SparkFun promotes electronics in schools with East Coast tour

It’s not often that I see a press release that talks about “Spreading the Embedded Electronics Love” … this takes me back to the 1960s (which didn’t officially end until 1973, but that’s another story).

Anyway, the guys and gals at SparkFun Electronics (www.sparkfun.com) are generally to be found … well, having fun. I just heard that during the months of April and May, they will be sending a team from their Education Department on what has been dubbed the "East Coast Tour." During this tour, The SparkFun Crew will travel from Massachusetts to South Carolina spreading the Embedded Electronics Love.

The East Coast Tour is part of an initiative by the SparkFun Department of Education to branch out into new areas of the U.S. to promote the adoption of engaging and relevant open source technologies in schools. The tour will include visits to universities and high schools, where the education team will lead workshops on physical computing, soldering, and more. During the extended trip, the team will travel throughout the eastern portion of the United States, visiting locations such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Washington D.C. and North Carolina.

"The East Coast Tour has been in the works for a long time and we are thrilled with how the trip is shaping up," said SparkFun director of education Lindsay Levkoff. "The tour not only will allow us to showcase SparkFun's education program across the country, but helps us keep a pulse on the DIY electronics movement in other parts of the United States. While we are excited about teaching embedded electronics in new environments, we are also looking forward to the opportunity to network with and learn from like-minded individuals."

One of the most highly anticipated stops is USASEF, the second ever national science fair, at which SparkFun will be hosting soldering classes (Click Here for more details). The SparkFun team will also be stopping at ITP, part of the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, where it will be giving a talk discussing the growing Open Source Education movement/model with an emphasis on an unbranded data/material repository and what Open Source looks like when it is instituted in schools.
 
The tour also includes stops at MIT, the National School Board Association Conference in Boston, UMass Amherst and Hampshire, USASEF in Washington D.C., Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia, East Carolina University, and IT-oLogy in South Carolina.

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