Look – it’s working! Sylvia (right) helps students with a project.
	Having fun testing the shake-it shaker in Mexico.

It was several years ago that I first contacted SEED to volunteer, but I hadn’t figured out how I wanted to participate or what I wanted to bring to the initiative. I joined a SEED workshop in Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico—it was a true pleasure to learn, discover, play, invent, and laugh with the children. From that moment on I was hooked!

I wanted to continue my involvement in SEED when I transferred to Houston. To my surprise there was a group of SEED volunteers with ideas, energy and willpower to find, implement and accomplish local activities. I spent many afternoons at the Robotics Club of a SEED-Affiliate school learning about manatees, programming robots and filming our own movie. I also spent countless hours with Project Row Houses, which kept my energy level high.

The opening last year of the new SEED Lab at the Sugar Land campus gave volunteers a place to try new ideas and develop their own SEED projects. Soon after, a close friend and fellow SEED volunteer Eva Gomez and I designed our own project that reflects our personal expertise and backgrounds. I am a seismologist and Eva is an architect, so we created a project to study how various constructions behave as we shake them, as if in an earthquake. Our Shake-it shake-it project was born. With great help and enthusiasm from Steve Gomez, the SEED Technology Manager, and after many hours of laughter and fun, our project blossomed. Our shaker was tested at a SEED workshop in Mexico. Since then, the project has sprouted much like a seed—all we had to do was plant it and water it—and it has flourished on its own.

SEED presents a chance for all of us to give, to grow and to try new ideas. SEED continuously gives me the opportunity to experience the joy of learning and discovery with children. At the same time, SEED produces lovely friendships and camaraderie among its volunteers. I’m glad to know that I can still contribute now that I have relocated to Brazil. For every moment of time, energy, knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm that I give, I receive double the amount of joy in return.

—Sylvia Sundqvist
    SIS Marketing Manager for LAS
    Rio de Janeiro

Collaborative Workshops
Oct 2-6: Tyumen, Russia
Nov 5-9: Kemaman, Malaysia
Nov 6-10: El Tigre, Venezuela

School Workshops
Nov 1-2: Kemaman, Malaysia

Volunteer Training
Nov 4-5: Kemaman, Malaysia
Nov 5-6: El Tigre, Venezuela
Nov 13-14: Caracas, Venezuela

 
Learning a GoGo
Handy technology for hands-on projects

Applied technology is a hallmark of the learning-while-doing (LWD) approach SEED uses in its projects. Simplicity and low-cost are other key features. Ask us why and we would have to say that we want to make the study of science easy, inexpensive and fun!

Among the most simple, versatile and useful of the tools we use is the GoGo board. Designed by Roger Sipitakiat, a graduate student at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the GoGo board is a simple, low-cost, open source device that SEED uses in projects as an interface between a computer and various kinds of sensors, like those that detect light or temperature, and as a control for simple motors, relays and displays. GoGo boards find use in robotics, as game controllers and in environmental monitoring. The parts can be bought locally almost anywhere in the world—perfect for SEED projects—and the components are so basic that you can make one yourself, which is part of their charm!

"Kids find applications for GoGo Boards right away," explains Steve Gomez, SEED Technology manager. "What we want is intelligence through the device, not human control," he says. Programming the device with Logo software "forces them to think of the necessary steps. GoGo boards are a tool for learning and thinking about learning."

Find out more about how SEED uses GoGo boards or visit the GoGo board website.