Multi-Modal Transportation and Energy

On Thursday I was able to attend the presentation at The Bexley Public Library called “Thoughful Transportation“. It was well-presented by Craig Ness and Erik Bjørnard, bicycle and eBike enthusiasts and dads to two ofmybioEngineering summer camp kids (small world). Anyway, the presentation got me thinking about Multi-Modal Transportation and Energy.

They Left Out Energy

I realized quickly that my legs were not up to the task, and I didn’t actually know how to use the gear ratio on the bike!

Jim Bruner

This was a very clever bit of the presentation that I really enjoyed. It opened my eyes up to a wide variety of considerations for becoming a one car household. But they did not address energy – either kinesthetic, athletic, or electrical.

At Mezzacello, we are always considering the role energy plays in our lives, our ecosystems, and our community. I have a bike, it’s an eBike and I charge it up from the energy produced by the bioreactor. (see the photo below) But that is really only part of the issue.

It takes time and effort to adapt to the reality of riding a bike places, even an eBike. Last night I chose to ride my bike to join my friend Dee at a bar. It seemed like a great plan at the time:

Free transportation, enjoying the city with my friend and a built-in safety that I would not have too much to drink. But my battery died on my eBike on the way there. I realized quickly that my legs were not up to the task, and I didn’t actually know how to use the gear ratio on the bike!

All Good Systems Require Planning and Action

To be absolutely clear, Craig and Erik were upfront about this situation in their presentation. But it’s one thing to KNOW it and another to EXPERIENCE it. Dee was of course gracious, but I felt like a fool.

I didn’t have a backup plan. Actually, I did: I was going to have Rick come pick me up in the Ford F-150. I am bougie.

Dee convinced me I could do this – and they were kind and helpful, supportive and right. What I am leaving out here is that I have terrible anxiety around getting lost and I am really night-blind. I can’t read street signs in the dark and I can’t see my iPhone without glasses, but can see the street with my glasses on.

This was an unexpected complication. So I think I will be adding a pair of heads up glasses to my repetoire so I can see the map on my phone and not have to fuss with the readers I wear to see the phone but that blur the road ahead of me. Yes, I am a mess.

I am also a problem solver, and Craig, Erik, and Dee have inspired me. I’ll figure this out and get back to you all. In the meantime, here is my stat deck I created in regards to energy and multi-modal transportation.

The Renewable Power of Belief

During a recent BioEngineering and Renewable Energy Summer Camp Mashup for the City of Columbus Parks and Recreation one of my campers sketched a vision for bridging these two disciplines. When I had the opportunity to work with Liam again, I challenged him to learn all he could about electricity, Direct Currents, and pressure. He showed up the following week with confidence in the renewable power of belief.

The previous week, Liam and his team had deconstructed a 12 V battery recharger, air pump and emergency light/SOS system. The air pump was an isolated system, as the charger and light shared a processor board (which I didn’t have the manpower to teach). Liam’s dream was to create a Minimal Viable Prototype (MVP) for this system.

The “Applied” in Applied STEM

It does not take a lot to create a dreamer. It takes a lot to convince the dreamer that they are right or capable. Then you have to encourage them, provide them with materials, and DEMAND that they give you blue prints and prototypes.

I challenged these kids to create MVPs to solve problems that met an engineering challenge and a renewable power mandate. Liam’s device had to convert 12V and 100Ah DC current into power to run the air pump. The air pump was dangerous as there were moving parts, so it needed a casing.

Liam and his team did a great and fearless job powering the air pump up. Where they were not as successful was in understanding how to house the air pump safely and still make it accessible. They had a vision for what they wanted to create, but they had no roadmap.

Brainstorming Is Key

When I asked the team what they needed to make this work, they gave me a short list. I procured those items and set them to the task. I was surprised that they had not engineered an interior or had any plan for holding the rapidly oscillating pieces upright and still.

They were willing to put the moving pieces (rapidly spinning offset gears and pistons) of the pump loose in the PVC canister. But this damaged the pump and motor housing we would later learn. This in turn reduced the efficiency — and lifespan — of the pump.

Evaluate and Modify

I learned that sometimes, you have to do more than have an idea. You also need to draw and document it to see that idea as a whole.

Liam

Then we tested the pump (successfully) on a 2 ton Ford F-150 truck. The front passenger tire was going flat. Liam found a nail in the tire. We had a test case for this new solar-powered invention!

We set to designing a way to use this new tool successfully on my truck’s flat tire. What we also learned was that the motor in this cheapo air pump was a brush motor. The high amperage shredded the motor brushes.

So we also learned that the system needed to have its amperage modulated (below 30 Amps). While we destroyed the motor of the air pump, We did test it successfully and we also aerated a batch of Eden’s Ghost with that pump and an attached aerator stone. Compressed air has more than one use, after all!

This is the renewable power of belief. Allow kids to explore the power of Applied STEM, but require a brainstorming and baseline session to make it attainable. Then when we fail, we fail forward, and we fail well.

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This is a part of the City of Columbus Parks and Recreation Summer Grant Grant #1521-2023

BioEngineering Summer Camp 2023 Guest Blogs

I love teaching Applied STEM summer camps. It never ceases to amaze me what kids will dream up if you give them a problem, some tools and then get out of their way. These are two BioEngineering Summer Camp 2023 Guest Blogs that were shared with me today.

Children Own The Future By Embracing Today Their Way

It is remarkable to see your impact through the eyes of a kid. It’s very important for me that you understand I presented a problem and these two created solutions that were manageable, doable, and sustainable. Creativity and problem-solving is an innate superpower of youth.

Liam’s Outdoor Data Station

This was Liam’s design for the outdoor data station. The requirements were:

• The work surface had to be mounted and retractable
• The station had to be covered and shaded
• The monitors had to be free from the table surface
• The entire array had to run on Solar, Wind, or Battery Power

Liam worked with his team and a high school intern who was also attending the camp. They had to provide me with detailed list of outside materials that would be needed and a drawing of their design. Liam is a great engineer in training, but he isn’t fond of mapping things out.

This is what Liam and his team designed. It works very well and uses the dedicated 5G wireless router signal that the Bioreactor uses at Mezzacello. The system is stable and easily mountable and dismountable. Below is the text from Liam’s description.

What I Did

I built a deck, mounted a monitor stand, managed setting up two Windows 11 workstations, created a database in Airtable, setup the wifi relay, and managed the entire Computer array storage system, used a solar-powered power station to power the entire system, hung chairs, and made an old compressor work from. Reused 12V 30Ah battery and spare wire. (more on this later)

Things I Did Wrong And Fixed

We put the desk in, but not on the (wall) studs. So we had to (take it down and) move it over.

Sketch Something I Did

Editor’s Note: Frankly I am blown away that he drew this from MEMORY! That lesson resonated with him. The plan view is a stroke of genius!

Fun I Had

Holding Alice Cooper was fun because he’s really cute.

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Max’s Automated and Distributed Watering System

This was Max’s design for the distributed and automated watering system. The requirements were:

• The watering source had to be circles large enough to cover the entire area of the potager gardens
• The system had to make use of the existing steel trellis
• No hoses could be exposed
• The water had to come on and off automatically
• The system could not use more than 3 gallons of water total on any one day

This is what Max designed. It works very well and uses city water for now but there are plans to integrate a solar-powered pump from the Bioreactor water tower at Mezzacello. The system is stable and easily programmed and run. Below is the text from Max’s description.

Mezzacello is a cool urban farm place that grows lots of stuff. I buried hoses in holes to make a sprinkler system for the garden. But I made the hole to big and deep. So I had to dig it again, smaller and closer. Then I had to fix some stuff.

Editor’s note: BioLab 4 is the shed on which Liam’s outdoor station station is mounted to.

Here is a plan view of the design.

There’s a lot of compost and animals and wind turbines, and solar panels and plants growing. And everyone is always working on something. I learned a lot there and I had a lot of fun too.

A Delight, A Privilege, and a Surprise

I pride myself on building and running programming that really captures the imagination and excitement of learning for kids. They need the opportunity to do things and fail and do them again. I am proud of these young people – all of them! – and I am delighted that they shared their journey with me in such a fun and unique way.

Applied STEM at Mezzacello is more than just science, technology, engineering and math. It is a true multi-sensory and disciplinary experience. I always strive to interweave lessons in leadership, cooperation, art, writing, and public speaking.

Those are the human skills that these young future leaders are going to need. They are tasked with changing the world in the face of Climate Reality. The very least we should be doing is allowing them to solve the problems on their terms and in their voices.

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A Shout Out To My Sponsors

I wanted to give a shout to Richard Riley for always supporting me, and Olivia Hickey for entrusting me with her sons and getting them to write these guest blogs. That was a delight! I love that I get to be part of the change I want to see in the world!

I also want to thank The PAST Foundation, Franklin Park Conservatory, Scotts Miracle Grow, The Columbus Foundation, Battelle, The Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation, Bronzeville Grower’s Market, and The City of Columbus Parks and Recreation for underwriting this particular grant.

I am grateful to all of them for getting the opportunity to help make a positive change in the world. I welcome all collaboration and partnership. Nature hates a vacuum and I am certain I can’t be the best or only force for positive change, so let’s work together!

A special shout out to Walker Evans at Columbus Underground for putting the idea of expanding collaboration at his inaugural #CivicSpeakeasy and the Columbus Metropolitan Club and the amazing Sophia Fifner for reminding us that ALL of us are better TOGETHER! Brava and thank you all.

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This is a part of the City of Columbus Parks and Recreation Summer Grant Grant #1521-2023

Carbon Sequestration? Plant The Future and Compost It

Today I was reading through a science blog site and I saw a story about US plans to create a carbon sequestration plant in the states of LA and TX. I can see the logic of this as oil production and refinement are especially pernicious producers of CO2 and CO. But have they ever heard of Carbon Sequestration, Compost, and Urban Farming?

NHCOPS That “C” is Carbon and that “O” is Oxygen

Every year that I plant a garden or lay out a new bed, I am participating in carbon sequestration. Also, Compost is the ULTIMATE form of Carbon Sequestration! It locks so much carbon up into the soil.

Every summer I produce between 2000 – 6000 Liters (630 – 1100 Gallons) of compost here at Mezzacello. That is a lot of carbon. But I am one person. Imagine what our world would be like if MORE people were able to compost at this scale.

NHCOPS Yes, The “S” is Sulphur

Sulphur is smelly and necessary to all life on this planet.I am sorry if smelly is inconvenient. Spend more time in NYC in August.

But that Sulphur is important. It binds things and causes reactions that this planet desperately needs! It creates natural calcite, limestone and sandstone.

Yes, it takes a millenia. But we didn’t just fall into this problem with the climate. We deliberately chose to ignore mother nature’s warnings about what would happen if WE DI NOT clean up our room!

See any of my blogs on sustainability or the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals…

If every community had at least one bioreactor and 10 families were able to fill it in one week, the amount of carbon and oxygen a city the size of Columbus, OH could produce would be STAGGERING. And what’s more is that the carbon would NOT be locked up or sequestered, but freed and able to bind with OTHER atoms and especially Nitrogen to make life.

Plant The Future Earth

This pathway to sequester Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Sulphur is nature’s pathway. This is a farm, this is a forest, this is a prairie. It’s OUR fault we prefer concrete and asphalt to dirt.

We had GOOD reasons for going with Non-Permeable solids to build on. But eventually, convenience has a cost. In the case of Carbon Sequestration, that cost is $1.2B. I can build a robotic composter anywhere for $1200.

Do the math. Nature doesn’t NEED replaced. She needs help.

We can help her. Plant a garden, and then compost that garden. You will be shocked at how easy it is.

Weigh the compost you create initially and then subtract 2/3 of the weight. That last 1/3 is probably half Carbon and a raft of other ESSENTIAL elements and minerals. This is the sequestration we NEED more of right now.

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This is a part of the City of Columbus Parks and Recreation Summer Grant Grant #1521-2023

Lesson: Molecular Machines in Nature

The array of super-tiny atomic-scale molecular machines in the world is truly mind-boggling!

In this Lesson: Molecular Machines in Nature we will be discussing how nature uses all six of the simple machines and some really cool molecules to do work right within the cell! This happens in plants, insects, animals, and even in bacteria and in viruses. All it takes is to reframe the idea of what you call a machine or motor.

Chlorophyl: The Original Green Solar Panel

Did you know that around 3.5-3.8 billion years ago chlorophyll evolved in ancient organisms called Archaeans (ancient bacteria). It was the beginning of the great period of oxygenation on our planet. Chlorophyll played a big part of that.

Cyanobacteria and later plants, have oxygen as the waste product of photosynthesis. Thus slowly Earth became oxygenized. This Great Oxygenation Event wiped out most of the anaerobic organisms including the purple bacteria. So plants are green because chlorophyll is more suited for a star that shines in blue or a red light (UV and Infrared).

How exactly is it that chlorophyll is a molecular machine? I’m glad you asked! It has to do with that ring at the top of the molecule (see below).

There are five atoms in that central ring. Magnesium (element 12) and Nitrogen (element 7). The magnesium is ionized and just two of the Nitrogens are ionized.

As the magnesium reacts, it spins being attracted and repulsed by the positive and negative Nitrogens. This transforms photons into electrons and those electrons travel down that long tail creating O2, Sugars, and water.

It’s remarkable to think every day we eat tiny little green electric motors and solar panels and that is how we get our power. When animals eat plants, and we eat animals or insects, we still get that power. We are living batteries and power plants powered by plants!

DNA: Take It Apart and Reassemble It – FAST!

Most people know what DNA (DeoxyriboNucleic Acid) is. But two things that you might NOT know is that:

1. DNA and its family – Genes, Nucleotides, Chromosomes, and Messenger RNA (RiboNucleic Acid) only code for proteins.
2. DNA must be built, unbuilt and a new copy made in every cell in every living thing on this planet and that is done by a series of machines that physically manipulate the DNA polymer molecule.

To accomplish this amazing feat of bioengineering DNA uses DNA transcription machines to unzip the double helix DNA, then create two versions of the same DNA and then put it all back together again. Transcription motors do this so fast they are almost as fast as jet engines! The spin and unlock the DNA and then they have to ACCURATELY put that DNA back together again every time.

Question: What do you think would happen if the DNA got put together again and even one base pair nucleotide was wrong?

The tiny spinning and reassembling molecular machines are incredibly efficient. In fact, they RARELY get the reassembly process wrong. That’s because the way DNA works is very much like a form of LEGOS. The nucleotides will only click with a certain nucleotide and none others.

Here’s an interesting question: Is DNA a sugar, a plastic, or an acid?

• DNA does have a sugar backbone in its double helix
• DNA technically is a polymer (a long chain of carbon-bonded molecules) just like plastic
• DNA has an acidic Ph as the nucleotides (ladder rungs) are made of amino acids

Sugars are everywhere. Just like carbon, we need the molecular shape of sugars to support and sustain life, and carbon is an excellent building tool. So yes, DNA does have a sugar aspect to it.

DNA is a polymer, so it is plastic. But is DNA a plastic are are all plastic polymers — but not all polymers are plastic. Remember a polymer is simply a long chain of carbon atoms.

Why do you think DNA is acidic? Is there something about ions and energy that might be built into DNA? Why does DNA only code for proteins and not more specific traits?

When we reframe this idea as a LEGO block issue, it becomes much easier to understand how and why the transcription molecular motor works so very well. It doesn’t change the fact that that it is extraordinarily complex, but it does make it easier, right?

Dynein Motor: We’re Walking, We’re Talking

Would you believe that in your body right now, in every cell of every living organism there is an army of walking machines called Dynein Motors? They are tiny machines that carry proteins around inside the cell on highways called microtubules. They are the most amazing molecular motors in my opinion.

Watch DNA Transcription and Dynein Motors in Action!

Of course, these amazing motors are not “alive” in the real sense of that word. They are molecular machines that react to the microtubule highways in the cell and they place one “foot” in front of the other and move around the cell.

If we were to look at a Dynein Motor could we determine which of the six simple machines it uses to move? Let’s have a look.

Notes for an Educator:

The goal of this lesson is to introduce biotech, bioengineering, and biochemistry students to the idea that nature uses engineering principles, biological truths and physics and chemistry to bring atoms and molecules to life. It is an important idea that seemingly miraculous and complicated things can be understood by breaking them down into pieces and then reframing the whole.

It would be an interesting activity to do this with an animal and a simple molecule model. Even proteins can make more sense when they are viewed as machines. This is also useful for building team cohesion.

If we can see the smaller parts of a group, we can better understand how we can all come together on common ground. Intolerance or arguments become pieces of data. We need to name them and then reframe them in a positive light.

BioRenewables Lesson Plans

Welcome to Week One Morning Camp and the BioRenewables Lesson Plan page. Each day is laid out below with links to lessons, activities, and design challenges. If you are looking for a list of all lessons, click here.

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Day One:

Farm Systems –

1. Design Challenge: Build a Power Grid Map of Mezzacello
2. Design Challenge: Create a Multimeter Display
3. Design Challenge: Complete the Circuit

Team Building – What makes a good team and how do you make that happen?

1. Design Challenge: Grace Under Pressure
2. Design Challenge: Team Identity
3. Design Challenge: STEM Identity

Layers of Reality – a fun way to introduce the STEM in #UrbanAgTech by creating a model for the way the world works through art and lecture.

Day Two

Webs of Life – a quick review of where in our world we interact with Atoms and why.

1. Design Challenge: Electricity and Matter
2. Design Challenge: Create a Simple Motor
3. Design Challenge: Using Electromagnetic Radiation to Bleach Plastic

Data 101 – A deeper dive into how and why we collect and use data from graphs and labels to predictions and proof.

1. Design Challenge: Create a Data Set
2. Design Challenge: Create a chart
3. Design Challenge: Tell a Story with Data

Day Three:

The Circle of Life – a crash course into Applied STEM and Math integration in Ag and in STEM.

1. Design Challenge: Conductors VS Insulators
2. Design Challenge: Identify a Reframe of a Simple Problem
3. Design Challenge: Using The Force

As Above; So Below – a reminder that life is sophisticated and deeper than we want to acknowledge, but is essentially Yin and Yang with a boundary layer.

1. Design Challenge: What IS Lightning?
2. Design Challenge: Air, Water, Earth, Fire
3. Design Challenge: Creating a simple LED Card

Day Four

Career Crossover – Allows students to reflect on what they have observed and how it impacts their curiosity and their future

1. Design Challenge: Career Memory Game
2. Design Challenge: Team Algorithm
3. Design Challenge: Create a Portable Broadcast System

Analyze and Modify – Create a script for the final video for the team at Camp.

1. Design Challenge: Discuss with your team what your video will be
2. Design Challenge: Assign Random Roles
3. Design Challenge: Create an Exploded LED Light

Day Five

• Finish Your Product Development
• Prep for Presentation
• Present your Final Presentation

The Garden of Grace and Charity

On a recent trip to visit family in Norfolk, Virginia we found this lovely piece of sculpture in our favorite garden store in Olde Towne Portsmouth, Wright and Anderson. We thought instantly of the John Berendt novel, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil“. We will call Mezzacello the garden of grace and charity.

Of all the virtues to balance we strongly believe in the power and beauty of grace and charity. These two are the cornerstones of kindness and love. They deserve a spot in our gardens.

We’ll Call Her Charity

There is a story here. This statue was made famous for being on the cover of Berendt’s book and on the movie poster. The image is iconic: the young maid caught in a pose of reflective tranquility while balancing those two plates.

I have always thought of her as balancing grace and charity. These are very rare qualities and worth reflecting on. Mezzacello is also a non-profit 501(c)(3) so charity seemed appropriate.

Speaking Of Reflections

The statue reminds me of the physical manifestation of Mezzacello. The gracious formal gardens of the east and the applied STEM and production gardens of the west. This little statue is the fulcrum that those two realities are balanced upon.

The statue has a personal subtext for us as well. Richard is a Virginia boy and loves the culture and sensibilities of the gracious south. I had just finished reading “Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil” when I met Rick. The man truly made me think of one of the more charming and eccentric characters from that book!

Fate and Foundations

It’s fate that we walked into that garden store and discovered Charity. Now we are driving her home (all 91 Kg (200 lbs) of her!) back to Ohio. This week I will dig a foundation for her, pour it, cure it, and set her in her new home behind the bakki shower at the pond.

Come by and visit her. She will always be happy for the visit and to never meet a stranger. Grace and charity are always ready, willingly given and balanced at Mezzacello Urban Farm.

VAWT4All Initial Data Collection

Written by: Sudman, May 2, 2023

Hi all, I’m Sudman. I go to Metro Early College High School as a Senior. This is my first blog post: VAWT4All Initial Data Collection. This is research for my CapStone internship which I’m doing a Mezzacello Urban Farm with Jim Bruner.

I have been working on this project since January at Mezzacello Urban Farm. In that time I’ve had to do a lot of research on multiple topics that I knew almost nothing about. Like electricity, electrical engineering, Ohms Law, voltage, watts, and amps, wires, and in this case, data capture and modeling.

For a deeper dive on the VAWT4All Model see Jim Bruner’s blog post here.

Since we live in Ohio the best state with the worst weather, Practical research has been hard because Ohio’s weather sucks and it’s been really cold and wet. This is a problem for data collection because the VAWT are outdoors. We need to track real world data like COTA buses passing and we cant do that indoors at the PAST Foundation.

Real Data

Since we’ve been using the COTA website and PDF files to track bus routes, we’ve had to to import and correlate certain stop time and schedule information that isn’t present in the existing data. Like, when does the COTA bus actually pass in front of Mezzacello Urban Farm at the Hoffman Street and 20th Street bus stops? The data that COTA provides is for Fourth Street, which is 1.8 km away to the west and Ohio Avenue which is .3 km the other way to the east.

There are four missing bus stops in our data model. We made a logical guess that there is a stop every three minutes. this allowed us to create a Hoffman column in the stop data and we set that data as our control with that in mind.

Chaotic Data

The other obstacle was that we had to create a data model that would track relevant information for this project, like temperature, whether there is moisture (is it raining?) Is it windy? If so can we infer where the wind is coming from? What would this database look like?

There were other obstacles concerning modeling data. We had to create a data model and input form in Airtable that would track relevant information like wind. Is it coming from ambient wind moving from the bus stops on Broad Street at Hoffman or is the wind accelerated by the presence of a COTA buses? How do we model that?

Fitting It Together

The last piece of this puzzle is that we have to take data from four different data sources:

1. the WeatherStation
2. the COTA bus
3. the voltage from the VAWTs
4. and a data model where data as being pulled in from third-party resources.

This is really difficult to do but I think we can get it done.

Real World Effects

Regarding data and its accuracy we discovered two interesting things in the course of our research. The first is if there’s a 20 second delay from the energy that the VAWT is producing and what appears on the MPPT display. We will need to account for this delay in the data.

The second is there’s a delay in the amount of wind that comes across Broad Street and crosses the 300 m to the VAWT and how that interacts in real time. The wind is variable and it is local, but the anemometer is as close to the southern edge as we can account for.

The last is that there’s a large brick building between where the COTA buses appear and where the VAWTs are located at Mezzacello and we don’t know what impact that has yet. The building is sited towards the southwest. It has a real impact on the speed of rotation of the western VAWT from the eastbound busses that we have observed so far.

Next Steps

After we achieve a way to get all that data down we will finally be able to make a model of how much voltage is produced when a COTA bus passes by Mezzacello. I also hope that we will get this system of data collection automated. We will then able to build a model of the VAWTs to have at my Symposium.

BioDome 2 Power Systems Integration

Progress on the Biodome 2.0 is progressing. I have the superstructure done and the airlock/vestibule prepared. Now we need to start developing the BioDome 2 Power Systems Integration.

This semester I have a high school intern named Sudman who is helping me to assemble the modular power structures for the biodome 2.0. We are 3D printing the new VAWT (Vertical Axis Wind Turbine) based on a design we found from Christopher’s Factory.

Next Steps

Once we gat the dome painted and covered, we will begin integrating the wind turbine, homemade solar array and battery and inverter kit. Then we will begin creating the water evaporators and water recovery systems. We are shooting for a late April deadline for this.

Sudman is only available a few hours a week because of High School. I am trying to integrate him as much as possible on this build as it is part of his capstone research. So taking our time on this.

Activity: Understanding Emotions, Fear and Confidence

In this activity we will discuss the role of emotion, fear, failure, and confidence in learning and team building. We’ve talked about fear and emotions. But we really need to dissect passion, confidence and pride.

Fear of failure is very real. But the only path to confidence is to risk fear and failure. It is what help us grow and learn.

The image above is funny, but it was also very real. I was afraid that an unexpected cold snap in the weather would kill my favorite plants. So I covered them up and disguised them as ghosts.

I am afraid of ghosts. But I am afraid of dead plants more. So in this case, the ghosts were the funnier and safer option.

Failure is not bad. It is a tool to teach us wisdom. Being afraid of failure is bad, but ignoring it is often disastrous.

Why Are We Afraid, Cautious and Humble?

The answer to this question is two-fold. It involves mechanics, biology, chemistry and culture. We have a very long history with these feelings.

First, we are sensory animals. We pay attention to patterns and interactions and look for change. Change is very intriguing and dangerous to us as a species.

The second is that we are social animals. Humans suffer when they are left alone. Just like all other complex animals we grow weak in isolation.

So what do fear and humility have to do in common? The answer is feathers, wax, the sun, and how they all interact. This is the story of Icarus.

Create a Fable

A fable is a story that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It must also tell a moral and serve as a teaching tool. The fable should be able to applied universally to everyone.

Icarus

Looking at just these five images, tell me the story and the moral of Icarus.