Success Stories

“Discover and foster capabilities” #55

gintare — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 06:17:26 +0000

“Discover and foster capabilities” #55

gintare Tue, 10/15/2019 - 08:17

Have you ever faced the issue that you forgot to close the window before it starts raining? In that case, the children of the primary school in Gröbming, Austria, have a solution for you. And many more solutions for different types of issues, all of them developed during a roll-out activity of DOIT. The DOIT challenge was one opportunity to show what they have created during the organised programming days of the school. And indeed, what they invented is most convincing: alarms for saving water in the household, a prototype for protecting hydroelectric power stations from damage, flooding alarms, football field water stop&go lights and tools providing water for animals. Also the DOIT expert jury found these ideas extraordinary, thus the children of the primary school in Gröbming won the top three ideas and prototypes in the category of 6-10 years-old of the DOIT challenge.

How comes that these kids are so successful? Clearly, initiatives like the DOIT activities need to find an already fruitful ground in order to grow. The director and the teaching team provide exactly this: for several years already the school has been very keen on implementing the idea of creation, programming and problem solving into its curriculum. The focus lies on the smooth integration of multimedia and programming skills into the day2day teaching methods, following a holistic learning and teaching concept that leaves sufficient space for creativity and individual development. Multimedia and programming is considered as a tool for learning and development that supports at one hand to fulfil the requested curriculum. On the other hand it fosters students’ individual capabilities and the development thereof.

The tools themselves play a subordinate role, provided that they adapt well to the different age of the children. Thus the children of the primary school in Gröbming have learned i.g. with BeeBots, LegoEducation, Calliopes and Microbits, just to name some of the tools. In this holistic learning environment, the children found it easy to develop solutions during the programming days in spring 2019. Within several hours the children managed to identify many different issues and problems dealing with the overall topic ‘water’, to find creative solutions and to produce a fully functional prototype including programming.

This fruitful environment that is driven by the director and supported by teachers needs time to grow, the acceptance by the parents and the support by local and national authorities. It also requires an understanding of how to adapt to the framework and the school environment itself, including the cooperation with existing networks and local partnerships.

This consistent work is one explanation why these kids can adapt so well to new challenges and at the end of the day invent water alarms and detectors, tools for the household or hydroelectric power stations.

And yes, the success story continues. In this school year the Volksschule Gröbming is part of an Erasmus+ project, sharing their ideas and experiences with schools from Greece and Italy. (https://www.volksschule-groebming.at/de/aktuelles/meldungen/erasmus.php)

"The Dancing Robot" - SUCCESS STORY #53

eva — Thu, 04 Jul 2019 08:24:40 +0000

"The Dancing Robot" - SUCCESS STORY #53

eva Thu, 07/04/2019 - 10:24

There are a lot of easy ways to introduce beginners to coding. With our little robot "Cubetto", children can explore basic programming, since the robot can only move one step forward or turn 90 degrees to the left or to the right. The participants should design a game board for the robot (for example there were many ideas for a labyrinth) and then program it without errors to the goal. The children first placed the commands, then pressed the start button and if everything was right, cubetto drove error-free to the finish line. In the beginning it was difficult for the children to classify the commands correctly, they especially often confused left and right. But with trial and error, they quickly became Cubetto experts! They also soon discovered in the development process that there were few green stones to let the robot take a step forward. So the only stones that were left at the end, made the robot turn right and left. So they decided that by turning, the robot would dance as he reached his destination.

Not only the dance at the end was motivating for the participants, they also achieved a second goal: They "programmed" all existing game pieces. In the end, they were very satisfied with their results and could look back on a successful, collaborative work process.

CC BY 4.0 DOIT, http://DOIT-Europe.Net, H2020-770063 Please share and spread this story! It is published under an open license. If you copy and paste everything, including the license, we are fine with sharing and re-publishing, also translating it! Contact us, if you want to share your own story! (e-mail: info@doit-europe.net)

p.s. Do you know a child from 6 to 16 years who has developed a social innovation using maker facilities? Maybe you are working on a project with kids or you know a committed person in a makerspace? Contact us, if you want to share your own story! →https://www.facebook.com/DOIT.Europe.Net/

“Entrepreneurial skills for young social innovators in an open digital world DOIT Europe” project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement №770063

"The minus dice" - SUCCESS STORY #52

eva — Thu, 04 Jul 2019 07:45:42 +0000

"The minus dice" - SUCCESS STORY #52

eva Thu, 07/04/2019 - 09:45

You often encounter obstacles during the development of products and services. These obstacles may intimidate some people and they stop working - but if you don't let them get you down, you'll soon find out that things can go up again even after a setback: This is called "failing forward". By experimenting with the prototypes you notice how you have to change things to build the "perfect" prototype and find a way to include your failures in your working process.

At DOIT's Roll Out Activities in the children's city of Salzburg, the participants should develop games with simple programming codes and digital tools which, at best, would solve the city's problems or challenges (in a playful way). A group of boys developed a game with 17 squares and also used the DOIT cube template to create their own dice. But they wanted something new: bored by the traditional dice with the numbers 1-6, they decided to write other commands on them, for example "-1" and "-2", where you have to take a step back on the game board. After the first test of the game with their invented dice, they quickly realized that their figures were not making any progress because they often rolled the minus numbers. Testing the dice showed them that the "old" dice is quite useful! To make their game work better and more fun, they brought a second dice into the game - standardized with the numbers 1 to 6. Even if their new idea didn't work out as well as they thought, they didn't let it get them down. And who knows, maybe we will soon find a "reversed dice " in our game shops!

Please share and spread this story! It is published under an open license. If you copy and paste everything, including the license, we are fine with sharing and re-publishing, also translating it!

"Play figures for sale!" - SUCCESS STORY #54

eva — Wed, 03 Jul 2019 12:19:55 +0000

"Play figures for sale!" - SUCCESS STORY #54

eva Wed, 07/03/2019 - 14:19

The team of SRFG had the great opportunity to participate in the children's City Salzburg 2019, organized by the Verein Spektrum. The concept of the Childrens' city is simple: it is a city for children! Adults (except for the facilitators at the work and study stations) are only allowed to stay 30 minutes in the city - and need a visa from the resident's registration office for that. The citizens of the city (7 to 14 years old) can work and study in the city every day (3 weeks during the summer holidays, from 10:00 to 18:00) and also receive wages and have to pay taxes. As soon as they have registered, they get a job from the Public Employment Office. If they work for at least half an hour, they get their salary and can look for something else (and there is a wide choice, with over 50 stations!). As a chef in the restauarant, as a candidate for mayor or as a journalist for the newspaper - there is something for everyone.

DOIT took part as the makerspace in the industrial district for four days. In addition to innovation development through simple paper programming and programming with the "Cubetto" robot, the employees also built VR glasses and had the opportunity to design 3D objects. The stations produce items that should be available to the city and its residents, either donated, exchanged or sold. On the last day, there were still many play figures on the shelves! The staff went through the city once, but they did not sell many figures during their walk. Together we already thought about what to do with all the great figures, and then the rescue came: two girls started their own business and wanted to support the companies of the city in selling products. They pick up the products from the companies, sell the items from their mobile stall all over the city and bring the earned money back to the facilities. What share they get for it is determined individually.

In the course of the Children's City, more and more independent entrepreneurs and start-ups are being established, which are also perfectly supported by the Start-Up Service. In addition, of course, it is doubly great when supply and demand meet so well! This shows how creative children can be in choosing their purpose in such a context. They saw a need and reacted!

Please share and spread this story! It is published under an open license. If you copy and paste everything, including the license, we are fine with sharing and re-publishing, also translating it!

"Taking Every Possibility From Life" - SUCCESS STORY #51

gintare — Fri, 17 May 2019 11:25:55 +0000

"Taking Every Possibility From Life" - SUCCESS STORY #51

gintare Fri, 05/17/2019 - 13:25

Sebastian works as a volunteer at the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany. The Open Knowledge Foundation Germany is an NGO with the goal of promoting open knowledge, connecting people who work on projects for an open and just society, and strengthen digital literacy and the ethical use of technology.

But he was not always a volunteer there. He first came into contact with coding in school by taking a mandatory class. Looking at it now it was a rather lucky coincidence because it wasn't his first choice as a subject. But soon enough he enjoyed it and had fun playing around with code and logic. The computer executes commands and any errors made are given back as an error-output. This logic and restriction also gives a lot of space for creative experiments. At school, the teacher mostly covered programming exercises and the creation of small games with Java-Applets.

Since the Java-Applet already back then wasn't compatible with many browsers, he discovered that android apps can also be programmed with the java-applet. (tl;drJava-Applet was originally used for creating physics games in the web browser. But since the code is executed on the computer, they are not secure anymore and most browsers block them).

In the afternoons he spent quite some time working on dice games for android. Seeing immediate results and how they can be used on the smartphone and interacted with was rewarding and motivating. Again it was rather by chance that he heard about Jugend hackt (youth hacks) through one of the podcasts he listened to. Jugend hackt is a program initiated by the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany e.V. and medialepfade.org - Verein für Medienbildung e.V. in 2013. The program is for young coders, hackers, and pupils who are interested in creating prototypes of solutions for a better world. It started with a weekend event in Berlin and has since then grown to a Germany wide network with partners in Austria and Switzerland.

Sebastian first participated at a Jugend hackt event in Hamburg in 2016, at the age of 16. Together with a group of like-minded teenager he worked on a weather station equipped with a raspberry pi and sensors. The station could not only measure the temperature but with an app it was possible to follow the changes and get real time graphs and the comparison of different stations. At the end of the weekend all the participants showed their projects and shared their ideas. Seeing what they had accomplished by the end of the weekend was a great feeling. It was amazing to be among so many teenagers with the same interests and passion. What all the participants had in common was a shared interest in tech and programming and how it can be used for a meaningful purpose.

"Finally being around normal people", - describes the first experience well.

Sebastian continued participating in Jugend hackt events, his second one was in Berlin later in 2016. There he and his group developed a prototype to calculate the ecological footprint of the personal grocery shopping list. Looking back at it now, he would say that the project couldn't be finalized during the event like some others, since he didn't have many data samples available. Yet, they learned a lot during the process.Unlike other hackathon formats, there are no awards or competitions included at Jugend hackt. The format focuses on supporting the young participants in developing their ideas, encouraging them in raising their voices and experiencing themselves as active creators. Small failures or mistakes that might occur are seen as a chance to grow and a learning possibility.

Towards the last year of school, Sebastian started looking into what he could do after school. He soon realized that he wanted to take a gap year. Instead of jumping into university, he started looking into possibilities for the year between school and university. Then he received the newsletter by Jugend Hackt and read about the possibility of doing a Bundesfreiwilligendienst (federal volunteer service) at the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany. The federal volunteer service is a program by the German government which encourages volunteerism for social, ecological, or cultural public welfare.

Through his position Sebastian is involved in two big projects. One is Jugend hackt where he helps with organizing the events now. Instead of being a participant he is now a contact person for the participants, he answers their questions and prepares and orders materials.

Another exciting project at the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany is fragdenstaat.de (as the state). German law states that citizens have the right to get access to information such as statistics, research or information obtained by governmental bodies. This is similar to the freedom of information acts in the UK or US. However, often it is unclear how to exactly get access to them or access is being denied. The platform fragdenstaat.de wants to raise awareness of citizens about their rights and wants to lower the barriers to participate actively. Sebastian gets to answer questions and request by users, and supports them with technical questions. He is also searching for new government agencies that are not yet part of the database, for example, agencies that work on the European level.

He works both on an administrative and on a political levels. He supports campaigns and different activities, but also coordinates lawsuits in case government agencies deny access to documents and information that should be accessible due to the legislation.

One of the latest project is FragSieAbi, an initiative by fragdenstaat.de . The idea is to get access to old Abitur questions and topics and to fill them into a databank. Sebastian was particularly involved in the research for this project, as well as the evaluation of the answers and responses. As a federal volunteer he is also participating in weekly meetings of the organization and gains insights into the structure and work of the other exciting projects. And how code an be used to improve the world.

Since it is almost the end of Sebastian's year the OKF, he wrote a blog post about what he has learned and done during the past few months. If you are interested, you can take a look here: https://jugendhackt.org/mein-bundesfreiwilligendienst-bei-der-open-knowledge-foundation/

Photo credits: CC-BY 4.0 Jugend hackt, Foto: Sandra Schink and CC-BY 4.0 Jugend hackt, Foto: Leonard Wolf

“Oasis” - SUCCESS STORY #41

gintare — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 07:44:44 +0000

“Oasis” - SUCCESS STORY #41

gintare Wed, 04/24/2019 - 09:44

Today we live in the world full of rush and fast pace, where everyone is worried about their own affairs. Nevertheless, a single idea can lead to big changes and improve our daily lives. That’s how Bishop Curry being just a schooler came up with an idea which would save children from hot car deaths.

Everything started two years ago, then a 6-month-old baby named Fern Thedford died from a heat stroke. The heat stroke occurred due to her having been forgotten in the 2011-era Honda Odyssey outside the family home. Saddened of this horrible incident, Bishop Curry felt driven to help put an end to such tragedies and that's how “Oasis” came to the daylight.

Bishop Curry is fascinated with making things. From creating a home-made catapult and ping pong ball cannon to thinking of ways to melt ice and snow on roads without using salt. Yet, after hearing a news report about little girl’s death, 11 years-old boy decided to take action. “This would be my one-way shot to actually helping people,” Bishop said NBC News.

His idea is to build a car seat or car seat cover that will detect when a child has been left inside a hot vehicle and alert parents to the child’s situation. The car seat will also come with the technology to help cool down the child while he or she waits to be rescued. Once off, and once the temperature of the child further rises or has the air flow on for a period of time, the apparatus called “Oasis”, sends a notification for subscribing devices. If the child is not removed within a set period of time, then emergency responders are notified.

Of course, all inventions need the foundation to go from concept to creation. That's, why Bishop’s dad set up GoFund me website where all of the funds that people donate, go towards the attorney fees needed to finalize the patent, prototyping fees, and to help identify a manufacturer. Good news is that twelve-years-old Bishop received a patent on 4/10/2018 and now he is one step closer to his mission to end hot car deaths!

This amazing young changemaker who aims to create a safer world for all of us is an inspiration to not give up reaching your dream to improve a better tomorrow. Because even the smallest effort counts and as Bishop Curry said, “don’t let resources limit you from doing something to help people”.

"With “Shine&Safe” You Are Safe in The Dark" - SUCCESS STORY #40

gintare — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 07:42:06 +0000

"With “Shine&Safe” You Are Safe in The Dark" - SUCCESS STORY #40

gintare Wed, 04/24/2019 - 09:42

While the majority of people look at a reflective as a necessary safety detail, others think how it could be best combined with a casual outfit. We already know about “Night Flash” team which created flashy shoe ties, caps and other accessories. Now it’s time to tell a story about young entrepreneurs team “Shine&Safe“. How did their story of success begin?

As the name of a team might tell you, these children came up with an idea of reflective accessories, such as backpacks and sports bags. The reason why they decided to combine these two is a problem they occasionally have to face — riding a bike requires wearing a reflective but this is not always the best option since they are too small and reflective vests are not popular among children. Also, if you want to put a backpack on then it covers all the reflective elements. So children came up with a clever idea of backpacks and sports bags that have unique and interesting designs so everyone can find the best match!

As “Shine&Safe“ team says, the product making process was not easy. At first, they faced a few problems regarding product costs: “A price of the product itself was very high, that was our biggest problem. But then we started to work with sewing company and the self-price reduced two times!” Luckily, the efforts were worth it: a team has already won 6 best sales team awards in Latvia’s trade fairs, lots of acknowledgment from successful companies but the best one was winning the 1st place at International student companies festival in Kaunas. This award encouraged children to dream about expanding their small business internationally.

“Shine&Safe” cares about people’s safety especially at night time and want to reduce accidents that cause serious injuries for cyclists. So be careful, always wear a reflective vest or if you don‘t want to do that “Shine&Safe” team is here for you and can offer you another practical way to be safe in the streets at night!

"Baa, Baa, Black Sheep, Have You Any Wool?" - SUCCESS STORY #39

gintare — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 07:39:18 +0000

"Baa, Baa, Black Sheep, Have You Any Wool?" - SUCCESS STORY #39

gintare Wed, 04/24/2019 - 09:39

Do you know the old English song about the black sheep and three bags full of wool? Do you remember to whom the cute sheep presented one of the bags? To the little boy who lives down the lane. In this version of the song, the small boy lives far north, in Lemi, a small Finnish town…

Once upon a time during the summer, 13 year-old Akseli had been thinking about what to do with himself and how to make the most productive use of his free time. Suddenly, a good idea occurred to him. Since his early childhood he had been interested in history, sports, geography, and in particular, crafting. Akseli says, “The candles just came to my mind”. And this is where the story begins. With his mom’s advice and support, it did not take a lot of time for him to turn the idea into practice. Since then, Akseli has been manufacturing the candles, soaps and other decorative items in his home kitchen almost every day after his classes end. The products he crafts are made from pure plant wax and cotton yarn. All candles are hand-made and eco-friendly. Akseli highlights, “I take account of social responsibility and sell only ecological products”.

Lemin Lammas was established in June 2016. Because the young social entrepreneur cares a lot about the environment, not only the product, but also the packaging is made from the most environmentally friendly materials. The soap is non-perfumed and colourless and thus has no allergic effects. Starting this year, Akseli also produces the eco-friendly small toys: lambs and other farm animals. Boy advises other child-entrepreneurs saying, “If you have a good idea, be brave, but do not take any unnecessary risks”. In the letter he received from the Finnish President, the head of the country admires Akseli’s work and wishes all the best to the young social entrepreneur.

The sheep farming tradition has a very long history in Finland Lemi, the town where Akseli lives, is famous for their farming and hand-made products. Lemin Lammas aims to revive the traditional craftsmanship, the intangible cultural heritage of the region. The Finnish Independence celebration has many traditions. One of them is putting two blue and white candles (same color as national flag) in the window at night. Last year Finland turned 100 years old. For the motherland’s birthday celebration Akseli made a special blue-white sheep-candle. This candle crafted using herbal components and packed in a designed gift box, gained official Finland 100 status, which means that it became one of the Finland’s 100th-anniversary products that tells the national story of the Finland.

by Iryna Maliatsina, Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT)

"A Girl Who Saves People’s Memories" - SUCCESS STORY #38

gintare — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 07:36:42 +0000

"A Girl Who Saves People’s Memories" - SUCCESS STORY #38

gintare Wed, 04/24/2019 - 09:36

Nowadays the VHS (or Video Home Systems) seem as old as dinosaurs, but less than a decade ago they were as popular as DVDs, CDs and USB are now. Many people have their most treasured memories stored on tape recordings that modern equipment cannot play. So how can you be sure that you will not lose something important: parents wedding, your christening, first day at school, or grandma’s graduation ceremony?

The same thought occurred to Finnish girl Edvina Wallenius when she was only ten years old. One day she saw her dad throwing out the VHS cassettes and told him “Hey, wait a second! You know, there is something I can do with them!” That was the moment Edvina came up with the idea of converting cherished old home videos and other video tape recordings to DVD format. It took her one month to discover what kind of equipment she needs, how to create the necessary program, and how long it takes to convert.

After that together with her dad, Edvina decided to start her own company E.d.i. The business name came from her nickname Edi and means Erittäin Digitaalisia Ideoita (“Very Digital Ideas”). As the company started operating in 2017, Edvina became the youngest entrepreneur in Finland. She has created her own brand logo and learnt how to do accounting and pay taxes from her grandma.

In Lahti where Edvina lives, many people have their home videos recorded on cassettes that they were not able to watch using their computers or TVs. Now they can contact E.d.i. and receive DVD versions of their birthday or travel videos. Edvina says that by now, more than 300 tapes have already been converted, thus more than 300 memories have been saved from being forgotten.

In the future Edvina hopes to become a famous trailblazer. She has already received a letter from the president of Finland impressed with her work! She wants to set a good example to other children from Finland and all over the world that they can become entrepreneurs and inventors as well. “You have to always at least try… even if something seems difficult!” Edvina says, addressing all kids that are thinking about becoming social entrepreneurs, inventors and innovators. She believes in the importance of being a taxpayer because these funds are used for public education, health-care and other needs of society. She mentions that if she earns enough money some of it will be used to support poor children around the world.

by Iryna Maliatsina, Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT)

"Protect your confidentiality with “Vision Glasses” - SUCCESS STORY #36

gintare — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 07:34:09 +0000

"Protect your confidentiality with “Vision Glasses” - SUCCESS STORY #36

gintare Wed, 04/24/2019 - 09:34

Nowadays it isn’t very rare to see someone else’s work being copied by another person. It can either be words from a book, essay and people do not see a problem to make it as their own. If only there would be a way for people to watch something without being able to copy the material.

A boy named Aurimas Kašėta with his team thought exactly that. He said that one day while he was outside he had his sunglasses put on his head. When he tilted his head down the glasses fell on his eyes. He noticed that he couldn’t see his phone screen. The contents of the screen only become visible when he change the angle of his vision. Because he was curious he wanted to find out why did this happen. When he figured it out he thought why not to try and create something similar.

When fitted with special sheet coated glasses the information on the computer screen would be invisible and unobtrusive to others and the image broadcast in it would only be seen by the owner with the glasses. As soon as you took off the glasses you would only see an empty white screen.

The main idea of this invention is to keep other people’s work confidential, the desire to not share private information with outsiders who didn’t have license to share the contents. These glasses interact with the modified monitors together and make up this effect, the screen is prepared externally and we make glasses according to the order of each person.

“It took a lot of time to turn the idea into reality, because not everything went according to the plan, it lasted for 2 months, until it finally succeeded in practically implementing it.” — that’s what Aurimas told us. Also he added that they didn’t think if no one will be interested in this idea they just wanted to introduce people to this technology. In the future, he said he has a theory and is trying to implement it in practice, obviously, there is still waiting a long and complicated path.

“Vision Glasses” is a good way to keep other people’s work confidential. Because there are a lot of people in the world who copies other persons work or in the case of movie industry, films it and puts it in some kind of a website. These glasses is a first step in preventing that.

Success Stories

“Discover and foster capabilities” #55

Category

"The Dancing Robot" - SUCCESS STORY #53

Category

"The minus dice" - SUCCESS STORY #52

Category

"Play figures for sale!" - SUCCESS STORY #54

Category

"Taking Every Possibility From Life" - SUCCESS STORY #51

Category

“Oasis” - SUCCESS STORY #41

Category

"With “Shine&Safe” You Are Safe in The Dark" - SUCCESS STORY #40

Category

"Baa, Baa, Black Sheep, Have You Any Wool?" - SUCCESS STORY #39

Category

"A Girl Who Saves People’s Memories" - SUCCESS STORY #38

Category

"Protect your confidentiality with “Vision Glasses” - SUCCESS STORY #36

Category