Wanted CHEAP electrical projects. I am a teacher at a secondary school and have been tasked with redeveloping the electronics projects.
They really are CRAP and would you believe that the chap who ran the course before me produced each kids project for under 10p.
(it is such a poor subject but needs to be delivered) Because I mess with cars it would seem that I am the school sparky and have become the CHOSEN ONE.
I have had a look around the net and seen one or two things done with old computer parts but want a project that will enthuse my pupils and can be made in the true locost style. Think back to what you did at school perhaps.

i'm going to get in there before anyone else does.... my Indy will need a loom designed and built from scratch!

We made egg timers using a 555 circuit. was fun and cant have cost that much.

have a look at the maplins web site they sell electronics projects at different price levels you may be able to buy the same components and produce your own board to replicate

I buils an electronic Tacho from a kit and fitted it in my car well impressed total cost £11 they have alarms, solar projects, micro bugs, number generators, amps to name a few

Electric motor springs to mind, perhaps with some simple contacts so that if the front contact is pushed a motor spins in the opposite direction. With a little logic you could make something that moved around the room and changed direction every time it touched something (needs sensor front left and right, rear left and right).

Heck if you wanted to be really extravagent have a 555 timer that triggers after each sensor press and delays another motor from spinning for 5 seconds. The second motor is a sucker fan and you've made .......... an automatic hoover.


You could make a simple 'locked' box with 10 buttons on the front. every button but 3 triggers a reset, each of the three buttons when pressed in sequence powers the next part of the circuit (using transistors), the third triggers a electro magnet that moves a bar allowing a box to open.

errm .... you can make a radio quite cheaply .... although its poor.


Wired intercom ?

You would not want these kids any where near your indy. If its not a saxo or a crap car they arent interested. I once took my 7 in to work and they all thought it was a VINTAGE car. No taste what so ever. Nice protect LOOMS to complicated for them though.

Steady hand game?

Bit of vac-forming for the base. Bit of basic circuity. Add a buzzer for higher abilities? Higher abilities again can intergrate a basic PIC Chip for "3 lives" then out type thing?

You could use the vac form mould (mold? I never know?) to firm up the vac form base.

PP3 9v battery and it's a winner!

What age range are we talking about here? What equipment do you have?


If I had a group of secondary students (yes, I would do this with a year 7 class) I would be looking at having them make something like an electronic die...

Its built from a monostable, Astable and a decade counter with 6 LEDs... (so 2 555 timers and a 16 pin decade counter) You could have them make it on "vero board"




Or, have them solder the components onto a PCB...

Power it from a 9v battery on fly leads so they can take the project home with them at the end....

I recon you could do it for about £1.50 each....

Or for similar money you could build a "shooting gallery" circuit where there are a row of green LEDs and 1 red... you have to press the button quick enough to hit the red.... Can be quite fun if the kids see it as a game...


If you need a hand desigining/making the PCBs let me know, I have just invested quite a bit of time/money into developing a "diy" system at home for a project I was doing...

I have actually taught electronics to "newbies" in the past including doing various projects on veroboard... if you need any help/advice/lesson ideas etc... U2U me...


[Edited on 3/3/11 by tegwin]

[Edited on 3/3/11 by tegwin]

How about a good old fashioned crystal set? I was fascinated by this when I were a lad - getting music out of practically nothing was amazing!

Or...

How about making a "wire loop" sticking both ends into a wooden block... and then make a simple circuit with a battery and a buzzer... get a wire "hoop" and try and get from one end of the loop to the other without setting the buzzer off...

Do RS components still do the diy tasers ?

Hi

I have many old (unused as new) electronic components in my junk collection.
mainly resistors and transistors.

If this type of stuff is any use U2U me and I can post some.

Martin

See if you are allowed to charge the kids for the finished product. Usually it is only 50p or so, but this stops the kids taking it out and throwing it in the bin.
If that is allowed, a fair few will be left unclaimed (don't take it personally!), but if the project is reversable then you can re-use the components after stressing how important RRR is (recycle, reduce, reuse).
Is this for KS3/2etc? What year?
Are there any science or Physics projects you can build part of?
Is it Physics or tech?
Steady hand game is always good, as suggested. We used welding rods or asked the kids to bring in coat hangers. The rest depends on what curriculem you are following. It can easily be made harder for brighter kids with leds that light up, and a capacitor which allows led to fade slowly.
Other ideas we used were moisture detectors for plant pot, a vibrating animal (used a motor cct with an offset weight to shake it).
Bit of an open ended question at the mo!

Just saw you are secondary.

"(it is such a poor subject but needs to be delivered)" is not such a very good starting point, but it gives you a chance to make a noticable improvement.

See if you allowed to visit other schools, or ask your HOD, if they have a forum with other HOD's locally, to ask for copies of the other schools projects.

As an aside, I got a bit of tech teaching a whiel ago. I had one (2hour) lesson with a Y8 group to fill before they moved on, and the HoD suggested I did the shakey hand game. I carefully got everything ready, and the lesson was manic, but every one of the 22 kids left with a working game, buzzer with a capacitor. Some tidier than others. It was frantic. But most of the kids enjoyed it.

I told the HoD, he said I was just supposed to design the game on paper for the lesson, it was a 6 week project
Put the pace of tech lessons into perpective after years of science teaching

When I was about 8-10 I spent Saturday mornings at the local youth club. One of the clubs I went to was electronics.

Built myself a maplin kit that made a live wire tester to use before nailing/drilling into a wall. If I knew where the damn thing was it'd be bloody useful now! lol

It really can't have cost much and as a first ever project aged 10 it can't have been too hard to build!

Cheers,
James

Have a look on Insructables for ideas. They have some fascinating stuff.

If they are as wild and unruly as the rest of society I suggest a plugtop wires and nothing else. Learn them to wire the plug ( where did that skill go ??) bare of the other ends and tell them to hold them, plug it in and switch it on . Job done, society will be better off, and I will feel like my taxpayers money has indeed been wisely used LOL.


Seriously though there have been a few good suggestions already. good luck with the little beggers.

How about a crystal set Radio.

Just a Diode, a long bit of wire, a toilet roll centre to wind the coil on, a variable capacitor, and a set of hi-impedance headphones (Hi-Z phones are the hard bit to get!)
Build you own radio that doent require batteries! (does need a good long wire as an aerial)

Or Contact the RSGB, (Radio Society of Great Britain) as the Foundation licence involves making a small project to demonstrate soldering and construction skills. They may be able to suggest something or put you onto someone local who may be able to help etc.
http://www.rsgb.org/

Dont know if that helps or not.



EDIT:
Get them to take the Amateur Radio Foundation Licence. Its well within any 12 year olds competence. Its worth taking a look at, and you will find a local club via the RSGB that could help you out.
Its not all about having a £1000 transmitter, I managed 40+ miles on a single BC108 transistor and a TV colour burst crystal! (on 3.5Mhz using Morse Code, as its the simplest form of communicating)

Just a thought.

[Edited on 4/3/2011 by wilkingj]

quote:

---

Originally posted by T66
Do RS components still do the diy tasers ?

---

What about bristlebots?



Or beam bots?