Here are some ideas for some technology and science projects you and your kids.
Squishy Circuits
Did you know that it is possible to make dough that is both conductive and non-conductive of electricity? Brilliantly, what this means is that rather than faffing about with fiddly “breadboards” it is possible to teach kids the basics of electronic circuits using LEDs, battery packs and what is essentially Play-Doh.
Raspberry Pi
If your kids are budding coders, be sure to pick up a Raspberry Pi. What looks like a small circuit board is actually a fully functioning computer. Just add a screen, keyboard, mouse and a memory card to act as the hard disk and you’re good to go. What’s brilliant about the Pi is not just that it is affordable at £25 but that it is very difficult to go wrong. If the kids break the Linux installation on the SD card, it is easy to just wipe the memory card and start again, or have multiple SD cards for multiple OS installs.
Raspberry Pi is specifically built with teaching in mind. The default OS, Raspbian, comes with a visual programming application called Scratch, which helps kids build apps, but more importantly helps explain many of the key logical concepts found in computer programming.
Musical Coat Hangars, Soap Boats, and More
If you have younger kids, the Royal Institution has created a tonne of video demonstrationsof simple experiments you could carry out at home using normal household items.
One super-easy example requires just a piece of string and a bunch of metal objects, and can be used to demonstrate the idea of variables, showing how switching the object on the end of the string means that it makes a different noise when bashed against a chair.
Another experiment is demonstrated by TV’s Rufus Hound and his son, who investigate some freaky behaviour caused by soap.
by MindMake via MindMake Blog
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