Where can I find a circus that employs engineers? Can learning to prepare sushi impact engineering ideas? How can we rebrand Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math to be fun? How do we make STEM subjects more like driving a Ferrari than like driving a grocery getter? Grab a hold of something solid because today’s podcast is going to rock your world! Brent Bushnell, the founder and CEO of Two-Bit Circus, is going to blow the doors off. Brent and his business partner Eric have started a high-tech circus staffed not with circus barkers and tight rope walkers but with engineers, scientists, and computer programmers. Let’s listen in to a high flying conversation!

What is digital ethnography? How difficult is it to learn to use a 3D game creation engine? How would Maker Schools change how we do education? Why are initiation rituals a critical right of passage into a society? Speaking of rituals, today’s guest Michael Wesch advocates the adoption of some curious rituals. Keep your headphones in or your bluetooth synced up, because today’s podcast has enough quotable ideas to really stir your noodles. I won’t give any spoilers, so let’s listen in to the conversation Michael and I had recently at the Bakersfield College Learning Technologies Conference.

How does an embryonic heart form? How exactly does one set about 3D printing a fully human, fully compatible heart valve? How does failure influence innovation? Is there more to a 3D printed heart valve than just the printing?

Today we have an exciting interview with Jonathan Butcher, a research professor at Cornell University, and one of his graduate students, Daniel Cheung. Before we get started I’d like to remind you to share our podcast with your friends and colleagues. The ideas you hear on this podcast will literally change your world and your student’s horizons. We discuss innovation, success, inventing, learning, and other crucial life skills. On today’s show specifically, Jonathan and I discuss the role of failure in learning. We discuss the path to research success. Oh, and we jump head first into the topic of 3D printing heart valves. There was so much to cover that we skipped the inventor secrets in lieu of the great interview.

What is the best strategy for starting a makerspace in your school? How long should you take to plan your makerspace before you get started? Is flying by the seat of your pants a good idea or a bad one? What are the key features of an 8 foot tall DIY teeter totter? Stay tuned for the answers in today’s podcast. Our guest today is Laura Fleming. Laura is a librarian and media specialist at New Milford High School in Jew Jersey. A little over a year ago, she started a makerspace in her library, and the results have been unbelievable. I’m not a big fan of spoilers, so let’s get straight to the interview.

How does someone who hates the idea of sky diving end up in a career as an aerial stuntman? What exactly do you have to do to lose your pilot’s license three times? What is the value of risk? In the arena of life, is it more dangerous to play it safe? Our guest today is Troy Hartman, the man with a JetPack! Troy has an amazing story, and it’s peppered with little choices that involved risks. Definitely check out the show notes today to see Troy’s JetPack videos. We showed one particular video in all of our Inventor’s Bootcamp summer camps in 2014 because he did such a great job describing the emotions and responses to risks. Let’s tune in to hear what this engineer and pilot turned stuntman has to say about risk.