Learn about coding as you program a cat to follow directions in a cool programming language called Scratch, Jr.  Scratch, Jr is a fun language available free online. With ScratchJr, young children (ages 5-7) can program their own interactive stories and games. In the process, they learn to solve problems, design projects, and express themselves creatively on the a phone or tablet. You can read more about it here: https://www.scratchjr.org/ 

Before we meet, download Scratch, Jr to a tablet, iPad or phone. It would be good to have 1 device for Zoom and one for Scratch, Jr. .  We’ll complete the requirements for badge 1. 

This workshop is offered regularly for individual Scouts. We’re happy to schedule a special session for your troop of 6 or more. Tuition would be $7 per Scout. Scholarships are available for those with financial need. Just contact us at [email protected].

30 Minute Worshop

Materials: Scratch, Jr

Explore how board games and video games are the same and different.  Program your characters to have a race!  We’ll continue to learn more about the Scratch, Jr programming language.

You’ll need to have Scratch, Jr downloaded to a phone or tablet before class.  Please take badge 1 before this workshop.

This workshop is offered regularly for individual Scouts. We’re happy to schedule a special session for your troop of 6 or more. Tuition would be $7 per Scout. Scholarships are available for those with financial need. Just contact us at [email protected].

30 Minute Workshop

Materials: Scratch, Jr

Tuition: $7

Explore animation and how pictures can tell a story.  We’ll watch a video to see how animators use storyboards to plan their projects and then, we’ll create a storyboard for our story and bring it to life with programming in Scratch, Jr.  

This workshop is offered regularly for individual Scouts. We’re happy to schedule a special session for your troop of 6 or more. Tuition would be $7 per Scout. Scholarships are available for those with financial need. Just contact us at [email protected].

45 Minute Workshop  

Materials: Scratch, Jr, pencil and paper

Tuition: $7

Join us as we explore different types of robots and see how they are used.  You’ll get to help us program a robot to knock down a stack of cups and then, we’ll design a robot attachment to lift a toy.   

We’ll complete the requirements for Badge 1 of Daisy Robotics.  

This workshop is offered regularly for individual Scouts. We’re happy to schedule a special session for your troop of 6 or more. Tuition would be $7 per Scout. Scholarships are available for those with financial need. Just contact us at [email protected].

45 Minute Workshop  

Materials: Scratch, Jr, pencil and paper

Tuition: $7

Materials: Small cardboard box and some spare cardboard, 2-3 feet of string or yarn, tape, scissors, decorating supplies.

We’ll be learning about and creating prototypes of robots to solve a real world problem.  The workshop will start with videos of robots that people have invented to solve problems.  Then we’ll brainstorm ideas and get to work creating our prototypes.

You’ll need a good supply of recyclables and craft materials as well as pencil and paper.   
 

This workshop is offered regularly for individual Scouts. We’re happy to schedule a special session for your troop of 6 or more. Tuition would be $7 per Scout. Scholarships are available for those with financial need. Just contact us at [email protected].

45 Minute Workshop

Tuition: $7

Coming Soon

Badge 1: Board Game Design Challenge

Ready to take on the challenge of designing your own board game?  You’ll get to choose your theme, decide on the rules and create and test your game.

Materials:  Cardboard for the board part of your game, or 2 pieces of paper taped together, dice or cards, small objects to collects (if you like), and supplies to decorate.

This workshop is offered regularly for individual Scouts. We’re happy to schedule a special session for your troop of 6 or more. Tuition would be $6 per Scout. Scholarships are available for those with financial need. Just contact us at [email protected].

45 Minute Workshop

Tuition: $5

Badge 2: Roller Coaster Design

Join us as we build our own roller coasters for  marbles.  We’ll get hands-on experience with potential and kinetic energy as we construct our roller coasters.  You’ll experiment with materials, do lots of testing and then redesign to make your roller coaster even better.

Materials: flat cardboard for the base, cardboard tubes, tape, hot glue(optional), paper, paper plates (optional), marbles

This workshop is offered regularly for individual Scouts. We’re happy to schedule a special session for your troop of 6 or more. Tuition would be $6 per Scout. Scholarships are available for those with financial need. Just contact us at [email protected].

45 minute workshop

Tuition: $6

Brownie Mechanical Engineering Badge 1- Leap Bot Design

$6

45-minute workshop

We’ll use springs and rubber bands to explore elastic potential energy.   Lots of everyday objects use springs to absorb and store energy- pogo sticks, Slinkies, and trampolines to name a few fun ones.  Learn about different types of springs and then make a piece of cardboard jump using the power of elastic potential energy from a rubberband.  

Materials Needed:
Recycled cardboard of various thicknesses, rubber bands, duct or masking tape and items for decoration.  If you have a toy or device that uses springs, bring it for show and tell!

This workshop will complete the requirements for this badge. The badge is not included in the cost of the workshop.

Brownie Mechanical Engineering Badge 2: Fling Flyer

$6

45 Minute Workshop

 Ready to learn some new engineering skills? We’ll be experimenting with elastic potential energy as we make Fling Fliers that really zip through the air!

This is a live, small group, online class. Materials you’ll need: a couple of non-bendy straws, rubber bands, paperclips, masking tape and a craft stick, clay or playdough.

This workshop will complete the requirements for the badge. The badge is not included.

Brownie Mechanical Engineering Badge 3: Car Design

$6

45 Minute Workshop

We’ll be making cars and exploring the forces that act on them.  First we’ll make a car that rolls and then we’ll add a launcher to it to make it really fast!

Materials:  Recycled cardboard, rubber band, pencil with good eraser, BBQ skewer, 2 straws, masking tape, and scissors. 

We’ll complete the requirements for this badge. The badge is not included.

Brownie Coding for Good Badge 1

$7

 We’ll explore coding with some hands-on fun and learn about algorithms, debugging, events, loops and more.  You’ll need to download Scratch, Jr, a free app that is designed to make programming fun and easy. We’ll learn to use it to tell stories, create artwork, and make your own games.

45 Minute Workshop

We will complete the requirements for badge 1 during the workshop. The badge is not included.

Brownie Coding for Good Badge 2: Digital Game Design

$7 – Badge 1 workshop is a prerequisit for this workshop.

This workshop will focus on game design. You’ll get to design and program your own video game in Scratch, Jr.   Badge 1 is a prerequisite for this workshop.  We’ll continue our exploration into coding and learn some new techniques and how to apply them to video game design. 

Please download and install the free Scratch, Jr app to your device before the workshop. It works with Android phones and tablets. It is not available for iPhone, but is available for iPad. There is also a new version available for computer.

45 Minute Workshop

We will complete the requirements for badge 2 in this class. The badge is not included.

Brownie Coding for Good Badge 3: App Design

$7

 Exploring the world of apps and how they work!  We’ll take a look at several different apps and discuss ones that we or someone in our family uses.  Then, we’ll plan and program an app in Scratch, Jr (ScratchJr.org) that has 4 screens.  We’ll discuss the importance of making our app easy to use and then incorporate those ideas into our design.  You will need a phone or tablet with the Scratch, Jr app downloaded.  It works best if you have a separate device for Zoom for this class. You’ll also need a pencil and paper.

45 Minutes

Brownie Robotics Badge 1

$10

50-Minute Workshop

 Let’s explore robotics! We’ll explore some of the many ways robots are used, then, you’ll build and program your own spinning birds robots. You’ll get to explore pullys and gears in your project.

Materials:

All materials will be provided for use during the workshop. LabSpace will provide Lego WeDo sets and computers for the Scouts to works with. The badge itself is not included in this workshop.

Badge 2 part 1

$10

50 minute workshop

Many robots have mechanical arms to complete tasks. In this workshop, we’ll explore the engineering design process and build a cardboard extendo arm that you can take home! We’ll all build the same basic model and then engineer it to pick up different objects.

This workshop will complete Badge 2, step 1 and 2

All materials will be supplied for this workshop.

Robotics Badge 2 part 2

 We’ll be learning about and creating prototypes of robots to solve a real world problem.  The workshop will start with videos of robots that people have invented to solve problems.  Then we’ll brainstorm ideas and get to work creating our prototypes.

45 Minute Workshop

Tuition: $5

45-minute workshop

We’ll take a look at the different boats are powered and think about what might work well and try to discover what problems might exist.

Our hands-on project will be to construct a paddleboat that can be wound-up to propel itself through the water.

Materials:

container to use as the body of the boat

water bottle, plastic food container

5 or 6 rubberbands

4 BBQ Skewers or 2 pencils or chopsticks

For the paddle: plastic spoon, or craft stick, or piece of plastic cut from a milk jug.

This workshop will complete the requirements for this badge. The badge is not included.

Tuition: $6

45 Minute Workshop

We’ll explore the forces that act on cars and learn about some engineering jobs in automobile design.

For the hands-on project, you’ll build a car from recycled materials. We’ll spend time testing and refining and then add a launcher to make the car really zip!

You can even design a car seat for a toy to keep it safe and it rides.

Materials:

recycled cardboard

2 straws

2 BBQ skewers

tape

scissors

a stretchy rubber band

 

Tuition: $6

45 Minute Workshop

Our project is to build a crane from recycled materials. We’ll start with a basic plan and then make adjustments as we experiment with our crane. How many pennies will your crane be able to lift? Can you design a bucket to hold them without spilling?

Materials:

recycled cardboard box

pencil (will be used in the build)

3-4 feet of string or yarn

duct tape

2 large plastic cups that can stack and still turn

We’ll be exploring programming concepts like loops and if-then statements as we learn to program in Scratch- a programming language that makes it easy to tell stories and express your self.

You’ll need a gmail account to sign-in to Scratch so you can save your work. You can read more about Scratch here: https://scratch.mit.edu/

LabSpace limits registrations in this class to 9 to provide the opportunity for lots of interaction and sharing of projects.

Tuition: $7

50-minute workshop

Tuition: $7

One 60 minute class

In this workshop, we’ll explore how video games are used for good! Did you know that truck drivers and pilots use a type of video game called a simulator to learn how to do their jobs better? After a short introduction, we’ll use Scratch to program a maze game!

This workshop will complete all of the requirements for badge 2.

Tuition: $14

Two 50-minute sessions

Join us as we explore the many apps we use every day and take a closer look at how they are designed and what makes a useful, intuitive app.We will brainstorm the design of a user-interface as well as how the various “screens” of our app will connect to each other, then we’ll use Scratch (a drag-and-drop programming language created by MIT) to create a program to simulate the layout we want!

This will complete the requirements for this badge. The badge is not included.

Join us as we explore how and why robots are used and try your hand at programming some virtual robots. You’ll need a gmail account to sign-in to Scratch so you can save your work. You can read more about Scratch here: https://scratch.mit.edu/

We’ll explore the engineering process as we build an Astronaut Safety Lander and learn about some robots in space.

Tuition: $ 12 for 2 50-60 minute workshops.

Explore how and why robots are used and how sensor help them gather information and use it to make decisions.

We’ll practice coding skills as we program some virtual robots. You’ll need a gmail account to sign-in to Scratch so you can save your work. You can read more about Scratch here: https://scratch.mit.edu/

We’ll also be making our own touch sensor and learning how to wire a circuit. Materials for this are included in the cost of the workshop. We will mail them to you after registration. Please allow 2 weeks for them to arrive. We will be using them in the second of the 2 workshops.

LabSpace limits registrations in this class to 9 to provide the opportunity for lots of interaction and sharing of projects.

Tuition: $20

Two 50-60 minute workshop

Coming Soon