Throughout my life I've been curious, always wondering about the way that things work. As a child, my mother often worried that she would come home to find me with one of the household appliances taken apart on the kitchen table. As children, my twins could often be heard telling relatives, "My father will fix it." As an adult, one of them recently gave me a piece of wall art for my birthday that depicts a drill alongside the words, "If Dad Can't Fix It Were Screwed."
Over the years, my wife has put up with the coffee table being buried in layers of projects consisting of my "gidgits and gadgets", as she refers to them. I am about to complete 20 years in a variety of teaching STEM related subjects, in both comprehensive and vocational schools. I have always had an acute interest in microcontrollers and often looked for ways to incorporate them into my teaching. My favorite microcontrollers are the Arduino Uno and BBC:MicroBit.
That interest evolved to single board computers like the Raspberry Pi and Beagle Bone Black. In 2020, my interest has become so acute that I have looked at renting studio space in one of the old factory buildings here in town. During discussions with the management I learned that Lowell Makes was in the process of acquiring another section of the original factory and that a membership there may be more appropriate to my needs. They did acquire the property and have relocated to that space and I became a member.
In 2021, I took a position as a STEAM Innovation Teacher at a local middle school so my focus drifted away from . More to come soon.
Please be patient but do stop back to check on things as more content comes online.