Lady Betty Orpington Scholarship

Enrollment for the Lady Betty Orpington Foundation Scholarship opens November 1, 2015, and will close January 31, 2016. Now Closed

This scholarship is for Young Makers with distinguished academic achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math, while displaying inspiring achievements of character in their personal lives. Lady Betty Orpington scholarship candidates exhibit creativity, ingenuity, diligence, courage, humor, and pluck in the pursuit of new skills.

To be considered for the Lady Betty Orpington Foundation Scholarship, and its benefits, please fill out the questionnaire, and include an example of one of your accomplishments in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and or Math, which you feels best exemplifies your creativity, ingenuity, diligence, courage, humor and pluck. Your example can be a sample project, photograph, essay, video, or demonstration, and please include a one paragraph description that explains what makes this accomplishment important to you.

Qualifications: Must be a high school senior in Encinitas, California, 2015-2016, with the intention of attending a university in the Fall of 2016. Applicant must be a Young Maker, with experience as a Maker Faire participant, as well as mentoring in an official Young Makers' Club.

Scholarship: This is for a $100.00 cash scholarship, with future consideration for Lady Betty Orpington Foundation grants, and merit awards.

Lady Betty Orpington Foundation Scholarship Questionnaire

Full Name:___________________________________ __________________________________________

Date of Birth:_______________________________

Name of Young Makers Club:___________________________________________ Year Joined:______________________

Maker Faires Attended (Location and year):

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2.
3.
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What high school are you attending:_______________________________________________________ Address:____________________________________________________

GPA:______________

Favorite Science Class(es):_______________________________________________________________________________

Favorite Technology Class(es):_______________________________________________________________________________

Favorite Engineering Class(es):_______________________________________________________________________________

Favorite Art Class(es):_______________________________________________________________________________

Favorite Math Class(es):_______________________________________________________________________________

In one paragraph, tell us about being a Young Maker; what do you enjoy about it, or how have you benefitted from participating?

What is your example of an accomplishment in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and or Math, which you feel best exemplifies your creativity, ingenuity, diligence, courage, humor and pluck?
Please include a one paragraph description that explains what makes this accomplishment important to you.

BackYard Mini-Make

We did it again... a homegrown, mini-Make event and Lemonade sale!
It starts with lemonade. Fresh squeezed. We invite all of our friends, put a sign up at the Little Free Library, then dust off our bots, spruce up our tent, and get ready to play, tinker, share, learn, and make. Donations for those homemade cookies and lemonade go toward replenishing supplies... like duct tape, paint brushes, clay, epoxy, sandpaper, drill bits, and pizza. Our Young Makers Club goes through a lot of epoxy, and pizzas, and we like to share with everyone.





This post is a Big Thank You! Thank you, Paul... for all the pre-event support and heavy lifting. Making, and preparing to make, always goes better with help. Thank you, James... for explaining our purpose, in such succinct and lyric prose. You give us that air of totes legit:

"A glorious Sunday to ye all!
Come one and all to the Bird House, humble abode of the Van V. folk, for a lovely time of comradery, creativity, and cuisine. What cuisine (you ask)? That of the gods: a potent symphony of lemonade and cookies awaits your face-stuffing. The best thing about face-stuffing is that it often goes hand-in-hand with patronage.
Some of you may be wondering what the purpose of such patronage is. Well, you see, there happens to be a retinue of creative folks here who appreciate utilizing the industrial, artistic, and intellectual resources of the House of Bird.
So while we socialize, nosh on snacks, and sip on liquid snacks, we will be bringing and working on whatever projects need our love. We shall raise aggregates of magic metal and cotton that will allow us to buy infinite quantities of duct tape, gorilla glue, pistons, 3D scans, MIDI controllers, circuit boards, cloth, yarn, butter, flour, and all the like.
Come celebrate the manipulation of space-time events by sentient biological systems!"

Thank you to friends who came from near and far, who were curious enough to see what a "Lemonade & Robots & ChickenBlog" event is all about. Thank you for your support, for playing, for sharing your enthusiasm, interest, knowledge, and company. And I must thank my family, who want to create things, who cannot not make things, but who don't necessarily need to promote what they are doing, yet endure my aggressively friendly passion for sharing their accomplishments; indeed anyone's projects, interests, tinkering, making, learning makes me want to celebrate... It's a huge reason why I maintain ChickenBlog, as well as this blog.

Max finishing his pasta and hot glue bridge for Physics. Long may it stand!

Friendly customers, lining up!

So. Makey Makey? Lani and her daughter brought their Makey Makey, so it could get figured out... any takers?

Here is Da Vinci, the line drawing robot that first appeared at the Maker Faire, Bay Area, in 2012. Of course, he was only a hand, then.

Bridge complete, and ready to take on AP Physics bridge challenge. This is the first time the bridges are not balsa wood, but their fate is the same!

Isaac and James take the Makey Makey challenge, and build a strawberry, banana, and apple band that actually plays music. Yes, it is appalling that I do not have video of this, but trust me, it was pretty epic.

This has definitely inspired us to host another day to tinker with Arduinos.

Arduinos, and Scratch, and Java programming... these things are like magnets, drawing Young Makers into the greatness of S.T.E.A.M.

Chris F captured this moment, showing the big draw of programming with Scratch. Not just playing games, writing them!

Isaac, Paul, Suki, Amira, Grant, and Gabe... so good to see old friends.


Nathan, James, Matt, Nick, Isaac, Gabe, Grant... and campfire dinner.


The chickens and goats are never neglected. Isaac made friends for life when he sat with Tasha and Ada and brushed them.

Some of our youngest Makers, Maria and Amira.

In the back, William and Alex, then Max, James, Nick, and Grant, with Suki in front of all of them, and on the other side of the travel weary bot (he survived Fanime... barely} Matt with Gabe and Isaac, an inspiring lot, all.


And just to round out the day, we went half way Over the Garden Wall.

Our second lemonade sale and robot event, was a success, for sure!

Making The Most of Our Lemons!

The sun came out, and we opened for business! Maria's Lemonade and Bake Sale, with a mini-demonstration of our Young Makers Club, Love and Rockets, was a delightful success. It was fun for Maria to get this chance to explore her entrepreneurial interests and for all of us to share what we love about Young Makers, and the Maker Faire.


Thank you, generous and curious friends, and family! We had a steady stream of visitors, and it was a lot of fun sharing Lavender, the parade robot, the egg-bot, wool felting, and our hula-hoops! The fun lasted long after dark, when we lit a fire, roasted dinner, and had a live concert from Eli and Paul.

Though I was supervising activities, making shave ice, and simply enjoying everyone's company, I did manage to take a few pictures...


Chango, the cat, with Lavender!
Everyone had a chance to take over the cool controllers that turn Lavender, and open her jaws. She moves with the aid of pistons, which sound soft and hissy when they compress.


Here is the core work force behind the success of the day + Geoff keeping the egg-bot busy and operating smoothly.


Oh, one more thing: besides demonstrating robots, and selling homemade cupcakes, we were also on tooth watch. Maria had been hanging on to this loose front tooth for a really long time, but today may be the day it finally pops!


It's Corina! It's Sophie! It's Caia! And Henry, too!
It was so much fun. Every time familiar faces arrived we had a new thrill!
And I admit: we were heavily marketed. I didn't let this lemonade-stand go on chance alone, which was a good idea, because all those invited friends gave a great party-feel to the day.


Lisa, Michael, Carol, and Leo are getting a good close look at the egg-bot.


And here are Teresa, and her ducky little friend, Christina Canard-Diable.
They're Devil Duckies. It's a FIRST thing.


It's not uncommon for FIRST robotics teams to party together. FIRST 2102 Team Paradox loves getting spirited with Team San Diego, and all of their FIRST friends!


Any Dr Who fans reading this post?
Maybe you recognize that this is a Tardis?


Tooth check... oh, whoa... it's all wibbly-wobbly!


More friends, and some new helpers. Some school friends came to play!


Filippo and Karen came, and brought their children, Luca and Cecilia, and Alex C.
And the beautiful fruit pie Cecilia baked... with preserves from their very own garden! Deliziosissima!


By now, we had our fire ring lit, and the lemonade stand closed, but friends were still dropping by, and we loved the interest in Maker Faire that was building! I think we may even have won over new members!


And. You guessed it! It Popped!
What a full day!


Bambi and Alex, fireside.

We roasted hot dogs, and veggie-dogs, enjoyed salad and crudites. Then Paul arrived and he brought a Mediterranean feast. Just fyi: hot dog wrapped in warm flat bread, with fresh, leafy tabouli, and hummus = a super satisfying dinner.


Eli brought his uke, and the guitar came out, for Paul. The sun went down, we feasted, reflected, laughed at Maria's new grin and lisp, and listened to music and singing...


Max, our CFO, assures us, it was a success. And if "F" stands for Fun, he could not be more correct. The Lemonade and Bake Sale, and Mini-Make Demonstration were a huge success!

Making Our Way to Maker Faire!

We were excited to (finally) support Maria's long time dream of hosting her own lemonade stand. We encouraged her to sell for a cause, and so, we decided to share our plans for taking the Young Makers Club, Love and Rockets, to Maker Faire. Through this club, and the high school club, Art of Engineering, we are supporting bringing at least four students, in addition to our own children, to the Faire. A little gas money for the long drive will help a lot! Thank you... everyone that came was generous, thirsty, hungry, and curious. We had a really, really, really fun time. Really!


Before we share the sale, the demonstrations, the fun, I'd like to share peeks of some of the preparations...


Obviously, we made lemonade. We made as much as we could from our own tree, and then we supplemented with the tasty frozen concentrate from Trader Joe's. Maria was insistent on making all the lemonade fresh squeezed, which is admirable, but our poor tree had a limited supply of fruit to offer.


I think combining ours and theirs was a tasty compromise, plus we had a delicious, and homemade berry syrup to liven up the flavor and add color to our lemonade.

Max offered to be CFO of the operation, and he took all my receipts, to calculate expenses, and help create pricing guidelines. It's a genuine pleasure to be so closely acquainted with someone willing and able to provide these services!

Alex was appointed technical support, and strongman. He helped set up Lavender, the big robotic arm. He moved tables, chairs, the fire ring. During the sale, he was on hand to wave in customers, and support his sister.

Bambi, the latest and greatest Young Maker, came supplied with mixes for hot apple cider, hot chocolate... emphasis on the hot, because the day of the sale turned out drizzly, damp, cold, cloudy, windy... and decidedly unfavorable for ice cold lemonade. Bambi also made an excellent greeter and sales associate. And! The sun came out! I think she chased the poor weather away by helping us prepare for a change of plans.


We made three versions of Maria's notice. Every time it drizzled, on the days leading up to the sale, the message would get washed away!


Hmmm... I think this is version II. We wanted the neighborhood anticipating all the goodness to come. Maria was even prepared for dogs!

We baked, too. And we, of course, sampled our wares. You cannot sell unsampled cookies. It's too risky.


Speaking of risky... we made lemon-mint syrup, and berry syrup for shave ice. When the weather started out cold, like it did, we thought shave ice will be a flop. But, like I said, the day changed, and shave ice was a big hit.


Ah... I'm getting ahead of myself. I have some editing to do, but very soon we are going to share a few of the fun moments we enjoyed at Maria's Lemonade Sale and Mini-Maker Demonstration. We hope you'll come by for more!