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On Sunday 25th September I produced the first technology event for children and families in Leeds: LSx Junior. The idea for LSx Junior first came up in 2010 while we were discussing the LSx programme of events, we began reflecting on how children seem so unafraid of technology and really enjoy tinkering.

This year I was persuaded to look at it again by Jon Eland. However, developing the event from scratch was trickier than I anticipated, in the end I settled on two guiding principals for each activity:

  • It must involve technology
  • It must be fun

I also decided quite early on not to preoccupy myself with "learning outcomes" or concerns over health and safety. Specifically in regard to health and safety I realise that may sound very irresponsible but I knew that some activities may expose children to elements of risk (soldering, sharp knives, moving parts, etc) but I figured that an important part of making stuff is about respecting the dangers and learning about how to master and mitigate them. Additionally, I also knew that parents, armed with clear information about each activity, would instinctively be able to assess any potential dangers in relation to their child's capabilities and decide for themselves if their child would benefit from participation.

Over the course of the year I’ve met loads and loads of amazing, passionate people who share my vision and the experience of producing LSx Junior has proved to me that there are lots of people as keen as I am to help young people to explore technology. To allow them to make and do, and experience the pleasure of producing things is really important, especially if we’re going to have future generation of creative technologists.

The feedback from parents and children who came on the day has been great. We had around 50 families there on the day which meant nearly 70 ticketed spaces and almost 100 people in total through the doors on the day.  Everyone produced 'things' and seeing how pleased that made everyone was the highlight for me. The biggest, and most surprising bit of feedback came from families who said they'd really enjoyed spending the day together doing things they wouldn’t normally do.

We made more than 20 mood lamps out of recycled mobile phone chargers. The kids produced 5 animations which you can see on Vimeo. They took hundreds of photos using cameras from Exposure Leeds and some N8’s.

There’s a lovely promo video online to give you a feel for the day and lots of photos on Flickr. We’ve also got an audioboo of feedback from parents and children telling us why they enjoyed it. There’s also great blog post by Anne Akers about the Photowalks.

And the Yorkshire Evening Post covered the day in the edition published on 27th September. You can see a copy online.

We’re hoping to do it all again next year, same time, same place but bigger. So if you have an idea for a workshop you’d like to see or can deliver let me know, I’d love to speak to you. Or if you just fancy getting involved but don’t know how get in touch, I’m sure we can find something you can help with.

And finally I’m very grateful to those that made this happen: Our workshop leaders: Laura Haughey, Stuart Childs, Mike Wallis, Anne Akers, Simon Cliff and Jane Zanzottera.

Thank you to people helping out on the day including Charlotte Rainey and Imran Ali.  

And finally to our sponsors and supporters, to everyone at kilo75 for their support and encouragement (and turning a blind eye to the time spent), to Leeds City Council for helping to pay for materials, to the Leeds Young People’s Film Festival for the loan of their animation equipment, to Jam Jar for bringing Friispray, Nokia (and Robin Cramp) for loaning us some N8 smartphones, No Starch for our book giveaway, Brainpop for badges and freebies, Artemis for bringing their technology artefacts and a special thanks to the Hunslet Club for being fantastic hosts.