Inspiring kids - Science & electronics projects, kits and ideas

[ruairi]

Hi all,

I've been meaning to start this for a while.  Many of us here have kids and want to stimulate an interest in science, electronics, coding and just fixing things.  This thread is a place to share games, ideas and projects and links to kits etc.

I've got two daughters, a 3 year old and a 6 year old and because they are not allowed in my lab without me it's become the most interesting room in the house!  My first project with my older daughter was a Sparkfun Robot and she did every possible step herself and was immensely proud when she uploaded the Arduino code and it came to life! - https://www.sparkfun.com/products/retired/14062

Recent projects have included a repair of a broken Disney bubble blowing toy and a ground up build of an LED lamp.  For the LED the girls each picked their own color and the older girl did every step including the soldering, heat shrinking etc.  That dopamine moment that Chris Gammel mentions often was wonderful to watch as they flicked the switches on their creations in a darkened room.

Any ideas for new projects for my girls?

[ruairi]

I forgot to add in my first post that my next project with the kids will be some electromagnets so any ideas for that would be appreciated.  I'm going to start with some magnet wire and a nail and take it from there.

[Ian.M]

http://web.mit.edu/cmse/educational/Beauvais_DC_Motor_LP.pdf @archive.org

Think how to improve it - e.g.

* Add two rightangle plastic flaps cut from a blister-pak, not quite touching the wire ends to stop the coil lead 'shafts' from wandering sideways in the 'bearings'.   

* Does lubricating the 'bearings' with graphite from a carpenter's pencil make it go faster?

* Does increasing the contact pressure with a nylon bristle pushing down on the shaft on the part stripped side, next to the bearing on the inside, make it run more smoothly?

* How would you measure its speed?

N.B. the battery is being virtually short-circuited by the coil every time it makes contact, so it has a really hard life.  They are using a 9V Duracell PP3 because its reasonably safe if short-circuited - it will get a bit hot but is unlikely to cause burns or explode.   However dollar store Zinc Carbon C cells would give you far more runtime and also let you vary the voltage - get a 4 call battery holder and solder a wire to a flat strip of copper or brass so you can insert it between a battery base and the contact to tap off various voltages.

Then there's all sorts of traditional stuff you can do with torch bulbs, home made switches and  buzzers etc. 

Or if you are looking for something advanced, grab a long roll of CAT5, a dozen cheap novelty magnetic compasses, a reel of thin magnet wire, soft iron wire (florist's wire) to build the narrow U shaped cores for the coils,  to get a predictable deflection angle, and to create a magnetic shunt so the compass returns to center, two dozen  microswitches  and two battery holders and build a two station, six needle Wheatstone telegraph.   With sprung return pivoting pointers to operate the microswitches (wooden, pivoting on a screw, with a small washer as a spacer, with a pin through a slot in the base board to operate the microswitches which provide the spring return), it could be very simple to use.

i]Edit: Killjoys at M.I.T. have taken the Beauvais DC Motor PDF down  but its fortunately still on Wayback![/i]

[ruairi]

Wow Ian, that's exactly the kind of thing I am looking for.  What an elegant motor project!

Grandparents are asking for Christmas gift ideas today so I'm looking at Microscope kits.  Does anyone have any experience with the Amscope kids sets? I'm leaning towards a 10x to 40x setup for now, and maybe graduate to a biological 500x + unit later once they get the principles and are excited.