KiCad has its own conference! In April 26 and 27, the 1st KiCad Conference (KiCon), will take place in Chicago. Tech Explorations is a proud sponsor of the conference, and we have a ticket, valued at $99, to give out. Why would you want to go to KiCon? To begin with, checkout the speakers and […]
ESP32 IoT project update 4
Today I received my ESP32 Devkit breakout from PCBWay (thank you to them for their support). I designed this breakout because I needed an easy, jumper wire-free, way to connect my ESP32 development board to the peripherals of my project: The TFT touchscreen, The BME280 sensor, A couple of indicator LEDs I also wanted […]
ESP32 IoT project update 3
In the week since my last update, I have made several modifications and additions to my project. Here’s what my ESP32 gadget contains: A ESP32 WROOM-32 Dev Kit v4 A BME280 I2C sensor A 2.8″ TFT SPI display, 240×320, with touch interface (ILI9341 controller) Two LEDs and their resistors Here’s what this gadget can do: […]
An interview with Jeff Wiener, CERN
Last week I had an awesome conversation with Jeff Wiener. Jeff is a staff scientist, managing CERN’s national and international teacher training programmes and investigating teachers’ conceptions of particle physics. Our discussion was filled with science and education. It is amazing what goes on at CERN, from their research efforts in fundamental and particle physics, to […]
Understanding The Python SQLite3 Query Process
The Internet is comprised from an odd collection of hardware devices, software programs (code), and networking components connected together over the air and through physical conduits enabling a modern world access to goods, services, and information almost instantaneously. Most of us have very little idea of how any of this works! The Raspberry Pi Full […]
Reason to Think
By Peter Ellerton Queensland Studies Authority The defining aspect of these secular times must surely be the call to base our behaviour as a species on evidence-based reasoning, and it’s certainly a call you’d expect from a magazine dedicated to examining sceptical issues. On the surface of it, this sounds like the best path to epistemological […]
A new home for Tech Explorations
This website is a platform on which we are building an awesome learning experience for our students. A connected, interactive, social learning experience. A Maker Education-style experience. Let me explain… When I started working on Tech Explorations in 2013 with my business partner (and wife) Michelle, my “why” was simple: I wanted to teach the things […]
Here’s to the end of an awesome year, and the start of another awesome year
Another year is about to end, only to get us into a new one. For me, the last twelve months were full of learning and discovery. I read more books then I did in the last 5 years, combined. I wrote more blog posts and books (including my largest book ever, KiCad Like a Pro […]
Learning like an inventor (Book chapter from Maker Education Revolution)
This post is a chapter from my book “Maker Education Revolution“. For image attribution, please scroll to the bottom of this post. “To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.” — Thomas A. Edison Inventors are said to be children that never grew up. With their minds unchanged from their childish […]
A ‘wired’ IoT network for makers
It was a few minutes before midnight when the security alarm of our neighbors started whaling. It happens all the in our neighborhood, and nobody pays attention anymore. However, that night, I was alone in the house with our baby, so I took a nervous peek through the window. And there it was. Three men […]