A few days ago I registered the domain "oldgreenmachines.org" so that we could use it for this project. Shortly after I gave ftp rights over to fonrus, one of my programming students who is particularly good at web design.
You can see the site here, and watch it as it develops. Right now there is no content, but we have a nice little scrolling feature that gives thanks to our partners/sponsors.
I'm always impressed by how much my students can juggle and still find time for a project like this.
Next week we finally get to work on stuff in the wood shop--after the pizza, of course.
If anyone has an old electric organ, I have a student that would like to work on it and possibly fix it and donate it to the Skyline music department. We will have contact info on our website, so you can call us if you have one. We'll pick it up from your location--well, within 20 miles or so.... :-)
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Rumors of Pizza
Today we headed on down to the wood shop and thought we'd clean up a few more things and then actually start the fun stuff: taking apart stuff. Well, we never got around to the electronics stuff, as we spend two hours cleaning up the last piles of various things that are hard to deal with because...well, you just don't know what to do with them.
Next week we will be creating circuits, fixing stuff, and taking stuff apart, including, hopefully, pizza.
Next week we will be creating circuits, fixing stuff, and taking stuff apart, including, hopefully, pizza.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Our new Domain Name!!!!
We have officially purchased the domain oldgreenmachines.org which will host the official website of the OGM project. Right now the site is under development by fonrus, a member of the Skyline Programming Club.
Also, after hours of grueling labor, the wood shop will be open for Old Green Machines business this Tuesday, September 22nd! The club will meet first in the computer lab and talk about a few issues such as promotion, recruitment, and blogging. Then, we will go to the wood shop and start working on the huge amount of donated old electronics equipment we have....
Also, after hours of grueling labor, the wood shop will be open for Old Green Machines business this Tuesday, September 22nd! The club will meet first in the computer lab and talk about a few issues such as promotion, recruitment, and blogging. Then, we will go to the wood shop and start working on the huge amount of donated old electronics equipment we have....
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Our newest partner: Ecocycle
Ecocycle is now a partner with us! We look to them for guidance on some of the recycling issues that we're unsure of. Hopefully this project will help educate people about recycling in a new way. Seeing the effects of toxic pollution is bad enough (did you see the 60 Minutes report?), and we may try to investigate local issues that way. More likely, though, we'll just keep looking at all the usable stuff that people toss out in the trash. We're not dumpster divers (yet), but that would be an interesting topic, indeed.
This is tougher than it looks....
We don't have pictures to show all the work we've been doing the last few days--we've been too busy moving stuff and cleaning up grease and grime.
The OGM project really needs some more students to help promote the club and get more members.
Our next steps:
1. We need to make fliers and a poster or two to spread the word about who we are and what we do.
2. We need a logo and some cool designs for our project--and maybe a catch phrase or two.
3. We need to get our future home cleaned up soon, as we are currently homeless... :-(
Once we get the old wood shop in shape, we'll be able to post more about what we like to do. The problem right now is that we haven't been able to do any of the fun stuff. We're too busy boxing up dusty old junk and scraping years of oil and dust and dirt off of the surfaces.
The OGM project really needs some more students to help promote the club and get more members.
Our next steps:
1. We need to make fliers and a poster or two to spread the word about who we are and what we do.
2. We need a logo and some cool designs for our project--and maybe a catch phrase or two.
3. We need to get our future home cleaned up soon, as we are currently homeless... :-(
Once we get the old wood shop in shape, we'll be able to post more about what we like to do. The problem right now is that we haven't been able to do any of the fun stuff. We're too busy boxing up dusty old junk and scraping years of oil and dust and dirt off of the surfaces.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Our First Dissection: Common HP tower
There are so many of these HP Pavilion computers all over the place. If someone says they have an old computer you can have, it will often be one of these, as they were extremely popular.
These are quite compact inside, making upgrading a little difficult, but not impossible--sort of like working under the hood of a Toyota Tacoma after working on a Ford F250....
In the final picture you can see all the parts. Now, each of these parts could be further dissected, and we will post those in the future. Here's what's in the final picture:
These are quite compact inside, making upgrading a little difficult, but not impossible--sort of like working under the hood of a Toyota Tacoma after working on a Ford F250....
In the final picture you can see all the parts. Now, each of these parts could be further dissected, and we will post those in the future. Here's what's in the final picture:
- Power supply
- Outer casing
- Hard-drive
- 3.5" disk drive
- Motherboard + CPU
- Modem card
- Sound card
- 2 strips of RAM memory
- Fan (from the CPU)
- CD drive
- Power Switch
- Various wires and other connectors
- About 25 screws
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
We are working hard!
Today several students and I moved all those old gas engines into boxes and moved them out. We only had one big oil spill and we cleaned it up. We will post pictures soon so you can see the progress.
Also, Ecocycle has responded and I'll share the details on that!
Stay tuned.
Also, Ecocycle has responded and I'll share the details on that!
Stay tuned.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Looking for help
While we're moving to our new location in the SHS woodshop, the Old Green Machines project can use your help.
Students needed to:
1. Blog about the OGM project, telling the community what we do.
2. Take pictures of our work, for use in the blog.
3. Help move heavy boxes.
4. Help produce fliers and posters for display at Skyline.
5. Help design project logos, artwork, stencils (for on collection bins), etc.
If you are interested in helping out, please come see me in room 551 (the Math/Science computer lab).
Things we could really use from community donations:
1. Tools (pliers, screwdrivers, etc.)
2. Storage bins of all sizes.
3. Towels, sponges, buckets, and rags.
4. Soldering pencils, a vacuum cleaner, and a can or two of compressed air.
If you have any of these items and want to donate them to the OGM project, please see our website for information on how to contact us.
Developments this last week:
Karen Hunter of St. Vrain Valley MESA informed us that we would be one of two MESA programs this year at Skyline. This complements Skyline's already popular MESA computer science courses: Intro to Programming, Computer Science (using Python), and AP Computer Science. Intro to Programming has six sections offered this year at SHS!
We are working on a partnership with Ecocycle. Stay tuned for details on that as it develops.
Students needed to:
1. Blog about the OGM project, telling the community what we do.
2. Take pictures of our work, for use in the blog.
3. Help move heavy boxes.
4. Help produce fliers and posters for display at Skyline.
5. Help design project logos, artwork, stencils (for on collection bins), etc.
If you are interested in helping out, please come see me in room 551 (the Math/Science computer lab).
Things we could really use from community donations:
1. Tools (pliers, screwdrivers, etc.)
2. Storage bins of all sizes.
3. Towels, sponges, buckets, and rags.
4. Soldering pencils, a vacuum cleaner, and a can or two of compressed air.
If you have any of these items and want to donate them to the OGM project, please see our website for information on how to contact us.
Developments this last week:
Karen Hunter of St. Vrain Valley MESA informed us that we would be one of two MESA programs this year at Skyline. This complements Skyline's already popular MESA computer science courses: Intro to Programming, Computer Science (using Python), and AP Computer Science. Intro to Programming has six sections offered this year at SHS!
We are working on a partnership with Ecocycle. Stay tuned for details on that as it develops.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Agenda for Tuesday Sept 8th
1. We need to design some posters and fliers to go up around school.
2. We might be able to set up a display in a display case of one of each of our categories:
A--stuff we fix and give back
B--electronica obscuria (strange old stuff we find)
C--complete dissections (show ALL the parts in a device)
D--something we made from all the parts of something else
I want you all to be able to do these, but for now we'll have a few that I've done in my garage for examples. We should also blog for each one, as those are four of our main blog categories. Here's what I have for each category:
A: fixed a meditation water sculpture that the Boulder Humane Society had tested and found to not work correctly. Just had to open up the water pump and find the cat hair all wrapped around the main drive shaft in there.
B: I can pull out about 7 or 8 examples of those automatic timers to turn lights on and off, ranging from the early 70s to now.
C: ? Not sure. Why don't we do this on Tuesday and we'll document it for the blog and keep the parts for the display case. Maybe a telephone would be good.
D: My mood lamp! :-) Hopefully it can be powered in the display case, with a dark background....
3. Mrs. Baker's 8th period class would like to have a few students come down and talk about the Old Green Machines club, and what we do. I'm not sure who would do this, but you could take stuff with you and give a demo. This will have to be a bit later, though.
4. We need to get some large bins and make a stencil or something so we can spraypaint our logo on them and put something like "when this is filled, call us at 720-494-XXXX and we'll come pick it up!" Then, we need a few volunteers to go deliver these to some more thrift stores, and to the ones that already give us stuff.
5. There IS NO NUMBER FIVE.
2. We might be able to set up a display in a display case of one of each of our categories:
A--stuff we fix and give back
B--electronica obscuria (strange old stuff we find)
C--complete dissections (show ALL the parts in a device)
D--something we made from all the parts of something else
I want you all to be able to do these, but for now we'll have a few that I've done in my garage for examples. We should also blog for each one, as those are four of our main blog categories. Here's what I have for each category:
A: fixed a meditation water sculpture that the Boulder Humane Society had tested and found to not work correctly. Just had to open up the water pump and find the cat hair all wrapped around the main drive shaft in there.
B: I can pull out about 7 or 8 examples of those automatic timers to turn lights on and off, ranging from the early 70s to now.
C: ? Not sure. Why don't we do this on Tuesday and we'll document it for the blog and keep the parts for the display case. Maybe a telephone would be good.
D: My mood lamp! :-) Hopefully it can be powered in the display case, with a dark background....
3. Mrs. Baker's 8th period class would like to have a few students come down and talk about the Old Green Machines club, and what we do. I'm not sure who would do this, but you could take stuff with you and give a demo. This will have to be a bit later, though.
4. We need to get some large bins and make a stencil or something so we can spraypaint our logo on them and put something like "when this is filled, call us at 720-494-XXXX and we'll come pick it up!" Then, we need a few volunteers to go deliver these to some more thrift stores, and to the ones that already give us stuff.
5. There IS NO NUMBER FIVE.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
We have a home!
We love it. There are six large tables in there that we will be able to use and keep set up while we work on various OGM projects. Two of the tables will soon be used to get older (but not too old) computers up and running for a community outreach project. The other four will be for the "factory" of the OGM project: testing, fixing, dissecting, and reusing all sorts of things that otherwise would have been sent to the landfill.
We have contacted nearby Ecocycle in an attempt to form a partnership to help educate people about electronic waste. It also looks as if St. Vrain Valley MESA will be supporting our program, although we need to work out the details on that. We will post updates here as they occur.
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