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Prince Makes Progress with his GoPiGo Robot!
Category Archives: Making
Has Stanford’s Intelligent Systems Lab Solved Our Rooftop Garden Robotics Project’s Problem
Many of you may remember that the original design of our Rooftop Garden Robotics project included a drone to be used to carry the garden’s harvest from the roof to the ground. You may also remember the day we attempted to test this from the Penthouse of STC using a Phantom 4, a plastic hanger, and a small payload (a few small rocks in a plastic container). The initial attempt forced us to remove the small payload because it was to heavy – leaving only the plastic hanger.
Well, let me just tell you – Lawrence spent a great deal of the afternoon chasing the drone in the yard space between STC and HHSB (two buildings on campus across from one another). He may even have chased it into the parking lot. It was a mess.
We realized then that drones couldn’t carry much weight. Since drone design wasn’t a focus of this project, we switched the drone portion of the project for a pulley system! (Don’t laugh! :))
Well, it seems Stanford’s Intelligent Systems Lab may have helped design/create a drone that will pull weight 40 time their weight. Hmmm… Interesting… What do you think?
Motivation 1 of 3: The War of Art (Art = any passion-filled creative project) …and how to win it!
In case you didn’t know – most educators are tasks with keeping their pupils motivated and encouraged, ….regardless of the age of the pupils.
Surprisingly, most educators also have to keep themselves motivated and encouraged – especially if they have their own creative projects and learning goals.
When I’m faced with either task (serving my pupils and/or keeping myself focused with blinders on), I often refer to The War of Art. In fact, I just started listening to it AGAIN this morning. The lessons contained in it and many more by the author, Steven Pressfield, have been on my mind – to share with my students AND to get myself back in deep focus…
So, I decided to share here, after all, it just may reach many more who need it!
After All… Nobody Tells This To Beginners:
From Ira Glass . . .
“What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
Formats:
NOTE: Listening to the audio version by Steven Pressfield himself is my favorite. It’s like he’s speaking to and sharing directly with me. I listen over and over! 🙂
- On Amazon
- On Audible
- Online PDF
- On Archive.org (flipbook type format)
- On Audiobooks (free for 30 days)
- On Barnes & Nobles Nook
- On iTunes
