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"A new tool developed by Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon University could let you 3D print your very own walking robot. "Progress in rapid manufacturing technology is making it easier and easier to build customised robots, but designing a functioning robot remains a difficult challenge that requires an experienced engineer," said Markus Gross, vice president at Disney Research. "Our new design system can bridge this gap and should be of great interest to technology enthusiasts and the maker community at large.""

"Code.org, the non-profit group that offers a free tutorial in computer programming to students as early as kindergarten, is preparing to unveil its second annual "Hour of Code" lesson, but with an assist from Disney designed to attract more girls to participate. Disney Interactive teamed with Code.org to create a free lesson that teaches students to write computer code that enables Anna and Elsa, the two female characters from Disney's wildly popular "Frozen" movie, to draw snowflakes, snowmen and fractiles."

"It could be very soon that every child amputee can don a bionic arm in their favorite Disney character's colors for a fraction of the current price. This result will be thanks to Open Bionics and 3D printing. This week, a clinical trial of 3D printed bionic hands for children starts in Bristol. The trial is the world's first and could result in children receiving bionic hands at a fraction of the regular cost of £60,000. Funding from the Small Business Research Initiatives scheme made the trial a reality. 3D printing plays a large part in the price decrease from £60,000 to a projected £5,000. This is thanks to the technology's ability to offer amputees a custom fit at the same time as speeding production. If the trial is successful, bionic hands for kids could soon be available on the NHS (the national healthcare system for the UK). The hands would also feature kids' favorite Disney characters."

"Update: Apple has updated its Clips app, bringing along a suite of new digital assets from the company itself to make your videos and photos a little more lively. New overlays, backgrounds and animated text are just a few of the new features available in the update. Additionally, entertainment giant Disney has chipped in some content and the implementation seems fun. You'll basically be able to overlay your favorite Disney characters on your photos and even better, you can insert an animated character into your videos."

"The art of animation - a series of related images that depict movement - is arguably several thousand years old. The use of equipment that could display animated images in rapid succession to create the illusion of motion is a more modern phenomenon that gained wide popularity with the development of motion pictures. Cartoons and animated movies from the studios of companies such as Disney, Warner Brothers, Nickelodeon and others have had a tremendous impact on modern culture. Production of an animated movie requires skilled artists, expensive equipment and an investment of countless hours of labor. No longer. Mobile devices with built-in cameras such as the iPad enable budding animators to use a variety of easy to use animation apps to capture and stitch together photos of characters and objects into seamless, fluent animated movies. Further, the process of designing, scripting and staging animations has tremendous educational potential. Animation can be a wonderful mix of art, science, collaboration and problem solving."

"Walt Disney gave us the storyboard: a set of images or illustrations that help designers visualize, experiment with, and sequence critical shots in a narrative. Defining key scenes, taking the time to flesh them out, and considering the influence of order on meaning serves filmmakers, artists, novelists, software designers, and animators well. As someone who frequently facilitates assessment design, I'm loving how storyboards can power up the process."

Very nice discussion about storyboarding.

"I'm about to say something totally unbelievable and completely ridiculous: I love Star Wars. There. It's good to get that bombshell off my chest. I'm a huge fan of the series and eagerly await the upcoming film by J.J. Abrams and the new Disney ownership. After going through all of the trailers, both foreign and domestic, it occurs to me that there is one thing in particular that is a true standout. Is it the 3-pronged lightsaber? No. Is it the lack of Jar-Jar Binks? Potentially, but not really. It's the merchandising BB-8 droid that is taking the world by storm. Better still, it's actually something you can now purchase (if you're lucky to find one) in real life. How cool is that?"

"Summer fun. It is the absolute best. Whether you visit Six Flags, Kings Island, a Disney Park, Busch Gardens, or another amusement park, the looping lines of roller coasters offer the perfect lens for getting students to interact with STEM concepts. An old garden hose, duct tape, and a marble: the only materials that you need to build a roller coaster. Cut the hose in half, and then duct tape the two segments together down the back to create a nice groove where the two hoses meet for the marble to ride, on top. Then the materials are ready for students to explore the potential and kinetic energy of roller coasters."