After a short video orientation, the students\u2014five girls and five boys\u2014were drawing and illuminating text and images in their notebooks using copper tape, conductive thread, 3-volt coin batteries, and LED lights. Along the way, they were learning how to create basic and more advanced circuits.<\/p>\n
Eric Hannan, teen services librarian at the San Francisco Public Library<\/a>, said the students experienced \u201cinstant gratification\u201d working on the paper circuits. The students created circuits in their notebooks by using copper tape to connect LED bulbs to the negative and positive ends of a power source, a battery.\u00a0The activity required minimal prep, and students were able to jump in and get their hands dirty\u2014or their notebooks connected\u2014right away.<\/p>\n \u201cI was surprised at how quickly they picked it up, even not really knowing any circuit theory,\u201d Hannan said.<\/p>\n Photo\/ Jennifer Dick, NEXMAP<\/p><\/div>\n The idea for Hack Your Notebook came from a random encounter that David Cole of CV2<\/a> and Jennifer Dick NEXMAP<\/a>, an Educator Innovator<\/i> partner, had with Jie Qi<\/a>, a doctoral student at the MIT Media Lab<\/a> who focuses on blending electronics with traditional arts and crafts.<\/p>\n One of Qi\u2019s projects, a circuit sketchbook<\/a> made from a Moleskine notebook powered by a rechargeable battery, inspired Cole and Dick\u2014both former educators\u2014to create a notebook hacking kit<\/a> and activities<\/a> to engage students in 21st-century skills.<\/p>\n The team envisioned notebook hacking as an accessible, craft-based way to get students working with electronic components.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to help them become hands-on creators instead of just artistic consumers,\u201d Dick said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis taps into the maker movement in a deep way,\u201d Cole explained. \u201cIt\u2019s what shop classes were years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n As students build confidence and gain familiarity with the materials, their notebook hacks can become infinitely complex and intricate. Students can start by building simple circuits, move on to parallel circuits, and eventually incorporate sensors to control the lights, for example, or program tiny microcontrollers to make lights blink in Morse code<\/a>. Or even incorporate a Wi-Fi connection using a SparkCore chip<\/a>.<\/p>\n These activities, Dick said, \u201cintroduce computational thinking, logic, coding, and computer science\u201d in a way that\u2019s driven by student interest and curiosity.<\/p>\n The program will also be a natural fit for the San Francisco Public Library\u2019s new teen center<\/a>, set to open next spring, with its permanent maker space.<\/p>\n Artist K-Fai Steele<\/a>, a Maker Jawn<\/a> artist-mentor at the Free Library of Philadelphia, another member\u00a0of the YouMedia Network, sees notebook hacking as a democratizing activity centered on student creativity and collaboration.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a much more approachable way of learning computing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s accessible in a different way than something like robotics or code wars.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"notebook\"](\"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/notebook.jpg\")
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