Bits and Bots: Musings on LabVIEW, LEGO and Learning

Praise From NSTA

AmyLeask — Tue, 22 May 2012 18:35:03 +0000

We were excited and inspired by our visit to the National Science Teachers’ Association conference this past March. We’re even more excited to have had one of our books (and corresponding teacher packs) recommended on their resource website for teachers.

Check out what they have to say about “According to Phil: A Young Thinker’s Guide to Robots” here!

Coming This Summer!

AmyLeask — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:43:10 +0000

No time for BBQ and lazy days in the hammock! Enable is cued up for an action-packed summer. Here are a few upcoming highlights:

We’re moving! As of next week, our team will reside at 300 Bronte Street (Unit 1), Milton. Photos to follow (as soon as we’re unpacked and settled in).
We’ll be part of the Downtown Milton Street Festival on Saturday, June 2. Join us in the Kid Zone for robot demos, free goodies, and photo ops with Sophia the Wise (see photo below).
Amy Leask will be doing a presentation on teaching philosophy through new technology at this year’s NAACI conference.
This August, for the first time, Enable will have its own booth at NI Week in Austin, Texas.

Sophia the Wise: Now In 3D!

Ben Talks Shop on TV

AmyLeask — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:31:21 +0000

Check out our fearless leader’s recent appearance on “Pay Yourself First”. Along with the founding members of Silicon Halton, Ben Zimmer explains our mission, our approach and our history as a company.

Pay Yourself First

Happy Birthday, Enable Publishing!

AmyLeask — Tue, 01 May 2012 23:00:04 +0000

One year ago, ThinkAboutIt: Philosophy For Kids made its debut, and we became a small publisher. In the span of 12 months, we’ve produced 6 kids’ philosophy books, 1 robot book, 5 iPad apps, and 2 teacher’s resource packs, not to mention all kinds of online materials. Along the way, we’ve done street festivals, literary events, educational conferences, and had our books featured on CityLine and TVO Parents.

I couldn’t be prouder of the work we’ve done (both quantity and quality), and I want to thank everyone who has been involved in the production of these materials (it’s a lengthy list). I can’t wait to see what comes next!

Happy birthday to our narrator, Sophia the Wise!

Four New Faces For Spring/Summer 2012

AmyLeask — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:19:22 +0000

Monday marks our official changing of the guard for co-op students. We’d like to thank our outgoing students Naheed, Hank, Kevin, and Matt for all their amazing work this semester, and wish them luck in the coming school year.

We’d also like to welcome in Tyron, Smit, and Zach, our new recruits, and we’d like to welcome back Sarah. Many great projects await these four, and we look forward to their contributions.

It’s Robot Season!

AmyLeask — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:55:22 +0000

It’s that time of year again. The birds are singing, the tulips are popping, and somewhere in St. Louis, thousands of students are learning valuable lessons in engineering, critical thinking, and teamwork. Yes, the FIRST World Finals are this week, and our fearless leader, Ben Zimmer, will be making the rounds.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with FIRST, it’s an amazing robotics competition that began in the US, but now has competitors from just about every corner of the globe. Students as young as 7 participate in teams to build a robot that accomplishes an assigned set of tasks, and then that robot competes against others in regional competitions. If luck is on its side, it then goes on to the finals!

FIRST presents an incredible opportunity for kids big and little to try their hand at robotic design and programming, but more importantly, it allows them to be part of a team, and to meet other budding engineers from around the world. We’re delighted to be one of their suppliers, and to be involved in such an amazing program. Good luck to all of 2012′s teams!

Below is a lovely pic of Ben with FIRST founder and inventor extraordinaire, Dean Kamen (Ben is in the middle, Dean is on his right).

Enable Gets Ethical

AmyLeask — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:28:32 +0000

We’d like to introduce the latest addition to our ThinkAboutIt: Philosophy for Kids series. Intended for thinkers ages 7 and up, Ethics: Behave Yourself! is an amusing romp through questions about right and wrong.

Soon to follow in the next month or two will be Politics: Who’s The Boss?. Three new apps, as well as another teacher resource pack, will also be making their debut this summer.

New Enabler, New Architect

AmyLeask — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:21:33 +0000

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Andrew Baxter, the newest member of the Enable Education team. A certified teacher, Andrew will be helping to create educational resources, and we look forward to seeing his contributions to our projects.

We’d also like to congratulate Dean Mills, our intrepid engineering manager, who recently became a Certified LabVIEW Architect. Go Dean!

New Websites and New Videos!

AmyLeask — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:26:03 +0000

When people ask, “So what do you guys do?”, it’s always nice to have a clear and concise description. To that end, we’ve officially launched our Enable Education website, which gives a big picture view of our process and capabilities. Check out our intro video:

We’re also excited to present an introductory video about teaching philosophy to children:

Welcome Greg!

AmyLeask — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:00:46 +0000

This is long overdue, but we’d like to formally welcome Greg Rell to our Enable team. After joining us for unlimited flapjacks at a local diner on Pancake Tuesday (hope he wasn’t just swayed by all the carbs), he became one of us, and we couldn’t be happier.

Greg brings with him a wealth of programming experience, and is a Certified LabVIEW Developer. We look forward to all the great things he’ll achieve as part of our engineering squad!