Match 2 results - 3340 points after 2 matches

Score 68 gadgets.

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First match results, 2116 points

Competed in first round of the day. Scored 87 gadgets, 1 cone, 1 egg. Great job by Claude and Grant

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Seth's Blog: How to fail -

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How to fail

There are some significant misunderstandings about failure. A common one, similar to one we seem to have about death, is that if you don't plan for it, it won't happen.

All of us fail. Successful people fail often, and, worth noting, learn more from that failure than everyone else.

Two habits that don't help:

• Getting good at avoiding blame and casting doubt
• Not signing up for visible and important projects

While it may seem like these two choices increase your chances for survival or even promotion, in fact they merely insulate you from worthwhile failures.

I think it's worth noting that my definition of failure does not include being unlucky enough to be involved in a project where random external events kept you from succeeding. That's the cost of showing up, not the definition of failure.

Identifying these random events, of course, is part of the art of doing ever better. Many of the things we'd like to blame as being out of our control are in fact avoidable or can be planned around.

Here are six random ideas that will help you fail better, more often and with an inevitably positive upside:

1. Whenever possible, take on specific projects.
2. Make detailed promises about what success looks like and when it will occur.
3. Engage others in your projects. If you fail, they should be involved and know that they will fail with you.
4. Be really clear about what the true risks are. Ignore the vivid, unlikely and ultimately non-fatal risks that take so much of our focus away.
5. Concentrate your energy and will on the elements of the project that you have influence on, ignore external events that you can't avoid or change.
6. When you fail (and you will) be clear about it, call it by name and outline specifically what you learned so you won't make the same mistake twice. People who blame others for failure will never be good at failing, because they've never done it.

If that list frightened you, you might be getting to the nub of the matter. If that list feels like the sort of thing you'd like your freelancers, employees or even bosses to adopt, then perhaps it's resonating as a plan going forward for you.

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Posted by Seth Godin on April 11, 2011 | Permalink

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Failure! How many times have I failed.

I have a poster my Aunt Kaki painted me when I was younger. It says "I am not judged by the number of times I fail but by the number of times I succeed and The number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail." I read this poster over and over everyday as I was growing up. Failure is not something we should avoid, it something we need to embrace and prepare for.

As Seth's says above, "We all fail, all of us." I am reminded of a slogan from IDEO team that has the motto of " Fail often to succeed sooner. " Failures leads us to growth if we take the opportunity to evaluate it and learn from it. It was redirect the failure to others, then we have failed at failing since we are not learning to evaluate ourselves and improve.

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Lifelong Kindergarten Design, Play, Share, Learn - Sounds like a great day to me!

Innovation in K12 Education: Project Based Learning and Play

creativity in k12 education, design thinking in schools, innovation in k12, project based learning

Mitch Resnik on “Lifelong Kindergarten: Design, Play, Share, Learn” at Stanford. Mitch, in a recent article in Edutopia points out:

If this approach is so well aligned with current societal needs, why do we so rarely support it in classrooms? One reason is that our society and our educational system don’t place enough value on creative thinking.

Another reason is a lack of appropriate media and technologies: Wooden blocks and finger paint are great for learning kindergarten concepts (such as numbers, shapes, sizes, and colors). But as children get older, they want and need to work on more advanced projects and learn more advanced concepts. To do that, they need different types of tools, media, and materials.
This is where I believe digital technologies can play their most important role. If properly designed and used, new technologies can extend the kindergarten approach, allowing “students” of all ages to continue learning in the kindergarten style and, in the process, to keep growing as creative thinkers.

In my research group at the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, we’ve been developing new technologies specifically to support the kindergarten approach to learning. For example, we’ve collaborated with the Lego Group since 1985 on a collection of robotics construction kits that enable children to imagine and create interactive inventions in the same spirit as kindergartners build towers with blocks.

via compassioninpolitics.wordpress.com

if you have not had a chance to read about Mitch Resnik, give this article a read for a starter and continue to seek out his research and findings.
Students want to use things in class to learn as well as express themselves. To many times, we as teachers think we know what is best for them, but the students coming to us are different. They interact continually, all day and on multiple levels. As teachers, we need to welcome back the days of kindergarten and learn to play again.

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Protei - Open Source Oil Spill Drone Robots

via sites.google.com

Robotic drones helping cleanup oil spills

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Eythor Bender demos human exoskeletons

via ted.com

Excellent example of engineering applied to a problem and demonstrated.

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How Differential Gear works (BEST Tutorial)

via youtube.com

Great tutorial on how a differential works. This video is from 1930 and is so great in explaining how it works.
Take aways for me:
Video worked even in 1930 - it can work now
Black and white video seems to give you a different perspective
Simple examples provide a very clear explanation
Build on the idea to complete the final example
Show a practical example of the principle

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