Low-Budget Electronics Projects For High School? 364
Posted
by
timothy
from the does-school-policy-rule-out-ieds? dept.
from the does-school-policy-rule-out-ieds? dept.
SciGuy writes "I am a physics teacher for 9th graders. I really want to teach them modern electronics (something beyond the light bulb and battery). My hope is for a project that: 1) Is fun 2) Teaches about circuits that are relevant to their life. 3) Doesn't rely too heavily on a black box microcontroller. Individual components would probably be better. (I realize that #2 and #3 are probably contradictory. They will already be programming in my class but I want them to understand the circuitry behind modern tech.) 4) It must be as cheap as possible. Yay, public school. Unless some of the parts can be scrounged or found at home, I would probably want to keep the project around $5." What would you build?
Re:A Theremin (Score:3, Funny)
Now that's a good suggestion. The only risk is that all the students will become fans of really weird movies [avclub.com]!
555 timer (Score:2, Funny)
Re:A-stable multivibrator (Score:4, Funny)
Astable multivibrator
don't you have to be over 21 to buy those?
E-Meter (Score:3, Funny)
Have them make a theremin [wikipedia.org] (see the "Similar instruments" section as well). It makes spooky music. Great for a late-October/Halloween project.
Better yet have them build an E-Meter [wikipedia.org]. Since it is just a Wheatstone bridge they can learn something about physics. It doesn't produce spooky music but it would be great for scaring their parents at Hallowe'en.... "Mum, Dad look what I got for signing up with the scientologists!".
Re:Good Luck (Score:3, Funny)