Citilab's Summer Of Scorching Surprises
July has kicked in with gusto here at Citilab, accompanied by a hot heat and yet another heatwave in the shape of our usual summer-schools, which for another year open their doors for kids to come and spend a fun morning, full of technological surprises. Around 50 boys and girls from the English House El Nus, were queueing up outside the Citilab doors for a place, seemingly very impatient to get in. Those who were unable have come today, with the schools Mowgli and La Florida, accompanied by some youngsters from the Sahara Desert, who are currently staying at homes here in the locality.
They have been the first of more than 500 kids who this July will be participating in TechnoSummer, the Citilab summer workshops. Their nerves were plain to see, and that certainly isn't surprising, given that none of them have ever participated in such exciting experiments as making a mini telly programme for themselves, sitting around the magic table to play with their own hands or learning how to program a videogame .
The evidence is here, the photos have arrived and the first creations from our young inventors at the TechnoSummer Blog . Follow it from up close & more personal!
The television of inventions
Everyone has been filled with curiosity at the idea of making a small TV programme at Citilab. One thing is to see every day your favourite programme on the telly but quite another is to appear on the screen...... With the result that on entrance all heads turned in search of a big studio like those on the tellies at home, with lights, cameras and a stage for the action.
But, as we could see, thanks to digital technology the thing is much more straighforward: Four lights are more than enough, a special camera, a computer with a programme for controlling the effects and a green backcloth.
Welcome to Inventa TV, the television of inventions.
The first step was to draw an invention, but not with paper and pencils, but using a graphic tablet shared among groups of two or three children.
Even though they haven't had much practice the end result has been especially impressive with the help of monitors. After a while, the screens of the devices have gradually filled up with colourful designs, each one more original than the last. The moment of truth arrives a little later, on handing over to the small studio. The most intrepid didn't hesitate for a moment to stand in front of the lights and, looking into the camera, explaining their inventtion. Even though their colleagues have only seen them talk in front of a large green backcloth, in reality on the computer screen, connected by a cable to a camera, the scene is much more spectacular.
As happens with the weather forecasters, always seen with the map behind, the young presenters of InventaTV appear on the screen with their own drawings, in giant size, as a backdrop. This is the magic of digital chrome, enabling the most amazing to be created on TV and films. When all have explained their invention, the programme ends with all of the boys and girls of the group waving goodbye. This mini-programme could be broadcast live via the internet, but to make it easy and also so that families and friends could see all of the videos whenever they want to, we've put them on the blog InventaTV.
Around the magic table
Many families will not have been able to hide their surprise when their children have come home and explained their experiences with a round-table in which circles and lines of colors, music and sounds are controlled with a mere hand movement, as if they were conductors of an orchestra. This is the Mesofefa, a surprising interactive experience that is unique. Everything about it is spectacular: a great white structure of around 2 metres in diameter, rounded in shape, that looks as if it has come straight out of a science fiction spacecraft. And just like in the films, to see it well you have to be in the dark.......
Once the projection system commences and the screen is illuminated, the games commence. A memory test where you have to make pairs of sounds, a game of virtual boules, where the balls themselves are capable of measuring the distances and one of skill where one has to bang counters against each other until they are all in the right place.
Almost three quarters of an hour of pure fun that end up being enormously short. But that's not the end of it. As many games as you want can be made up, on the spot. That is one of the charms of this powerful tool, created by Utani, and all designed to be created in a group, working on personal skills using a methodology of “group intelligence”
Playing or programing?
The majority of youngsters love computer games, but if on top of that they are taught to do it with “their own hands”, it becomes even more attractive to them. This is the starting-point of the Scratch workshops this summer, a very fun way of having first contact with the world of programing and developing logic and creativity. Nothing more attractive for youngsters, who - more often than not - can't wait to get results. Building a game like the classic Pong – similar to ping pong - building the pieces and seeing the resultats in an instant. They all turn out fine, especially the eldest group who managed to correct the bounce of the ball. The idea is to build the coloured pieces in a logical order, just as if it were a construction game, to get the drawing on the screen, the small videogame or the animation to move, jump or do whatever is expected of it.
The good results for the activity, after the success of the Festa de la Ciència (science fair) held in a park in Barcelona, show that Scratch is one of the most sought after activities at Citilab, already up and running for more than a year with kids of 7 and up and continuing to develop a methodology of its own in conjunction with the Departament of Education locally.
By the end of the activity the monitors find it difficult to get the kids to leave their computers, even when they're reminded that they can download the program from the Scratch or edu 365 websites.
