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This Thanksgiving, let's give thanks for engineers! Engineers can turn an everyday thing, like cooking, into a whole new experience. That's what our Tour de BBQ episode is all about! The Design Squads are challenged to design a bicycle-powered rotisserie for a barbecue restaurant.

A rotisserie is a device used for roasting meat -- the meat cooks on a stick that slowly rotates over a heat source like fire. For this challenge, the Design Squads' rotisseries need to human-powered, bicycle-themed, and have a speed control.

Purple team powers their rotisserie with a water wheel, while green team goes for a grandfather clock in their design. Both teams' builds are bike-inspired and BBQ ready! Click on the photo to watch who wins!

The air quality monitor we built for Sustainable South Bronx was very complex, with lots of electronic parts and computer code that controlled them. Judy and I spent HOURS testing this build! The thing that drove me crazy was the air sensor. I tried to be really careful, but during testing I accidentally hooked it up backwards and broke it! Luckily, we had a back-up sensor that worked just as well.



This reminded me of a lesson I learned a long time ago -- when you buy parts, especially electronic parts, always buy two! Maybe even three! If there's a part you really need, and it's really breakable, then definitely buy two. You'll thank yourself.

If you want to try working with electronics, check out this video to see me and Judy design an awesome alarm that's small enough to hide. Then try making one yourself!

I learned so much during our challenge in the South Bronx. Air pollution is a big problem there, and so is asthma. One in four kids have asthma in the South Bronx. That's way too many! Justin wished for his neighborhood to be healthy, and I really wanted to help make his wish come true.

Hearing that Justin has asthma was a big deal to me. I grew up with asthma, so I know how hard this disease can make it to breathe -- it can feel like having an elephant step on your chest. Being able to help someone who's going through the same experience was an amazing opportunity. It really inspired me to create the best air quality monitor we could.

Understanding what causes an asthma attack is really important, because it can help keep people with asthma from getting sick. In the game Buster Baxter: Lung Defender on the Arthur website, you can travel inside Buster's lungs to protect him from asthma triggers like icky dust mites and mold. Plus, the game is really fun to play. Go check it out!