sprout & co.

The Community Incubator is a get-together of people who want to see more thoughtful effort and democratized design processes engaged in shaping our communities. In this weekend-long sprint, participants will brainstorm, develop, and begin to implement a community project or event they think will contribute to the vibrancy or character of their social or physical environment.

Math has a reputation of being dry and boring. Some people try to make it fun by sugarcoating. This program isn't about that; it's about finding the real fun that math has to offer by exploring games and puzzles which are engaging in their own right. In this way, we hope participants will begin to develop a personal taste and intuition for what it means to think mathematically rather than just compute arithmetic—even if computation is a necessary ingredient in solving the problems we explore.

This is actually two sets of sessions run by Michael Nagle and Shaunalynn Duffy in both Somerville and Jamaica Plains throughout the week.

r&d spree is a weekend event where people come together for a whirlwind of brainstorming and investigation around open research and development questions in the real world. It's a great place to stretch your skills, dive into some crazy problems, and meet people interested in the same.

How do you get from Maxwell's equations to the design of a functioning, magnetic machine? Explore the physics and engineering behind motor and generator design and optimize the design of a prototype turbine being built by a local energy company in this weekly seminar.

Comfort with multivariable and vector calculus and basic electricity & magnetism is required.

This seminar explores the modeling of optimal board game strategies. Come play board games, learn to think analytically about optimal play, and learn about algorithms and data structures useful for modeling gameplay. Participants are encouraged to implement their strategies however they'd like, whether in a computer program or on pen and paper.

No programming or computer science background is required; although, lovers of board games and/or programming are especially welcome.

Baffled by boundary layers? Join us for a seminar-style exploration of Kundu Cohen's Fluid Mechanics, aided by course notes from 2.25 — Advanced Fluid Mechanics at MIT. Topics will be tailored to the background and interest of the participants.

Electronics make much of our world go, but we usually don't get to see or understand the most basic ideas they rely on. Explore the analog electronics (how it was done before 0s and 1s) that power one of the most popular timers around (the 555). Understand what it means to be Turing complete (and why your Arduino cares), and open up some black-box electronics chips to see what's inside!

This introductory seminar and will be run by Schuyler Towne—a two time American lock picking champion. These sessions are appropriate for people with little or no background and a lot of curiosity. The mechanics of pin tumbler, wafer, lever and combination locks, and the basics of lockpicking, will be covered. Each participant will receive their own set of picks, practice locks and security pins to practice on their own.

All materials and supplies will be provided, as well as time and workspace for free play outside of the sessions. Email Schuyler with any questions about the locksport programs.

What does a drill bit that can make a square hole look like? How can you make a completely mechanical machine that draws a parabola? This seminar explores these types of questions and others about the geometry of mechanical linkages and clever mechanisms. We will draw inspiration and content from drawn from and inspired by the book How Round is Your Circle—by introducing participants to the 2D physics and modeling needed through Mekanimo, a Python-based simulation environment.

No programming or physics background is required; open to people fourteen and older.

Rapid prototyping and manufacturing have become significantly easier to dive into in the past few years. With the aid of local scientists and engineers, this seminar—coordinated by Nervous System's Jesse Louis-Rosenberg—will explore the implications of these advances firsthand through a mix of seminars, talks, and hands-on projects creating manufacturing machines.

Comfort with exploring unfamiliar material—especially technical—is suggested, but no background is required. Excitement, genuine interest, and commitment are more important—especially an interest in technologies for manufacturing at scale that can complete with mass production but are accessible to the rest of us.

How can computation change the way we learn and teach mathematical ideas? This seminar is an exploration of geometry and differential topology—aided by Scratch, Ruby, & Processing—in which participants will create their own beautiful explanation of mathematical theorems as we explore geometry from a computational angle. We'll be drawing on a combination of personal and group projects and Hal Abelson and Andi DiSessa's Turtle Geometry.

This seminar is being run with the Tufts Experimental College. No background in programming or math is required; anyone twelve or older is welcome to participate.

This collaborative working group is about organizing an event around an interest or question you're passionate about. Over six weeks, we'll design and execute our own events with support both from each other and Trouble.

Scheduling is flexible, so even if Wednesday nights don't work for you, email Trouble anyway!

Where does 'science' come from? This weekly seminar explores how scientists collaborate, cooperate, hash out consensus, and 'produce' the stuff that we call science firsthand—through observation and interviews in local laboratories. Participants will be matched with local labs to do field work as they dive into readings and discussions around the sociology of science.

Through hands-on projects this program will explore a wide range of basic animation styles, materials, and techniques. These media include flip-books, traditional animation, 2D computer software animation (Flash), cut out and mixed media animation, and stop-motion/claymation. We'll also take a look at basic animation lighting and sound techniques.

No background is required; this program is open to people twelve and older.

The Science of Sourdough is a series of drop-in workshops aimed at people who love to cook and are excited to better understand the chemistry that they make happen in their kitchen.

The Quantified Self :: Getting To Know You is a meetup organized by Michael Nagle which explores how the collection and tracking of data can become a powerful part of personal research into our bodies, minds, and selves. It's a regular show and tell for people interested in self-investigation…from personal genetics to self-diagnosis and self-experimentation (PDF).

This afternoon-long workshop is designed for people who already have a basic understanding of how locks work and how they can be compromised and will focus on the evidence left behind when they are opened surreptitiously. By the end of the workshop you should be comfortable with basic forensic procedure, determining the method of attack and skill level of the attacker. This workshop will assume that you already know the basics of lockpicking.

Explore how to design a mechanism to create sounds and sights in this ongoing workgroup looking at the physics, modeling, and fabrication techniques behind mechanical and kinetic sculpture.

Instrument design is an amazing mix of craft and science—despite how much we know, we don't know much about why great instruments sound the way they do. This is a two-day workshop and studio (10AM–2PM on two, consecutive Saturdays) exploring how flutes are made, and how their design controls their acoustics and what sorts of sounds they can make.

No background in music, acoustics, or engineering is required. These workshops are open to anyone eight or older.

A combination of seminar and working group, this is a meetup focused on understanding and prototyping tools to support powerful learning and teaching experiences. We'll come together for a mix of discussion, presentations, and most importantly: workshopping our ideas and prototypes.

All are welcome to come by for these worksessions. There will be a focus on prototyping and developing ideas, and help will be made available to introduce people to creating both physical and digital tools.

Explore the connections between physics, engineering, and building things while creating a working wind turbine. In this seminar we'll learn about the physics of wind, use this knowledge to design and optimize a turbine, then go into the shop to build and test it. You'll learn both about the details of wind turbines and the general process engineers use to create machines.

Note that the schedule is flexible per participants availability, and a number of other financial options (including work trade and sliding scale) are available.