Billings Beta
technology with intention
Digital Arts Maker Faire trip – day 1
985 days
by Jac de Haan
in Projects
written by Ella, Alex K, Noah, Gabe, Alex MC, Bill, Lexi, Cillian, Sarah & Jac
“I can sum up the day in 5 words: walking, sitting, eating and guitar-hero-ing” – Cillian
We started the day hanging out at SeaTac in Terminal A and were mesmerized by a kinetic sculpture by Seattle artist Trimpin.
We boarded our Virgin America flight on time and “There were no snakes on the plane (says Noah).” The entertainment system was broken but we thought Cillian could fix it…by the time we took off it was working again. Alex MC watched Hannah Montana – Ella watched the College World Series on ESPN.
SFO has cool hand drying machines that Alex K tricked into turning on without drying anything. Lexi sat on the people mover railing and floated down the terminal.
We took a shuttle to the hotel and checked in. They gave us free toothpaste and hairbands!? We ate our lunch in the hotel courtyard and tested the hotel wifi connections on various electronic devices.
3rd form of transportation for the day – we took the CalTrain into downtown San Francisco and then walked 2 miles through the Mission district to Noisebridge, an incredible hacker space. We arrived unannounced and got a super tour of the facilities by Ani Neo – she showed us the tinker space, the electronics lab and the danger room.
We also saw some installation art, such as the Game of Life and one of the original Teen Hunger Force Adult Swim LED ads from the Boston freakout.
“I didn’t want to leave Noisebridge” - Bill
We met Adam and Raphael from NYC Resistor, who are in town for the Maker Faire. Adam has a 3-D printer called Makerbot and will be doing demos at the Faire – we hope to see all our new friends on Saturday.
“Amazingly awesome and I was extremely jealous of their workspace.” – Noah
Once our brains were full, we walked 2 miles up Van Ness to Japantown. We walked by City Hall and then stopped at the Peace Center. After a short rest, we carried on to Jac’s brother’s house, where we ate pasta, broccoli and ice cream and played a couple hours of collaborative Guitar Hero World Tour.
“The Stevester is awesome!” – Alex MC
We ended with a mile sprint to the train station (we missed our train by 6 minutes) and then hung out for a half hour until the next train. Back to the hotel by 11pm.
Blast from the past – Unexercise!
990 days
by Jac de Haan
in Projects
In cleaning up the file server, I came across this hilarious video from the graduating class of 2008. “Unexercise” was created in a collaboration between Kasha’s 8th grade Language Arts class and Tech. The assignment: create a video that demonstrates your understanding of satire:
Blast from the past – Assigned Seats!
994 days
by Jac de Haan
in Projects
In cleaning up the file server, I came across this hilarious video from the graduating class of 2008. “Assigned Seats” was created in a collaboration between Kasha’s 8th grade Language Arts class and Tech. The assignment: create a video that demonstrates your understanding of satire:
Intro to Google Sketchup
996 days
by Jac de Haan
in 6th Grade
Jac is out of town this week, on the Olympic Coast with the 7th grade. 6th grade students won’t miss a beat – this week they are introducing themselves to Google Sketchup, a great free 3-D modeling program.
Students begin their learning by watching a short YouTube introductory video that will introduce several tools. To get more information, try this link to the sketchup video series to learn more.
Doodle 4 Google finalists
1000 days
by Jac de Haan
in 6th Grade
Over 28,000 students submitted artistic renderings of the Mountain View, California’s company logo. No Billings entrants this year, but several sixth grade students are already asking about participation for next year! 
Hockey skate production
1007 days
Gavin and Isaac recently traced the stainless steel in hockey skates back to its production process. Their presentation included an embedded YouTube video from the Discovery Channel and a historical pictorial of hockey skates through the last century.
Freelance designer visits Billings 6th grade
1008 days
by Jac de Haan
in 6th Grade
The 6th grade’s tech visitor series concluded today by spending time with Blair, a Seattle freelance designer who has designed and coded for many companies including Nestle, Microsoft, Cadillac and Burger King.
Blair discussed the benefits of working for yourself (he has 2 chickens in his home office!), how being creative can turn into employment (he makes games and then gets hired to put company logos onto them), and how his interest in art and technology has turned into a career.
Blair uses his own website as a showcase for his talents and is also starting his own small business, PillowMob, which is a great example of bringing a creative idea to the marketplace.
Billings Middle School thanks Blair for his visit!
The truth about diamonds
1009 days
7th grade students Ella & Brandon just completed a presentation about the social, environmental & ecomonic impacts of diamond extraction. Below is the presentation they shared during iCLAST.
School Hurts
1013 days
Part of the iCLAST Paramedic Project, this film was created by Zach, Karsten, Kat & Deena.
Research Assistants?
1014 days
by Kasha Roseta
in 6th Grade
Today we embarked upon a mini-research project designed to help students merge many of the skills they’ve learned this year in Tech class. We picked a current event – swine flu – and focused on data collection, looking for specific pieces of information on a number of different types of sites, such as major newspapers and magazines, radio stations and government agencies. We also analyzed an interactive map in order to find out where the virus is striking the hardest. Students will be analyzing their data next week.
