Project Unicorn on display at Maker Faire

Jordan had the fastest, most intense weekend in the San Francisco area. But it ended with all kinds of memories and a successful new prototype for Project Unicorn. We were in the state for a full 44 hours and I’m pretty sure we made the best out of every minute.

After arriving at midnight and getting a little bit of sleep, we had a chance to visit the KIDmob headquarters in downtown San Francisco. Jordan FINALLY had a chance to meet her design partner, Sam Hobish. They’ve met through a Google Hangout for about 30 minutes to an hour for almost every week since February. Since they’ve seen each other so many times, their in-person meeting was just an extension of a relationship that already existed. They treated each other like a brother and a sister and I think they both had a lot of fun tinkering their design.

For the last month or so, Jordan and Sam changed the design to focus on just being able to shoot sparkles, they’d discussed how the unicorn theme could play a bigger role in the actual glitter shooting… And this is the result: A unicorn horn that is attached to capsules of sparkles (which you can refill). A tube of compressed air is used to fire the sparkles.

It’s such a cool design!

The tool was mounted onto an arm plate for Jordan to present at Maker Faire. But of course there was more tinkering to do… almost right up to the point when the Superhero Cyborg kids presented on the Maker:Live stage. Four kids showed off their hard work. I was SO impressed. Kieran’s LED-lit Nubinator 0.3 hand is SO cool (I hope he scores and Apple Watch to top off the design), Jordan totally wants a version of Sydney’s massive water-fighting Water Blaster 3000 and David invented an amazing number of adaptive attachments with his Sports Glove. Each kid did an amazing job presenting their hard work. Jordan talked about her different versions and how failure led to her current version.
This has been an incredible experience. Jordan’s work with KIDmob, Autodesk and her time with Sam has changed her perspective on design and taking ideas and knowing it’s possible to make them come true. She’s learned to understand how 3D design works with Tinkercad and she’s jumping into the deep end of design and starting to figure out Fusion 360 with Sam’s help.

While we were in San Francisco, we found out about how NBCs Jimmy Fallon has an inventor challenge for kids. We were encouraged by folks at KIDmob to submit Project Unicorn to the show. So… Here’s how Jordan explains the new version of Project Unicorn… It’s for us all to enjoy.

Seriously, how can you be sad when you’re covered in sparkles? I’m not sure and I’ve had a lot of sparkles in my world lately. Jordan is having so much fun and she hopes she can help even more kids have amazing creator experience just like hers.