Tech Camp Blog

Hijack Digital Brighton

03 June 2013

On a cold Wednesday morning, myself, Tom and Pedro went down to Brighton to deliver a day of workshops for the Hijack Family Festival, part of a week long programme organised for children from 2-12 involving art, film, comedy, and science and technology. It was a non-stop day running robot wars, air rockets, our UV light workshop and crazy contraptions.

See if you can spot our workshops in their video of the whole week!

Related Blogs

Meet 5 Women Who Have Shaped the Gaming Industry

The gaming industry, like most technology-focused industries, has traditionally been a male-dominated space. With gaming commonly thought of as a predominantly masculine pastime, opportunities and role models for women trying to enter into the gaming industry have been scarce.

NEW! Weekend Tech Club

Can't wait for the next holidays for more Tech Camps? Join our tutors for weekly hands-on tech workshops in your own home every Saturday and Sunday!

How to: 3D Printing Vacuum Forming Tooling with PLA and HTPLA

In preparation for the Kickstarter of our Invent! Robotics Kit, we have been busy here at Tech Camp HQ designing some fancy new packaging to give a premium-quality kit. We have never been particularly happy with the way the cables are stored in the box - most of the parts are held in with a layer of laser cut foam, but there is a lot of empty space left in the box so the cables (and other parts) end up going everywhere!

More Tech Campers 3D Printing NHS Face Shields

We keep hearing from more campers who have built 3D printers with us over the last few years how they're helping out their local hospitals and care staff. This one from Rémi who built a printer with us 3 years ago ...

Crazy Contraption Day

We had a great day today playing with our new construction system at the Old Blue Coat School in Thatcham. Around 25 children helped us test it out and made all manner of contraptions. We were pretty pleased how it worked, although we might redesign the angled plastic connectors as they turned out to be a bit fragile.

The system is designed to be a bit similar to mecano, with a series of different length bars with equally spaced holes in them, that can be joined together. The difference is ours is more suitable for younger children - the pieces are much larger, and instead of nuts and bolts our system uses some very clever plastic rivets. These simply push into the hole, and expand to lock the two holes together - much easier for children to use. They can also be pushed back out from the other side of the hole, and reused as many times as you like. Combined with a series of small plastic brackets, the bars and rivets can be used to make all manner of creations that are quite large in scale very quickly.

Many thanks to all the human guinea pigs who helped out!

Get the balance right…

Only men being techies is a stereotype up to a certain point, but with the male population providing the lion’s share in the digital industry, questions are being asked why women are in the minority of employees in this field. It could be argued that boys are given remote control cars, planes, trains, robots and drones as presents and therefore are introduced to technology from an early age – or at least that was the case maybe a decade or so ago.

Getting cinema-quality footage using a DIY micro drone and a GoPro

Out of all the courses we run, no tech is so fast changing at the moment as drone racing (OK, maybe 3D Printing is pretty close …) Every year when we review our drones, there are major steps up in what capabilities you can shove into a tiny drone. Now a drone that is able to fit into the palm of your hand can capture cinematic-quality footage.

Does your child play too many games?

Does your child play too many computer games?

We often have conversations with parents who are worried their child plays too many computer games. Is it as bad as it seems? Believe it or not, playing computer games (within limits!) has some well-researched benefits.

A Tech Camp Biosphere - 4 years on!

We recently received an email from one of our campers way back in our second year (2009) when we ran a biotech course. One of the projects was to make your own biosphere, a sealed self-sustaining ecosystem. We would have been impressed with one year, but this one is still going strong after four! If anyone else still has a biosphere, please do send us a picture!

RC Planes Finished

Twenty six planes all built, and all in the air! Twenty five came down (pretty much) intact. This is Greg just before the maiden flight. Sadly this one went straight in a tree but we were able to retrieve it today with the help of some very long ladders, poles, and the helpful people at Ufton Court.

Courses

Stay In Touch!

Subscribe to our newsletter

+44 0118 380 5678

info@techcamp.org.uk

Tech Camp Blog

Hijack Digital Brighton

Related Blogs

Courses

Venues

About Us

Info

Stay In Touch!

Main Menu Mobile