Lighting Young Brains On Fire

Northwestern University's Office of STEM Education Patnerships has recently hired Roth Mobot's Patrick McCarthy as their Designer of YouSTEM Alternative Learning Environments. Patrick will be instrumental in designing, developing, and implementing after school self-running interactive "drop in" labs for teens to explore Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math.

"Chicago has excellent after school facilities for sports, the arts, and digital media." Says Patrick. "Soon students will have spaces where they can hang out and explore Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math on their own terms and at their own pace. These new YouSTEM environments will encourage independence of thought, demystify technology, make mathematics a natural language, and foster an intuitive approach to invention. I also want to show teens, and... well, everyone, that social networks can be used as powerful developmental and educational tools. And it's going to be fun!"

Amplify Your Slinky

As Seen On Page 4 Of 6/30 Chicago Reader

Patrick McCarthy of the duo Roth Mobot teaches a class on how to build a contact microphone, which picks up vibrations through solid objects rather than through the air. It’s part of Getting Bent, a series of first-Sunday workshops in circuit bending: “the creative recycling of discarded consumer electronics to create unique experimental electronic art by adding wires, knobs, and switches to control new connections within the device’s pre-existing circuitry.” Participants are encouraged to bring objects to amplify, like sheet metal, cardboard, acoustic instruments, Slinkies, and coat hangers.