Start controlling motors, servos, solenoids. You also get signal pins, capacitive touch sensors, a NeoPixel driver and amplified speaker output. It complements & extends your boards so you can still use all the goodies on the microcontroller, now you have a robotics playground as well.
