Looking for a *fun* way to introduce basic electronics to my kids [closed]

Question

We recently came across this video:

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/04/the-awesome-button.html

and both my six year old and 13 year old thought it was pretty cool. I am a computer programmer, but never did much with electronics, so I am looking for some suggestions on how to introduce electronics to myself and my kids in a fun lab/project oriented way.

Its a little challenging b/c of the age gap between my kids, but I'm ok if the younger doesn't understand everything. As long as he can participate in the lab and be involved in what we are doing, he will pick things up along the way. Likewise, I wouldn't want something so simple that my older son is bored.

A few preferences:

• I would prefer to stay away from robotics initially, maybe we can graduate to that, but I am looking for something not quite as involved.
• I would prefer that we can bring a programming component into the mix relatively soon, like in the example I linked to above, but that's not a requirement. That also is something we can graduate into.
• I would prefer not to shell out a whole lot of money initially. Maybe a couple hundred dollars at most, but hopefully less.
• I'm ok with learning stuff from a book or videos but my main goal is to give us projects to work on together. This is mostly about trying to find something to do with Dad time that is fun for us all, learning electronics is kind of a bonus. The labs or projects are my focus.

So, can you suggest books, kits, websites, or other resources that would facilitate what I have outlined above?

update

@AndrejaKo: I know basically nothing about electronics. I understand that it involves things like resistors and logic gates, etc. but as to what those things are and how they are used, I know nothing.

I have a multi-meter I bought at Lowes, but that is about it. If I have to spend the money to get some basic tools & components, thats ok. I just want to keep the cost down until I found out if this is really something they we are interested in doing together or if its going to die after a few projects.

solution

I began trying to put together an order for the electronic components for the All About Electronics experiments section as well as the first chapter of Make: Electronics. I had a couple hours into it, wasn't sure I was ordering the right components, and was somewhat discouraged when I happened across a blog that is walking through the Make: Electronics book that mentioned MakerShed's component packs for the Make: Electronics book. That sealed the deal for me! I went ahead and ordered the first component pack and the book (which was only $10 if you buy the component pack).

We are going to start out with this book. If we make it past chapter two, I will go ahead and order the second component pack. The price has to beat RadioShack and even if its more expensive than ordering the components individually, I'm way sold on the time its saving me.

Answer 1

You're probably looking for a book like these:

• Make: Electronics (Learning by Discovery)

• Practical Electronics for Inventors

• Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers

• Making Things Talk: Practical Methods for Connecting Physical Objects

Which are introductory, but practical, books on electronics.

Answer 2

I would stay away from anything so complicated that you only can use it as a black box, like in the video a USB interface. Instead I would use very basic components, preferably things which generate a sound or display something, these will appeal to your youngest too.
One possible project is an electronic die. You can do this with a few HCMOS ICs, like a 7-segment LED driver. It has the advantage that you don't have to introduce transistors yet (transistors are Really Complicated Devices!!) and they see something happen.

edit (re OP's comment)
HCMOS is a family of digital ICs, it comprises basic logical functions like gates (AND, OR, NOR, inverter,...), but also more functional blocks, like counters and the 7-segment driver I mentioned. For the die I was thinking of an oscillator you can start-stop, which makes the counter loop from 1 to 6. (Note to chief engineer: that's a presetable counter, a normal counter would start counting at 0.) The 7-segment driver converts its binary input to a pattern for the 7-segments digit display.
Alternatively, you can create a die-like LED pattern and use logic ICs to determine which LEDs have to light up for which counter value. (chief engineer: you can use a Johnson counter, like the 74HC4017. Count from zero to 5.) For instance, the center LED only lights up when you roll a 1, 3 or 5. Then you OR outputs 0, 2, and 4 of the counter (remember, zero-based)
The advantage of working with logic ICs is that you don't need to explain about electrons right away, and that they can get acquainted with voltage levels first.
If you create the oscillator with a NAND gate like the 74HC132, you can explain its working with the water model: voltage = water level, capacitor = water tank, resistor = thin water tube.

For a concrete example see this googled document

Answer 3

I recommend the Snap Circuits sets for basic electronics.

Answer 4

At that sort of age you can definitely get them soldering and even designing circuits - there is a regular show that comes to the Edinburgh festival that my kids went to and got to do the full build (not design) of solar powered audio circuits and stylophone equivalents, including the soldering at age 4.

They can certainly cope mentally - it's just like building with lego or meccano - but be aware it will probably take one instance of dropping a soldering iron on a hand or leg for them to really believe you that it hurts a lot :-)

I would also recommend kits such as these ones from sciencekits.com as they do help you pick up the basics without really needing much in the way of tools.

Answer 5

What about dcaclab ? students can learn online, and its fun too :)