|
Is it the RCA factory on a very bad day or is it
the how-does-it-work detectives in the heart of an investigation?
Give kids some tools and a variety of broken gadgets and you will
witness things coming apart at a rapid rate. As kids dissassemble
equipment they will share theories on why it failed, explain what
it’s made of, and make plans for it’s future use.
THE SETUP
It may be helpful to children– especially the younger they
are–if you pre-loosen screws for them. A quick demonstration
of tool use will provide them with the basic idea of how the tools
are used. Be ready to intervene when you observe unsafe tool use.
MATERIALS
Four sizes of phillip’s head and flat head screwdrivers, pliers,
containers for children to put small parts in, VCRs, CBs, cassette
players, toasters, waffle iron, old clocks, TVs (with screens removed)
from dump, repair shop, parent, friend or thrift store.
Retrieve motors before they are damaged. VCRs, tape players, and
disc players have motors to turn things and you can use them for
future explorations. If possible, keep the motors connected to pulley
or gear mechanisms. Cut off plugs!
What did you find? What does it do? Why do you thing the machine
stopped working?
THE
SCIENCE
This is a true investigation of the science behind technology. Kids
will wonder how things work and what different parts are for. Dismantling
appliances is a great introduction to electrical circuits, pulleys,
springs, levers, magnets and other components used in our daily
lives. Kids learn to use a variety of tools and gain much practice
in sharing scientific equipment. |
|
REAL
LIFE SCIENCE (ages 5-8)
The kids dismantled with vigor and extreme anticipaction of hidden
treasures. A VCR is a treasure chest of colorful wires, precious
circuit boards, pulleys, magnets, gears and others intriguing gizmos.
There were enough screws to remove to give all the kids ample practice.
After an hour the kids were impressed by their initial booty.
After three days there was a mass of wonderful parts to play with
and Interest was high. Everyone wanted to take things apart. Luckily
we had not only a VCR, but a cassette player and a CB radio. Some
kids patiently unscrewed, methodically cut wires and carefully separated
components. Others hammered with everything on everything. Things
came apart. What looked like serious destruction was also serious
exploration.
Kids
fiddled with gears, buttons and springs to discover how stuff worked.
One kid discovered the spring that made the door to the cassette
player swing open and another child ran about displaying a magnet
he had discovered. A girl excitely showed her co-workers the little
paints (transitors) on the circuit board. |
Some
children were troubleshooters par excellence.
" This is why it didn’t work- the battery wasn’t
charged", explained Amanda as she held up a capacitor.
"We cut all these [wires] so we wouldn’t get shocked"
Leann pointed to pile of screws which she had unscrewed and exclaimed,
"Look at all these nails here."
Other kids knew what circuit boards were. They all learned new terms
by listening to each other. Nick exclaimed, "Alex, let’s
pretend we are wire guys, rr-boing-rrr". Rico informed us as
he pointed at the letters on the VCR controls, "I’ll take
off the ABC’s"
"I know why it didn’t work" announced Ricky as he
pointed to a resister, "It’s burnt!"
They
continued to take apart more ABC’s and everthing else for months.
|
