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Giant Music Box – Marble Machine X

 What can you do with a Bass Guitar, Computer, CAD Software, and Power Tools?

There are those who create synthesizers out of old Nintendo machines. Sebastiaan Jansen is creating a mechanical version — Marble Machine X — which he has been building and designing for 7 years. 

The machine is made mostly of wood with metal, and plastic tubing, and uses metal marbles or ball bearings for various tasks.  He used a computer to design templates for the machine’s wooden gears. He then made the gears by hand with power tools. 

in the video below,  Jansen plays a specially-designed bass guitar. The entire video is 20 minutes. If you would like to see Jansen’s Marble Machine X play the bass, start at the 11:00:00 mark.  

The YouTube channel documents the machine being designed and built as  it is still a work in progress.  The creator of the machine plans on taking it on tour with his band.

Marble Machine X

In 2016 bandleader Martin Molin of the band Wintergatan released the “Marble Machine” video. Soon after Martin started working on a new and improved version, called the Marble Machine X. This build is ongoing and is a collaborative effort of about 20 engineers from all around the world, including me. My part of the job consists of converting the digitally composed music into templates to be put on the machine.

—Sebastiaan Jansen, https://sebastiaanjansen.be/marblemachinex

 

 

Start at time marker 11:00:00 minutes to see Machine X play

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Summer Science Activities for Kids from Virginia Tech

https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2020/07/fralinlifesci-kids-summer-science-activities.html

The summer can be quite monotonous for kids especially when they’re stuck at home during a pandemic. Instead of just watching TV and playing video games, why not branch out and try some fun science and engineering activities to help spice things up at home? Virginia Tech’s Fralin Life Science Institute has some great recommendations for at-home science projects both you and your kids can enjoy and learn from.

  • Learn to make a bird feeder and identify common backyard birds
    • In this activity, you will learn how to make pinecone bird feeders for your backyard. Instructions are on the site. Once birds start eating from them, you’ll make a log describing all the birds you see, which you can then use to identify the birds later on. 
  • Extract DNA from a strawberry
    • For this activity, you’ll need to get some coffee filters (if you’re like me and use a Keurig, you probably don’t have any)! The remaining materials can be found on the site. After following the instructions you’ll be able to see the strawberries’ DNA. You can also try to examine other fruits’ DNA.
  • Test for microbes in petri dishes and learn to grow them (Parent supervision recommended)
    • First you’ll learn a little about what microbes are and what they do. In this activity, you’ll be collecting microbes from around your house and growing them into larger colonies. You’ll be making food for the microbes that requires boiling a few ingredients. After refrigerating the food for at least four hours, you can collect microbes from different areas in and around your home. After placing your petri dishes near a good source of heat, you can check them daily to look for any colony development. 
  • Learn about native plant species and how to identify them
    • This activity is simple but fun for everyone in the family. By downloading an app called “iNaturalist”, you can snap a photo of any plant to identify what type it is. This can be done in your yard, the park or even a hiking trail. It is recommended to only track native trees – not trees in your garden (since they may be from other places). The app will use your location to mark where the plant is located, which will help scientists better understand the plant distribution in your area. 

Credit to Rasha Aridi (original author), Fralin Life Science Institute, Virginia Tech. Link to original article: https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2020/07/fralinlifesci-kids-summer-science-activities.html

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Seaborn (Python Library)

Seaborn Logo

https://seaborn.pydata.org

For data scientists using Python, libraries such as NumPy and Pandas are useful for reading and manipulating data on the back-end. How can we visualize the data in Python? The answer is by using a data visualization library called Seaborn. Seaborn allows data in a Python session to be visualized and is built upon another library, MatPlotLib. Seaborn is great for visualizing/graphing statistical data and works especially well with data processed through Pandas. To read a little more about Seaborn, click here to be taken to the Seaborn site.

Uses: Seaborn is a very versatile graphing library. Seaborn can graph relationships between variables, compare different distributions, and even automatically estimate and plot linear regression models for given data. Seaborn also allows for high-level abstraction code that makes graphing complex data easier. In terms of appearance, Seaborn provides many themes and color templates, reshaping and sizing and customization of how the data is displayed. For instance, any data above a threshold can be displayed one color while any data below it can be displayed another.

Documentation: Click Here 

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Pandas (Python Library)

Pandas

https://pandas.pydata.org

Pandas is a Python extension library that provides definitions for operations that manipulate data sets and structures. One of the most practical uses of Pandas is the ability to import data from external files, like CSV, JSON, SQL and Excel files. After importing, Pandas can convert the raw data into a usable data frame. Pandas is a very useful tool for programmers using Python to work with data analytics. Pandas makes importing, manipulating, merging, cleaning and re-exporting data easy to do in a virtual Python environment.  Click here to learn more.

Uses: Pandas is an essential tool for data analysis in Python. Because most data comes in CSV and Excel formats, these data files must be converted into native Python in order to be readable. Pandas performs this task with ease and simplicity, creating data frames that logically and numerically organize data into rows and columns. Pandas also allows for the cleaning of data, such as the removal of unwanted columns or rows, and the merging of data, such as combining data from two different files. 

Documentation: Click Here .

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NumPy

NumPy

https://numpy.org

NumPy is one of the most useful and popular Python tool-kits available for computer scientists, programmers, and data analysts. It is an open-sourced programming extension library that enables numerical computing in Python, i.e. arithmetic functions with arrays and matrices, statistics functions like finding means and medians, and linear algebra functions like finding the determinant of matrices and finding their dot and inner products.  It is developed and improved upon in Github and overseen by its “Steering Council.” Click here to learn more.

Uses: NumPy is a widely used tool by data scientists. Use of the library allows for the use of arrays, vectors and matrices, and their respective functions and attributes (as listed above). This implementation allows for data to be collected and stored in manipulable dimensional spaces. Conceptually, NumPy bridges Python with linear algebra, allowing for the application of formulas and theorems in a Python virtual environment. These concepts allow data scientists to collect, store, manipulate and predict data in Python. These ideas are used in machine learning, artificial intelligence and countless other computer science fields. 

 Documentation: Click here. 

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Science News for Students

Science News for Students

www.sciencenewsforstudents.org

Enjoy keeping up to date with the latest innovations and news stories in the STEM field? Science News for Students is the place for you!  Read articles and watch videos on almost every scientific topic you can think of. The site is full of science experiments, neat jobs you’ve probably never heard of, in-depth articles of current events, discoveries, and so much more.

What you can do: Head on over to the Science News for Students website to find a screenfull of articles and videos to explore. In the top menu, you can check out the many different sections the site has to offer by clicking on the Sections drop down menu.

  • In the Explainers page you can learn to understand some of the pivotal topics in the STEM fields, including how waves work, the pH scale, and allergies. Here you can also find information on relevant topics today like the coronavirus and global warming.
     
  • The Word of the Week page will show you this week’s chosen word of focus, with an article explaining the word and its applications in the STEM fields. The previous weeks’ words are also shown below. Some examples of words you might find here are polymer, spaghettification, and momentum.  
  • The Cool Jobs page will show you some of the most interesting STEM jobs found today, including some particularly interesting niche jobs.  
  • The Analyze This page will show articles that examine some of nature’s most intriguing characteristics and try to answer the question of why things are the way they are. For example, you may read about why beetles are certain colors or why insects migrate and much more. 

I encourage you to look over all of the sections that Science News for Students has to offer. There is so much content on this website that will help you develop your STEM knowledge. Remember, paying attention and staying informed on major science topics now will help you make smarter decisions in the future.

Privacy/For Parents: Science News for Kids is a fantastic way to keep students up-to-date on current STEM news. The articles are provided for free on their main website. There is also an email newsletter students can subscribe to that they can check to stay up to date. Science News for Kids is a subsidiary of Science News (ScienceNews.org), owned by the Society for Science. Here is a link to their cookie policy: https://www.societyforscience.org/cookie-policy/ 

Keywords: Magazine, science, science news, teachers and schools, students and parents, grades 3-5, grades 6-8, science, chemistry, earth science, life science, biology, physics, space, technology, nonprofit

 

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Before the Tesla Model 3 there was Nikola Tesla

It is funny how the history of technology often goes around full circle.  We went from centralized mainframes with terminals, to the PC which are decentralized, to the cloud computing which is centralized. With more people and businesses starting to use solar power in various forms, we are often forced to take DC voltage to convert it to AC voltage only to have our power adapters convert the power back to DC for use by our electronics.

AC/DC

The voltage from a standard wall jack is alternating current (AC), and the voltage from a battery is direct current (DC).  There are very few things that we use that are designed to use AC voltage directly without a conversion to DC.  The two main exceptions are incandescent bulbs, which can use either AC or DC power, and some electric motors. 

Electric motors can be designed to use AC directly or DC power directly, so some electric motors are AC, like the one that runs the fan in the heating and air conditioning unit in your house.  Other motors are designed to use DC current like the Tesla Model 3. 

So why are most power outlets AC if most things have to convert the power back to DC to use it? 

Back in the nineteenth century, when Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, his idea was to us DC power to power his light bulbs.  But there was a problem: Edison’s DC power system could not be transmitted over a few miles. This meant a power station would have to be built every few miles –a lot of power stations. 

Fortunately, an employee of Edison’s, Nikola Tesla, developed a way to use AC power to transmit

power cost effectively over many miles. Edison was against using AC power. Nikola Tesla quit after a disagreement with Edison and went on to work with George Westinghouse to provide electricity to households and businesses using AC power transmission lines and equipment. 

Tesla patented a number of inventions that had to do with AC power that are still being used today to produce and transmit electricity over longer distances. Tesla Motors, Inc. was named after Nikola Tesla.

Solar Power

Now we are starting to have a new problem. Solar panels generate DC electricity.  We often convert this to AC current only so we can plug in the power adapter of electronic devices that change it back to DC.

In a house powered entirely by solar power it would make more sense to use the DC power directly since the solar panels and the batteries that store their power in both use DC power, and converting between AC and DC or DC and AC is less efficient since you lose energy in the process.

How Solar Energy Works

Electric Today

Today, we have some long distance high voltage DC transmission lines but they are actually only cost efficient over much longer distances.

An overhead  cable run with HVDC would need to be between 600 and 800 kilometers to be cost efficient —  that is between 375 and 500 miles. 

Underwater and underground HVDC cables become cost efficient at about 30 miles or so.  So HVDC is often used  in long distance undersea cables. So even now, AC power is generally a better choice for the transmission distances we  need.

 

—Dean McIntyre, June 18, 2020

Learn More

Alternating Current (AC) vs. Direct Current

Sparkfun’s : Thunderstruck!

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Python

https://www.python.org

What is Python? Python is an interpreted object-oriented and high-level programming language. Python is a very popular and easy to use language, a favorite among many programmers. One of the greatest benefits of the Python language compared to others is that Python is open-sourced.  This means that anybody can contribute their work to the main Python libraries, packages of pre-made code that can be imported and used in Python. An example of this benefit would be a very efficient arrangement of code that sorts data faster than some other common method of sorting. 

How it works: In general, Python is manually installed onto the path of someone’s computer. One can download the latest version of Python from this website. A quick installation guide can be found here for Windows and here for Mac users. To make the most out of Python, integrated development environments (IDEs) are used to help format, troubleshoot and run Python code. Most IDEs are like more advanced versions of the command prompt/line, they are more visually intuitive and provide the user with troubleshooting and formatting tools. You can use some IDEs to build computer/web applications that run on Python code. 

For parents/privacy: Python can be installed onto your computer from the official Python website. Python is a very popular and secure programming language that’s great for beginners to learn on. Here is the Python code of conduct, and here are Python’s legal notices.

Resources: Interested in Python? Check out these resources to learn more and see some real-world applications!

 

 

Watch Reza Tasooji explain the basics of the Python language and some basic programming terms.

Watch this clip showing some of 2018’s best Python projects (some of them are crazy!)

Also watch Reza give an in depth tutorial on how to install Python onto your Windows operating system and explain why it’s important to create virtual python environments.
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Tech on Tap Online Event

 

No Camp? No Problem! 
STEM Ideas for Family Summer Fun

Thursday, June 18, 2020
4:00pm – 5:00pm

Registration

With kids at home this summer, you need a game plan. Join two Virginia Tech STEM education specialists, Jim Egenrieder and Erika Bonnett to learn about outdoor and indoor activities in which families can have so much fun they won’t realize how much they’re learning.

About Tech On Tap
Learning happens everywhere. Tech on Tap is a regular community speaker series that informs, educates, and raises questions about the impact of new technologies on society, equity, and policy. Topics include the types of issues and problems Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus in Potomac Yard will explore.

Tech on Tap partners:  Port City Brewery, Alexandria Library, and Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, VT College of Agriculture and Life Science 

 

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Google Colab

Colab Icon

colab.research.google.com

Google’s Colaboratory, or “Colab” for short, is a free online resource used for sharing code, documentation, and visualized data. Google Colab runs code using Jupyter Notebook, an open-source web app used to create and share documents that can run live code and visualizations. Colab itself runs on a virtual linux operating system. The programming language that can be run live in Google Colab is Python, while Markdown code can be used to format and organize the Colab documents. Google Colab is a very engaging and interactive way to run code, examine data and share ideas on the web.

What you’ll do there:  With Colab you can write and execute Python in your browser. Students in STEM+ Data Analytics course will learn to use Colab as a part of their assignments. One of Colab’s best features is its ability to run live code, which makes teaching and learning Python a lot more engaging and intuitive. In addition to learning Python, students will also learn how to format their documents by using the Markdown language. With these two tools, students will be able to use Python to visualize and analyze data in conjunction with Markdown to clearly format and organize it. 

For parents/privacy:  Students will need a Google account to use Google Colab, as Colab is an app made by Google. Google accounts are free to create and require some basic information, such as first and last name, a username and a password. Here is Google’s privacy policy.

Additional resources: There is a lot to learn about Google Colab, Markdown, and Python – most of which is not covered in the STEM+ Data Analytics course. Here are a few safe additional resources for your convenience: