EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: VoidsWarranties on January 04, 2017, 04:08:50 am
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I got around to thinking, and I have realized that there are very few young electronics hobbyists me being one of them, I am 14. And I was wondering if this had anything to do with what you were taught in elementary to high school. I was pretty much taught nothing, in elementary we had a question on the PSATs (the standardized tests) about series and parallel circuits. And in middle school we learned how to power a light with a D cell battery. I may be wrong for thinking this and I certainly don't mean to offend anyone but most of the kids in my class had no idea how to do ANY of it, a few kids just shorted across the battery or only connected the two +'s together and not the -'s. did any of you older people (or pretty much just any of you since I don't know any others younger than me yet) learn much in school about this or was my school just behind in that?
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When I was 14 (1964) I found out about electronics at the public library. As soon as I saw what it was about I said to myself "Holy Cow! I gotta know MORE about THIS!!" When technical high school became available to me two years later in grade 11 I just jumped into the electronics option. There were several options, then: printing, woodworking, machine shop, instrumentation, etc but electronics was it for me. I took elementary electronics for two years back then at Ottawa Technical High School and learned how a radio and TV worked. Most of the guys in that class went to work for the government as technicians, a couple became TV repairmen. Later, I think that the technical school programs in high school were phased out during the 1980s. Most of what I knew before I went to university I learned through reading library books and making mistakes on the bench.
Back in the 1960s-1970s it was still thought that what you learned in high school could prepare you for a decent job. Not so anymore. It seems to me that the only people who can have a career straight out of high school are those with lots of smarts and drive. Cash is not so necessary. If you can invent your own job or start a business and grow it through determination, chutzpah or ingenuity then the money will come.
So, no your school is not just behind and if they teach you anything about circuits at your school, count yourself lucky. But if I were you I'd use the internet for all its worth, start hacking circuits, go get a library card or if you live in a town with a university then start hanging around their library. If there is a local ham radio or diy electronics club near you then look into that, too.
One thing is for sure, if you don't have any drive to know what keeps the magic smoke in or are afraid of math (lots of math!) then there is no point going into electronics. Fair warning, though: of all of the engineering disciplines going its the poor cousin. The pay scales for design engineers here are some of the lowest compared to mechanical, chemical, aeronautical or power engineering. You may or may not notice that only electronic engineers or technicians are those engineers who take some of their work home with them or turn it into a hobby. You wont find a chemical engineer working on a petroleum cracking plant in his basement
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I'm 16, absolutely nobody that I know in my city does electronics for fun. no real electronics club, no one. I'm by my own. one of my friends has a "art" hobby and the other are just gamers or sports.
I think a part of the reason is when they think electronics they think about big equations, a lot of paperwork and what they teach in school as a part of "major" little do they know in practice most of the time you have google for calculations and rule of thumbs and you can make 80% of the things without too much equations and bored stuff, oh and simulation software also simplify much of math.
maybe if they add more practice work at school and teach rule of thumbs & soldering and remove stupid questions from tests that you will never engorge in real life more people will do electronics for fun.
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You wont find a chemical engineer working on a petroleum cracking plant in his basement
I know of several chemical engineers who work on side projects at home, there are all sorts of people who do their job as a hobby too.
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My high school back in the '70s had I guess what you would call vocational classes that you could take as electives. These were things like wood shop, metal shop, auto shop, and electronics. So starting at about age 14 you could take electronics class in high school. They also had an electronics club that was supervised by the electronics teacher.
Looking up my old school now, they no longer have those vocational classes. The only class that mentions electronics in the description is "Renewable and Sustainable Energy", which I'm sure is an academic class, not a hands-on shop class. So no more electronics class. Sad. :'(
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Back in the 1960s-1970s it was still thought that what you learned in high school could prepare you for a decent job. Not so anymore. It seems to me that the only people who can have a career straight out of high school are those with lots of smarts and drive.
People my age--late Gen X to early Millenial, depending on how you draw the line--were mostly brought up to believe that college was the only path to a "good" job and trades were for losers. Unfortunately that lead to a lot of us spending a ton of our future earnings on degrees that turned out to be not quite the ticket to prosperity we were led to believe they would be, but that's a whole 'nother thread. Anyway, the result is that most high schools gave up on vocational programs to focus on college prep, which assumes that you'll learn all of the really interesting and useful stuff later. I'd have thought that with the 'all STEM all the time!' philosophy that's so popular now that maybe there would be a bit more practical stuff in the classroom, but I guess not.
There is certainly a lot of variability between schools, though. My high school was a general academic and college-prep focused program, others had more of a science/engineering focus, others had better arts programs. A relative of mine recently retired from teaching at a vo-tech school that still has active programs in automotive, HVAC, electrical, etc--but there's such a stigma against that sort of program that there's hardly a middle school teacher out there that would dream of sending one of their "smart" kids to a school like that. Trades are for losers, don'tchaknow. *ahem* Sorry, there's a profanity-laden rant that keeps trying to sneak out of me.
Anyway, to the OP, it's certainly not out of the ordinary that you're not learning anything electronics-wise in school. Fortunately for you and others your age, you have ready access to a vast repository of information that, if you know where to look and have the inclination and drive to use it, contains far more and far better instruction in just about any subject than you can find in just about any high school curriculum. If you really want to get into electronics, and especially if you want to have a good foundation of practical knowledge for the theory you might study in a future college program, the internet and home study in your own time is the way to go.
Edit to add: We did have Science Olympiad (https://www.soinc.org/) when I was in middle/high school, though, which provided some neat opportunities for hands-on science and engineering projects. How much you could get out of it really depended on what sort of teachers and parent volunteers your school had, though.
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I'm 21, and I live in the southeast US.
We did the usual oversimplified experiments in 4th and 5th grade that basically consisted of 1.5v batteries and light bulbs. Other than that there was no electronics related coursework until physics in 12th grade (17-18 years old, the last year of public education in the US). In 12th grade physics we talked about ohms law, KCL, KVL, power triangles, and spent a little time learning about the basic components. There was no lab portion though, so I had no hands on experience until I started tinkering on my own.
What's inspiring is that after I graduated, my school started offering an electronics elective similar to wood shop or metal work. There was a basic electronics lab with scopes, meters, a rack of arduinos and some other education-centric electronics. I don't think this class is on the level of metal work or the other electives yet, but considering the recent interest in DIY projects on platforms like the arduino and the uprising of the "maker" community, I have hope.
In metal work I learned how to weld (mig and tig), use a lathe, mill, bandsaw, etc. We built shelves, work benches, a BBQ grill, and other useful and attainable things. I hope the electronics course evolves to be similarly practical.
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My first encounter with electronics in the school curriculum was physics, I don't remember if it was 11th or 12th. Also in 11th grade, I took advantage of an vocational program, where one of my courses was in electronics repair at the local vocational school. However, almost nobody knew about the vocational high school program; I think I was the only one using it. And electronics repair is a dying trade: that vocational school doesn't even offer that course any more. So my experience echoes the OP, where electronics as an interesting subject was not fostered by the school system.
But my first encounter with electronics that started my interest in it was actually at school. It was a science fair, when I was.. 4th grade, I think. One of the 6th graders (before 6th was moved to middle school) had made a Tesla coil, and the idea that such wizardry was possible for a kid like me blew my mind. And then I did a science fair project studying an LC oscillator :)
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I believe this is the fault of too much entertainment. Every time I went to a school event where parents can bring other kids, I see those other kids spend their time picking away with their "smart" phone or tablet playing games or texting/chatting yapping on social media.
Kids rush what they have to do (homework) so as to get back to their games as soon as they can. They sleep with their "smart" phones, they work their part-time jobs just long enough to save enough for the next iteration of their "smart" phone... The first thing they do getting out of bed is to check their "smart" phone. The last thing they do before bed is check their "smart" phone. It is fitting that those phone are called "smart" phones because more often than not, between the phone and the user the phone is the smarter one.
They don't even have time to make their own bed in the morning, let alone doing something like electronics! They are a slave to their games/yapping. At first I thought Zombies were made by viruses transmitted by bites. Now I know Zombies are made by EM wave transmitions via conduits such as iPad, Andriod, so forth.
Skynet is here. Zombies are all around us walking with their GPS turned on, and earbuds firmly seated in their ears. They don't bite, but they take selfies. They try to infect others with social media and messaging. But, they don't do electronics.
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basic electronics are usually taught in science classes.
My school if you weren't college material you got to choose a class at the vocational center and electronics was one of those. It was discontinued a couple years after I graduated so they could budget the $ to more sports.
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I believe this is the fault of too much entertainment. Every time I went to a school event where parents can bring other kids, I see those other kids spend their time picking away with their "smart" phone or tablet playing games or texting/chatting yapping on social media.
Kids rush what they have to do (homework) so as to get back to their games as soon as they can. They sleep with their "smart" phones, they work their part-time jobs just long enough to save enough for the next iteration of their "smart" phone... The first thing they do getting out of bed is to check their "smart" phone. The last thing they do before bed is check their "smart" phone. It is fitting that those phone are called "smart" phones because more often than not, between the phone and the user the phone is the smarter one.
They don't even have time to make their own bed in the morning, let alone doing something like electronics! They are a slave to their games/yapping. At first I thought Zombies were made by viruses transmitted by bites. Now I know Zombies are made by EM wave transmitions via conduits such as iPad, Andriod, so forth.
Skynet is here. Zombies are all around us walking with their GPS turned on, and earbuds firmly seated in their ears. They don't bite, but they take selfies. They try to infect others with social media and messaging. But, they don't do electronics.
I like this answer the best. It seems to be quite true. I think that because I started with electronics at a very young age (about 7) even though I was just talking stuff apart I found that to be the coolest thing ever. And since I just got my phone when I was 13 (I am now 14) I still think electronics are a lot cooler. I do use my phone but I don't go on any social media since I don't have any and it's weird when in the middle of class people are taking selfies. I mostly use my phone for YouTube and stuff like this forum, it is very useful for quickly looking up part data sheets. I have yet to become a zombie (I hope)
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