The Wire

The 2013 D.I.Y. Competition had more entries than we've ever had before, making this by far the toughest D.I.Y. decision we've ever faced. It was a big debate here at Mouse HQ, but we are excited to introduce you to some truly exceptional projects!

Grand Prize: The "Teach the Teacher Series" from Emilie Ritchen Elementary School

The intrepid Golden Eagles Mouse Squad at Emilie Ritchen Elementary School in Oxnard, CA, saw a need at their school and rushed to fill it: they found that some teachers were struggling to use essential classroom technology, and began a Teach the Teacher video series! We loved that these videos were created to solve a specific problem in this Squad's school, and the videos themselves are great teaching tools: they're simple, clear, and really teach the user something useful. Kudos to the Golden Eagles Mouse Squad--we can't wait to see the next video in the series!

Runner-Ups

James, Jonathan, and Baker from the OIS Bulldog Squad at Orinda Intermediate School in Orinda, CA, earned their runner-up status with this awesome video tutorial breaking down different ways to serve in ping pong. They did a great job breaking down and demonstrating the moves, and we love that the final demonstrations also showed a great sense of humor! Congratulations, guys!



Henna and Hinikish, from the Bryant Mouse Squad at William C. Bryant High School in Queens, NY, are runner-ups thanks to their fantastic website, What Is a Motherboard? This website does a great job explaining what a motherboard is and walking you through the process of replacing a motherboard in a desktop computer. Henna and Hinikish even cited their sources, which is awesome--it's important to remember that we all learn things from a mix of researching, reading, watching, and doing!

And a special shout-out...

We wanted to give a special shout-out to the PS 89 Defenders of Technology for their fantastic "What Is Mouse Squad?" video--check it out to learn about the Defenders' work and how to care for laptops and laptop carts.

But wait! There's more awesome ahead...

Take a look at some of the awesome, creative, and unusual entries we received. This year's D.I.Y. Competition brought in the widest variety of projects we've ever seen! While we couldn't make every project a winner, we think that these amazing projects deserve to be recognized.

Projects that went...beyond the screen!

While in the past most D.I.Y. projects have tended to focus solely on technology, this year we saw some fantastic projects that dove into a very different set of skills. Check out "Parkour and Freerunning" for excellent breakdowns of flips, jumps and other tricks; watch "How to YOLO" to learn "how to live on the edge when you're a boring person"; discover a skill you never knew you had (dragon breath!); learn how to do a neat hand trick with this super-precise step-by-step tutorial; or get crafty and learn how to make a flower pen or blend color pastels!

Projects that captured the spirit of the D.I.Y. movement!

The D.I.Y. movement promotes and fosters all kinds of making and tinkering, particularly making things from scratch, recycling or upcycling, and making things from unconventional materials. A few D.I.Y. projects really got into this spirit, and we admire that! Check out some awesome projects in this vein, including Post-It Note Speakers and LED Throwies!

Projects that demonstrated technical wizardry!

So many of this year's amazing D.I.Y. projects took a long, hard look at technology and found awesome new ways to talk about it. Check out this video about how to make a video, a Prezi about how to make a Prezi, a short and excellent guide to Hackasaurus, a step-by-step screencast for improving your Windows 8 experience, this video demystifying how resistor values work, a tutorial on removing vocals from a music track, and an awesome online guide to working with iPads!

Thanks again to everyone who created D.I.Y. projects!

It was incredible to see the many skills and interests of Mouse Squads across the nation--thank you for sharing with us, and remember: you can still check out projects and award wins to your favorites! Mouse Squads of America, we salute your amazing maker-bility!