The Sun Sentinel reported recently on young inventor, William Georges, an 11 year old who’s toy invention just won Creative Child Magazine’s Toy of the Year Award. According to his family, the Sentinel reports, when Georges was just 6 years old he stuck his mother’s MP3 player through a hole in his old Teddy bear and said, “I just invented my first toy, Mom.”
Things have progressed considerably since then, with the now incorporated Pezo Pal’s first shipment of 2,000 bears arriving from China last month, preloaded with 24 hours of songs, stories and lessons for kids 3 and older.
“I love to design real things that are useful for people,” Georges says on the Pezo Pal website.
“Pezo” means “play” in Greek, which George’s speaks in addition to English. The bears are customizable, allowing kids to “build their Pals anyway they want by downloading the coolest music or adding MP3 audio files anytime! My mission was to invent a toy that allows children to express themselves!”
“Children are better at making toys than adults,” Georges told the Sentinel. Point taken.
A fifth grader at Safety Harbor Montessori Academy in Clearwater, Alanna’s Pain Free Bandage Remover was inspired by her long time dislike of the bandage removal process. At the grand old age of 8, she decided that enough was enough, and experimented with several different combinations of safe, organic ingredients until she hit upon the perfect formula. Her focus group was her then 2nd grade classroom, where kids and parents alike were immediately sold.
Since then, her product has been featured on “The Doctors”, “Rachael Ray” and several local news programs. Alanna has applied for a patent trademark hopes to go into full production soon, marketing to childrens hospitals, pharmacies, health food and natural food stores, assisted living and nursing homes, with plans to donate 1% of all sales to the Arts for children.
They did it! Learning is for Everyone’s LI4E Makerspace Project team will be representing Tampa Bay, Florida and Learning is for Everyone as a finalist in the 2012 Red Bull Creation Contest. Provided only with an arduino open source microcontroller – called a Bullduino, in Red Bull’s honor – teams from around the country put together a device of their choosing to try to impress judges with their creativity and engineering skills.
That was easy!
The LI4E Makerspace team created a Rube Goldberg-esque Red Bull Wake-Up Call alarm clock, and entered a video of their contraption into the competition on July 3. The clock, in their words, is “an over-engineered beauty .. ” Apparently Red Bull agreed!
The Red Bull launcher
Red Bull Creation judges selected the LI4E Makerspace team and 11 other teams from around the country as finalists, who will now compete in a 72 themed build that kicks off July 19. After a public voting period, top scoring teams get to take their creations the World Maker Faire 2012 in New York, in September. Besides getting to showcase their creations, Red Bull Creation finalists will be vying for a top prize of $10,000.
LI4E Makerspace and Team Duct Tape members, with mentor Paul Markun, of Tampa Technik.
The LI4E Makerspace Project is an effort by Learning is for Everyone (LI4E) to bring community makerspaces to Tampa Bay. The LI4E Makerspace team is an intergenerational, multi-talented crew of youth and adults, who are students, writers, artists, programmers, engineers, craftspeople and all-purpose tinkerers – a cross section of the community that would value and use a makerspace. Many of the team members are also members of LI4E’s award winning FIRST Tech Challenge team, Team Duct Tape, recently returned from competing in the FIRST World Championship in St. Louis, MO.
LI4E’s motto is “No Limits!” and the Red Bull Creation team exemplifies that no-holds-barred creativity in all they do. More information about the LI4E Makerspace team can be found here .
Congratulations, LI4E Makerspace Team!We’ll be following closely next week,and fully expect to see one or both of their creations at Tampa Bay Mini Maker Faire 2012!
This over-engineered beauty is the Red Bull Wake-Up-Call alarm clock. Since anything worth doing is worth over-doing, this Bullduino-driven morning persuader is configured out a variety of repurposed items, including:
Young Makers are born with imagination and a sense of fun and creativity. But they also need the encouragement and support of family and community, to not only celebrate what they make, but to keep their Maker Spirit alive and thriving!
We had so much fun at our Faire we want to do it again! So we’re heading over to the Orlando Mini Maker Faire on May 26 to play some more!
At least a couple of our TBMMF friends will be there – CyberCraft Robots and Makerspace Tampa Bay - and quite possibly a couple of others. Because if there’s anything more fun than a Maker Faire , it’s TWO Maker Faires!
We’ll be there as part of Learning is for Everyone’s Maker booth, with award winning FIRST Tech Challenge Team Duct Tape, the NetBot and some fun hands on photography projects for OMMF guests to enjoy.
The banners are in, the programs are printed, the swag and buttons are here, the Makers and our Volunteers are ready, the Food Trucks are fired up, the robot batteries and the electric cars are charging, the artists have arrayed their wares, the media’s been alerted, and the pennants are ready to fly for the Tampa Bay’s first ever Mini Maker Faire!
There’s still time to get your discounted tickets at EventBrite . Just $5 prepaid and $8 at the door, for ages 5+ . We promise you won’t go home empty-handed, hungry or without new knowledge - there’s toys to make, art to stencil, things to solder, swag to collect and great food to eat!
So head on over the University Area Community Center Complex at 14013 N. 22nd Street tomorrow morning, to enjoy a little taste of the Greatest Show (& Tell) on Earth!
We wanted to make sure we accurately captured the fun and DIY spirit of our very first Tampa Bay Mini Maker Faire, so we turned to a Young Maker whose work we already know and admire. Ryder is the team videographer for Learning is for Everyone‘s (your TBMMF organizer) award winning FIRST Tech Challenge robotics team, Team Duct Tape. Ryder’s nuanced eye for meaningful action, angles and editing helped Team Duct Tape earn a spot at the FIRST World Championship when they competed at the Florida FTC State Championship back in February. We thought you’d enjoy learning a bit about Ryder, so you’ll have a heads up when you see him roving about on Saturday.
TBMMF:Please tell us a little about yourself, Ryder.
Ryder: I am 13. I live in Tampa Bay. I make videos for TDT , our FTC robotics team, and for my YouTube channel randomtvusa. I also like to build, and I am a Boy Scout. Also, I like to go camping.
Ryder: Shooting the video then when you get to see the final video.
TBMMF:What type of equipment do you use?
Ryder: A small vide camera ,clamp lights, a PVC camera rig and and a Clap board.
TBMMF: What’s your dream gear look like?
Ryder:A pro video camera real lights, a nice mic for good sound, and a better editing system.
TBMMF:We know you’ve made some special gear of your own – Can you tell us about it?
Ryder:Well I made a PVC camera rig to make the video steadier.
TBMMF: What else do you like making besides movies?
Ryder: I like making props for movies and other useful things.
You can see more of Ryder’s work at Random TV USA and the Team Duct Tape YouTube Channel. And you can see Ryder at Tampa Bay Mini Maker Faire on Saturday. Be sure to say hi, and smile!
The Sun Sentinel reported recently on young inventor, William Georges, an 11 year old who’s toy invention just won Creative Child Magazine’s Toy of the Year Award. According to his family, the Sentinel reports, when Georges was just 6 years old he stuck his mother’s MP3 player through a hole in his old Teddy bear and said, “I just invented my first toy, Mom.”
