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Education Technology

Electronics Projects for 12-Year-Olds? 104

Posted by Cliff from the questions-that-never-stagnate dept.
nepheles asks: "I've recently been asked to teach some electronics classes for a group of 12-year-olds. They're all new to it. Electronics always seemed boring in school, so for them, I've been looking at hands-on projects: I've considered making basic motors, steady-hand games, and Morse-code communication systems. What experiments have you seen in electronics that amazed you, and that could be recreated in the classroom? What cool things have you made that would be simple enough for a kid to do? At a meta level, how would you like to have been taught electronics?"
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Electronics Projects for 12-Year-Olds? More

Electronics Projects for 12-Year-Olds?

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  • Fun for the Whole Family (Score:3, Funny)

    by TheDarkRogue ( 245521 ) on Tuesday November 23, 2004 @09:36PM (#10905644)
    You can have him build a Cyclotron [slashdot.org]

  • Two Words (Score:3, Funny)

    by Rie Beam ( 632299 ) on Tuesday November 23, 2004 @09:39PM (#10905671) Journal
    Tazer Tag

  • Some ideas (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ebrandsberg ( 75344 ) on Tuesday November 23, 2004 @09:41PM (#10905691)
    magnetic nailgun using light sensors to turn on/off electromagnets (did this one as a kid, put the nail through a board)

    A light sensor based levitation, again, similar idea.

    The idea is to make something cool in the end without having to know a whole lot upfront.
    • magnetic nailgun using light sensors to turn on/off electromagnets (did this one as a kid, put the nail through a board)

      Teaching 12 year old kids to build weapons is a great idea. While a nailgun isn't dangerous on its own, you can always count on some dumb kid to shoot one of his classmates, either by accident or on purpose.
    • actually I was thinking along the lines of the nail gun but instead of nails use hotwheel cars. Build a cool track and have it accerlerate the cars through loops and such.

      Hwat about Legomindstorms and build lego sumobots.

  • AM Radio (Score:5, Informative)

    by kisielk ( 467327 ) on Tuesday November 23, 2004 @09:41PM (#10905696)
    Super easy to build. We made a bunch of boards for some elementary school kids and had them solder on the components and play with the thing in general. We were kind of time limited to a few hours, but it was a good experience.

  • think like a kid (Score:3, Informative)

    by Alrescha ( 50745 ) on Tuesday November 23, 2004 @09:42PM (#10905702)
    Ramsey siren kits are always well-received.

    http://www.ramseyelectronics.com

    A.
    • I really do hope that you aren't planning on letting them bring these home then. I have enough problems when the younger family members get noisy presents from their grandparents and insist on playing with them for the next 10 hours. Use in the halls is guaranteed to drive teachers nuts too

      Noisy projects may be more interesting to the kids, but they can sure as heck be annoying to everyone esle.

  • go for the basics (Score:2, Interesting)

    by dns_server ( 696283 )
    go for the basics, such as steady hand games. all you need is a battery, a light a buzzer and wire.

    Go into electronic stores, they can have lots of simple kits that would be apropriate.
    You could get some magazines for idea's, i occasionally look at them, and every once in a while there are some good basic projects for children.
    • I did that in year one, 12-year-olds may be a little past that stage.

      However, the electronic kits from stores are good, I get one occasionally, but slightly more advanced than one for 12 year olds.

      Bear in mind that most of the people in my electronics class (yr 9, did it in yr 8 too) can't solder for shit. Maybe this is not the norm, but don't expect 12-year-olds to be able to solder without making a horrifying mess of their PCB.

      Most teachers don't seem to know shit, but they have most of the basic st
      • I could solder really well when I was 12, because I got into electronics when I was about 6 or 7, and had been soldering for years. All it takes is practice...
        • So did I, but the kind of time to practice I had isn't the kind of thing I can get in school.

          Last year, we got 90 minutes a week, for one term, to learn to solder, basic theory, and other stuff like that. I was the only person in my class who already knew.

          This year I had more like 4 hours a week, which makes things slightly better, but there was still the contant sound of a desolder station in the background. And some of the PCBs I saw were horrifying.

          You also need to remember that the teachers don

  • how about a general kit? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    remember the radio shack 25, 50, 100, 150 in 1 experiment kits?

    what about something like that, where a "generic" box of parts can be reused for several experiments? you would end up getting a bit more mileage out of your materials, cheaper on costs, and it would tend to keep the experiments simpler yet still pretty neat.

    off topic, i just got a survey popup as i was submitting this. slashdot venturing out?

  • burglar alarms, animatronics (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Anything that involves sensing from a distance or catching people will excite kids. A cigar box "safe" for hiding your diary that will buzz when you open it unless you know to flip some toggle switches on the outside to a certain position will fascinate them.

    Also, any simple animatronics -- a santa clause that waves when you get close, or a garbage can that has the lid open and a hand slides out -- will also catch them.

  • Have You Considered... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jazman_777 ( 44742 ) on Tuesday November 23, 2004 @10:01PM (#10905844) Homepage
    making a Tesla Coil?
    • Can't Tesla coils be a bit dangerous? I work in schools and while I could see older High School students using these, even some of them aren't mature enough. 12-year-olds would be more dangerous, though there are possibilities:

      Today students, we will demonstrate this giant Tesla coil which was built during the previous semester...

      Now for everybody who got an "F" in effort in the previous semester, please place these metal chains around your neck and stand near the coil here...
      • Well, Tesla coils are - by definition - extremely high voltage. If you make the current (amps) small enough, then touching one of those should only result in mild convulsions, with no permanent damage. As an aside, Tesla once built one of his coils several stories tall. I am not an electrition, physician, or electrophysician. Don't try this at home, kids.

  • Take an oscilloscope.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by GrpA ( 691294 ) on Tuesday November 23, 2004 @10:03PM (#10905854)
    If you show them anything with AC or that has any cyclic voltage variation, show it to them on an oscilloscope.... It's much easier to a 12yo if they can visualise what is going on.

    However basic electronics is the stuff that 12yo kids get - show them the foundations...

    The wire-wound rheostat.
    The two-pencil carbon arc.
    Heating nichrome wire to make a poor filament.
    Build a battery in a beaker.
    Hand-wind a motor and build it on plywood with
    wire.
    Electromagnet locking to a piece of metal.
    Morse key, with a solenoid recording the results.

    You want to show them something so that the building block *stays* in their mind....

    If the idea is simple enough, it stays with them forever.

    GrpA
    • Indeed, the battery experiment would be a great example. All you need is two different metals and an acid. Two plain coins of different metal composition (american coins are perhaps not best because they are made of a sandwich metal) seperated by vinegar. That should easily demonstrate a current.

      You could then attach wires to the coins and wrap them around an iron bar to make a magnet, and pick up iron filings. Not bad for turning familiar, extremely easy to find materials into a primitive but working
      • american coins are perhaps not best because they are made of a sandwich metal

        Unless the metal composition of U.S. coins has changed since the early 80s. you can get a voltage off of a penny and a nickel (i.e., 1 cent and 5 cent pieces) separated by a saliva-soaked piece of paper. Great fun.


        • Unless the metal composition of U.S. coins has changed since the early 80s...

          Not to pick a nit, and not that it'd change the coin battery setup, but the metal composition of the 1 cent piece has changed since mid-1982.

          From the US Treasury Website [treas.gov] (emphasis mine):

          The composition of the coin was changed again in 1962. Mint officials felt that deletion of the tin content would have no adverse effect on the wearing qualities of the coin, whereas, the manufacturing advantages to be gained with the alloy stab

    • Some excellent projects, every one. I also never had a solenoid, but I'm sure I'd have loved one.

    • I'm not so sure about some of the projects in the parent - in my experience of teaching kids the best way to teach them is to engauge their enthusiasm. To do that you need high-impact, exciting projects that also demonstrate the principles behind them.

      What's interesting about a rheostat? Or a battery in a beaker? Sure, I find the idea of building a battery interesting, but that's because I (A-level Chemistry) know and understand the principles behind it, and seeing them in action is what makes it fun.

  • My first project.. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by dcstimm ( 556797 )
    was making custom rockets, my tech teacher supervised us, and let us make it out of any thing we wished, I made mine out of pbc pipe and used a I based motor, and I even made my nose cone out of wood using a lathe. Also we hand etched circuit boards and made cool little curcuits, and soidered on our own parts. Taught me alot about electronics and how things worked. Start with the basics (what a resister is and how compasitors work).
    • You should pay more attention in English.
    • Schools aren't really allowed to do that much for fear of lawsuits. At mine this year (yr 9), we made minature cars in wood tech, hole in the back to put in a minature carbon dioxide canister, which makes it go about 10 or 15 meters before starting to slow down.

      Before we could take them home, they had to have an empty canister glued into the hole, so we couldn't put a new one in.

      That I was able to get the empty one out (and help some friends do it) the day we got them back (relief teacher, which meant

  • Persistance of Vision (Score:4, Interesting)

    by skreuzer ( 613775 ) <skreuzer&metawire,org> on Tuesday November 23, 2004 @10:08PM (#10905898) Homepage
    A persistance of vision toy [mit.edu], which is a simple microcontroller that blinks 8 LEDs on and off so that when waved through the air, an image or message appears to float in front of the viewer can be made in bulk for really cheap.

  • Keep them current (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Solder Fumes ( 797270 ) on Tuesday November 23, 2004 @10:16PM (#10905948)
    As technology changes, we start off learning about it at a higher level. Nobody learns to use electron tubes these days, though they are used in some applications.

    Take a similar approach. Provide some basic understanding of the transistor, but don't make a circuit that simply blinks. Instead set them up about 10 years behind the curve rather than 20: throw together a small microcontroller board and a breadboard with some components. Maybe just give them a bare microcontroller to insert into the board.

    Start with a few basic circuits, light an LED, amplify a light or sound source, make a touch sensor. Then get them to write a small program for the microcontroller, to blink a light. After that, try something a little more interactive like a who-pressed-the-button-first game.

    A mess of transistors and wires isn't inspiring, and most of the kids won't have any idea how to come up with useful circuits on their own. But when they realize how much they can do with a microcontroller, watch their eyes light up. Well, maybe some of the geekier ones will. But use the microcontroller as the core, and introduce analog concepts as they relate, for example doing R/C calculations for a smooth PWM signal.

    A single programmable component can often replace or exceed the function of dozens of discrete components. That's where things are heading these days, though analog designers are still needed. I just think you should introduce some technology of our generation so they won't blow off electronics as a lot of work to get a result a thousand times less exciting than what their cell phone can do.
    • Concensus so far points to keeping things visible and audible. To that end, I recommend a large, open-frame relay (12vdc). With it you can demonstrate electromagnetics, switching principles, and closed loop sensor systems (e.g. burglar alarm). You caan use the relay switching to energize lights/LEDs, bells/buzzers/sirens, etc. Get ahold of an old speaker you can dissect to show how the same electromagnetic properties of the relay reproduce sound by connecting the free-floating coil to a diaphragm. The os
  • There is a guy on /. who peddles those things in his sig. Looked pretty cool for a kid's project. Cheap too - I think it was around $12.
  • There are all kinds of things you can make from a disposable camera flash. You can make a strobe light by using a diac, neon lamps, or a triac and an external circuit connected across the shutter contacts (use a D cell instead of the AA so it charges faster) or make a paper clip shooter by connecting a coil in series with the flash lamp. Wrap the coil around a tube of some sort and put a paper clip just behind the coil. To fire it you will also need a *WELL INSULATED* push button wired to the shutter contac

    • The only problem is obviously the high voltage - if you are going to have 12 year olds messing with these things you need to make sure the cameras are insulated well before you let anyone turn on the power

      I'm serious here: Let him get zapped. The currents available from a circuit like that are pretty darned unlikely to inflict serious damage, but they'll taach a lesson that no amount of stern talking will ever do: Voltage can really hurt.

      I am glad all of my early electronic playing was on vaccum

  • LED flashlight (Score:4, Interesting)

    by john_is_war ( 310751 ) <jvines@@@gmail...com> on Tuesday November 23, 2004 @11:05PM (#10906245)
    Have them make LED flashlights. It's a good oppertunity to introduce basic circuits, along with ohm's law. And if yoiu really want to get into it, you could do pot work for variable intensity.

  • Simple interfacing projects (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jhoger ( 519683 ) on Tuesday November 23, 2004 @11:10PM (#10906264) Homepage
    As a code geek in school, I would have liked to see some simple interfacing projects. Say, make a logic analyzer out of a parallel port, or drive a LED 7-segment display.

    I always thought yet another crystal radio, or running a motor or light bulb was kind of boring. Didn't hold my attention.

    Also you might consider demonstrating how to hack off-the-shelf hardware... take things apart, how to tell what different components are and what they do, how to determine how a chip is mapped into memory, connect to a memory bus (think Mailstation, etc) to add new components...

    Connect tools, scopes, analyzers, etc. to show what is happening in the circuit. Measure voltages and show how they match up with the specification for the part...

  • Come on! Jacobs ladders and tesla coils.. What more do you need? All awe inspiring and fun as hell.

  • Electric Motor (Score:4, Interesting)

    by cmpalmer ( 234347 ) on Tuesday November 23, 2004 @11:38PM (#10906444) Homepage
    This isn't exactly electronics, but it's fun (and yes, it is my site and yes, it looks like crap, but it was my first web site and I keep it that way for nostalgic reasons :-)

    http://fly.hiwaay.net/~palmer/motor.html [hiwaay.net]

    For "real" electronics, if you just want to make a easy and fun project, most kids are usually impressed by things that blink LEDs (like a scanner sequencer type circuit) or make noise (I would suggest sirens).

  • no specifics but (Score:4, Insightful)

    by focitrixilous P ( 690813 ) on Tuesday November 23, 2004 @11:56PM (#10906546) Journal
    A project for kids should do one or more of the following:

    Make loud noises

    Give off heat or flames

    Give of bright light

    move on it's own

    be capable of irritating your friends at lunch

    So, overloading exploding LED capacitors are the answer!

    so yeah, making your own motors would work, building a race car with a pair of small motors and a headlight with a wired remote to start/stop, homebuilt radio, a small generator to light a lightbulb, etc.

    Lastly, be sure it's durable, cause they will be dropped and abused a lot on the way home to show mom and dad.

  • when I was in like 9th grade, I had a project that used dry ice, unfortunately the project didn't work, but everyone loved the dry ice.

  • I hate to say it... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Naikrovek ( 667 ) <jjohnson@ps g . com> on Wednesday November 24, 2004 @12:04AM (#10906590)
    but Radio Shack's electronic project kits were the key for me. When my dad showed me how to light a light bulb with a battery i immediately had him take me to radio shack and get me one.

    I spent the next 4 years doing nothing but tinkering with my project kits. I made radios, motion detectors, calculators, wind generators... i wound up fixing TVs and walkman radios, and game consoles for friends. ... then, when i was about 10, i was working on my project kits and suddenly it hit me... "dude there are girls out there. go get one!" so I went outside, hopped on my bike, rode down the *sidewalk*, and was smashed by a car coming out of the alley at 35mph. i was thrown right into the street, skipping the part of the alley between the sidewalk and the street, some 20 feet away. no broken bones but a concussion and a broken eardrum.

    i kept off the electronic project kits but i never did get a girlfriend until i was 18.

    my lesson to you - stay away from electronics, and keep the kids away too. I mean it.

    this is a true story, by the way. all too true. I still can't hear things like digital watches out of my left ear ...

  • Good Project Site (Score:3, Interesting)

    by macz ( 797860 ) on Wednesday November 24, 2004 @12:24AM (#10906702)

    Bizarre Labs [bizarrelabs.com] has some great stuff. Lemon batteries, crystal radios, electro-magnets, leyden jars. Even plans for Tesla coils and radioactive cloud chambers are there.

    This does beg the question: What are the basic principles that need to be covered. Here are some that I would imagine are important:

    Magnetism

    Electromagnetism

    Basic Circuits and electron flow

    Photon Simultaneity

    ... well maybe not that last one, success rates are still pretty low. You might have to build up to that with a few simple explanatory topics.

  • Well (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Pugflop ( 797868 )
    I'm a third year Electronics Systems Engineering student.

    A nice, simple, and (if they dig hardcore math) easy circuit with a blinking light is an series RC circuit, with a light (also in series). Basically, it will flash on and off, at a rate dependant on the time constant of the circuit (=R*C). No need for soldering, and who doesn't like flashing things?
    • Yeah, those kids are gonna dig that i(t) = i(0)e^(-t/RC), and the differential equation that explains it.

      Tim
    • You just go ahead and build that for us, let us know how it works out.

      *mutters something about today's third-year electronics students, glad it's "systems" and not an actual electrical engineerin degree*
  • As someone who had precisely one lesson in school to do with electronics (7th grade generic-science class), I can tell you this: they may all be new to it, but they live in the modern world; don't assume they're stupid. If you bring in a class set of 9-volt batteries plus LEDs, they will have good cause for thinking you are stupid.
  • make an intercom [epanorama.net] out of some telephones and basic circuitry

    perhaps make two versions of one of them - one of raw components simply wired together and another of components on a circuit board
  • I learned electronics when I was 14, not much different from 12 when you get down to it. Wanna know what hooked me the first day? Crossing a 15 Fd. capacitor with a screwdriver (Plastic handle with gloves on) with the lights off.

    POPFIZZLESPARK

    Took 15 minutes of hammering away with a chisel to get the screwdriver out, freshly melted to the contacts. The heat was so intense in that instant that the teachers forearms looked pretty sunburnt. As a matter of fact, many students swear they saw his skeleton light up and the one hot girl's shirt dissipate. One thing we all had in common, we were all thinking the same thing:

    "I gotta try that on someone, I'M MAKING A TAZER!"
  • I remember building a frequency generator with caps resistors and a 555/556 chip. Ah, the fond memories...

    But I think these days programming and electronics have collided in a big way. Gone are the days of analog(ue).

    Perhaps make a fixed board with some digial inputs and outputs (with relays and power) and a programmable pic controller... and let them play with that. (some electric motors and speakers and (light) sensors.

    Thus, just drop your kid off at the local radioshack and let things just happen. ;)
    • I call shenanigans. Analog is just as important now as ever. Try designing a high-speed digital board with no regard to impedance and electromagnetics, and see how far you get.

      I posit that we must always start with analog, then build logic on top of that. The World is an analog place. At some point, a computer needs to interact with the World to be useful.
      • -grin-

        Call it what you will...

        Digital is 'cleaner' and more abstract than analogue. I found that analogue was messy and tempramental, and you needed more expensive components and equipment to work with it.

        All that aside, yes, it may still be important, but it is not necessary to survive in this day and age.

        You do not need to know much about analogue to be able to build some cool toys (robots, yay!).

        Kids want to see results... I know I did. The only cool thing you can still do with analogue is radio .

        -

  • I can't believe.. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by LGEKoji ( 708073 ) on Wednesday November 24, 2004 @04:14AM (#10907504)
    ..Noone has mentioned it. C'mon, this is Slashdot! Why hasn't anyone mentioned teaching the kids about logic gates?!

    Get some relays and such and teach them the basics of digital logic by building electromechanical logic gates. Infact, show them just the basics or how the relay works, etc. and try to get them to think about how to make it do what it needs to do. They're kids, they've got imagination out the wazoo, they can think of lots of neat things. And it gets them interested in how computers work, rather than just playing video games on the things.
  • You know, though I was interested in electronics at a young age (playing Robot Odyssey and having the various 20-in-1, 100-in-1 etc Radio Shack Electronics kits) perhaps one of the best approaches I have seen for teaching digital electronics was this one (previous Slashdot article):

    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/10/25/144 4 24 1&tid=137

    Unless of course unless you want to use MAME with Robot Odyssey. As a side note, I think a game like that would be perfect if the graphics were updated to mesh w
  • All I can suggest is, as a kid my Dad bought me something like "101 electronic experiments" from radio shack circa early 80's (a quick google and I can't find anything, perhaps I have the name wrong?) It was a wooden box frame with a breadboard surface that had various marked connections. You could connect power and the crystal and tuner and amp and make a radio! Although I was by no means a rich kid, I also had a "101 physics experiments" kit that included a little solar cell. Those kits were awesome!
  • A friend of mine runs a workshop called LiveWires which is basically doing what you're talking about. It's a Christian group, but if you subtract the religion then you'll probably have something useful. At least it's worth dropping them an email to ask questions.

    LiveWires link [livewires.org.uk]

    Grab.

  • A simple dice? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by SteelLynx ( 179569 )
    Or anything else with blinking LEDs ;-)

    Back in school I took an "electronics" course that were really more of a "learn how to solder" course. A shop here in Denmark have a fairly large selection of pre-made kits that included the PCB and all the components needed. While these kits did little to teach us anything about how the components and systems work they did serve as a sort of basis for getting something assembled - far better than if it had been a purely theoretical course.

    Some of the kits we used we
  • Found this old book at the library:
    Electronic Projects for Musicians by Craig Anderton,
    which has some very basic looking projects like simple amplifiers, guitar fuzz boxes, ring modulator and such. Looked suitable for beginners (which is why I'm reading it, of course). It's 24 years old, though, but maybe you'll find something similar from this decade.

    Kids love making noise, right?

  • DIY Electric Chair (Score:3, Funny)

    by turgid ( 580780 ) on Wednesday November 24, 2004 @09:56AM (#10908440) Journal
    Educate your child early into the ways of Capital Punishment and the American Legal System by helping him make his own electric chair.

    This will give him a well-developed sense of Right and Wrong, Truth, Justice and the American Way(TM).

    He'll grow up a God-fearing, Republican, join the Army or Police and will avoid all deviancy for the rest of his life.

  • Mr Swinson (Score:2, Informative)

    by mattpalmer1086 ( 707360 )
    At my old school, we had an amazing teacher called Mr. Swinson. He taught woodwork and metalwork to 9 to 12 year olds.

    On the electronics front, we built a robot that would follow a white line painted on the ground (by coupling two light sensitive cells to circuits that controlled the opposite motors), and a working (if a bit squealy) electronic organ.

    Aside from electronics, he had children working with blow torches and lathes, constructing working steam engines that trundled along the floor from raw mate
    • I had a similar situation.. except it was my math teacher who made math class exciting (or at least interesting) and understandable. My physics class was dry. Sahara-dry. I now have an aversion towards physics on a basic level. Don't make that mistake! Ever!

      Although I am however intrigued by the more complex and modern stuff in physics, so it's not a complete loss and definite loss.
  • I bought this kit for my son. He spends hours working on the provided example circuits and trying to improve them on his own. Everything just snaps together. Great Stuff. They even have a deluxe kit with computer interface. http://www.elenco.com/snapcircuits.html/ [elenco.com]
  • SciToys [scitoys.com]

    all kinds of little projects, some electronic, some otherwise. My son(13) is doing the Gauss Rifle [scitoys.com]. So as not to freak out the teacher, we're calling it a 'Linear Accelerator', instead of a railgun.

  • The Boy Electrician [lindsaybks.com] is the best place to start. Published in 1940, so the tubes are a little hard to find, but most of the projects don't use tubes. Everything is easy yet informative, and the book is aimed at boys so it is easy and fun to read. Recommended, even for adults.

    P.S. That site has several other books that you will find interesting, but this is the best.

  • You mentioned the age range, but didn't say if this was a full day thing, or after school, or maybe just an hour or two. It might also span multiple sessions, which makes it even more difficult.

    Assuming it spans multiple sessions (or maybe even if it doesn't), you'll want lots of stages to build up to. This may also be useful if you're unsure of how long things will take, as you may only be able to get to 5 stages, when you planned 7, but you don't have to tell the kids that.

    I'd also advise against usin
  • The Beakman electric motor [hiwaay.net] is an awsome experiment.
  • Teach them about digital circuits (or gates, flip flops, the whole)

    Teach them how to program a simple microcontroler (like the PIC 16F84 or the 89S51)

    It's pretty simple and very fun.

    Then you can build "sophisticates stuff" like a IR remote control, a simple calculator, stuff like that...

  • ...we made batteries!!! It's basic, but it's fun and it's cool:

    Materials:
    1. Bleach
    2. Baking Soda
    3. Copper stranded wire
    4. Aluminium Foil
    5. Wax Paper or other nonconductive surface that will survive immersion in bleach
    5. Glass container or old canning/jelly jar
    6. LEDs or old fashioned screw in flashlight bulb with fixture (can you even find those anymore?)
    7. Alligator clips

    Instructions:
    1. Take the foil and form a cup with a tail (sort of like a laddle) so that 1/3 of the bottom of the glass container is l
  • I liked building "radios" first a simple AM reciever, then an AM transmitter, that turned into a "CB". Then I played with Led transmitter/receiver projects with some optical fun to make directional sorta "spy" radios. None had a range of over 20 ft. so I think the FCC was OK with them?
  • A simple project that I remember fondly from my electronics class at high school was a fun little LED flasher project using a LM3909 LED flasher IC, a LED, a capacitor and a AA battery.

    An example circuit [compuserve.com] is on this page [compuserve.com].

    Mount it in a matchbox, and you have your first electronics project! I think I still have that thing 20 years later. :)
  • Lego Dacta is not cheap, but really gets kids involved. I usually follow it up with Floppy the robot, a simple bot built with a 3.5" floppy drive. Competitions are really addictive, I either invent one for the group like climbing to the top of a ramp or navigating a maze. Destructive competitions tend to leave out the girls..... To get them really hooked, try the Boston University Design competition (http://www.bu.edu/eng/design/rules, or the University of Vermont DesignTASC(http://www.emba.uvm.edu/TASC

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