While Summer of Reading kicks off here at Denver Public Library, the ideaLAB and the Community Technology Center are gearing up for our Summer of Tech - and there's so much you can do! Here's the run down of the next couple months:
Denver Mini Maker Faire: June 13 & 14, 9am - 5pm
We'll be back at the Denver Mini Maker Faire this year with a toy hack. Thanks to a generous donation from our friends at ARC, we'll have a whole stack of toys to dismantle and reassemble into new and exciting things. Last year was super fun - and this year, we're at a new location (the Denver Museum of Nature and Science) with all kinds of new exhibits. There's going to be a paint catapult! Robots! Fire! All kinds of fun! You do need tickets to attend - you can get them at denvermakerfaire.com.
Summer of Tech Teen Programs
All teen programs are free, open to teens ages 12-19, and held in the ideaLAB, Level 4 of the Central Library.
- 3D Animation in Blender: Thursday, June 18, 4-6pm
Blender is a free and open source 3D animation suite. Let's learn the basics of the 3D pipeline by modeling, rigging, and animating a figure. - ROM Hack: Thursday, June 25, 4-6pm
A ROM is a computer file which is a copy of the data from a video game cartridge. Once you have it on your computer, you can change a game's graphics, dialogue, levels, almost anything! We'll show you how to get started. - Sonic Pi: Thursday, July 16, 4-6pm
Create live music on the fly, with the free program Sonic Pi. It has built-in synths, beats, samples, and live loops that you can use to make weird sounds and original tunes, all by writing just a bit of code. - Easy Game Development in Unity: Thursday, July 30, 4-6pm
Make a First Person Exploration game using free software and no coding! We'll be using SketchUp to design a simple world, and Unity 3D to add interaction to it.
Family ideaLAB Workshops
Family workshops are all ages (just no unaccompanied adults or kids, please!), free, and held in the ideaLAB, Level 4 of the Central Library.
- Toy Hack w/ History Colorado: Saturday, July 11, 11am-1pm
We're providing a stack of old, broken toys and a bunch of tools. Your job? Break things apart and make something EVEN MORE AWESOME. Then we’ll take our creations over to History Colorado Center to tour the Toys from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s exhibit - History Colorado is even donating passes for us! While you’re visiting leave your creation on display to win the people’s choice award for new toy! Bring the whole family, your creativity, and maybe a toy or two you want to remix!
Adult ideaLAB Workshops
Adult workshops are free and held in the ideaLAB, Level 4 of the Central Library
- Intro to 3D Modeling with Sketchup: Tuesday, June 23, 6-8pm
Want to enter the world of 3D printing but don't know how to make something to print? We'll get you started with SketchUp, a free 3D modeling software, and some training to get you designing objects you can print in the ideaLAB. - 3D Printing Open House: Tuesday, July 21, 6-8pm
Come learn about how to get something 3D printed (for free!) at the Denver Public Library, how the printers work, and how to prep a file for a successful print.
DevCamp
Thanks to support from the library and our community partners like Denver Public Schools, Tech Lattice, Universal Mind, and many individuals, we've been able to expand DevCamp, our week-long introduction to web development for teens to three camps this year. They all filled up fast, but we just opened up registration for DevCampLite, a 2-day HTML and CSS intensive for teens ages 12-19, set for August 13th and 14th, 1-4pm, at the Montbello Branch Library.
BuildCamp
Interested in learning more about computer hardware? How to take apart and rebuild a computer? BuildCamp will be held August 12 from 10am to 3pm. Keep your eye on Evolver, our teen website, for the registration page!
And remember, you could always just drop in....
The ideaLAB will be keeping the same hours during the summer - just drop in and see what's happening!
- teens (age 12-19): 3-6pm Monday-Friday
- families (all ages): 11am-4pm Saturdays
- adults (age 18+): 6-8pm Monday and Tuesday, 1-3pm Thursday
Any questions? Leave them in the comments!