NESTA (the National Endowment For Science Technology and the Arts – but you knew that…) is holding a series of events across Scotland, designed to help young people (kids aged 13+) to access new technology, digital media and interactivity.
One Day Digital gives participants the chance to experiment with, play with and explore a variety of technologies they won’t run into at school, or in their home lives.
Check out the seriously impressive list of activities:
- 3D Printing: Hosted by MakLab, Scotland’s first open access digital fabrication studio. In this session you can create and print a 3D model. You willuse 3D software to design and then with the help of the experts from MakLab print the physical object on a 3D printer. You can even take the model you created home with you!
- Raspberry Pi: Design and code behaviours for your own video game character and put it to the test all on a Raspberry Pi, a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. This stream will introduce the basics of programming for video games using the Python programming language. You’ll come away with a customised character and your very own game that you can keep working on after the event!
- Coder Dojo: Build and publish your own HTML5 web site or web app with the CoderDojo coding club. No previous coding experience is necessary. You will work with CoderDojo mentors to design and develop your digital creation. By the end of the day, you will publish your new digital creation to the web where you can share it with your friends and family. After the session, we will keep your creation online, and we will show you how you can download it so you’ll be ready to develop version 2!
- Young Rewired State: Coding is for everyone! Learn how to create cool stuff the ‘hackathon’ way by coming along, learning a thing or two about coding, and working with likeminded people to create awesome things using technology. To participate in this session you will require an intermediate knowledge of coding.
- Arduino:Â Design and prototype your own physical app using Arduino micro controllers. This is a fast paced, hands on workshop where you can use your own ideas and experiment with electronics and code.
- Mozilla Popcorn: YouTube’s all well and good, but what if you could add extra stuff to your videos? What if you could pull in things from around the Web – LIVE and in real-time? In this workshop Mozilla (the people behind the Firefox web browser) will be demoing Popcorn, a brand new video editing tool. You’ll learn to remix videos in ways you never thought possible! From campaign videos to just messing around and having a laugh, Popcorn’s a free and open tool you can use for just about anything! (EDINBURGH ONLY EVENT)
- Digital Storytelling Techniques with STV:Â Are you a budding journalist? Come along and take part in this session hosted by STV to find out more about the digital story-telling techniques they use to deliver the news. Timelines, maps, streams and info-graphics are used every day to help inform viewers, in this session you will use these tools to tell your story. (EDINBURGH ONLY EVENT)
- Stop-Frame Animation with BBC:Â Why not try stop-frame animation and bring your story to life with BBC Scotland L.A.B. In groups we will story board, make models, animate, add sound effects and music to create a short film by the end of the day. All you have to do is … be prepared to work as part of a team, be creative and have fun! The session is ideal if you have never done any animation before. (GLASGOW AND ABERDEEN ONLY EVENT)
The events are taking place in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen, across the whole of March. Â The dates are:
- Saturday 2nd March- DUNDEE
- Saturday 16th March- ABERDEEN
- Saturday 23rd March- GLASGOW
- Saturday 30th March- EDINBURGH (part of Edinburgh Science Festival)
Places are FREE and secured on a first come first served basis. Â Participants will get everything they need to get started and make something awesome, including lunch, expert industry support, laptops and software…
All they have to do is sign up here and choose the city they want to take part in.
One Day Digital is supported by a huge range of partners including Mozilla, Young Rewired State, Coder Dojo, STV, Mak Lab, BBC, Quartic Llama and Dundee University.
They have really cool equipment for kids to use including raspberry pi, Arduino boards and 3d printers.
If you know any families, kids, young adults (or fresh-faced professional developers) who are even remotely interested in technology, interactive entertainment or digital media, you HAVE to get them involved with One Day Digital.
Sign up here.
You can find out more and follow One Day Digital over on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter.