<div dir="ltr">Hi OLPC India, <br><br>Is anyone interested in working on hardware peripherals for the platform?<br>We have a mature prototype but are looking to turn it into a more finished breadboard prototype (PCB design). Any expertise in that arena is appreciated. <br>
<br>Also, we would appreciate help in the area of translation. We have a drafted lesson plan but could use help in the translation to various dialects that OLPC India serves. <br><br>Please contact me if you have any interest or other questions about our effort. <br>
Look forward to working with many of you. <br><br>Best,<br>Tom<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 9:07 AM, Arjun Sarwal <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:arjun@laptop.org">arjun@laptop.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">I would like to introduce you all to Tom and Jake and their fantastic work.<br>
Below is an excerpt from my recent communication with Tom. Please get<br>
in touch with Tom regarding his projects if you might be interested-<br>
some great learning-by-doing projects here.<br>
<br>
---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>
From: Tom Boonsiri <<a href="mailto:tom.boonsiri@gmail.com">tom.boonsiri@gmail.com</a>><br>
Date: Mon, Sep 1, 2008 at 1:44 AM<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Arjun,<br>
<br>
Thank you for the flattering introduction! =)<br>
<br>
<br>
My grassroots group based here in California truly believes in the<br>
educational mission of the OLPC project; however, we wanted to focus<br>
on the development of an activity that would benefit not only the<br>
students in the classroom but be able to touch all people within the<br>
community. One of the ways we felt could that could be accomplished<br>
was through health wellness. Also, we felt that the sensor interface<br>
was a brilliant feature that would truly allow us to give kids a<br>
hands-on opportunity to explore various phenomena of the human body.<br>
Thanks to the great foundation that Arjun laid, we were able to<br>
develop two low-cost biomedical peripherals to visually depict the<br>
human heart rate.<br>
<br>
Though the strength of our activity lies in the structure and message<br>
of our lesson plan. The lesson plan includes about 4 learning modules<br>
beginning with the question of "What makes me alive?" leading to an<br>
explanation of the human body and heart, various manual exercises to<br>
record the students' heart rates (reading the pulse through a wrist or<br>
stethoscope) and to explore various ways to influence it (ie. jumping<br>
in place, valsava maneuver, etc.), and automated heart rate detection<br>
through the peripherals. The result is an understanding of the<br>
influence everyone (students and family members) has on their body (to<br>
lead a healthy lifestyle), further encouragement to explore the sensor<br>
interface, and interest in both engineering and medical aspirations.<br>
<br>
Through a local pilot here in the Bay Area we were able to refine our<br>
lesson plan which was very well received by the students. The students<br>
were constantly engaged and very excited to see the effects of their<br>
heart rate in real-time. We further refined our lesson plan to tailor<br>
the material to different age groups and include background materials<br>
for instructors who might not feel comfortable with the science<br>
material. We are enthusiastic to work the various pilots of OLPC India<br>
and feel our activity has reached a maturity ready for immediate<br>
deployment; however, we would require OLPC India's assistance in the<br>
translation of the content.<br>
<br>
Our blog and video demos of our peripherals are located below:<br>
<a href="http://olpcgoldenstate.blogspot.com" target="_blank">http://olpcgoldenstate.blogspot.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/olpcgoldenstate" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/user/olpcgoldenstate</a><br>
<br>
Looking forward to your response.<br>
<br>
Warm Regards,<br>
Tom Boonsiri<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Arjun Sarwal<br>
<a href="http://dev.laptop.org/%7Earjs" target="_blank">http://dev.laptop.org/~arjs</a><br>
<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=SwcSEcfR464" target="_blank">http://youtube.com/watch?v=SwcSEcfR464</a><br>
</font></blockquote></div><br></div>