What To Cover In a Short "DIY Tech" Course? 256
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."
Teach them something useful (Score:5, Interesting)
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. [instructables.com]
Re:Lego Mindstorms (Score:4, Interesting)
Pyrolysis of biomass. (Score:5, Interesting)
Pyrolysis of wood or other biomass such as garbage into carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas for use as a fuel for vehicles or cooking.
Teach 'em something useful (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
I did something similar with 8th graders (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
One 30minute project. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:A long-lasting technology (Score:5, Interesting)
Boooring!
show the kids how to build a PotatoGun (tm).
That should keep them interrested
Re:Digital Electronics. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Teach 'em something useful (Score:5, Interesting)
My point is, electricity, in and of itself, is nothing to be feared/worshiped if properly understood. Teaching kids to hack away at some electronics could greatly improve their understanding of some of the most common items we use everyday.
As for a suggestion, I would tell you to have each of them go home and get their parents/grandparents to donate an old walkman to them for a project. Then have them disassemble it and use the components to make some kind of mobile toy (hence using something with a motor) that they can take home and show off. Of course, this requires soldering, but it still could be great fun for them. I personally have built two Symets (little bouncy pseudo robot things) from old Discman's and had a great time doing it.
That's my two cents.
Arduino (Score:1, Interesting)
Try an Arduino experimenters kit or several, depending on the size of the class.
http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=17&products_id=170 [adafruit.com]
It would give the students some idea of how modern tech works.
Re:Digital Electronics. (Score:3, Interesting)
Improvisation? (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Small tesla coil (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Project Management (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
Re:Lego Mindstorms (Score:4, Interesting)
He could start by teaching his students how to find materials for building these projects from free sources, such as the trash.
The most talented makers I know tend to pay very very little for their materials. I have heard the term "The Garbage Santa" as an answer to the question "Where did you get this stuff?" on several occasions.
I have found everything from 23" LCD monitors to Prada coats in the alleys next to the trash cans just within a 4-block radius of my home. Americans, especially the well-off ones, have the richest garbage you could imagine. I learned this from my wife, early in our marriage. She grew up in a rather poor Eastern European country. When I met her, she was already a math PhD on her way to a tenure position, and made a decent living, but she still marveled at our wastefulness. At first, I was a bit embarrassed to take something that someone else had discarded, but I think it was the slick Prada coat (it didn't look like it had ever been worn) that I still wear, that I began to overcome my discomfort. I'm guessing some divorcee was purging her townhouse of her ex-husband's belongings or something, and I was the beneficiary. Seriously, this is one fine-looking coat.
Also, for example, I am currently sitting in a Herman Miller Aeron Chair that someone had thrown away. Seriously. It had a small tear in the mesh that was easily repairable.
Re:Teach them something useful (Score:3, Interesting)
It shocks me how many of my friends who consider themselves to be technically adept cannot fix a simple short.
The first step should be (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
Re:Teach them something useful (Score:4, Interesting)