On Saturday, January 21, I taught the latest One-Day Tech class. 37 out of 40 students passed. I’ve pretty much got the one-day Tech class thing down to a science now. The next class will be on Saturday, May 6, 2017. Click here for more details.
Last Saturday, I taught the last session of my 2017 General class. It was fun to teach, especially since most of the students stuck with me most of the way, but I’m glad it’s over, too. Now, I can do something else on Saturday mornings.
The students in this class were quite a bit different from the students in the previous class. Overall, they seemed to be a lot more serious about getting their General Class licenses, for one thing.
Perhaps one reason it seemed this way was that the venue was nicer. The last time I taught this class, in 2015, the space we were using wasn’t really a classroom. Instead, it was just a corner of a bigger lab space. I think there’s something to be said about having a space dedicated to the class. Thanks All Hands Active (AHA!) for letting us use your space.
Teaching Arduino
I have also been leading electronics workshops at the Ann Arbor District Library. They have a neat makerspace there called the Secret Lab. The last Arduino workshop I led there was purportedly to teach them how to control relays with an Arduino, but since many people showed up with no Arduino experience at all, we also did some basic things like blinking an LED.
I’d really like to teach more of these classes. So, I’ve started talking to the AHA folks to see how we might do this there. I’m going to be talking to them about not only teaching Arduino classes, but also basic electronics classes, or maybe basic electronics classes using the Arduino. (Hmmmmm. I’m going to have to Google that to see if anyone’s written a book like that already.)
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There’s been a rising interest in CW here locally, and as a result, a couple of people have asked me to teach a CW class. Up to this point, I’d always advise those who were interested in learning the code to get the G4FON CW Trainer, the K7QO Code Course, or one of the many apps for iPhones or Android tablets or phones, but I can understand the desire to learn in a classroom setting.
For one thing, some people don’t like to learn on their own. If there are questions, or they have difficulty, they like to be able to ask questions and get knowledgeable answers. There’s also a social aspect. It’s more fun to learn with other people.
Being a member of the CWOps, I’m hoping to be able to get my hands on and use the materials from Level 1 of the CW Academy. This is a proven program that’s helped hundred of hams learn and get better at Morse Code. I’m keeping my options open, though. If any you know of a good program for teaching Morse Code, please enter a comment below.
Wait, there’s more!
I got an e-mail a month or so ago from one of the organizers of the Dayton Mini-Maker Faire, asking me if I would teach a One-Day Tech Class at the Dayton MiniMaker Faire. After a bit of negotiation, I agreed to do it.
The Dayton MiniMaker Faire takes place Saturday, August 5, from 9:30am-5:00pm, and Sunday, August 6, 12:00pm to 5:00pm at Carillon Historical Park, 1000 Carillon Boulevard, Dayton, OH 45409. I’ll be teaching the class on Saturday, August 5, 2017, and possibly Sunday, if there’s enough demand for two classes.
On Saturday, October 7, 2017, I’ll be teaching a One-Day Tech Class at the Great Lakes HamCon. The GL HamCon is the latest in a series of big, regional hamfests, and 2017 marks its debut. It will be held October 7-8, 2017 at the Michigan International Speedway.