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What To Cover In a Short "DIY Tech" Course?
edumacator writes "Our school is working hard to provide our students with relevant opportunities of study. We have a short 'seminar' period that meets three days a week for thirty minutes. I've chosen to teach a seminar on 'Home Grown Technology' even though I'm an English teacher and only an amateur techie. If you had thirty minutes, three days a week, for nine weeks, what would you teach a group of high school students? I'm considering the Wii-mote smartboard and multitouch displays, but I'm afraid I'm overreaching."
Lego Mindstorms would be a good, fun place to start.
I'm considering the Wii-mote smartboard and multitouch displays, but I'm afraid I'm overreaching."
Not necessarily overreaching (I guess it depends on their prior experience), but those projects, while they have a definite "cool" factor, aren't particularly useful.
Personally I would stick to teaching them more useful stuff... maybe basic repair of electric appliances, or if you want something more advanced and that has both the cool factor and would be useful (at least to some people), maybe this DIY book scanner.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
Crop agriculture, farm equipment repair, and irrigation systems.
Kroger is NOT the future.
Pyrolysis of wood or other biomass such as garbage into carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas for use as a fuel for vehicles or cooking.
Go with basics: EM interference/signal crossover and Electrostatic Discharge. Each one can be taught in a 30 minutes session and would provide such a foundation to further lectures.
Bad Panda! No Bamboo for you! In matters of importance ACs will not be responded to. Want to say something critical,OK
I'm sure there will be many interesting suggestions, but to me it would be preferable to focus on building simpler devices which the students design themselves, rather than something fancier that forces them to simply follow a blueprint (because they won't have the time/expertise to design it from scratch). Of course, there will be a continuum between 'built from scratch' and 'paint by numbers'-type projects, with different levels of student involvement in its design, and you'll have to find your balance.
I've always thought that teaching something that combined science, engineering, and Vo-Tek would be highly practical in high school.
How about Small Engines? You can buy a small lawnmower engine (and a manual) and teach them principles of mechanics and combustion while also levening parts of "how things work" as well as basic repair techniques. Eventually you put the thing back together and start it up. You can even show how to mess with it to trick it out or solve common problems.
Not only would this get kids interested in science and engineering, but it would be practical.
-The more you learn, the more things you realize you don't know-
rather useful skill... develops a desire to learn more about computers.
i would spend at least a couple of weeks having them build and program some microcontroller projects.
here's a place to start: http://hacknmod.com/hack/top-40-arduino-projects-of-the-web/
Arduino is a physical computing platform based on a simple open hardware design for a single-board microcontroller, with embedded I/O support and a standard programming language. The Arduino programming language is based on Wiring and is essentially C/C++ (several simple transformations are performed before passing to avr-gcc). The goal of the Arduino project is to make tools available that are accessible, low-cost, low capital investment, flexible and easy-to-use for artists and hobbyists. Particularly those who might not otherwise have access to more sophisticated controllers that require more complicated tools.
Like clicking on a link in an unsolicited email is a BAD idea.
I took a course in 10th grade, it was some simple electricity course, Electrical safety, series and parallel circuits. resistors and capacitors. The final project was to build a simple electric motor. Including winding the armature and coil by hand.
I found this course much more useful in real life than just about anything else I have ever learned.
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
I did something similar with 8th graders. Use short physical projects to keep them engaged. Have each student build a tower out of a single sheet of copier paper and tape. The tallest free standing tower wins. Build boats out of measured amounts of aluminum foil. The boat that holds the most marbles before sinking wins. Build water rockets out if 1L plastic bottles. Build bridges out of tooth picks, paper, and glue. The bridge that holds the most weight before failing wins.
Each of the projects can be completed in 2-3 half hour sessions with almost no material cost. These projects teach basic physics and engineering in a fun and competitive way. You can even repeat the same projects later in the term so that the second rounds of towers are designed with knowledge gained in the first round, etc.
First I'd teach some basics: Ohm's law, serial/parallel circuits, etc. Then using a transistor as a switch to turn LEDs and/or relays on and off. Then build up some AND and OR gates, followed by some address decoding and control logic. Throw in some parallel port I/O stuff in as well.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Right have a bunch of common people play with CRTs... Thats always a good way to start (a lawsuit). How about not letting them play with things that can easily kill them to start with. And it is not just the high voltage side that can reach out and grab out, the low voltage side of CRTs can potentially do more damage than the high side.
Bad Panda! No Bamboo for you! In matters of importance ACs will not be responded to. Want to say something critical,OK
Ask them to prove where Celcius and Farenheit meet. After they struggle, give them the equation as a hint. F= 9/5C+32
Boooring!
show the kids how to build a PotatoGun (tm).
That should keep them interrested
Delta-Mike November Bravo Tango
Oh wait.. It's been done.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Seriously, how many photos of hot young girls in the mirror or even worse that look like they're trying to point the camera at themselves.
Do the world a favor, show them that most cameras have a self timer. Heck my Canon has an awesome feature where it'll crank off up to 10 photos after a custom timer delay. Plenty of time to 'get into position'.
You got 27 half-hour sessions. At least three of these should be spent on basics if the students haven't already had them, such as soldering & desoldering, basic principles of electrical/electronics (including reading diagrams) and using a multimeter... one that measures capacitance, frequency and temperature if you can afford it.
And basic safety, of course.
From there it's really a matter of what, exactly, you want your students to take away from your class.
The multitouch display is neat but the bulk of it is programming; do your students have any programming experience? Do you have time to teach them?
Homebrew robotics can be pretty straightforward and inexpensive. A few stepper motor drivers (Allegro used to give free samples of their 5804 controller...), some stepper motors of course (Easily salvaged from dead scanners/printers), a spare PC power supply, an old PC with a parallel port and adequate amounts of wire can make a pretty versatile robot platform.
If you want something more digital, microcontroller projects might be a bit of an initial investment but are also pretty cheap in the long run. Build robotic platforms, embedded data loggers, "smart" appliances, etc.
$20 worth of properly rated relays and isolation components will turn a PC into a crude home automation system. Add in photo sensors, temperature sensors (thermistor + ADC chip), motion sensors, etc for a more complete system.
Keep is simple, keep it cheap, keep it interesting.
=Smidge=
This sounds a little broad. Are you looking at it from a hacker scene? Electronics and Mechanical building? Electrical, mechanical, and chemical technology?
Most of the projects posted on blog.makezine.com would be a good starting point. While the wii is cool, it only touches on a small number of technologies. I would recommend having a final project in mind, and developing the skills required to finish that final project. For example,
1.) Basic electronics (How to solder). Use a kit from ladyada or sparkfun.com. If you get a small enough kit, a beginner can solder a kit in less than 10 minutes. (http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9206 might be fun). Addon: How to use a voltmeter ...
2.) Basic programming (Create a simple program on the PC).
3.) Basic woodworking: How to use a drill, saw, and other tools Safely.
4.) Basic Plastic/Metal working: Create a professionally looking project enclosure. (Look at the proper glues, cutting methods, tricks for a decent enclosure)
5.) Basic Chemistry: Creating a mold, possibly making gears for # 6
6.) Basic Mechanical: Creating a gearbox
7.) Basic Plumbing/hydrolics/pneumatics: How to get water/air from point A to point B
8.)
The best programs will have an end project in mind, such as a small car or an elaborate prank. Each step will be directly related to the final product, giving the students a purpose and motivation to do well.
How about building a reprap? Constructing a machine that can build most of its own parts is a rather useful task. Doing so will cover electronics, mechanics and material science all in one go.
Instead of bomb making, take a lesson from bomb makers all over the world. Improvisation. Each week teach the students some basic principles, say, how electric motors or toasters or pulleys or whatever work. Then give them a range of materials out of which they can make their own device. As you go, choose items with which you can teach basic but important principles in physics and electronics. Later on in the course, do repairs on household appliances etc (pref low voltage or get an electrician on hand to take care of your public liability). Each lesson tell a short story about a cool but simple invention.
Man I would love to teach that course.
sudo mount --milk --sugar
I would think a lot of the stuff from MAKE! Magazine would be useful.
I'm making one right now with a buddy. Parts will cost you about $75 after you find your neon sign transformer.
Start out with the transformer. Right there is a lesson in power/watts/amps etc right off the bat.
HV caps are expensive, so make some leyden jars.
Hook up your coils and caps and you've got some sparks.
Then you can move on to inductance and resonance and tune the thing.
Add a rotary spark gap, terry filter, power conditioner etc as they learn more.
Get a couple neon bulbs, build a corona motor, etc.
I've got some experience in electronics, but in the past few days my knowledge is really starting to solidify.
Plus giant sparks are fun, everyone will dig it.
I would encourage you to teach the students about project management. Put them into groups of three, tell them to come up with a concept of a project, and develop a plan to bring it to fruition. Have them search for resources among peers. Encourage them to form relationships with other groups so that projects can support each other. Teach them about managing resources - time, money, talent, etc.
Let them figure out the specific details of their projects and approach subject matter from a higher level - skills in leadership, teamwork, resource planning, and organization. This will encourage them to make their own decisions about what they want to do, which leaves detailed subject matter open to the students' interests and strengths. You could also take it a step further and see if you can get the hours in place towards PMP certification. This way, the education *directly* applies to a potential career after high school is over.
You can get some pretty cool projects going quickly and easily with an Arduino. Combine that with Processing and you can do almost anything...
Unexpect the expected!
Electronics. people don't know jack about electricity. could start as simple as static electricity and giving shocks to people. you could make a van-dagraph from junk.. old soap bottles with paper clips make nice capacitors. then work towards a simple circuit from scratch--- a motor might be a nice idea but a generator / motor would be better-- ties into the 'green' movement; they could power an LED from their hand-made generator and a simple prop placed on it.
Could mess with solar, but the cells cost and are ez to break.
I've seen plenty of "educational" kits out there for doing solar and mini wind generators-- both are jokes but get the point across. The kids are expensive and a WASTE of money because it takes the learning out of it-- those things are no better than assembling a model of something. Actually, assembling a model of something-- as dumb as it is-- does teach motor skills, patience, attention to detail, and spacial relations. My brother is a shop teacher and kids these days have a hard time doing a half decent job assembling simple plastic models -- in high school!
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spark gap transmitter.
"DIY" and software do not appear together often enough.
I would teach them how to create their own personal "apps" using Squeak. Use Nebraska to collaborate and share in class. Look for a few techies to help.
To get stared, try Sugar on a Stick and look at Etoys, a specialized subset of Squeak. (You use Squeak to create Etoys.)
http://www.squeak.org/
http://squeakland.org/
http://www.sugarlabs.org/
Nebraska: http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/1356
Wider range of info: http://squeak.zwiki.org/SqueakNotes
A recent class at University of Illinois: https://agora.cs.illinois.edu/display/cs598rej/Spring+2009;jsessionid=3BA508D972A809064DC117DBDF7C36C8
Gary Dunn
Open Slate Project
Maybe just soldering, to start with, yeah?
You are welcome on my lawn.
How to take things apart. That's the best thing my father ever taught me. Everything comes apart and is made of smaller pieces. He had a shelf of random carp at the back of his work shop, any time I was bored or started to get under foot he would pull something off and tell me to take it apart. Water pumps, electric motors, alarm clocks, radios, chain saws, whatever he had lying around. But the key to is was after I took it apart he would sit down with me and explain what each part did. By the age of five I had a very good handle of how things like internal combustion, electricity, and gear reductions worked.
My advice, go to a thrift store and buy a bunch of old VCRs, radios, toaster ovens, and make the students take them apart and tell you how they work. I'd avoid any thing that has high power components like TVs and microwaves for the safety of your first time DIYers. Then save the parts and use them through out the class as teaching aids. Try to teach the idea of scavenging for parts by using those parts over and over again for future projects.
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I am sure you meant to write: piñata.
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Some of that will be difficult to teach in just 30 minute sessions. Stick to the basics.
That should give you a good amount of material to cover.
You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
Clockwise has some GREAT ideas. The wiimote whiteboard is neat. I've done it myself. However, you should probably consider the scope and aim of what you are doing as well as what your students need. They likely will not really ever need to use the wiimote whiteboard whereas some of clockwise's ideas (such as storage v. memory, personal stuff online, backup up data, basic HTML) may be very useful to them some day.
My brother is a shop teacher and kids these days have a hard time doing a half decent job assembling simple plastic models -- in high school!
This may be true, kids today may have trouble doing something we did growing up, but they have skills that didn't exist then. When I first got into computers microprocessors and microcomputers were only for hobbiest and were homebrews. The kids today that are the age I was then can post their own websites, even if only on Facebook or Myspace. I used to be able to work on car engines and repair as well as rebuild them, but now I wouldn't try to work on the engine in my car without first taking a class on repairing engines.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Ack, grammar failure due to changing parts of sentences and not proofreading the changes.
I though the multimeter's was
should read
I thought that the multimeter was
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Seconding this. Teach the boys that letting the girls use the tools is a good thing. If you do hardware/mechanical projects, please pay attention to the class and call the boys on their sexism. It may have gotten better since I was in high school (graduated 5 years ago), but I remember lots of boys doing the mechanical stuff for the girls, sometimes due to misguided chivalry but often plain old sexism.
open source modern art: laser taggi
Cheers man, thanks! Wow, a nice comment on the internet, Quixotic, you're a rarity.