Have you heard of the Iron Brothers of Topeka? They’ve got some of the coolest cosplay I’ve ever seen, and it was especially cool to see them at Figments and Filaments in Kansas City. The convention itself was pretty small, so we were able to get up close (and yes, that’s me) and get pictures. By the way, that’s the Iron Brothers’ very own cosplay Stan Lee.
From furry foxes to partying princesses, there was nothing but costumes and cosplay at the second annual Figments and Filaments convention in Kansas City this past weekend.
This lovely Artemis was a cosplayed and volunteer for Amanda Lynn Chainmaille Creations.
My grade school days are so far behind me, I remember very little about any sort of science experiments. I vaguely recall something about adding food coloring to water to turn white carnations different colors. BOR-ING. If I had Andrew Gatt for a teacher, I think I would have some pretty epic science memories.
As the lower school science specialist as a school in Raleigh, North Carolina, Andrew started building paper roller coasters in the late 90s as an activity in his 5th grade classroom. He continued refining his designs over the years, and started making presentations of his designs at teacher conventions and eventually started selling the templates and directions. These days, he teaches science to 7th and 8th graders and uses the templates with his 7th graders each fall. The templates are available on his website.
Homeschoolers and science aficionados rejoice! Andrew offers three lesson plans to use with the paper roller coasters, which are available for free download on his website, PaperRollerCoasters.com. “The lesson plans show how paper roller coasters can be used to teach about speed, acceleration, potential energy, and kinetic energy,” says Andrew. “It’s also a great structural engineering lesson in which students have to build a sturdy structure that will hold up the tracks.”
See videos of paper roller coasters in action on Andrew’s YouTube channel!
Up to the challenge of building your own coaster? We’d love to hear about your efforts and results – feel free to share a link to your creation in the comments below! Go forth now and SCIENCE!
Check out this Kickstarter campaign. Xander is raising capital to start a business making screen-printed nerdy pirate flags, and he has some great designs!
not quite, entirely unlike tea
From the site:
“Pirates are cool! Aside from being covetous, rum-swigging, no-rules-having bad-asses, you know what makes them so freakin’ awesome? Their flags!
Take the Jolly Roger—one of the most iconic symbols in recent history. It was flown by men and women of fortune to show the world that they would not be ruled—that they were free.
I want to make the same statement. I’m opening a pirate flag screen-printing operation to create personal Jolly Rogers to sell at comic conventions, Renaissance fairs, art shows, and other events.”
He only has 3 days to go and has just about reached his goal! Definitely worth checking out!
Developed in 1869 by the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev to help illustrate commonalities in the various properties of elements, the Periodic Table has been both boon and bane to high school chemistry students around the world (my own experiences fell definitely to the “bane” side.)
Fast forward about 140 years, and we have a more modern version, and infinitely more useful, thanks to James the ComputerSherpa. In his first Visual Design class he came up with this little beauty – the Periodic Table of Storytelling.
James really did his research, turning to TVTropes.org for inspiration and information on “tropes” – which TVTropes defines as “devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members’ minds and expectations.” Writers (and Hollywood types) can use these fictional elements to craft endless variations of story lines. Being a wiki, TVTropes has vast quantities of information and discussion threads, so James’ graphical version of the Periodic Table is a real timesaver.
Beyond the concept as a whole, I love the examples at the bottom, illustrating how one might describe certain shows, movies, games, etc, using formulas based on this Periodic Table. For instance, when you combine:
…and you get Star Wars. Not sure about the “Dragon” element on this one, but then, I have mentioned my chemistry is not my super power.
James very kindly put the image up for purchase as a poster – it would be fun to sit around with a bunch of geeks and work out formulas for various shows and book storylines. Maybe I’ll have to get one for my son to take to college in the fall, for he will surely find himself a gang of geeks to hand out with, and I wouldn’t want them to run out of things to talk about.
[Via: BitRebels]
