EcoTarium + ThingM Seedits!

The EcoTarium is a unique indoor-outdoor science and nature museum in Worcester MA. Set in an urban oasis, the EcoTarium has a digital planetarium, observatory, narrow gauge railroad wildlife trails and engaging science, nature and technology exhibits. The EcoTarium offers visitors a chance to get hands-on with family friendly exhibits.  The goal of using the ThingM Seedkit is to use programmable LEDs in a museum setting.

First Project:  Paper Theater

What we did:  To test the idea of a paper or model theater, we used the reproduction book ”Children’s Theater”, a pop-up book with four theater scenes published in Germany in 1878. It provided an easy start for experimenting with MinMs as set lighting.

What they learned:  Our kids for this demo were quite young, and were delighted with the pop-up book theater. We used the Christmas themed page to match  the season. Again we started with standard LEDs and batteries, then moved on to BlinkM products. The concept of stage lighting and inserting LEDs between the wings was easy for them to try themselves, and they were surprised by what the lighting affects could do to change the mood of the book pages. What we learned:  Using the BlinkM Sequencer to change the lighting between “scenes” was a big success. We used a LinkM, CtrlM and FreeM let them do this at a distance. The favorite was using the thunderstorm sequence on the Red Riding Hood set to create threatening weather before the wolf showed up!