Easy Brain Paper Model Brain Paper Hat
Hatagons – 2022 version
This is a printable A3 sheet of paper which can be cut out and shaped into a 'hat'. One half is covered with computer-themed images, the other half with human brain-themed images. It's half-human, half-computer – so it's a cyborg hat. We call them 'hatagons' because they have a nicely polygonal shape.
New and improved hatagon for 2022!
We've updated the design slightly for 2022 and at the moment just have downloads suitable for A3 printers but we do plan to rejig things for A4 printers which many more people have. It will probably work if print as two sheets of A4 and the two sheets are taped together, but it's a bit fiddly. We still have the older 2019 hatagon version available as A4 files.
📥 Download: Hatagon 2022 – one sided A3 sheet hatagon .pptx file for A3 printers.
Below are older versions with A4-friendly files.
Younger children will need help in constructing the hat (cutting out and taping can take around 10 minutes)
Classroom resources
Some links between brains and computers, but see note of caution below*.
Eric Chudler's Neuroscience for kids – brain vs computer and A computer in your head?
*A note of caution about drawing parallels between brains and computers
There are some superficial similarities and parallels between the ways brains and computers function but it's important not to take metaphors or analogies too far. Throughout history humans have tended to liken the brain to the dominant technology of the day and we 'digital age' humans are no different. Aeon magazine published an article bemoaning the persistence of the notion that brains are often likened to computers – "Your brain does not process information and it is not a computer" – though note that the comments are highly critical of the author's stance.
This activity was initially created with the support of Queen Mary University of London's Centre for Public Engagement and the Institute of Coding. and updated with support from the EPSRC.
Hatagons – 2019 version
Print this on two A4 sheets (PDF or .pptx) or one A3 sheet if you have a colour printer (see below). Colour it in, then cut around the thick black lines (including the flaps) and assemble with glue or sellotape to form a wearable cyborg half-human / half-computer hat.
Test for size before gluing or taping the flaps down. More printing options for A4 and A3 printers below. Do make sure you press down hard on the flap to the left of the little binary heart at the top right, with the On/Off switch on it – to switch the hat "ON"… and give your hat a made-up serial number (see flap at bottom with Institute of Coding on it).
Then cheer us all up by tweeting a photo of your finished hat to @cs4fn (or email cs4fn@eecs.qmul.ac.uk and let us know if we have your permission to share the photo).
Original post
A colleague's young son was rather taken with Ellen McHenry's Brain Hemisphere Hat, a colour-in cut-out paper hat that maps the lobes of the human brain and some of their functions onto the head of the child wearing the hat. Ellen's is constructed out of two A4-sized pieces and has darts inset into the pattern to allow it to be shaped into a two-sided 3D paper hat. It's brilliant.
For QMUL's Festival of Communities 2019 we decided we'd like a version for CS4FN with half of the hat representing the human side and half representing a robotic / computer 'brain'. Ours is based on a Half Rhombicuboctahedron design and we've called it the Brain Hatagon (it is a hat with many sides). We wanted something that is primarily fun: easy to colour in, tape together and wear. We hope it will help familiarise younger kids with some of the words and concepts relating to computing… while highlighting some of the links* between human brain processing and computer processing.
On these pages you can download and print copies of the 'hatagon' and classroom resources.
Print your own hatagon
If you want to VIEW any of the hatagons online before downloading, right click and copy the link then amend the bit at the end saying "dl=1" to "dl=0". Note that this document was prepared on a Mac computer and contents may shift in transit if opened on a PC…
Please let us know if you get into any difficulties with your hatagons and we'd love to see photos of the finished product (can we share the photos publicly?) – cs4fn@eecs.qmul.ac.uk
General instructions [PDF] [Word]
- For people with A3 printers
- Basic A3 hatagon (one sided, mostly black and white)
- [Download Basic A3 PDF] [Download .pptx]
- Festival A3 Hatagon with extra info on reverse side (there's colour but it will work fine on black and white printer).
- [Download Festival A3 PDF] [Download .pptx]
- Basic A3 hatagon (one sided, mostly black and white)
- For people with A4 printers (files are almost entirely black and white) – note that this is not the file above resized but a separate file redesigned to allow two sheets of A4 to be taped together to create the hat.
- Two-sided document for people whose printers can print single sided
- [Download PDF] [Download .pptx]
- Three sided (blank sheet in the middle) for people whose printers are determined to print double-sided or have fiddly settings where you can't easily switch off duplex. This one should be guaranteed to print single sided correctly as it sticks a blank sheet on the 'back' of side 1.
- [Download PDF] [Download .pptx]
- Two-sided document for people whose printers can print single sided
- Blank hatagon design [PDF] [.pptx] – make your own hat.
Younger children will need help in constructing the hat (cutting out and taping can take around 10 minutes)
Classroom resources
Some links between brains and computers, but see note of caution below*.
Eric Chudler's Neuroscience for kids – brain vs computer and A computer in your head?
*A note of caution about drawing parallels between brains and computers
There are some superficial similarities and parallels between the ways brains and computers function but it's important not to take metaphors or analogies too far. Throughout history humans have tended to liken the brain to the dominant technology of the day and we 'digital age' humans are no different. Aeon magazine published an article bemoaning the persistence of the notion that brains are often likened to computers – "Your brain does not process information and it is not a computer" – though note that the comments are highly critical of the author's stance.
This activity was created with the support of Queen Mary University of London's Centre for Public Engagement and the Institute of Coding.
Source: https://teachinglondoncomputing.org/brain-hatagon/
0 Response to "Easy Brain Paper Model Brain Paper Hat"
Post a Comment