Technology That Gives Us Superpowers

 by Elaine Kachala

It’s happening! We’re living through a Machine Revolution unlike anything before.

Science and technology have always shaped human civilization. But computers for our bodies and minds?

Our world is exploding with smart wearable devices. They have all the functions of a computer. They can store, retrieve, and process data. But they’re different from desktops or laptops, or hand-held devices because they’re intensely personal! Wearables live on us, in us, or close to us.

Smartwatches or activity trackers were once the most popular kind of wearable technology. But that’s changing with the next generation of devices. The “wrist” is history! We won’t be strapping wearables onto our wrists anymore. Our brains, skin, eyes, ears, and clothing are new ways to connect with technology. A couple of examples here barely scratch the surface of what’s happening. 

 

Photo credit: Northwestern University

Source: Rogers, J. https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2016/11/researchers-develop-soft-microfluidic-lab-on-the-skin-for-sweat-analysis/&fj=1

Dr. John Rogers at Northwestern University developed a small electronic device. It captures and analyzes a person’s sweat. It wirelessly connects with a smartphone to help someone know if they’re becoming dehydrated.

Google’s Project Jacquard^TM took smart clothes to a new level. They partnered with Levis to launch a jacket with built-in sensors and conductive fabric. It can send signals to your smartphone. Tap your jacket to answer calls or play music! And, they’ve developed a smart tag that slips into any piece of clothing or object for connectivity. See https://atap.google.com/jacquard/#.

This brain-sensing headband by Muse^TM helps people relax, meditate, focus, and sleep.

 

Photo: Elaine Kachala

This is my Muse, but here’s the website https://choosemuse.com/.

 

Sensors inside the headband detect and measure the activity of a person’s brain, along with sensors that track heart rate, breathing, and movement. Look closely, and you can see the soft gold patches on the fabric; those are the sensors. The pod at the top is the brain-sensing technology. The headband uses Bluetooth to connect to a smartphone. Once a person selects a program from the Muse app, the rest journey begins. After meditating, Muse uses algorithms to turn the brainwave activity into information about how well a person slept or relaxed, so they learn what works best.

Exoskeletons are like wearable robot suits. They apply robotics, mechanics, and electronics to support people with extra strength and endurance. For example, soldiers, firefighters, factory workers, and others can wear this suit to help them carry heavy loads or cross over rugged terrain. People with difficulty walking because of illnesses or injuries can wear them to move more easily. 

Computers are being infused into everything wearable. They can empower people to live better lives. And with advances in artificial intelligence, sensors, software, materials science, robotics, cloud computing, mobile networks, and the Internet of Things (IoT), wearables are getting smarter. 

These devices know a lot about us because they collect data about our body movements, location, heart rate, voice sounds, and more. They know how we feel and what we’re looking at. Wearables collect personal information that can put our privacy, safety, and security at risk. 

And, there are some bigger questions to think about too. Our minds and bodies are merging with computers. Can this human-machine evolution go too far? What if some people can afford wearables but others can’t?

Stay-tunned for my book called Super Power? The Wearable Tech Revolution. It will debut in Fall 2022 with Orca Book Publishers. The book explores how wearable electronics and robotics, virtual reality, and brain-computer interfaces are changing our lives and why designers, engineers, and scientists strive towards responsible design. For more info, please visit me at www.elainekachala.com

STEAM Benefits of Stop Motion Animation

by Joan Marie Galat  

I wasn’t looking for a new hobby when I discovered how fun it is to play with stop motion animation. Inspired by a friend’s video of a jigsaw puzzle completing itself, I decided to learn more about the technique of moving static objects in small increments and photographing each change. Playing back a series of frames makes objects appear to move, and you have animation.

Stop motion is a useful STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) building activity for the learners in your life, and intriguing because you can make anything appear to move! It’s easy to get started using free phone apps, such as iMotion. Common props include clay figures, Lego, and paper cut-outs. You can also alter images in increments on a whiteboard and photograph each change through the app. I like the challenge of using household objects. This no-shopping route is pandemic-friendly. You can take part without leaving home and spend as much time as like honing your skills. One of my first attempts was to make one of my books climb a flight of stairs.

    

 Next, I used letter tiles to announce a new book.

 

Then I tried to get fancy.

   

As well as encouraging creative expression, stop motion is an effective tool for illustrating science, as it requires breaking concepts into parts. Suppose you decide to demonstrate planet movement in our solar system. Your process would include arranging the planets in order, setting scaled distances to the Sun, and demonstrating speed of movement.

As you experiment, practical math themes arise. How can you best sequence images to tell a story? What happens if you move an object in smaller or larger increments? How do images present if you speed or slow your number of frames per second?

Engineering comes into play as creators brainstorm approaches and solutions. Like engineers, animators must revise and try again before sharing results. Animating science and engineering concepts puts art into learning, keeping students interested. It’s easy to work literacy skills in too, as you storyboard your ideas. Stop motion endeavors build technological expertise, encouraging students to experience media from a creator’s perspective. This encourages critical thinking, when consuming media. How did they do that? How can I find out? 

Stop motion was used to make Isle of Dogs, Chicken Run, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, The Lego Movie, Shaun the Sheep, and many other films. You can find plenty of examples on YouTube including a few on my channel, such as Alien Telescope Invasion.

   

For more ideas on how to get creative using engineering, check out Solve This! Wild and Wacky Challenges for the Genius Engineer in You (National Geographic Kids).

Teenage Water Science Technician

posted by Paula Johanson
What was your first job, fresh out of school? Something in retail, perhaps.
Or if you're still in school, are you currently delivering newspapers or mowing lawns?
Guess what job teenager Quentin Rae of North Spirit Lake First Nation has, right after finishing high school... has anyone guessed Water Plant Operator? Good golly, there's science technician work in northern Ontario!

Ninteen-year-old Quentin Rae has been hired by his community to operate their new water treatment plant. He is monitoring and maintaining water quality with the assistance and support of Northern Chiefs Council (Keewatinook Okimakanak). The council is getting Quentin specialized training which will enable his community to have clean drinking water, after fourteen years of a Boil Water Advisory.

You can read about it all in the CBC news article at this link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/teen-first-nation-drinking-water-1.3563110?fbclid=IwAR261xzPfTv1MQp6hAaYnHM6I7khFUeS1qAAaCmTSJvwuKPut0W_-qjv0Zs

3D Printers Bring New Vision to Picture Books

Post by Helaine Becker

Once in a Blue Moon (or in this case, a Goodnight, Moon),  all your fields of interest wind up coinciding. Or coalescing,as the case may be, into one giant, brilliant hyperbang of kidlit, science-y marvelousness.

This happened to me today when I opened my browser and read about a new development in the world of technology. Or should I say in the world of children's literature? Or...Eureka! Both!

Last year, I had the great good fortune and honour to be a judge at the CNIB's Braille Writing Contest for Children.

At the CNIB Braille Writing Contest award ceremony,
 with winner Julia Jantzen, here shown typing
on a  laptop with a refreshable braille keyboard

I learned so much. From the kids, and from the incredible staff at the CNIB, who have developed dozens of ways to help the blind people they represent live the fullest and most productive lives possible. 

And I also learned about the challenges faced by the CNIB and its library:

The inevitable and unremitting need for funding. 

The fact that their constituency is literally coast to coast to coast - a tough reach for a library. 

And the fact that most of us out here in the sighted world have no clue about how to accommodate blind kids, or even that we need to. 

One perfect example was presented to me by CNIB Librarian Karen Brophey. She described exactly how much work goes into making sure her library can participate fully in the TD Summer Reading Club  (kicking off RIGHT NOW across Canada). 

According to the CNIB, ten per cent of Canadians have disabilities that prevent them from reading traditional print (this includes visual, physical and learning disabilities), and over 550,000 of these readers are children. Without specially designed activity sheets, and braille and audio versions of the books, blind kids can't read and play and enjoy the Reading Club the way their sighted peers can.  Yet these kids fall off the radar of most libraries - public librarians simply don't see them (ironic, eh?)

Thanks to the CNIB, kids across the country can participate in the TD Summer Reading Club using the tactile and audio materials they develop.They make selected works for the program available in alternate formats like braille and audio books. They create program materials like tool kits and inclusive activity ideas. And CNIB staff reach out to over 900 public libraries across Canada to provide training on how to implement the accessible reading club in local libraries.

Now let's circle back around to my Eureka moment: my discovery of the hot-off-the-press technical innovation of 3D-printed tactile picture books. Thanks to new technology, visually-impaired kids who until now were deprived of the full joy of reading a picture book suddenly can. They can feel the cow jumping over the moon in Goodnight, Moon,  and touch the bowl of mush, and the old lady whispering hush. They can participate fully in the magic of illustrated books on their own.

3D-printed tactile pages from Goodnight, Moon. Image from UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO CASEY A. CASS/UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO

Tom Yeh, an assistant professor in the University of Colorado's Department of Computer Science who directed the 3D picture book project, says, "The idea of tactile picture books is not new. What is new is making 3D printing more accessible and interactive so parents and teachers of visually impaired children can customize and print these kinds of picture books in 3D."  To reach that goal, Yeh and his team integrate computer technology and mathematical diagrams to produce books kids can feel. "This project is much more difficult than I envisioned, but it also is much more rewarding." 

The Tactile Picture Book project has so far produced touchy-feely versions of Goodnight, Moon, Harold and the Purple Crayon, The Cat in the Hat and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. More are undoubtedly on the way. But even more important, as the price of 3D printing comes down, people will be able to print their own tactile books, customized to each child's unique needs. 

Now THAT's why I shouted Eureka at my laptop this morning. Thanks to science, more kids can be given the chance to fall in love with reading. And through reading, maybe to fall in love with science...

Coincidentally, this year's theme for the TD Summer Reading Club is Eureka!  

I couldn't have said it better.

For more on the Tactile Book project, and to see pictures of Harold and the Purple Crayon  in 3D, go here 

The 50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel? Maybe....

In the November 2013 issue of The Atlantic, the Editors present a list of their top 50 inventions since, well, the wheel.

A few years ago, I covered this same ground in my book What's the Big Idea? from Owlkids.

Needless to say, the choice presented in my book were not exactly the same as the ones the Atlantic came up with (and there are more of them). That's partly because I selected inventions based on what's most important to kids.

For example, there's the all-important needle.

The needle you say? Why would kids care about a needle?

Simple. The needle is what allowed our ancestors to survive the brutal cold of the Ice Age in Northern Europe etc. etc. They used it so they weren't totally reliant on furs for clothing. And think about it - if you drape furs around you, they can be a little drafty. You really need something to wear underneath them, something close to the skin that you can layer...

Underwear.

Without the needle, there'd be no underwear. And without underwear, we wouldn't have survived the freezy breezy.

So check out the Atlantic list of inventions for sure, but don't overlook, ahem, what's under-represented. Check out What's the Big Idea? for a real EYE-opener. (get it?)

PSST, while you're at it, you might what to check out my current book, Ode to Underwear! Yes, I have a "thing" for underthings!)

Science magazines for kids

A few days ago an email arrived in my inbox from a Toronto colleague -- health writer Jane Langille -- to let me know about a new science magazine. (Thanks, Jane!)

I really enjoyed exploring the website (see Brainspace below), and that made me think about other children's magazines that cater to science interests.

Here are a few science magazines for kids that I know about:

Owl Kids: For me, Owl magazine and its cohorts Chirp and chickaDEE, each geared for a specific age group, remain the standard for Canadian kids' magazines. Owl, geared for nine- to 13-year-old readers, began as a nature and science magazine, but in recent years expanded its scope to include many other subjects and themes. It's been around for some 35 years, and it's still winning awards.

Owl also has an attractive website with content to explore geared for kids as well as teachers & parents. For example, the World Watch section offers links to causes of all types, including science-related topics.

Brainspace: New kid on the block, Brainspace is available through a website offering videos, a blog, and special content for students as well as teachers & parents. This Canadian magazine promises to offer interesting articles on math, geography, technology, and more.

If you've seen the September issue, please let me know: can the cover really talk? And how does it do that?


In my opinion, there's always room for more magazines offering content designed for readers in specific age groups, especially when the articles cover science. When I searched for children's science magazines, I found lots of links.

Odyssey: This is a science magazine designed for readers aged nine to 14, and the website says it intends to make its readers excited about science. Its topic range includes traditional school science subjects like physics and biology, as well as the environment, technology, and careers in the science fields.

Odyssey is part of the Cobblestone & Cricket family of magazines. Cricket has many different magazines geared for various ages and interests offered through Carus publishing (US). Each magazine has its own website, and the Odyssey site is full of interesting content and sample articles.

Kids Discover: While searching for magazines about science for kids, I came across this website. The Kids Discover website says it was started by a parent/publisher in 1991. It carries several science or science-related topics in its content list, from earth to space sciences.

I don't know much about this online magazine, but the website certainly looks interesting and I was able to read some samples of the content. Has anyone read it? What did you think? (Please leave a comment below.)


Do you have any favourite science magazines? Or any favourite magazines that have interesting articles about science?

Please leave a comment -- and share a link!

By Marie Powell

Marie Powell is the author of seven books for children, including Dragonflies are Amazing (Scholastic) and a new six-book series of Word Families books published by Amicus Publishing. 

SPOTting the Deep Past

This summer, I went journeying Into The Deep Past again. This time, it wasn't a chance to walk through my home neighbourhood again and see the geological changes that have shaped the world around me. Nope! This time, instead of the familiar hills and ocean shorelines of Vancouver Island, I was exploring the Alberta Badlands along the Red Deer River.

See that tiny dot mid-river, below the bluff? That's me in my kayak!

There are so many ways of showing that process of being in a place and learning to understand what we are seeing. My daughter Lila is a professional photographer; she took the photos above and below, which show me setting out on the river in an inflatable kayak that has served me well in many places close to home, and now on the river.

These photographs contrast well to the painting artist Suzanne Robb made of another location a day's paddle downstream from my launch point. Here, Suzanne shows the striking patterns of weathering that are so visible from the river. The deep runnels that cut into the layers of sediment expose fossils from millions of years ago, when this area was under the shallow Bearpaw Sea.

Suzanne's painting shows the colours as they are felt, instead of the muted way they are shown in Lila's photos. Eroded hillsides looked like dinosaur bones sticking out of the clay and sand -- and yes, there are dinosaur bones all through the sediments from 65 million years ago and older! Other eroded bluffs along the river banks have round faces like Mount Rushmore, and some crumbles have sharp broken edges like profiles of faces looking up-river at the Buffalo Jump.
It's wonderful how different people can be in the same place and create different ways of showing what they have learned. I'm not the photographer that Lila is, nor the painter that Suzanne is. I use other technology to help show people where I've been. One of my best tools is the SPOT device. It's a small electronic device a little bigger than a cell phone. Press the OK button, and it sends a signal to any passing communications satellite to send a pre-written message to up to ten of my friends, with a link to my GPS location on a map.

This is a map of the first message I sent from the Red Deer River.

The map of my second day's travels shows that I went through Dry Island Buffalo Jump Park and camped near Tolman Bridge. The spot marked 4 on the next map shows where I looked at the buffalo jump and the mesa called Dry Island. Some maps look better on a satellite photo, like this one that even shows the shadow of a few little clouds.

The buffalo jump is impressive if you know what you're looking at; a cliff becomes a cliff where the buffalo would fall, not just a crumbly bluff. And below wasn't just a jumble of muddy crumbles mixed with old bones. It was the place where people would have been waiting with spears to finish off the buffalo, after the runners had driven them off the cliff. Falling a hundred feet onto its head doesn't kill a buffalo. But the fall does stun it or break a leg, so it's easier to kill. And then, there's lots of water here from the river and a nearby stream, for the butchering and cooking. The science of buffalo hunting makes sense when you can see the cliff and the water.
The river makes more sense in some ways, too, when I see it on the map that shows how few roads there are in this part of Alberta, or on the satellite photo that shows how the river gouged out its little canyon through this dry land. The SPOT is no substitute for a camera, but it's a good tool to have for keeping track of where I've been. Ultimately, nothing matches being there, feeling the slippery clay clinging to my feet, or the tea-brown river quietly slipping between banks where cattle graze and swallows dart.