[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects
___________________________________________________________________
Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects
I'm reaching out for some creative suggestions. I have a 4-year-old
and a 7-year-old attending preschool/school, and both sets of
teachers have asked for ideas from parents for skills they could
show or projects they could help with in the classroom. I have a
background in computer science, primarily focused on web
development these days. Additionally, I have loads of potentially
useful toys at home, including a 3D printer, DIY CNC mill, webcams,
Raspberry Pis, old laptops, etc. What are some engaging activities
or projects I could bring to either level of the schools that would
be both fun and educational for the kids? Particularly ideas we
could do as a class vs breaking into smaller groups. I have had a
couple of ideas so far - Processing based art interactive which the
kids can suggest updates for and instantly see the changes. -
Something RTLSDR based, so we can play with antennas and catch some
radio waves. Looking forward to your creative ideas and
suggestions, thank you.
Author : ElCapitanMarkla
Score : 91 points
Date : 2024-05-07 23:04 UTC (3 days ago)
| anishkothari wrote:
| There are a lot of activities on the CS Unplugged website:
| https://www.csunplugged.org/en/
|
| https://classic.csunplugged.org/activities/
|
| I also like the self-paced courses on Code.org:
| https://code.org/student/elementary
|
| My kindergartner has access to Tynker through school. Maybe your
| school district has a license to something similar?
|
| Good luck!
| al_borland wrote:
| code.org has an unplugged section as well.
|
| https://code.org/curriculum/unplugged
| brudgers wrote:
| My big suggestion is ask your younger child what they would like
| you to do first. Then separately ask your older child what they
| would like you to do.
|
| Do them both. Good luck.
| contingencies wrote:
| Pottery plus blinkenlights.
|
| 3D printer and CNC are sort of too specific ... at that age, for
| most projects, cardboard prototypes are better (cheaper, faster,
| more rewarding, more parallel). Pottery is even better though
| because it becomes a permanent piece and lets you do painting as
| well.
|
| In later school maybe basic robotics works with a pi... lesson by
| lesson skill building like "synth speech", "parse speech",
| "sensor data acquisition", "internet query", "database 101",
| whatever...
| p0d wrote:
| I'm a lecturer and it strikes me you are talking about some
| pretty advanced stuff there:-)
|
| I would go for a hands-on, making exercise. I think my son was
| around 7 when I made a crystal radio with him. He was pretty
| bored until he heard voices in the earpiece. I will never forget
| the look of surprise on his face. You are an extremely curious,
| independent learner. Most students are not in my experience. The
| biggest challenge in education is moving the least able, to the
| most able forward. So consider activities that work for all. You
| suggested group work which is a good idea as you can assign
| members specific tasks.
| anonymousDan wrote:
| That sounds great but I have no idea how you would make such a
| thing. Is there a guide somewhere? Would love to try with my 6
| year old.
| rjsw wrote:
| This book [1] (PDF) was what I used to start making radios as
| a child.
|
| [1] https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-
| ARH/Technology/M...
| saulrh wrote:
| Minecraft has a mod called ComputerCraft, which adds lua-powered
| computers to the game. They can read various state from the
| world, like redstone levels and chest contents, and move things
| between chests and set redstone outputs and play sound and etc.
| You can also upgrade them into turtles, which can move around and
| mine blocks and stuff. It's a nice environment for basic robotics
| programming with immediate feedback.
|
| (IIRC there's theoretically an "educational edition" of this, but
| I don't know if I'd put much stock in that; you're close enough
| and personalizing the learning enough that you're probably better
| off just using the normal mod.)
| drmbradley wrote:
| Not my resource but a neighbour and friend of mine built this
| free resource for Machine Learning education
| https://machinelearningforkids.co.uk/#!/about
|
| The tool is entirely web-based and requires no installs or
| complicated setup to be able to use.
| treme wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBzxyUkKo_s
|
| Dig around Bret Victor's Dynamicland
| blutack wrote:
| Water bottle rockets that have to carry and land an egg without
| cracking it are fun, and the launcher except pump can be 3d
| printed. The kids can make the rest of the rockets out of
| cardboard/foam/plastic bag parachutes etc).
| SebFender wrote:
| Kinda out of context, but it's funny how I played with my kid for
| years around computers, games, code camps and so on since he was
| 3yo - now at 20 he has no interest whatsoever in "coding" but is
| absolutely absorbed by chemistry - now in pharmacology in
| university. Anyway, cheers on the project - kids and the time we
| spend with them is so important.
| A_D_E_P_T wrote:
| What's fun, and very interesting for both children and adults, is
| going zero tech. In fact, go back to prehistory.
|
| You start with the different properties of stones. If you have
| flint, obsidian, granite, quartzite, gypsum, and calcite in your
| region -- find them together. If not, buy them. Teach your kids
| about their different properties, and how they were used to make
| hand tools.
|
| Then, the different properties of woods. Hard, soft, green, etc.
| Show them why ash and hickory (and especially negatively buoyant
| _cornus mas_ , if you can get it,) make much better tools than
| pine. Make wooden spears and harden their points in a fire you
| make with stone tools.
|
| Then integrate the two -- use stone tools to make other stone
| tools, and combine stone and wood into wooden-handled stone
| tools. Make bows and stone-tipped arrows, and use them. Go
| foraging with the children, and teach them how to cook
| vegetables, fish, and meat over an open fire. (Note: Beware
| mushrooms unless you _really_ know what you 're doing.)
|
| In short order, the children will understand how men have lived
| for hundreds of thousands of years. Then they can advance into
| copper smelting, pottery, building carts and canoes, making nets
| from natural fibers, writing on clay tablets, and so forth...
|
| I feel that, as with math where the optimal method is to start
| with Euclid and then progress through the ages, one ought to
| learn to be in the world by moving through man's stages of
| development. At 4-7, they're in their prime for traipsing around
| the woods and making stone tools.
| tasuki wrote:
| > Beware mushrooms unless you really know what you're doing.
|
| If you know what you're doing, you should know that children
| generally shouldn't eat wild mushrooms - they're hard to
| digest.
| A_D_E_P_T wrote:
| I live in a pretty rural place, and around here they sell
| wild mushrooms in supermarkets. Sometimes the mighty porcini
| ( _boletus_ sp.) is available -- but there are frequently
| chanterelles and morels available, and sometimes other types.
| Kids and even toddlers eat them all the time, though
| admittedly they 're usually well cooked, or dried and then
| cooked, or even cooked and then pureed.
|
| I don't recommend doing it with kids (or at least _eating_
| them with kids) but mushroom foraging is a lot of fun.
| usgroup wrote:
| I focus on just using stuff with my kids. Things like piloting a
| remote control car is hard for a 4 year old, but they still want
| to do it. Playing Tetris on a slow speed, naughts and crosses,
| simplified chess, making objects out of paper, painting acorns,
| building train tracks, Lego, and so on.
|
| You need engagement first, in order to cause learning, and I
| guess any process that causes both learning and engagement makes
| sense, but in my experience at young ages, that's more likely to
| be on the doing/using rather than creating side of the spectrum.
| ljlolel wrote:
| You can teach a 4 year old chess I've done it many times
| (patiently)
| ddol wrote:
| I disagree. You can teach a 4-year-old the moves each chess
| piece can make, but expecting them to absorb strategy, or to
| visualise 2+ moves into the future is an unfair burden.
|
| The following are much better perfect information games for
| kids. I play each with my kids and have listed the age when
| they were able to strategise 2+ moves ahead:
|
| - Gobblet Gobblers (4)
|
| - Onitama (6)
|
| - Hive (8)
| smugma wrote:
| Gobblet is a great game, ages 4- seems right. My 9 and 11
| year olds still play occasionally.
|
| Hive v Onitama, is Hive better for older kids or just more
| complex?
| fuzztester wrote:
| >Lego
|
| Reminded me of the Logo language and its turtle graphics. It
| was made for kids, IIRC.
|
| Used it some, early on. Fun.
|
| There are free versions.
|
| Also, Python has a turtle graphics module, like Logo.
| MarcScott wrote:
| You could look into setting up a Code Club.
|
| https://codeclub.org/en/
|
| And we have a tonne of resources at
| https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en
|
| Playing around with teachable machine is also a tonne of fun for
| kids, and MIT have a platform called RAISE playground that has
| Scratch with teachable machine extensions
| bbbbbenji wrote:
| A while ago, I developed a decibel meter designed like a traffic
| light for a preschool classroom. The device visually represents
| different noise levels by changing colors and can also be
| manually operated via IR remote. I've shared my project, along
| with several suggestions for its educational use in the
| classroom, on this here:
| https://makerworld.com/en/models/186425#profileId-205268
| SJC_Hacker wrote:
| Catapults
| beeskneecaps wrote:
| Yeah! And surgical tubing slingshots. A very small construction
| project where they can learn to use a speed square. Tune the
| slingshot or catapult until it can launch a handball into a 1x1
| meter square some distance away. Also a great way to wear the
| kids out having to run and collect the ball.
| nycdatasci wrote:
| Maybe just give some interactive demos to the kids showing the
| power of modern tech?
|
| Animate drawings: https://sketch.metademolab.com/
|
| Generate music, based on ideas from the kids using Suno or Udio.
|
| Generate a story with GPT/Claude where kids in the classroom are
| the characters. Create images using Dall-e 3 and print copies so
| the kids can take it home.
|
| This would probably be of interest to many parents and teachers
| too.
| Franzeus wrote:
| Can confirm the animated drawings. I built a company
| (dibulo.com) which does that (Age 3-8 mostly, but also adults
| and seniors seem to like it). We love that kids spend more time
| coloring than looking at the screen (although it is always a
| magic moment). We also do not have a lot of interaction with
| the screen itself and soon gonna add more and more educational
| elements to it.
| brewtide wrote:
| This isn't quite the example list that you are looking for as the
| mentioned 'projects' in the following list were done at home,
| with a lot more timeframe allowed to discuss / work on them. My
| children are now 8 and 10, but we have been doing such similar
| things around the home since they were of similar ages to yours.
| A few of the things that we have done, and became large hits
| (hardly all computer related, but I think perhaps it's a
| mentality you are aiming for -- learn, create!)
|
| * Augmented reality sandbox -- The software is still out there.
| You may have already seen these in action, but it really is not
| too terrible difficult to build a setup yourself. Old PC with
| some sort of GPU (for the rain effect, which is the coolest
| aspect..), a microsoft kinect, and a whatever quality projector.
| This went over super well in my living room when the kids were 4
| & 6 -- And we recently re-built it 4 years later -- The 4 year
| old didn't even remember it, but I have lots of pictures of her
| loving it at 4!). Super cool, super interactive, and a good tie
| in of 'building things using old technology'.
|
| * Grabbing weather from passing NOAA satellites! Build a simple
| di-pole antenna using whatever materials (we used copper pipe).
| Involves math and science discussions, and also may get the
| little ones interested in the weather. RTLSDR, some copper pipe,
| a laptop, some software, and knowing when to be tuning in. A good
| example of how 'the first time you try something it may not work
| as well as you'd like', tweak away from there. Pretty exciting to
| pull a picture from a satellite line by line. Listen to the
| signal -- Memories of dialup will immediately be there.
|
| * Use a streaming camera and speed-cam software to create a setup
| to see 'how fast they can run'. Process and result and
| discussions about how this setup works can lead to fun insights.
|
| * Stop motion video creation -- Probably the best for your use
| case, have kids use technology to create their own stop-motion
| videos. I remember doing this back around the ages of 7, but at
| that time it was frame by frame using construction paper and a
| giant VHS camera on a tripod. Techniques have not changed really,
| but the setup to do stop motion on small scale kid levels is
| basically free. Shows how iterative processes add up.
|
| * Build a bubble making machine -- I imagine you may have a box
| of old computer fans, motors, etc, etc. Build a bubble machine!
| Have them try to design one out. 7 year olds likely able to
| really design rough concepts, 4 year old can help assemble and
| most importantly, spill the bubble liquid all over the place! If
| you want to get fancy, have it become a motion activated bubble
| machine using motion detection via some ESP32 setup or whatever.
| "This is what we are trying to do, these are the resources on
| hand, how do YOU think we could make this happen?".
|
| _String up a wire, bust out the RTLSDR (or other SDR stuff) and
| try to listen to some shortwave from around the world or your
| area. Pulling whatever from the air always seems basically magic
| to all kids (and honestly, it 's pretty much magic to myself as
| well).
|
| _Not really an able to do at school thing, but son build an AM /
| FM radio kit that had your typical Chinese 'instructions' and was
| able with a tiny bit of help to solder everything to the board
| and have it work first try. As someone else mentioned, it went
| "Lots of interest > I'm kind of tired of this > I'm so close I
| will push on > Oh my goodness, the radio works, this is the
| best". I'm a huge fan of trying to install the 'keep at it' or
| make changes to make things better way of teaching and learning.
|
| * School/Maybe -- * Make electromagnets by wrapping some wire
| around some good sized nails, put a switch on it, and both
| mentioned age groups will likely find it super cool and is
| certainly electronic/science based.
|
| Just a few of the things we have done around my house thus far
| and have shown a lot of engagement and interest, and helped to
| create that 'spark' about wanting to learn more stuff.
|
| I think this summer will bring more radio related things: Sensors
| to monitor humidity levels to be graphed from our garden,
| building some actual meshtastic nodes to chat to other people way
| across town over the airwaves, etc. My 10 year old has started
| designing a project to "automatically lower sunglasses over his
| glasses if it is sunny", and I hunch we will finally acquire a
| 3df printer to see this project through to completion. I'm hardly
| a programmer, but he did a '30 days lost in space' kit last year,
| and between the information he started poking with through that,
| and the assisting of some AI, I'm sure we can work together to
| pull his implementation off, however he goes about it.
|
| As others said, it's great to see trying to share the desire to
| learn into the little ones -- They are _way_ more capable than
| society lets on, you just have to get them interested in things
| and they are astounding tiny sponges! Good luck!
| salad-tycoon wrote:
| Re: AR sandbox.
|
| Wow!
|
| So cool, I want one. Watch the video here (1) it gets really
| neat at 1:43.
|
| I want to do this.
|
| For this who don't know, cheap projectors these days are quite
| decent. I got one for $75 and we use it as the main screen for
| the kids. During very sunny days it does not work well, which
| is a benefit. If it's too bright to watch TV then go outside! I
| have one like this and I love it, plenty of other vowel-poor
| companies make similar. (2)
|
| There is also a makers magazine that has all kinds of ideas.
| Pretty cheap through discount magazine. https://makezine.com/
|
| 1 https://web.cs.ucdavis.edu/~okreylos/ResDev/SARndbox/
|
| 2 https://meh.com/forum/topics/vankyo-
| performance-v600-native-...
|
| 3 system 76 instructable
| https://www.instructables.com/Augmented-Reality-Sandbox/
| brewtide wrote:
| Thanks for providing the links I did not -- Kids were waking
| up and I was trying to bang through it!
|
| One of the things that I always messed up when calibrating
| it, is the step using the CD-on-a-stick part. You need to do
| this calibration phase _changing the z axis_ on different
| points. Do one low. Do one medium, do some 'high'. This is
| how the system defines it's 'skew' of projection when it
| comes to the different heights/levels -- and if you do this
| step all roughly on the same 'z' plane, it will _work_ , but
| it will not be anywhere near as accurate / magical feeling.
| The instructions I believe are hazy on this critical part of
| the setup.
|
| We always used blocks / things covered with white rags
| instead of sand. Far easier to justify building over the
| living room table this way, and makes for a quick clean up
| process!
|
| It's 100% super cool. Also, as you said, we use an $89 3
| years ago projector. It is NOT a short-throw projector, but
| mounted roughly 6-7' above the surface. The kinect was
| mounted on a yard-stick hanging slightly down below so it's
| field of view covers just that of the table itself.
|
| It's a super neat end result; and can be decently frustrating
| during the calibration phases and software setup, but is
| worth it!
| jacknews wrote:
| For such young kids, unless they're prodigies, it should be very
| much hands-on rather than anything too abstract.
| deadbabe wrote:
| Build and fly a kite!
| firesteelrain wrote:
| 1. Snap circuits. 2. Legos. 3. Straw Rockets
| (https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/project/make-a-straw-
| rock...). 4. 100 yard paper rocket launcher
| (https://www.instructables.com/100-Yard-Paper-Rocket-
| Launcher...). 5. Alka Seltzer Rockets.
| zirkuswurstikus wrote:
| Hi, With my 7 years old I started to thinker with
| https://www.scratchjr.org/. She like to create short movies with
| it. The next level will be https://sonic-pi.net/
| lebuffon wrote:
| The 4 year olds may be too young,but I am a big fan of teaching
| how we got here.
|
| I gave a 6 session course to a homeschool coop on the History of
| Technology starting from stones and moving through bronze age,
| iron age, steam power, electricity, telegraph demo (big hit)
| radio and TV and early computers.
|
| (I think Engineering schools should have a course on tech
| history)
| leobg wrote:
| Sounds super interesting. Any notes or slides or anything you
| can share?
| digitaltrees wrote:
| Kids love a projector that responds to their movements. So a
| movie of fish swimming that respond as the kids run around in the
| water.
|
| I saw a cool one that had a water fall on a wall that became a
| river on a floor and the kids could take cushions and divert the
| river by blocking its flow. The 7 year olds would like that.
|
| 4 year olds like physical challenges. So you could use the
| projector to do a dynamic hop scotch or jumping game with Lilly
| pads.
|
| I am actually not a big fan of getting kids involved with devices
| though. I think they need to learn to play in groups, spend time
| outside, and learn to be as physically capable as possible.
|
| I think if you use tech it would ideally be to teach them a rule
| based team game where they have to work together, user their
| imagination and solve a problem.
| Modified3019 wrote:
| Have them try to ID common yard broadleaf "weeds", which imo have
| rather nice (if small and hard to notice) flowers. Learning
| things like:
|
| 1. What conditions they like
|
| 2. How they behave over time
|
| 3. What insects are attracted to them or eats them
|
| ...puts them in touch with the world.
|
| IDing grasses is much harder, even for me unless it has a
| seedhead out or you have a microscope and know how to use a
| species identification key, so I wouldn't bother with those.
|
| PlantNet.org has a pretty nice app to assist ID with photo, but
| you can't take the first result at face value.
| atmosx wrote:
| Treasure hunt creation. With a bit of tech and imagination you
| can recreate multiple worlds and adventures. Especially now with
| audio/AI voices and LLMs, you can recreate narrations by
| Dumbledore, Merlin, old school British wizards, etc.
| underlipton wrote:
| Something perhaps a bit involved: 3D printing custom "counting"
| aids. I remember having the block sets that represented 1s
| (single, small blocks), 10s (a stack of them), 100s (a 10x10
| plane), and 1000s (a solid 10x10x10 block) in class. Could make
| them something other than plain blocks, perhaps little figurines
| (apples? puppies?). Or take suggestions from the kids. Maybe
| something more relevant for the older kids. Then bring the 3D
| printer in and explain how it works. Making that connection
| between learning, tool-making, agency, and of course the specific
| technology itself.
| delfinom wrote:
| You want to guide the kids to explore the world and creativity
| while having fun.. Not put them through a college maker club.
| abecedarius wrote:
| There's a book _Math from Three to Seven_ which may be very
| relevant. Of course you 're talking about more than math.
|
| https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Math-from-Three-to-Sev...
| sandworm101 wrote:
| Kids have voices, which they can control very well. Setup a mic,
| link it to a occiliscope-style display, the bigger the better.
| Teach them the difference between pitch and volume. They will
| enjoy "seeing" their own voice. And maybe some we learn about
| being quiet while others have a go.
| gus_massa wrote:
| Add some instruments, like a guitar and a drum.
|
| There are a few osciloscopes and espectrogram online, that use
| the nic of the computer.
| lubujackson wrote:
| A lot of these ideas are really advanced or technically hard to
| setup. There are a few books aimed at teach kids coding concepts
| without actually getting into coding.
|
| I'd suggest make a simple maze on a piece of paper. Have a
| "robot" that will go through the maze they you will "program" to
| solve the maze. Then have the kids vote on the steps to take, and
| write them down as the program. Show then how the program will
| run.
|
| Inevitably they will hit a wall or get turned around so show them
| how to debug the program and fix it iteratively. Lots of fun,
| interactivity and real programming concepts!
| nanomonkey wrote:
| Building a terrarium out of plexiglass and silicon sealant is a
| fun project for multi age groups. The older kids can do
| interesting math projects like "calculate the volume of the
| aquarium" or "calculate the total cost of parts cut at the
| hardware store". Then both groups can go out into a park or
| wilderness area and collect insects, moss, plants, soil, rocks
| and amphibians to put in the terrarium after it's built. You can
| collect these in mason jars or recycled bottles with holes poked
| in the lids (when necessary). If you have a microscope or
| handheld lens you can look at pond water or found objects to
| observe what is hidden to the naked eye. Teaching kids how to do
| field reports and write their observations, make drawing, etc.
| The older kids can give lessons and teach the younger ones.
| throwup238 wrote:
| _> If you have a microscope or handheld lens you can look at
| pond water or found objects to observe what is hidden to the
| naked eye._
|
| Decent electronic field microscopes are only like $30-40 on
| Amazon. They broadcast a Wifi network that you connect to on
| your phone and use an app to view the image, take photos, etc.
| wslh wrote:
| YMMV: kids are not surprised by computers anymore since they are
| pervasive in their lifes. A 3D printer is amazing but it could be
| really slow I would prefer robots/cars ala Logo turtle. A friend
| of mine played with Maley Makey. Beyond computers chemistry,
| physics, magic...
| nrjames wrote:
| How about hooking a camera up as input to some generative art
| algorithms in p5.js, Processing, or similar. Kids move/dance in
| front of the camera and the results are projected on an adjacent
| screen in realtime. Then you can save the pieces they generate
| and have a few of them printed!
| neilv wrote:
| If they haven't seen a 3D printer or CNC mill work before, that
| might be a good demo for preschool, if you can make something
| really fast on it, that they can see evolve over a few minutes.
|
| So they can see it, maybe ask teacher in advance whether they can
| stand around the table you've set up on, or what their seating
| arrangement is (on carpeted floor, movable low chairs, circle of
| chairs, array of desks, etc.).
|
| Beware that 3D printers can aggravate respiratory problems, so
| maybe enclosed and ventilation hose to window. With CNC, you have
| to watch out for metal filings that can poke kids (and get
| transferred to eyes, etc.), or maybe short later electronics.
|
| Bonus if you have time to show them one predetermined object,
| then go to make another object that has some choice for them in
| the design. Maybe you're making a cartoon character figure on a
| large 3D modeling thing (very quickly, speedrunning it) and you
| can ask them about the expression and things. Or maybe something
| for their teacher's, like a 3D "nameplate" for their desk, with
| some options for customization kids can choose, like font or
| decorations you put on it. (Unfortunately, probably can't do one
| of the kids' names, unless you brought enough print time for
| everyone, but having them make a personalized gift for their
| shared non-kid is good.) Try to think of things they can't do
| with poster paint, glue, and macaroni, without discouraging those
| media.
| neilv wrote:
| If you can obtain a microscope with a projector/display they can
| all see at once, and have a bunch of familiar sample objects that
| get non-intuitive under the microscope, they might really like
| that. Especially if you can do it with progressive wide range of
| magnification.
|
| For each sample, you could show it to them by eye, ask them what
| it is, maybe pass it to one of them, ask them what it is
| (including everyone shouting out the answer, like it's a game,
| depending on age). Then you show them on lowest magnification.
| Then you increase magnification. This might be new to them and
| break their brains in a good way.
|
| This can get into vague overview about how big things are made up
| of smaller things, that look different when you look closely.
|
| You can also talk about seeing more detail of things when you're
| close to them than when you're far away, which is more intuitive,
| though I don't know whether this will confuse them about distance
| and too much about optics at once.
|
| Once they are starting to get magnification, you can also put a
| sample _unknown_ to them under max magnification, so they can
| only see the highly magnified display of it, and make a guessing
| game about what it is. Progressively lower magnification, whether
| or not someone guesses right, so they see that progression
| regardless, and it also makes a reveal of the answer to the game.
| neilv wrote:
| Preschool, they're hopefully very restricted on screen time, and
| might not want to encourage that.
|
| With a bit older kids, once they're all allowed to use
| smartphones, tablets, or video games, showing them they could
| make a game, using kind of pedagogic morphs world platform (maybe
| Squeak or Scratch), could be great. You can let them show them
| something like how to make a car or character of shapes and make
| it move somehow, then ask for more ideas and live-implement them.
| (Try for direct manipulation and concrete and visual, minimizing
| textual/block code as much a possible.)
| jojohohanon wrote:
| My 1st grader loooves tape. And dolls. And we order Amazon
| regularly. We have purchased one of the simple cardboard knives.
|
| The simple level is to turn the Amazon boxes into doll houses.
|
| Slightly more advanced is to make furniture for the dolls. Like a
| simple shoebox quickly becomes a Barbie closet.
|
| For bigger boxes, given the right shape, it is easly to cut and
| fold a high hair.
| cclark00 wrote:
| Scale model of the solar system!
| https://www.exploratorium.edu/explore/solar-system/activity/...
|
| Have each kid 'adopt' a planet, give them the materials to
| construct the planet at the appropriate scale and they tell the
| group 5 fun facts about their planet when the group walks from
| Sun to Pluto. It is a WHOA experience for kids and adults about
| the emptiness of space. Scale for the stamina of your kid group,
| Pluto is way out there.
| dbcurtis wrote:
| So... one thing I can say from experience is that you need to be
| aware of the motor skill limitations of the under 12 set. There
| really is something that happens around age 12 that causes a
| quantum leap in fine motor skills. So... tune your projects to
| minimize frustration around that. I learned that the hard way by
| seeing a selection of my projects randomly fall one side or the
| other of that motor skill limitation because I was clueless when
| I designed the experiments.
|
| Now to your direct question: Once upon a time I did a 10 week
| basic electricity class for about 8 kids of about 7 years old.
| Yes, it was pretty basic. One thing I took advantage of was that
| Harbor Freight was running a deal where you could get a multi-
| meter for US$3. So... I gave one to every kid.
|
| First lesson was "conductors and insulators" -- I can't remember
| how I explained the concept to 7 year olds, but the lab was a
| hoot. I had a bucket of stuff like nails, bits of cloth, an
| apple, etc, just random stuff. And a dish of salt, and a dish of
| water. Use the Ohmmeter to find out what is a conductor and what
| is an insulator. After everyone had discovered that the dish of
| salt and the dish of water were both insulators.... I poured some
| water into the salt. Woah!!! It conducts! What's up with that? By
| the end of the lab I had totally lost control and the kids were
| raiding the fruit plate in the kitchen... "Is a banana a
| conductor?" ... followed by vigorous stabbing of meter probes.
| Anyway, the teachers you are working with may not be so cool with
| the losing-control-of-the-class part, but I count that as a
| metric of success.
|
| Another lesson that was very popular, but required too much motor
| skill, is that I had rounded up some 7-segment LED displays, and
| some 8-gang DIP switches. (We had built a single LED circuit in a
| previous lesson.) I had them build up a circuit where they could
| control each segment with it's own switch (hint: prototyping
| boards are beyond 7yo motor skills...we had enough parents to
| help with the wiring...) After it worked, I had them make numbers
| by setting switches. Then I asked them to invent other displays,
| like find "letters" or just fun shapes. Then... I told them to
| look around the house, and their own house when they got home, to
| find number displays. Like on the microwave oven, etc. You could
| sense the real "Wow, now I understand this!" moment when they
| realized the basic operation of a common part of their world.
|
| Bottom line: If you can find a way to help them understand even
| just a little bit of how their world works, it will be a popular
| experiment.
| linuxftw wrote:
| How about something that doesn't involve electronic technology?
| You might be able to teach 4 year olds how to fold paper
| airplanes (maybe printing off some pages with fold lines so they
| can easily follow along). For the 7 year olds, teach them how to
| play Yahtzee.
| jkestner wrote:
| Paper airplanes are a rich medium. It's fast and fun to get
| results, and quick to iterate on improvements. You can start to
| fold in physics/aerodynamic lessons and introduce them (without
| a lecture) on how to think like an engineer when you add weight
| to the front, or flaps to the wings, experiment with number of
| folds, etc.
| heavyset_go wrote:
| Take them outside and play with drones or RC cars. Stick a camera
| on them.
|
| There's a million different lessons you can teach about them,
| point is letting everyone have fun and possibly sparking interest
| in some of them.
|
| Don't sit them in front of a computer screen or expect them to
| sit through a lecture.
| jkestner wrote:
| In my experience, kids already get plenty of opportunities for
| screen-based STEM stuff. Mine have Hour of Code that offers
| block programming tutorials that are relatively fun. If they're
| anything like we were, they'll self-teach computer stuff when
| they're ready.
|
| So I don't do much of that, and instead find other, more hands-
| on things I'm curious about and we can explore together.
| sycren wrote:
| You could consider doing a mini hackathon with the kids whereby
| the aim is to create a board game of some kind. Have the kids
| design the game on paper or card,then at the end use your cnc
| mill to create the boards, tiles, player pieces etc. You could
| then use the world cafe (https://toolbox.hyperisland.com/world-
| cafe) facilitation method for all the teams to explain their
| games to each other and recommend improvements. You could even
| show them how to use chatgpt to take their game ideas and flesh
| them out at a later stage (tutorial, rules etc.)
|
| This idea would allow them to create something fun which is their
| own, that they can keep in the classroom and play with. It may
| also make them think of what other games they can create in the
| future.
| jkestner wrote:
| I lead a makerspace at my kids' elementary school. We do no
| coding or modern making, or whatever it is adult nerds like to
| play with. Mostly because this age group can't manage it,
| especially in 40 minute session, and I'm competing with a Lego
| corner. Mostly we try to get new views on the natural world and
| get exposed to different tools.
|
| This week, we managed to bang out some bee houses of some scrap
| lumber I had. We learned about why mason bees are great, and got
| to use power tools in the library. They had so much fun and we
| were goal-oriented, so that even the troublemakers among them
| were helpful.
|
| The most engaging activity (especially for younger grades) was a
| bunch of light bulbs, batteries and switches, all mounted on wood
| tiles and connected with alligator clips. So simple but let kids
| experiment with making huge circuits together, debug unexpected
| behavior (why did it turn off when the switch closed?), and learn
| about conductors that could substitute for wire.
|
| About the most complicated thing we've done is paper circuits
| (with copper tape), lighting up LED skull eyes for a Dia de los
| Muertos card. The debugging was hard, and a lot of kids would've
| benefitted from doing the light bulb activity first with an eye
| toward this.
|
| My "worst" activity was digging soil samples (fun) and seeing how
| the layers separated in water after days to settle in order to
| classify the soil type (boring, pointless). Luckily I also
| brought our vermicomposter, and everyone had a great time playing
| with worms.
|
| Another parent did an ambitious sewing project, which took 2-3
| sessions to complete but was great to get kids to get exposed to
| sewing machines, and they had a gift for a parent.
|
| --
|
| Yes, pick the topics that you're passionate about because your
| visible enthusiasm is critical to engagement, but don't make it
| about, say, 3D printing because you want to use your printer
| (you'll just end up doing a lot of work for indifferent kids).
| Keep it simple and learn from what the kids respond to.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-05-11 23:01 UTC)