LightUp: Electronic Building Blocks and Augmented Reality App

Project Title : LightUp: Learn by Making (with Augmented Reality)

Creator : Josh Chan (LightUp)

Description : I've been a supporter of this project since day 1, if I recall correctly, and though I wanted to get Josh and the LightUp folks onto the Bake Sale podcast, we just couldn't get our schedules to sync.  No wonder, too, because their project's been a stunning success, raising more than $100,000 compared to their $50,000 goal.

What is LightUp?  It's a little bit like Snap Circuits in its use of kid-safe electronic components (e.g., complete a circuit and turn on a light) except that the LightUp adds to that an augmented reality app via your smartphone that will allow kids to "virtually" see the electricity flowing through the circuit -- or not flowing, if you and your kids have failed to construct the circuit properly.  That's the sort of thing that I think really makes the educational possibilities of this project shine.

There are lots of different types of kits available starting at $39, and the fancier ones will even allow you and your kids to do some Arduino programming.  If you'd like to support the project, though, you'd better hurry as it ends Sunday night, June 30.

Mobius: Animated Series for Families

Description : I love the concept of this project -- it's an animated series developed for smartphones and tablets about Mobius, "an incredibly adventurous 8 year old, who loves nothing more than to escape his hum-drum, fish and chips, tea and toast village in rural England and go on expeditions that almost every kid dreams of."  The rough "animatic" posted on the project page is funny, and does seem to hit the mark for humor for both parent and kid.

Unfortunately, the project doesn't seem to have taken off, and they've only had about 0.5% of the $260,000 British pounds they're seeking collected.  But even with that, a pledge for this project is a vote for good, smart family entertainment.

Johnny & Jason: Be Alive!, Their Second Kids Music Album

Description : I liked the debut album Go, Go... Go, Go, Go from the Portland duo.  In fact, I called it one of 2011's best debut kids music albums.  As a result, I was happy to hear that the duo was working on a follow-up album called Be Alive! and using Kickstarter to master the tracks, duplicate it, and get it out into the world.  There's just a little bit less than 2 days to go, and they've safely cleared their $3,700 project goal.  So you can safely pledge in confidence knowing that the project will reach the finish line (and that you'll like it when it does).

The Code Witch: A Pre-Teen Fantasy Novel With a Female Programmer

Description : Programmer Ada Lovelace is having a bit of a Kickstarter moment.  There was Wollstonecraft, a YA novel about Lovelace and Mary Shelley (programming and  steampunk), and now a novel from a pair of Stanford University seniors, Sarah Sterman and Elise Guinee-Cooper are writing The Code Witch .  It's a pre-teen fantasy novel featuring a female programmer, whose setup is described as "a dragon shows up at Ada's door, starting an adventure of magic and coding."

Miss Mary Mack might very well be the perfect target audience for this novel -- interested in reading and math, and probably susceptible to being swayed into coding.  Even though my coding days never got past computer science classes in high school, I'm excited about the idea that more women should be coding, and every little bit, even fictional narratives, can change the culture.  $8 gets you the e-book, $15, the paperback.

 

BrickPi: Using a Raspberry Pi Computer with LEGO Bricks

 Description : Take your Raspberry Pi computer (it's about the size of a credit card), place it in the board, and you can connect the board to LEGO® motors and gears.  The case will protect as it motors on the go.

As a parent of a child who's eagerly anticipating the start of LEGO Robotics at the start of the school year, this sounds like an awesome way to have fun and learn some programming skills.  I'm not as eager about the idea of programming a robot to become a ball cannon, but that's a risk I'm willing to take.  $45 gets you the board and case (Raspberry Pi, about $25-$40, and LEGOs are your own responsibility.)

Introducing the Non-Cast

For a variety of reasons, there are family-friendly Kickstarter and other crowdfunding projects I'd like to feature but just can't do it in podcast format. 

Why should that stop me from promoting them, though? 

So I'm going to start mentioning them occasionally here on the website.  They'll be brief mentions, not much more than a summary, but if you're enjoying what you're hearing about, I think you'll like reading about some of these items, too.  We'll call it the "Non-Cast."  Hope it helps you find even more cool projects.