Electronics > Beginners
connectors for children
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janoc:
This kind of project would certainly work if the kid is into astronauts:

https://makezine.com/2017/07/05/this-dad-goes-above-beyond-space-ship-bunk-bed-build/

No need to build the entire bed thing but letting them tinker with lights, switches, buzzers and what not to support their make-believe play works a treat. Especially if they can build it to their own "specs" themselves, with daddy helping out with anything difficult or dangerous. It doesn't need to have any crazy functionality - the child's imagination works wonders to fill any "holes".

You can even use cardboard instead of wood - plentiful and cheap construction material that readily accommodates switches, lights and whatever you can get off eBay or AliExpress cheaply.
ataradov:

--- Quote from: blueskull on May 08, 2018, 08:18:43 pm ---Regardless, he NEEDS to know net current flowing through a node is zero, and net voltage applied across a closed loop is zero. Or you will be training the next free energy wanker.

--- End quote ---
Not when you are just starting. It is also OK to have crazy ideas and try them in reality. When I was a kid I also had an idea to attach a bike generator to a motor and connect the shafts. All it took for me to be convinced that it is not going to work is to try and see for myself.

And when I learned about relays, I could not imagine what would happen if you connect a power supply to the really through a normally closed contact of the same relay. So I assembled the circuit and got a buzzer.

I think the key to my personal curiosity was access to various components without real fear to damage them. This is now 1000x times easier than when I was starting.

And any pre-made constructor sets got boring real fast.
sokoloff:

--- Quote from: blueskull on May 08, 2018, 08:18:43 pm ---
--- Quote from: brumbarchris on May 08, 2018, 05:45:46 am ---not Ohm's or Kirchhoff or anything of the sort

--- End quote ---
Regardless, he NEEDS to know net current flowing through a node is zero, and net voltage applied across a closed loop is zero. Or you will be training the next free energy wanker.

He doesn't need to know how to analytically or numerically solve a circuit in KCL/KVL matrix form, but he needs to understand voltage and current have to come from and go to somewhere.

--- End quote ---
Kid is 8. He needs to have fun. There's no concrete learning objective that "needs" to be satisfied, IMO.

He needs to know not to stick wires in the mains socket and that if he does X and Y, something beeps or lights up. Make it fun and make it short.

When I built the flashlights with the K-5 kids, I took in 12 test leads with stackable banana jacks and we did a classroom-sized game of "electricity" to light up an LED I was holding. Then, I had them disconnect a jack to see what happened and plugged it back together. Then went to the tables and made the "bent wire switched flashlights" with each kid. Did all the kids understand that the electricity had to make a circuit to work? Maybe. Did they need to have fun or to end up with a flashlight to take home? Nope.
brumbarchris:

--- Quote ---        not Ohm's or Kirchhoff or anything of the sort

    Regardless, he NEEDS to know net current flowing through a node is zero, and net voltage applied across a closed loop is zero. Or you will be training the next free energy wanker.

    He doesn't need to know how to analytically or numerically solve a circuit in KCL/KVL matrix form, but he needs to understand voltage and current have to come from and go to somewhere.

Kid is 8. He needs to have fun. There's no concrete learning objective that "needs" to be satisfied, IMO.
--- End quote ---

That is also my stance on things, at the moment. He only needs to see that electricity can be useful and to have some fun, at some extent. Maybe it is not so attractive now, when school is really easy, but as things will start to get difficult in maths and other subjects, I am sure the kid will learn to appreciate how easy it is to make some practical things in electronics: minimal knowledge and some small degree of effort and voila! you have a working alarm, or buzzer or light etc.

For the moment, the only "scientific" thing I told him is that current wants to go out of the + terminal and that it always wants to go back to the battery at its - terminal .And that it needs to find a "path" through the elements in the circuit in order to do that. He actually grasps the concept of a switch quite well, but obviously that is the most basic thing we could teach a kid in electronics.

Regards,
Cristian
IanMacdonald:
These are surprisingly effective, you could even use them for car accessories:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5PCS-CH-2-Spring-Wire-Connectors-Electrical-Cable-Clamp-Terminal-Block-Connector-/173309688708?hash=item285a0ffb84
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