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Holiday Break Electronics Ideas (ya know, for kids!) -- The Learning Circuit Announcement

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element14's The Ben Heck Show

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The holidays are quickly approaching and Karen wants to know what ideas you have for electronics projects to keep kids age 8-12 busy while they are home from school for winter break.

 

During the holidays, it's tempting to go out and buy another toy to keep the kids occupied. Here at element14, we like to take the DIY approach. What projects can be made from basic household items, or parts you can pick up on the cheap? Share your ideas in the comments below.

  • When my boy was 10 years old, I was heading off on a business trip for two weeks.  My son and I got a crazy idea to make "Dadbot".

     

    It is a robot made from PVC tubing, our 3D printer, an old iPhone, some hobby motors, a battery from a theater chair, a cutting board, and a microcontroller.

     

    With it, I could use face-time and a webpage served from the microcontroller to control Dadbot from my hotel room.

     

    Here's the very much Ben Heck inspired video showing how the project was done:

     

     

    Go to 5:00 mins for the good part.image

     

    -Sean

  • A very well known and famous one is the bristle bot. I did that project often, with my own daughter, my nephews, but also with larger groups of kids.

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    If you are able to read Dutch, you can find more information here: Agri Vision - Jeugd projecten

    Otherwise just look at the pictures. There are more interesting projects there, like a guy made from welding wire and leds, and crystal receivers which run on the energy they receive out of the air.

  • A couple of years back I made a simple Pepper Ghost effect in a cardboard box with just some black paint and a sheet of polycarbonate. You could swap the top window with a bank of LEDs and put in a turn table to make the figure move.

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  • in reply to rsc

    That's one of my favorite workshops to run. In fact, I have one scheduled at our local library in the beginning of December. I've purchased a few precision screwdriver sets since the last time I ran the workshop. Hopefully that will help with some of the security screws that tend to be on the laptops I get.

  • in reply to shabaz

    We tried it this weekend, building up a couple of these with my two sub-8 year old nephews.

    We (I) cut the 3mm plastic and sanded off the corners and drilled holes.

    Then the LED was put into position and I helped pop-rivet to secure the two wire ends.

    I didn't take a photo of the underside, but a blob of epoxy was used to ensure the LED couldn't be pushed out.

    The left side in the photo (LED anode) was held, and the right side was put close to the balloon.

    They had some fun with balloons, showing their parents how the light would flicker on.

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  • When we had "bring your kids to work" days, I'd give them something like an old printer and some tools and let them find out what was inside, then show them how to make the parts inside work by themselves.  You can find lots of switches, LEDs, motors, and all the wire you need inside some discarded gadgets.

    Scott

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    I had no idea that was a use for it, or possibly its original use. Makes sense though.

     

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  • in reply to makerkaren

    It's the self-adhesive copper tape gardeners use to keep slugs and snails away from their plants. The copper is supposed to be toxic to them (the slugs more so than the gardener that is).

  • in reply to trocar

    Oh ok, yes. I've seen that before. Only heard it called copper tape before. Now I know what slug tape is!