Girls In Tech

Guest Post by Sara Czyzewicz: Sara Czyzewicz is a creative technologist and Co-Founder of DandyID.org – a service for managing online identities. Learn more about her on Olive Juice.

A few weeks ago I spent one Tuesday evening participating in lesson on building with microcontrollers. I arrived with no experience , and after 3 hours left with my own mini video game console running a simplified version of Space Invaders. The workshop was put together as a part of Maker Faire RI and Mitch Altman (creator of TV-B-Gone) lead our group. Mitch taught us how to solder recognize LEDs and resistors, and handed out the kits for building our chosen projects.

It was a wonderful learning experience and everyone had a blast. It reminded me how fun “hacking” is, and how everyone can participate – and should! It isn’t defined by being technically challenging – projects can involved soldering and circuits, like mine did… or glue and cloth, or food and household items. Get together with friends or kids for an evening or weekend afternoon, and enjoy some creative DIY time learning, exploring and playing!

Need ideas? Make Magazine, Instructables and Lifehacker have extensive and diverse projects, and many submitted by community members.

- Have an old clock? Take it apart and recreate this version using an Altoid’s can!
- Can you sew? How about a Where the Wild Things Are hat!
- Stop wondering what’s in your soda. Make your own Ginger Ale!
- Prepare for flu season! Make your own eco-friendly hand sanitizer.

Electronics kits like the one I used at the faire can be purchased online, and usually come with step-by-step instructions. Check out:
- Projects and kits by Ladyada
- Fundamental components kit from Sparkle Labs

DIY hacks are guaranteed fun and great practice for thinking “out of the box” in all realms of life.